Just Stop Oil protester who disrupted snooker championship ruins own graduation
This is the moment a Just Stop Oil protester disrupted his own graduation by setting off a fire extinguisher loaded with organ paint.
Footage shared on Twitter showed staff rushing to stop Edred Whittingham as he prepared to spray the forecourt outside the building where his fellow University of Exeter students had gathered.
Still wearing his graduation robe and hat with tassel sash, the 25-year-old shouted ‘Just Stop Oil’ as he was arrested.
Moments earlier, he was filmed on stage to receive his BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics.
But this is not the first time the student has wreaked havoc during a public event as part of the environmental group’s campaign to put an end to new fossil fuel licensing and production in the UK.
In April, Whittingham disrupted a World Snooker Championship match, throwing orange powder over the table.
Wearing a ‘Just Stop Oil’ top, he climbed on the table during the game between Robert Milkins and Joe Perry at the Crucible Theatre.
No novice to Just Stop Oil protests, he was one of 51 activists sent to prison in a single day in September last year, after they gathered at Kingsbury Oil Terminal in defiance of a high court injunction that banned them from the site.
This time Whittingham was hauled away by university security before he caused major disruption.
Speaking before his action today, he said: ‘Universities, rather than preparing young people for this inevitable disruption, are instead upholding a status quo that is going to kill millions, if not billions of people.
‘That’s why I’m calling on students everywhere to join us in resistance against this criminal government.”
‘What use is a university degree if you can’t feed yourself?
‘What use is an “education” if society is collapsing around you? Each one of us has a choice: die quietly or get into resistance. It’s now or never.’
Also arrested was Kostja Junglas, 27, a PhD student at Oxford University.
They were also tackled by University of Exeter security for holding up a banner to the crowd of graduates.
Their protest comes amid controversy over the university’s partnership with Shell Oil.
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