Last month, I spoke to a Times reporter about the then ongoing Extinction rebellion. When our conversation appeared in the paper, I was amazed to see that a headline had been written by his editor which entirely distorted what I had said.
He had quizzed me about far-Left ‘infiltration’ into Extinction Rebellion, specifically, the Socialist Workers’ Party. I had replied that, while it was an irritant to have Swappies (as they’re known) turn up to XR (as we’re known) events, it was no more than that. They had got nowhere in any efforts they might be making to infiltrate us.
In the course of the article-production process, this got turned into a headline screaming that XR was allegedly, according to me, “threatened by parasitic hard-left groups”. Something I’d never said. The opposite of what I’d said.
