Sheffield grandfather arrested 'for singing' at Extinction Rebellion protest says he'd do it again

Bernard Little, of Walkley, was among more than 1,600 Extinction Rebellion (XR) activists to be detained by police during demonstrations which brought parts of the capital to a standstill last month.

The 64-year-old, who has two grandchildren, one aged three years and the other three months old, was held for over 10 hours last month after refusing to move from the busy Westminster road protesters were blocking or to stop singing when told to do so by police.

The carer and former NHS occupational therapy assistant was released under investigation and is awaiting his fate, though he says the initial offence of ‘refusing to stop singing’ for which he was arrested ‘appears to have been dropped’.

He insists the experience would not prevent him putting his liberty on the line again to stand up for the planet’s future.

“I’ve been involved in green politics for more than 40 years and sadly the amount of change we’ve been able to bring about hasn't been nearly enough to avert climate catastrophe so we’ve had to look at other ways to get people to listen – and this seems to be working,” he said.

“I’m prepared to be arrested again because I feel so strongly about this. Our existence is threatened and there’s a big question mark over what future, if any, our children and grandchildren will have if we don’t take effective action immediately to move towards a zero-carbon economy.

“I think this is bigger than the first and second world wars combined because more people would die or be displaced as a result of the ecological crisis that’s unfolding. Our house is on fire and we can’t allow business to continue as usual.

“Being a grandparent, I’m more able to protest because I’ve got a pension and I don’t have to worry about losing my job. I feel it’s my generation’s obligation to do this for younger people. To me, it’s almost like national service.”

Bernard has been passionate about saving the earth since he was a boy – long before it became one of the day’s burning issues.

He was spurred into action first by the savage ‘Dr Beeching’ cuts to railway services in the 60s, which he felt even as a child were disastrous for the environment, and then by seeing photos of our ‘fragile planet’ taken from the Apollo spacecrafts.

He is encouraged to see the different generations, led by the inspirational teenager Greta Thunberg, uniting in recognition of the peril our planet faces.

His grandchildren are too young to understand what is at stake, but when they are old enough he is determined to make sure they appreciate the gravity of the challenge.

“I’ll tell them the truth and advise them to listen to what Greta Thunberg is saying because when you’re older you tend to ration the truth but when you’re younger you don’t have the vested interests adults develop which prevent them from speaking plainly,” he said.

“I’ll tell them to become active in XR, keep asking authority figures the difficult questions raised by Greta Thunberg and strive to act like a responsible adult by doing what they can to reduce their impact on the environment.

“On joining much younger arrestees on my release from the police cell they told me of the enormous pressure they were under from their relatives to start a career, have children and put money aside for a pension in their 70s. It is very clear that certainties they took for granted no longer apply.”