Bulls*it fake outrage over Just Stop Oil’s Stonehenge stunt – but what about that tunnel?

Yesterday, politicians took to X to show their outrage at Just Stop Oil Protestors ‘vandalising’ Stonehenge – a UNESCO World Heritage site. However, it seems that that outrage is very much smoke and mirrors. Obviously, they have all been very quiet about the plans set in motion to build a tunnel containing a dual carriageway on part of the very same UNESCO site.

As the Canary’s Steve Topple reported yesterday, protesters used ‘eco-friendly, washable orange cornflour’ – which wouldn’t even hurt a fly – to demand that the UK government commit to a plan to end the use of fossil fuels by 2030. Yet we quickly saw disproportionate outrage from politicians of various parties. As always, most of their tweets were suspiciously similar.

The damage done to Stonehenge is outrageous. Just Stop Oil are pathetic. Those responsible must face the full force of the law.

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) June 19, 2024

The damage to Stonehenge is a total disgrace and the full force of the law should be brought down on the perpetrators.

— Ed Davey (@EdwardJDavey) June 19, 2024

Faux outrage

Back in 2017, the government approved a £2bn development to construct a dual carriageway through the Stonehenge World Heritage Site. Importantly, campaigners said the tunnel would do “irreparable damage to the landscape” – but the plans never changed.  So why the fuck are they pretending they care about a bit of cornflour?

Earlier this year, New Civil Engineer reported:

Campaign group Save Stonehenge World Heritage Site (SSWHS) had contested the granting of the DCO, claiming that the government had not considered the risk to the Stonehenge monument, had not assessed the climate impact of the scheme and had not properly assessed alternative routes that would take the road around the site without the need for tunnelling.

In 2021, the High Court threw the plans out over environmental concerns, but in 2023 the Department for Transport approved it again. They expect building to begin in 2025:

Glad to see @Keir_Starmer so passionate about protecting Stonehenge – But no mention in his manifesto about cancelling this road scheme that will do “irreversible” damage to this monument. https://t.co/WL1PNyX8sx pic.twitter.com/nucnFjCdEb

— A56 Safety Campaign (@A56Safety) June 20, 2024

People dont care that a tunnel is being railroaded under stonehenge that will decimate the archaeology of the area. UNESCO threatening to take away the world heritage site label if this tunnel goes ahead. Shame on everyone allowing this too

— Kathy Mingo (@KathyMingo81995) June 20, 2024

The proposed tunnel is 3km long. As the UNESCO site is 5.4km wide it is widely agreed that the tunnel is far too short to protect a site that wide. The crowd justice site to save Stonehenge states:

Twin tunnel portals, deep dual carriageway cuttings, and slip roads would be constructed within the World Heritage Site, along with huge interchanges at its boundaries. Untold archaeological evidence would be destroyed and travellers’ passing view of the Stones would be lost. There would be serious impacts on the natural environment and an inevitable increase in carbon emissions.

Destroying a UNESCO site so they can widen a highway.

More than just climate arson. https://t.co/ioVA88KxJY

— Bike Mayor of the Lumpenproletariat كاحسخ (@cathasach4bikes) June 19, 2024

UNESCO even threatened to remove the world heritage status from Stonehenge if the tunnel went ahead. Did the government act after that? Did they fuck. They are showing us how much they really value our environment, history and heritage:

None of these people give a shit about Stonehenge- don’t let them gaslight you into thinking otherwise pic.twitter.com/16wnV0xC7Y

— deffonottom (@Altymcaltalt3) June 19, 2024

corn flour won’t damage stonehenge but a tunnel sure fuckin would https://t.co/6GwSPTytuU

— 博物館さん (@gaiusbaltars) June 19, 2024

Is covering Stone Henge in orange stuff worse than building a motorway next to it

— Sian Harries – @sianharries.bsky.social (@sianharries_) June 19, 2024

Not an isolated incident

Similarly, people were quick to point out that Lake Windermere is also on a UNESCO World Heritage site – the exact lake that the government has allowed water companies to dump literal shit in for months, without consequence.

The fact they are suddenly up in arms about another World Heritage site is bullshit. If they really cared, Windermere would matter too. It is clear all they care about is the optics of imaginary moral outrage:

Lake Windermere is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the same as Stonehenge.@RishiSunak & @Keir_Starmer, I’ll sit here & wait for your outrage at the water companies in the same way you did with @JustStop_Oil ………… https://t.co/EisCEHghHH

— Ryan Dalton (@MrRyanJDalton) June 20, 2024

They sit on their hands while literal shit gets pumped into our countryside and have the audacity to question peoples patriotism https://t.co/qzUVOUBtWL

— uncle Monstrous Carb (@lowerformofwit) June 19, 2024

Stonehenge: historic use as a protest site

Unsurprisingly, Just Stop Oil are not the first people to use Stonehenge as a protest site. Records as far back as 1961 show the site being marked with the words ‘Ban the Bomb’ in the name of nuclear disarmament:

I’m not interested in the politics of the incident, but I’m faintly amused by the outcry as if this sort of protest-vandalism has never happened at Stonehenge before. It has, more often than you might think. pic.twitter.com/lQsF7NuRnQ

— Stephen Fisher (@SeaSpitfires) June 19, 2024

Great 🧵 it made me think on this #summersolstice how #Stonehenge has been used in the past for political protest. Does anyone have further pics/info?

I can think of:

-Ban the bomb ☮️
-Battle of the Beanfield
-Fathers for Justice
– Stonehenge Tunnel https://t.co/23Rd5Y70AE

— Raksha Dave (@Raksha_Digs) June 20, 2024

Evidently, the main parties in the general election race forgot to align their priorities. If they really cared about the environment, like they are pretending to – they would have publicly opposed this development from the start. Only the Green Party have spoken out against it.

Clearly our politicians are okay with risking a UNESCO World Heritage site to save a few minutes off their journey. Lets face it though, Starmer and Sunak will be in their climate-destroying private jets anyway.

All we can hope is that digging this tunnel will unleash some historic curse that gives our politicians a shred of human decency. Either that or puts us all out of our misery.

Featured image via PoliticsJOE/YouTube