Octogenarians Attack Magna Carta in Climate Protest

If you do not know the importance of the Magna Carta, stop reading this right now, go back to your high school, and demand your money back. Even if you went to public school, somebody needs to get their money back if the story of the Magna Carta and its legacy were not a part of your education. 

With that out of the way, the news out of Great Britain is that Just Stop Oil protesters attacked the Magna Carta at the British Library. The two protesters damaged the glass protecting the priceless document before gluing themselves to the case, as usual. For once, I wish these people would glue themselves to something non-essential and then be left to savor their fates.

This type of sordid stupidity is commonplace among young, college-age barbarians whose worldviews rarely stretch beyond their impulses. But in this case, GB News reports that the offending protesters are in their 80s. Rev. Dr. Sue Parfitt, 82, and Judy Bruce, an 85-year-old retired biology teacher, did the smashing and the gluing, vowing that they would remain in place until they were presented with an "emergency plan" to end the issuing of oil permits by 2030. The pair held a sign that read, “The Government Is Breaking the Law.” 

The two women also asked bystanders not to film them. They may think they have the benefit of age and experience, but they seem to have missed the point of these kinds of antics, which is to draw attention to oneself. Bruce commented:

This week 400 respected scientists — contributors to IPCC reports, are saying we are ‘woefully unprepared’ for what’s coming: 2.5 or more degrees of heating above pre-industrial levels.

Instead of acting, our dysfunctional government is like the three monkeys: ‘see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing- pretend we’ve got 25 years’... We haven’t! We must get off our addiction to oil and gas by 2030 – starting now.

Rev. Parfitt added:

The Magna Carta is rightly revered being of great importance to our history, to our freedoms, and to our laws. But there will be no freedom, no lawfulness, no rights if we allow climate breakdown to become the catastrophe that is now threatened.

 We must get things in proportion. The abundance of life on earth, the climate stability that allows civilisation to continue is what must be revered and protected above all else, even above our most precious artefacts. (sic)

According to the Daily Mail, Tory Policing Minister Chris Philp called the incident an act of extremism, noting, “Eco-zealots have gone from being harmless hippies to committing reckless acts of criminal damage. The Magna Carta is symbolic of our rules-based system, which Just Stop Oil and their friends clearly have contempt for. We decide things in this country through peaceful debate, reasoned persuasion, and democratic elections — not by vandalism or violence.” Police took the two women into custody. 

The outrage is understandable. the Magna Carta is an ancient document that is 809 years old and marks the first time a king or a government was forced to live under the same laws of the governed. But the episode is also pathetic. In America, we have aging movie stars and desiccated '60s leftovers who are desperate to remain relevant through social activism. In England, we have these two. At least Miss Marple was solving crimes at that age.