EAST Hampshire MP Damian Hinds was confronted with a ‘die in’ when he arrived for a public meeting with Petersfield constituents.
On arrival at the Rose Room in the Festival Hall he found Extinction Rebellion (XR) members from Petersfield sprawled on the floor of the foyer pretending to be dead.
They claim the government isn’t acting with enough urgency to introduce measures that will slow climate change – the biggest threat to human life and the planet in our time, they say.
To highlight their campaign, XR activists, led by Richard Knight, a self-professed ‘extinction rebel’, have organised, or helped facilitate, a series of non-violent protests in Petersfield.
This culminated in the recent mass protest by about 300 adults and schoolchildren in The Square on the Friday before the public meeting hosted by Mr Hinds.
The MP spoke with some of the activists before opening the meeting, attended by about 150 people.
On behalf of Mr Hinds, Amanda Gallagher said afterward that more than half the meeting was taken up with Brexit questions.
But she added XR spokesman Mr Knight had been “shouted down” when he tried to speak about climate change.
Amanda added: “I think that was because he appeared to be making a statement rather than asking a question, but XR members are to meet Damian privately to talk about their concerns.”
An XR spokesman said: “We are facing an extinction scenario – already thousands of species are gone.
“The ‘die in’ was about highlighting what the end result could be for humans if the inaction on climate change continues.”