Former NHS GP says if National Highways care about safety, they will slow motorway traffic down
In a statement to the High Court, Dr Diana Warner will ask for the motorway speed limit to be slowed to 10mph to protect the safety of Insulate Britain’s protestors.
According to a press release sent Tuesday October 19, Warner will say if “National Highways are committed to safety, they will slow the traffic to 20 mph, or 10 mph, when there are people on the motorway”.
The recently-launched campaign group have been terrorising drivers on Britain’s roads for the past six weeks, targeting busy interchanges and roundabouts mainly in and around London.
The group say if National Highways care about their safety they should slow the speed limit to accommodate their protests.
Two weeks ago, National Highways were granted a third injunction to prevent protestors wreaking havoc on 13 roads in and around London.
The injunction sought to make Insulate Britain in contempt of court if they stepped foot onto the roads. This would mean protestors would be at risk of imprisonment or an unlimited fine if they continued their protest.
However, the group are committed to encouraging the government to insulate all homes by 2030 in order to make them low energy – and they won’t relinquish their fight.
In today’s statement, Dr Diana Warner promises she “will continue this campaign of civil resistance until we get a meaningful statement from the government that we can trust”.
Warner, a GP from Bristol, said she realised her fate as a campaigner while diagnosing a six-week old baby.
She said: “In October 2018 I was performing a six week baby check, examining the hips of a baby to make sure she didn’t have congenital hip dysplasia.
“If I missed the diagnosis, that baby would be pleading for a hip replacement in her 20s or 30s.
“I wondered what her life would be like when she was thirty and suddenly realised I was missing the point in terms of health prevention – the biggest threats to her health, and possibly to her life, that she will be facing when she’s 30 are the climate and ecological emergencies”.
In that moment, Dr Diana Warner decided: “as a GP I was failing her.
“At that instant, I made a vow to do everything I can to ensure that she would live into her thirties, as safely and securely as possible.”
Warner says her action in the Insulate Britain protests is to protect the future of today’s children.
She believes this is achieved through campaigning to slow the effects of climate change.
Last Thursday (October 14), Insulate Britain wrote to Prime Minister Boris Johnson asking for a “meaningful statement” that “government will take the lead needed to insulate and retrofit our homes”, promising no further action until Monday October 25.
Today, Boris Johnson’s government, as part of their pledge to hit net-zero, announced heat pump grants worth £5000 to help replace gas boilers.
In a blow to commuters, Insulate Britain say the measure is not enough and their action to guarantee insulation will continue.
On Tuesday (October 19), the group released footage from their protest near the Dartford Crossing at Purfleet, Essex which appeared to show a car driving into protestors.
A woman commanding a large 4 x 4 tells protestors: “I don’t care what the f***ing issue is, my son needs to get to school”, before driving into two female protestors.
We have a responsibility to stop our elderly from freezing to death, to stop children living in cold homes and to stop future generations from an unimaginably horrific future.
Register for the zoom at 4pm to #GetOnWithTheJob and #InsulateBritain https://t.co/YzQOez7yXd pic.twitter.com/bQvxnjMr77
— Insulate Britain (@InsulateLove) October 17, 2021
Dr Diana Warner will appear at the High Court today (October 19), where she will ask National Highways to slow the driving speed limit.
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