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Published
Sep 11, 2015
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Westwood stages anti-Cameron armoured carrier protest

By
AFP
Published
Sep 11, 2015

British fashion designer and campaigner Vivienne Westwood rode an armoured vehicle to Prime Minister David Cameron's constituency home near Oxford on Friday in a bizarre protest against fracking.

The 74-year-old, a founder of the punk movement, wore a collarless jacket and a pearl necklace as she rode on the armoured personnel carrier through the English countryside to the village of Chadlington.

Fashion designer and environmental campaigner Vivienne Westwood rides on top of an armored personnel carrier (APC) towards the home of British Prime Minister David Cameron's home in Chadlington, Oxfordshire on September 10, 2015 - AFP


During the drive she also waved a yellow duster from the vehicle, which had UN on its side in black letters.

Westwood said in a statement that Cameron had "mobilised his troops" in favour of fracking, while not allowing any permits in his own constituency.

"He doesn't want it in his own backyard," she said.

The designer dismounted from the carrier outside Cameron's cottage and some protesters accompanying her donned gas masks and unfurled a banner against fracking as a police officer looked on.

The prime minister, who often stays in the cottage at weekends, is away on a visit to Yorkshire.

Cameron hopes to replicate the success of the US shale gas industry but has faced fierce local opposition in many parts of the country. A number of exploratory wells have been drilled but there is currently no commercial production of shale gas in Britain.

A local authority in Lancashire in northwest England rejected plans for an exploratory site, following demonstrations in which Westwood also took part.

Fracking or hydraulic fracturing is a process used to extract shale gas by blasting a high-pressure mixture of water, sand and chemicals deep underground to release hydrocarbons trapped between layers of rock.

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