Sticky Moment For PM

by Andrew Sherwood - Thursday 24th July 2008


Just days after honouring victims of the Shoah by laying a wreath at Yad Vashem, Gordon Brown this week fell foul of a Jewish environmental activist who says it was the experience of his own grandparents during the Holocaust that inspired him to take drastic action.

Dan Glass made deadlines across the country yesterday after attempting to glue himself to the prime minister, only hours after the Labour leader had returned from his first visit to Israel since succeeding Tony Blair.

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The 24-year-old, a member of the campaign group Plane Stupid, used a visit to Downing Street where he was invited to receive an award for his protesting work to raise the issue of why the government had refused to meet locals opposed to plans for a third runway at Heathrow.

Having smuggled in the glue in his underwear, his opportunity came to shake hands with Brown. “Do not worry, this is a non-violent protest,” he told the premier. “I have actually just superglued myself to the buttons of the Prime Minister. We cannot shake away climate change like you can just shake away my arm. We can beat climate change, but this is not going to happen by planning the world’s largest international airport at Heathrow.”

And, speaking to TJ last night, the post-graduate student in climate change at Strathclyde University revealed how words from his grandparents, who were forced into hiding in Poland, Germany and Holland, inspired him to act. “I’ve spoken a lot to my grandparents about what they had to endure [during the Holocaust] and they always told me to fight against adversity, to stand up for what you believe in, for what you feel is right and to make a change.”

Glass, who is originally from Barnet, added: “The Holocaust was the defining issue of their generation, climate change is ours. It’s about standing up against the laws, and trying to do the right thing. Nazism in Germany was made law and it was wrong, aviation expansion is wrong and something needs to be done against it. “What my grandparents, and all Jews went through was wrong. Having survived that, let’s try and protect ourselves from other wrong things.”

A spokesman said: “Mr Brown took it as a light-hearted incident, and not as a serious one. Their hands had contact for a couple of seconds during the reception and they spoke for a brief moment afterwards too."

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