Paul Embery - Why Brits HATE Just Stop Oil

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Why has Just Stop Oil become one of the most widely disliked protest movements in modern Britain — and why does that anger cut across class, age, and political lines? In this episode of Heretics, I’m joined by Paul Embery to unpack what public hostility toward Just Stop Oil really reveals about the country Britain has become.

This isn’t a discussion about climate change denial. Instead, it’s about methods, symbolism, and class — and why many Brits see Just Stop Oil not as brave activists, but as a movement that openly disdains the working people it claims to be saving. Paul argues that the fury directed at road blockades, museum stunts, and public disruption isn’t irrational rage, but a reaction to something deeper: a growing sense that politics and protest have become performative, moralising, and utterly disconnected from everyday life.

We explore how Just Stop Oil has come to represent a wider cultural divide. For many, the movement feels like virtue signalling by a protected activist class, insulated from the consequences of its actions, while nurses, builders, drivers, and small business owners pay the price. Paul explains why this perception matters — and why movements that ignore class reality tend to provoke backlash rather than support.

The conversation also widens to Britain’s political mood more generally. Why does it feel like voting is the only remaining “pressure relief valve” — and what happens when even that stops delivering change? Paul connects the hatred of Just Stop Oil to broader frustrations with institutions, policing priorities, free speech restrictions, and a sense that the state is far more interested in disciplining language and protest than in fixing infrastructure or living standards.

We also touch on national identity and cultural confidence. When shared assumptions about country, history, and values fracture, what fills the gap? Paul shares a telling real-world example from education that illustrates how even mild statements about Britain’s cultural foundations can now trigger controversy — and how that feeds resentment rather than cohesion.

This is not a rant, and it’s not a defence of chaos. It’s a sober examination of why movements like Just Stop Oil provoke such visceral public hostility, and what that reaction tells us about class, legitimacy, and trust in modern Britain. If you want to understand why so many people feel talked down to, ignored, and morally policed — and why that anger keeps growing — this conversation is essential.

Watch the full podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of1cYK8pbv0&t=63s

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