Jamie Bellinger

Hundreds of Just Stop Oil protestors marched through the streets of London today for a ‘last day of action’ – after announcing that the group would be ‘hanging up the hi-vis’ after winning its demand to end new oil and gas licences. Orange-clad demonstrators rallied from St James’s Park to Waterloo, holding signs and occasionally blocking roads. For the last three years, the climate group has made headlines for its controversial direct action protests, which included throwing soup at Van Gogh paintings in the National Gallery, spraying Stonehenge with orange powder paint and bringing part of the M25 to a standstill for four successive days. The group claims that more than 3,300 people have been arrested for their cause, as well as 180 jailed – their website stating that ‘eleven people are in prison right now for doing everything they can to limit climate catastrophe’.  In an official statement shared last month, the group said: ‘Just Stop Oil’s initial demand to end new oil and gas is now government policy, making us one of the most successful civil resistance campaigns in recent history. We’ve kept over 4.4 billion barrels of oil in the ground and the courts have ruled new oil and gas licences unlawful.’ The claimed victory comes as the Labour government said it will not issue licences for new oil and gas exploration. However, the BBC reported that some members of Just Stop Oil admitted that new powers on policing disruptive protests ‘made it almost impossible for groups