Is this Britain's wokest family?
Is this Britain’s wokest family? Oxford University trans rights protestor’s father is XR member – and mum is a council boss who introduced a four-day week for her PhD thesis
- Riz Possnett’s father is an XR protester who has been arrested numerous times
- And their mother is a town hall bigwig who introduced a four-day working week
Most middle-class parents would be mortified if their offspring got into Oxford University only to become notorious for staging a stunt that disrupted Britain’s most prestigious debating society.
But not so the family of Riz Possnett, who glued their hand to the floor of the Oxford Union this week in protest at a speech by Professor Kathleen Stock.
The 20-year-old’s father Robert Possnett is a member of Extinction Rebellion who has been arrested numerous times for joining eco protests – and was a fanatical Remainer.
Meanwhile, Riz’s mother Liz Watts is the town hall bigwig whom the Daily Mail recently exposed for introducing a four-day week while secretly writing a PhD on the controversial experiment.
Together their devotion to some of modern Britain’s most fashionable causes has seen them dubbed the nation’s wokest family.
But not so the family of Riz Possnett (pictured), who glued their hand to the floor of the Oxford Union this week in protest at a speech by Professor Kathleen Stock
The 20-year-old’s father Robert Possnett (pictured) is a member of Extinction Rebellion who has been arrested numerous times for joining eco protests
One local source lamented: ‘They are clearly Britain’s looniest left family, with brains replaced by the social media bandwagons.’
Riz’s father seems to have previously been less radical, serving in the Army for seven years until 1985.
According to his LinkedIn profile, he reached the rank of Lance Corporal as a ‘patrol commander’ in the Parachute Regiment.
Mr Possnett did a degree in philosophy at the University of North London followed by a masters in the ‘idea of toleration’ at York.
He delivered aid to Mostar in Bosnia in 1995 and later returned to the Balkans, working on aid programmes and consultancy.
His partner Ms Watts was there at the same time, working for the Office of the High Representative, created to oversee the peace agreement ending the Bosnian war.
Riz’s mother Liz Watts (pictured) is the town hall bigwig whom the Daily Mail recently exposed for introducing a four-day week while secretly writing a PhD on the controversial experiment
However, the couple, who both worked for the Refugee Council in the late 1990s, returned to England briefly when she gave birth to a girl.
In recent years Mr Possnett has worked for a climate tech firm called Crowley Carbon.
He and his family live in a sprawling six-bedroom bungalow in a Suffolk village, which they bought for £362,000 but is now estimated to be worth as much as £855,000.
In their driveway is a white MG electric car, even though Mr Possnett boasted in 2019 that he had ‘given my car away’ and insisted ‘electric cars are not the answer’.
Satellite images on Google Maps also reveal a large open-air swimming pool in their back garden.
Now 61, he describes himself as an ‘Extinction Rebellion activist’ online. He opposed Brexit – but in December 2021, told fellow Remainers: ‘If you’re tweeting about Brexit rather than the climate and ecological emergency, then you are part of the problem rather than the solution.’
Mr Possnett was at Parliament Square for the launch of Extinction Rebellion in October 2018. The next year he handed himself in to Cambridge police, asking to be charged with ‘criminal damage to the planet’.
And during the 2019 election campaign, he and three others dressed as bees and glued themselves to a Brexit Party bus in Grimsby.
In February that year he was ‘very proud’ to be arrested for disrupting a council meeting and was later found guilty of disorder.
Then in August 2021 he sprayed red paint on the doors of London’s Guildhall building.
And after a protest where he was locked up overnight, he wrote that he had ‘never been more proud’ then when his daughter called him ‘incredible’ for being arrested.
This week he also described himself as a ‘proud dad’ when eco-activist Riz posted a snap of their protest at the Oxford Union.
Riz attended Hockerill Anglo-European College. Hertfordshire, where boarding fees will be £15,564 a year from September, and Li Po Chun United World College in Hong Kong, which charges overseas students £40,341 a year.
Riz attended Hockerill Anglo-European College. Hertfordshire, where boarding fees will be £15,564 a year from September
Now studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Wadham College, Oxford, Riz tweeted on Tuesday: ‘This evening I glued my hand to the floor of the Oxford Union debating chamber, wearing a T-shirt which said ‘No more dead trans kids’, in front of Kathleen Stock during her talk…’
Riz’s mother, meanwhile, is chief executive of South Cambridgeshire District Council, the first authority to bring in a four-day working week without loss of pay for desk-based staff.
This newspaper then revealed that Ms Watts had secretly been working on a doctorate on the four-day week – without declaring the potential conflict of interest.
The family appear well-liked by neighbours, but one said she was ‘quite shocked’ to hear Mr Possnett was in Extinction Rebellion.
When the Mail visited their home yesterday, Riz answered the door and said a conversation with Ms Watts was ‘not going to happen’.
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