Last month I wrote about a climate protester in the UK who went onto a tennis court in the middle of a packed arena and set himself on fire. He was wearing a shirt that read “End UK Private Jets” and people booed him as he was dragged off.

The man, wearing a t-shirt that read “End UK Private Jets,” was quickly removed from the court by security before Stefanos Tsitsipas and Diego Schwartzman’s game resumed. https://t.co/EUQv5z3Jl3

— NBC News (@NBCNews) September 23, 2022

The same group recently came up with another stunt which has really angered a lot of people. A 21-year-old woman named Maddie Budd poured feces over a memorial to a deceased veteran who became a kind of national symbol during the pandemic. Here’s video of the stunt.

BREAKING: End UK Private Jets supporter pours human faceas on Captain Tom memorial. Maddie, 21, former medical student said:

“Every time a private jet takes off, it pours a bucket of shit and blood on everything Captain Tom stood for”#endukprivatejetshttps://t.co/zTzVJ2gu8H pic.twitter.com/4qjpKiyO9n

— End UK Private Jets (@EndUKPrivateJet) September 30, 2022

To be honest I don’t think I’d ever heard of “Captain Tom” (no connection to Major Tom) but in the UK he became a very big deal in the early days of the pandemic. At age 99 the WWII vet decided he wanted to raise money for the National Health Service as the first wave of the coronavirus was impacting the UK. He asked for donations to raise £1,000 by walking 100 laps around his back garden using his walker. He couldn’t do anywhere close to 100 laps in a day but he promised he would do several laps per day and have all 100 completed by his 100th birthday on April 30, 2020.

Something about the efforts of this veteran doing all he could to help out when the country was facing difficult times really resonated with the public. Within two weeks his effort raised more than £7 million and he had become a minor celebrity. He co-recorded a song “You’ll never walk alone” which went to the #1 spot on the charts. His 100th birthday on April 30th became a kind of national celebration including a flyover by WWII Spitfires. He was given an honorary promotion to Colonel and his fundraising effort reached £32 million.

He was praised by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and in July he was knighted by the Queen, making him Sir Colonel Tom. An autobiography of his life titled “Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day” became a best-seller and he even sold the movie rights. He used his celebrity to start a podcast focused on isolation among the elderly but in late January of 2021, he was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. He died a couple days later in the hospital.  This BBC memorial clip gives you a sense of what a big deal he became in the UK.

From afar, all of this sound a bit crazy and I guess it was but in a heartwarming way. At a time when the UK was struggling through the pandemic, this kind, smiling old man was a reminder of the nation’s ability to persevere and to even be cheerful in the midst of difficulty. And hence, there is a memorial to him, really just a steel cutout showing him behind his walker.

So what does any of this have to do with ending the use of private jets? Absolutely nothing. Maddie’s father says she dropped out of medical school to become a full-time eco-campaigner and after seeing the video above he’s ashamed of her.

Father-of-six Mr Budd, an award-winning glazier, said he had felt sick when he saw the video of her defiling Captain Tom’s image. Mr Budd said he and his charity worker wife Harriet, 63, had messaged Budd after they realised what she had done but received no reply.

Speaking from their home near Kington on the England-Wales border, he told MailOnline close to tears: ‘The shock of this is hurting people and upsetting them.

‘I’m ashamed of her and what she has done. There has been a big public reaction for obvious reasons. I don’t think she understands what the hell she was unleashing.

‘She’s done something horrible without thinking of the consequences.’

The group’s leader, Kai, was on TV a couple of times trying to explain it and he really didn’t come close. All he could say was that “we’re sort of all fine with the government murdering our kids” and that’s worse than pouring s**t on a beloved veteran’s memorial. By the way, Kai is the same guy who set himself on fire last month. How does any of this reduce the use of private jets? It doesn’t obviously.

Honestly, if you told me that this group was a satire of eco-fanatics I would believe it. Eco-warriors really can justify anything to themselves, in this case that the use of private jets are the equivalent of murdering children. They don’t even really pretend it makes any sense. Here’s a bonus clip of Piers Morgan telling Kai what a repulsive creep he is. “This is one of the most disgusting things I think I’ve ever had to see,” Morgan said.

Update: Another recent “protest” from a UK environmental group: Pouring bottles of milk on the floor in Harrods. These guys are called Animal Rebellion.

More video has arrived of Animal Rebellion's direct action at Harrods, Selfridges and Fortnums.

What are the arguments in favour of non-violent direction action?@RebelsAnimal | @rebelsanimalLDN pic.twitter.com/FLOtXrrax6

— TalkTV (@TalkTV) October 7, 2022