‘Huge Injustice’ Mum Banned from Driving for ‘Nudging’ Road-Blocking Climate Crazies

Insulate Britain, Screenshot
Insulate Britain, Screenshot
Kurt Zindulka

A British single mother has been banned from driving after being convicted for using her car to attempt to “nudge” climate change protesters off the road so she could bring her son to school last year.

Sherrilyn Speid, 35, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving at the Southend Magistrates’ Court on Monday over the incident which occurred at an Insulate Britain sit-in protest on a road near the M25 motorway last October.

As the protesters refused to budge from their seated position on the road, Speid was heard saying: “I don’t care what the f***ing issue is, my son needs to get to school,” before trying to slowly push through the blockade with her Range Rover.

Speaking to LBC Radio on Tuesday, the single mother said that she felt her conviction was a “huge injustice” and that she was singled out by the police.

“I accepted that I could have handled it better, however, I was very frustrated,” Speid said, explaining: “I was under a lot of pressure as a single mum, I run my own business, and things have been difficult anyway through the pandemic and so on.

“I feel devastated and I feel let down,” she added, saying that the police were called to deal with the disruptive climate change protest but did not come.

“I’ve got no previous convictions, I’ve worked hard my whole life and I literally just wanted to get my son to school.”

Speid was banned from driving by the court after the chairman of the magistrates’ bench Peter Hoche issued her with an interim driving disqualification. A charge of assault was dropped after the prosecution did not present any evidence.

The prosecutor in the case, Ashley Petchey said according to the BBC: “Clearly, this was an incident where there was a risk, even if no injury was caused.”

Mr Petchey admitted that the single mother was not using “excessive speed” and had used the “breaks quite heavily” but said that her Range Rover came “very close to the female protester”.

On top of the driving ban, the prosecution is also seeking Speid to pay £310 to cover court costs. She will be sentenced in May.

Insulate Britain, a splinter group of the far-left eco-extremist Extinction Rebellion (XR) activist organisation, was responsible for widespread chaos last year in the UK. The group is reported to have cost the taxpayer some £4.3 million in policing costs, alone, let aside the financial impacts on disruptions caused to businesses.

While Extinction Rebellion has mostly focussed its efforts in wealthy city centres, the trademark of Insulate Britain so far has been to block major motorways and junctions throughout the country, resulting in chaos and delays for average workers simply trying to commute to their jobs.

Extinction Rebellion, for its part, also drew the ire of the nation after climbing on top of subway trains at the Canning Town tube stop in 2019, before being dragged off by angry commuters. The group later apologised, and the activists were spared jail time. While the commuters were initially reported to have been under police investigation for dragging the climate loons off the trains, it does not appear that any will be charged.

Like their XR counterparts, Insulate Britain activists have frequently taken to glueing themselves to the roads in order to slow down their removal by police.

In addition to the disruption to the lives of ordinary workers, the road blockades have also resulted in some serious injury for people who were prevented from reaching medical care. Insulate Britain has attempted to justify this by comparing such incidents to collateral damage suffered during the Second World War.

While the government has attempted to use court injunctions to prevent the activists from blocking motorways, only a handful of the climate crazies have actually been given jail sentences for their actions.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka

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