IN HOT WATER
‘Mr Broccoli’ Extinction Rebellion activist revealed as founder of glamping business from Bristol
THE CLIMATE change activist dubbed Mr Broccoli has been unmasked as the founder of a glamping business who lives in a £350,000 cottage in a rural village near Bristol.
Roland Everson, 45, clashed with Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid while dressed as a broccoli on Good Morning Britain to promote a vegan lifestyle.
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He wound up the TV hosts by refusing to answer their questions, telling them: "I'm just a humble broccoli. I just grow."
He also interrupted the interview by picking up a banana and pretending to use it as a phone.
Following his bizarre TV appearance he has now been unmasked as the founder of Podpads, which delivers glamping villages to around 50 events every year.
Mr Everson, who is married, lives in a £350,000 cottage in Badminton village near Bristol.
A regular festival-goer, he came up with the idea of building a flat pack wooden house one night in the pub - and found his creation was sturdy enough to survive the flash floods at Glastonbury Festival in 2005.
He was previously a keen hunter and fisherman but quit those hobbies when he "woke up one day and thought 'what am I doing?'"
TV CLASH
He said his appearance on Good Morning Britain had been "quite intimidating".
He told the Standard: "Mr Broccoli is a tool to show how ridiculous the showcasing of this issue is.
The media should be interviewing scientists, rather than giving time to broccoli. Mr Broccoli doesn't have the answers."
During the interview Mr Everson kept referring to Piers as "peas".
He said: "You can tell Piers it gets dark at night and he will shout you down. We decided not to let him do that to me."
During the interview Piers, 54, and Susanna, 48, accused him of failing to take the climate change debate seriously.
Piers labelled him an "idiot" while Susanna told him: "I'm not sure you're gonna win anybody over dressed as a broccoli."
Mr Everson is part of the Animal Rebellion movement, an offshoot of climate group Extinction Rebellion, and was arrested on Sunday as part of the environmental protests in London.
He was arrested in his in green face-paint and a broccoli floret-style head-dress - which he also wore for his TV interview.
Podpads declined to comment.
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The violent scenes erupted as Extinction Rebellion admitted it had scored a massive own goal by targeting Londoners just trying to board trains to work.
Since last week, protesters have targeted London City Airport, shut down areas around Parliament and the Bank of England, and blockaded Google's HQ, with more than 1,600 people arrested.
The group, which launched its latest campaign 10 days ago, today built a wooden structure at Oxford Circus in London's West End, bringing traffic to a standstill.
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