“Just Stop Oil” – Here we go again….and again….Now it’s Sport!
Wake Up and Smell the Coffee
Surprisingly I have not written on this issue since the beginning of November, despite there being numerous attempts by ‘Just Stop Oil’ activists trying to interrupt Londoners going about their daily lives and seeking media headlines by disrupting major sporting events.
My earlier blog: https://the-world-according-to-spiel.com/just-stop-oil-here-we-go-again/
…clearly identified my views at the time, and despite the continued efforts to seek media coverage their efforts have not really changed my opinion in the following eight months.
Specific Laws have now been passed to provide the police with clear powers to arrest protesters, despite there having been plenty of laws already in place under which they could arrest someone. Loitering, Public Nuisance (e.g. blocking the highway), Obstruction (deliberately preventing or interrupting a person or vehicle from passing freely in a public space).
So now at least the boys, and girls in blue, (and any other gender, in blue for that matter) can now without fear of being accused of acting wrongly at the request of the Tory Government, arrest the ‘Just Stop Oil’ Protesters blocking the public highway. Phew what a relief, but no……
The small number of possibly well-meaning activists have now chosen to seek to disrupt the majority of the rest of the UK population, while they seek to enjoy themselves at major sports or social events.
They have disrupted the following: Aintree Grand National, Rugby Premiership Final, The Derby, Snooker World Championship, Chelsea Flower Show, Glyndebourne Opera, and most recently the Ashes Test at Lords, amongst others I have most likely already forgotten.
Rather surprisingly, (or not), they didn’t appear to disrupt Glastonbury, possibly because they were there and out of their heads on something or other, but I digress.
Now from the reaction of the crowds at these events, they were not welcomed openly and cheered for their disruption, but the actions of dispersing them or removing them was wildly cheered and applauded. I would have therefore thought that by now they would have recognised that they are not readily supported by the general public.
Their actions are more often forgotten immediately by the people they seek to influence and are only being derided by those disrupted.
Their actions, however noble they may be, are in my opinion counterproductive to their cause. As I have said previously they need to carry the populous with them, not alienate them, but all their actions currently have the opposite effect.
I do know, that the small minded measures and token gestures, like those being undertake are of no significant benefit, other than making a few individuals feel they are making a stand in an everchanging the world, while annoying everyone else in the process. But really, grow up and smell the coffee…, that’s being planted in the rapidly depleted rain forests of the world, that are the very lungs of the earth.
