Climate mob makes a mockery of the law

eXtINCtION rebellion’s campaign to stifle the free Press is contemptible and deeply sinister. But it should come as no real surprise.

to this gimcrack coalition of pious environmental extremists, anti-capitalists and poundshop anarchists, diversity of opinion is an anathema.

For them, there is just one orthodoxy; that the planet can be saved from destruction only by a return to some imagined pre-industrial nirvana, run by a collectivist ‘citizens’ assembly’.

No fossil fuel, no nuclear, no heavy industry, no globalisation – and no tolerance of dissent. Anyone questioning the credo, or arguing that decarbonising too quickly could devastate the economy and blight millions of lives, must be cancelled or bullied into silence.

the irony of extinction rebellion’s blockade of newspaper print plants is that most of the publications they targeted broadly agree that the world must address climate change with more urgency.

Indeed, Britain has an excellent record on cutting emissions and has vowed to become carbon neutral by 2050, possibly sooner.

But these one-eyed protesters have no interest in debate – just shouting down any divergent views.

so where does Labour stand on this blatant affront to free expression? Hackney MP Diane Abbott cheered the protesters on yesterday, likening them to ‘the suffragettes and hunger marchers of the 1930s’.

the latter comparison was particularly bizarre, given that most of these self-styled crusaders come from comfortable middleclass backgrounds.

(If last year’s election had gone another way, Ms Abbott could now be Home secretary – a truly chilling thought.)

Amid the furore yesterday, new legislation was mooted under which extinction rebellion could be classed as an organised crime group, with stiffer penalties to match. One can see the exasperation behind such calls, but these demonstrators must not be allowed to make martyrs of themselves.

surely far better than making new laws would be for the police to enforce those we already have.

wilful obstruction of a public highway is a criminal offence, as is aggravated trespass. so why did the police vacillate for so long before moving in to make arrests?

Yes, the right to protest is enshrined in British law. Malicious trespass, obstruction and illegal restraint of trade are not. they are crimes. It’s about time chief constables remembered the distinction.