Protesters may be irritating but they have a point

Rose from Shropshire had wedged herself under a white van in Leicester Square and stuffed her arms into concrete tubes. A bemused journalist, who presumably now needs to visit a chiropractor, was given the unenviable task of bending himself into an unnatural position for a prolonged period of time in order to interview her for the radio.

This was not a quirky art installation, Rose was not on a plinth. She was, in fact, saving the world.

And it wasn’t just her. There were hundreds of hippies in the capital for Extinction Rebellion’s (XR) latest occupation.

They’d loaded a giant pink table onto a not-so-green truck and deposited it in the city centre before handcuffing themselves to its legs. Eco-warriors had glued themselves to the Tarmac. Others paraded around with drums.

XR now visit London every year for a climate change protest. They emerge suddenly and irritate the hell out of people before vanishing.

It’s rather like Flying

Ant Day.

Last time someone called ‘Smurf’ was appointed spokesman for the movement.

But in spite of all of this, XR are right.

There’s no doubt we’re wrecking the planet in almost every way imaginable and that we’re not doing enough to reverse it.

All the soggy paper straws and un-rinsed dishwasher plates in the world aren’t going to make much difference. But XR has a serious image problem.

Disruption is, of course, a necessary part of successful protest. But a festival atmosphere with men and women with dreadlocks and grubby feet reciting poetry in privately educated tones and flailing about reeking of incense is not going to win many fans.

These antics are occasionally amusing but also risk trivialising an extremely serious situation and alienating large sections of the public, for whom Rose and Smurf are oddities with too much time on their hands.

‘A festival atmosphere with men and women with dreadlocks and grubby feet reciting poetry and flailing about reeking of incense is not going to win many fans’