‘Confettigate': Just Stop Oil deny disrupting former UK minister George Osborne’s wedding

Amid reports of a Just Stop Oil protester targeting the wedding of former United Kingdom chancellor George Osborne’s wedding the environmental activist group, on Sunday (July 9), denied that the woman who threw confetti at the newlyweds was a part of their movement. This comes a day after a lady was seen throwing orange confetti as the newlyweds, George Osborne and Thea Rogers emerged from the church.

What was the incident about?

On Saturday, the former Conservative party chancellor Osborne married his former aide at the 14th-century St Mary’s Church in the Somerset village of Bruton, UK. A video which has since gone viral shows the couple walking out of the church and after a few minutes, a woman showered them with orange confetti.

The grey-haired woman in a floral dress and pale-coloured jacket emptied a union jack paper bag of confetti over the newlyweds’ shoulders who, in turn, looked puzzled before a security person approached the woman and she left.

Subsequently, Just Stop Oil reposted the video on Twitter with the message, “You look good in orange George Osborne – congratulations to the newlyweds.”

The video was also followed by a series of tweets with links to articles from the time that Osborne was the chancellor, one of which even said that he didn’t want the UK to be “out there in front of the rest of the world” in its efforts to cut emissions, as quoted by the Guardian.

Osborne added that this was because he wanted to “provide for the country the cheapest energy possible…consistent with us playing our part in an international effort to tackle climate change”.

Just Stop Oil denies involvement

It was initially unclear if Just Stop Oil was behind the incident and it was largely based on the speculations as the environmental activistgroup recently scattered orange confetti at Wimbledon, on Wednesday. However, Just Stop Oil took to Twitter and clarified that they were not involved, it was not them.

Calling the incident “Confettigate,” Just Stop Oil, in a statement said, “The lady who threw confetti in Bruton yesterday was upholding a tradition that is common across many cultures. We absolutely defend the right for people to throw confetti (of whatever colour) at weddings and other celebrations.”

It added, “If it was a form of protest — which is yet to be established — we applaud it and thank the person concerned. It was peaceful and not especially disruptive, but got massive media attention for Just Stop Oil’s demand.”

The environmental activist groupalso said that “as much as we applaud the use of orange confetti at this wedding, we were not responsible.” The statement also said how the media should shiftfocus on issues like wildfires in Canada and the British government’s decision to licence over 100 new oil and gas projects.

How did the ‘wedding crasher’ get there?

According to British media reports, around 200 people, including well-known politicians and journalists, attended the wedding on Saturday afternoon. However, it was not immediately clear who the woman was as she reportedly left as soon as journalists approached her.

The event had been making headlines in the UK after an anonymous email to the wedding guests as well as some journalists which Osborne had asked police to investigate over alleged online harassment.

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