Activists vandalise Barclays bank and MP’s office with messages demanding action on climate crisis

Date published: 24 March 2021

Climate change activists, including the former vicar of Rochdale, Mark Coleman, vandalised the Rochdale branch of Barclays bank and the office of Heywood and Middleton MP Chris Clarkson on Saturday (20 March) with messages demanding action.

Inspired by the 2016 film, ‘I, Daniel Blake’ – in which the titular character spray paints a building demanding an appeal after incorrectly being deemed fit to work after having a heart attack – Jane Touil and Mark Coleman, both Extinction Rebellion activists, daubed similar messages on the local buildings.

Jane, 55, wrote: “CLIMATE CRISIS!! ACT. STOP THE HARM. I JANE TOUIL AM FED UP WITH GREENWASH. TELL THE TRUTH. [sic]”

She then stood by the message holding a placard about Barclays, which has previously come under fire for financing fossil fuel companies.

 

 

Explaining her actions, Jane said: “The thing that really gets me is that the science [about climate change] has been clear for over 30 years.

“Governments have known about it and what they need to do. Big business and banks have also known all that time. Yet carbon emissions are still going up. Fossil fuel companies are still finding and exploiting new sources of oil, gas and coal. Banks are still providing the money for them to do it. It’s sheer madness.

“Barclays is the worst European bank in terms of fossil fuel investments and environmental damage. They talk of their green ‘ambitions’ but the reality is different. They are putting short term profits before our long term survival.

“I am fed up with their greenwash [misleading information about how a product is supposedly more environmentally friendly] and toxic activities. I did what I did out of desperation and grief, and out of love for humanity and nature. I will keep on trying to raise the alarm until those with power take proper action.”

Responding, a Barclays spokesperson said: “We have made a commitment to align our entire financing portfolio to the goals of the Paris Agreement, with specific targets and transparent reporting, on the way to achieving our ambition to be a net zero bank by 2050.

“We believe that Barclays can make a real contribution to tackling climate change and help accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy.”

 

 

In a parallel manner, Mark, 62, retired Vicar of Rochdale, spray painted a similar message on the windows of Chris Clarkson’s office, reading: “I Mark Coleman am fed up with empty words and want action on the climate” and “Tell the truth, love mercy, do justice. [sic]”

Mark says he targeted the Conservative MP’s office, as although he has previously lobbied Tony Lloyd, the Labour MP for Rochdale, about the climate, 'an opposition has little power in our system and there is no time to wait for a change of government'.

Both Jane and Mark were aware they could have been arrested for their actions, with Mark sitting on the pavement outside the constituency office for two hours, waiting to be arrested. He has previously been arrested before, when taking part in an Extinction Rebellion protest in London.
 

Read more: 'Rebel' Reverend Mark Coleman arrested during Extinction Rebellion protestPublished: 09 October 2019

Mark has since written to the MP, and the police informing them of his actions and why he did them, as well as offering to clean the paint from the windows.

He said: “The act was designed to highlight the similarities between the current pandemic and the climate emergency, and the government’s failure to act in a timely manner on both.”

Chris Clarkson confirmed the incident has been reported to the police. He told Rochdale Online: “On Saturday, activists from Extinction Rebellion vandalised my office. 

“The matter has been reported to the police, which is the correct way to deal with criminal damage.”

Mark says he started thinking about getting involved in nonviolent action after the record-breaking floods in Rochdale in 2015, which he links to climate change. 

“I have lobbied my own MP, Tony Lloyd, several times about the climate crisis ,” said Mark. “But it’s this government’s repeated failure that really got to me. I now have a grandchild and am terrified of what we are passing on to the next generation. I’ve just had enough of the government saying they’re leading the field when a committee of MPs have found they don’t even have a plan on how to do it.

“It’s reckless and irresponsible.”

 

 

Jane added: “If you see a house on fire with a family asleep inside, what do you do? If you call the fire brigade and nothing happens, what do you do? You do whatever you can to raise the alarm. It’s the same with the climate.

“People don’t realise the danger we are all in. The evidence has been clear for decades but governments, banks and powerful business interests have not done what is needed to save us.

“Like many people, I was aware of climate change for years and did the usual things - recycling, cutting waste, eating less meat. But I had never really looked into it properly and I was able to push it to the back of my mind.

“Last year that changed. I took the time to do the reading and watch the videos. There’s a lot of information out there – you just need to look – and it is truly, gut-wrenchingly terrifying.

“Unless we stop pumping carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into our atmosphere very soon indeed, we are history as a species; game over.

“We will not only have made ourselves extinct - we will have succeeded in killing the vast majority of other species on our beautiful planet into the bargain.”

 

 

A spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion Rochdale said: “It’s quite clear that if the government had prepared better and acted quickly at the start of the pandemic, many more lives could have been saved.

“It’s the same with the climate crisis. We need to be acting now to dramatically reduce emissions, not just reacting to extreme weather as it comes.”

A recent report from the influential Public Accounts Committee says that government 'lacks a plan' for achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, despite setting the target almost two years ago.

However, the government has rebuked these claims as 'nonsense', telling the BBC: “It is nonsense to say the government does not have a plan when we have been leading the world in tackling climate change, cutting emissions by almost 44 per cent since 1990 and doing so faster than any other developed nation in recent years.”

Boris Johnson has revealed a ten point plan for a green recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, which includes measures like increasing offshore wind power, accelerating the shift to zero emission vehicles and investing in carbon capture. The ten point plan aims to mobilise £12 billion of government investment.

However, campaigners believe this won’t be enough.

Mark added: “There’s so much talk about green policies now, and people want things to be done, but the action we’re seeing will only increase emissions, not reduce them.

“The future of everything and everyone we love is at stake, we can’t afford to not do this, and if it takes doing things like this to get some action, then I’ll keep on doing it, and I think other people should do too.”