No government response yet for Weymouth Insulate Britain campaigner

Family members say Emma Smart is doing well considering her 22 day hunger strike.

Emma Smart from Weymouth
Author: George SharpePublished 8th Dec 2021

A jailed Weymouth woman is still waiting on a response from the government over insulation plans 22 days into her hunger strike.

Emma Smart, 44, declared the strike on the day she was jailed for blocking the M25.

She is one of nine Insulate Britain protestors who were sentenced to 3-4 months jail time for the protests.

Her husband, Andy Smith, visited her at HMP Bronzefield where Emma is being kept in the medical wing.

He told Greatest Hits Radio:

"There's been absolutely no response from the government regarding her demand, which has always been they basically want the government to make a meaningful statement as to whether they will actually do what they promised to do in their manifesto and insulate the housing stock of the UK.

"She didn't really give an indication at the moment as to how long she's going to continue. The doctors and the nurses are quite surprised at how healthy she is considering.

"She was on good form to be fair, she was really looking forward to seeing us. She was in good spirits and is seemingly just taking it all in her stride."

Andy says they are sure they're making a difference.

"The language itself has changed. No one was talking about a climate crisis until Extinction Rebellion.

It was all about climate change. All of a sudden all these new words have started to be introduced 'climate emergency', 'act now', all these words that define what it is we should be doing and how we should be talking about this problem.

"The public perception, certainly over the past three years has changed massively."

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