Alexandra Considine: ‘It’s not dangerous, we’re just going to keep warm’

PUBLIC buildings will be occupied tomorrow (Saturday) with a series of “warm-ups” aiming to render the “hidden” crisis of fuel poverty visible.

Alexandra Considine, a community activist from Caledonian Road, is helping organise the north London “warm-up” this weekend to protest against rising fuel poverty.

“We shouldn’t be doing this – it feels like we’ve gone back to Victorian Britain!” Ms Considine said.

While the exact location of the “warm-up” is being kept secret, activists are meeting at Russell Square gardens at midday.

“We’re going to occupy public buildings which are free to get into,” she said.

“It’s not anything dangerous like Just Stop Oil – we’re not going to be damaging anything – we’re just going to be sitting there and keeping warm.”

Inspired by the “sit-in”, a “warm-up” is a form of peaceful protest where activists occupy a building in protest at fuel poverty.

The initiative has been organised by a “coalition” of local groups, including Extinction Rebellion Islington, Don’t Pay UK Islington, Fuel Poverty Islington and Disability Action Group Islington, Ms Considine said.

This broad coalition of environmental and social justice groups indicates that the climate crisis and the fuel poverty crisis are deeply interlinked, she added.

“Our energy crisis is so interwoven with our climate crisis,” she said.

“If our government had invested in renewables when they were talking about it 20 years ago, we would not be in this energy crisis, we would not be so far through the climate crisis. The two are so interwoven.”

Traditionally, green action is seen as the preserve of the wealthiest in the borough, Ms Considine said. “It’s such a diverse borough, where you have the Blairite Barnsbury – you walk around Barnsbury and you have posters on the walls saying ‘Let’s make the community green’, then you go to where I live in Caledonian Road, and there’s nothing apart from people just sitting on the street.

“From one road to another, the diversity is just immense.”

But as the energy crisis takes hold, its impact will be felt by the poorest first, she said. “Where I live in social housing, when I try to tell my neighbours there’s a climate crisis, they really stand back and go: ‘I haven’t got time for this’.

“But now with the fuel poverty crisis hitting them, you can make the links, people are now going: ‘Why is this happening? Why didn’t we prevent it?’

“Is there a way that we can now do things to put it back?”

She said tackling the crisis is made more difficult by the fact it is invisible to many.

“It’s hidden – how do you actually go and tell somebody you’re in fuel poverty? You can go and beg for food, but you can’t beg for fuel,” Ms Considine said.

“The warm-up is to show people that we don’t want people to go cold. There are people who are scared, they’re tired, they’re afraid.”

She added: “The whole point about this is to give our local communities a voice to be heard and to be seen, and just to say no one should be going cold this winter.”