From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia.
Swampy (real name
Daniel Hooper) is a
British
environmental protester, or
eco-warrior. He lived in
Exeter,
Devon in the early
1990s and belonged to a
variety of protest groups
including the
A30 Exeter to
Honiton Protest and Fairford
Road Camp.
He became a nationally known
figure after spending a week in a
complex series of tunnels dug in
the path of a new extension to the
A30 road in
Stanworth, resisting attempts
at eviction by police. Several
people took part in the protest,
but Swampy was the last one
evicted. Mr Hooper was originally
from
Newbury, Berkshire, the site
of the protest over the
Newbury bypass in
1996.
Swampy's subsequent fame
included an appearance on the
BBC comedy current affairs
quiz
Have I Got News for You,
where he became (briefly) the
show's youngest ever panellist. He
later took part in another tunnel
protest intended to prevent the
building of a second
runway at
Manchester International Airport.
When
Greenpeace activists invaded
the
International Petroleum Exchange
on
16 February
2005, provoking a brawl with
traders who had just returned from
lunch, one trader famously
shouted: "Sod Off, Swampy". The
line has now been immortalised in
t-shirts, popular with those
frustrated with extreme
environmentalism.
