Man-handling climate change protestors

[Leafyhouse]

Anyone else watch with horror as a climate change protestor was forcefully removed by Mark Field from the Mansion House speech? I mean, I'm no fan of political activism, 'direct action' and so on, but she wasn't presenting him with any direct threat, just shouting and being annoying. AIBU to think that his behaviour was totally unacceptable there?

Of course I don't agree with Shoot to Kill. I think he went far too far but security let them all down and we have a climate where elected representatives are being assaulted or killed. I have to be consistent. Just because I disagree with him and am more likely to agree with Greenpeace is irrelevant.

If he'd thought she was a genuine terrorist he'd have been hiding under the table shitting his pants. He got physical because he knew she was just a woman daring to express an opinion by interrupting his posh dinner.

And you know that how @BollocksToBrexit .
Bollocks to Brexit, by the way.

He's also put out a grovelling apology.

I have to say, my instinct to being grabbed like that would have been to lash out. The fact that she 'allowed' it to happen is significant, because it proves beyond doubt that she was there peacefully. She did nothing to him.

Having thought about this more, it is possible that she knew what she was doing and knew that by not responding it would add to her cause. Hmm

How many elected representatives have we had murdered at a packed posh dinner recently?

I think he was acting out of anger that a bunch of silly women were disrupting his nice dinner. He may also have consumed alcohol which won't have helped his judgement. That's why he's been so quick to apologise.

The longer video shows the other protesters being escorted out by security. Nobody grabbed the other protestors by the neck. So no, his use of force wasn’t reasonable or proportionate by any stretch of the imagination.

bellini You need to be v careful about "having a go"

If there has not been violence, an amateur would be more likely to escalate the situation

For many ordinary people, a conviction for assault can be life-changing, not in a good way

If they actually are dangerous, you might get breaten, knifed or shot,
or you get in the way of police who don't want to shoot you by mistake - and obstructing them is also an offence

I’ve just watched the BBC clip which is worse, he appears to shake her after he grabbed her. The Conservative party chairman says “It’s difficult to defend”. Says it all really.

What does the fact it was a posh dinner have to do with it. Would he have been ok to do it in a parish hall catered for by Greggs? Would he have been ok to do it if she had been some right wing gammon?

we have a climate where elected representatives are being assaulted or killed.

We had a horrific but isolated incident where one MP was killed by an extreme right-wing man 3 years ago. We have had a small number of violent acts against MPs. Few - if any - of them by women. None of them by climate change activists. None of them at formal events with professional security staff where all luggage was scanned for weapons.

Ordinary people are also subject to random violence. Can we all just manhandle people because we 'feel' they might possibly maybe be dangerous?

I don’t know mbosnz but there is a first time for everything.

Up to a few years ago how many comic mag illustrators have been killed in their office, how many children had been killed coming out of a concert.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48718725

If you are going to engage in anti social behaviour then you have to expect something anti social happening to you

Being a Tory MP is pretty anti social behaviour IMO...

@BigChocFrenzy . Which is why I would generally duck down and keep out of it.
I don't care though if the elected representative is a Tory or Labour, a man or a woman, a twat or a sweetie. But going for an MP is going for an MP. Hard to say what you would do in the moment.

No sympathy for her.

We had a horrific but isolated incident where one MP was killed by an extreme right-wing man 3 years ago. We have had a small number of violent acts against MPs. Few - if any - of them by women. None of them by climate change activists. None of them at formal events with professional security staff where all luggage was scanned for weapons.

Exactly. And because it hasn't happened yet I would suggest that either his fear (or his pretended fear) and his reaction, were disproportionate.

She didn’t “go for” anyone!

I've got no sympathy for either of them, but most particularly not him, silly man.

But going for an MP is going for an MP.

Have you even watched the video? She was walking past him.

And why are MPs more sacred than anyone else?

Hard to say what you would do in the moment.

Well, like I say nobody else took the action he did, and she walked past several people before she reached him. And in any case, that's a thoroughly daft argument. If you let your emotions - in his case rage - goad you into violence you are not fit to be a public representative.

@IcedPurple , google Airey Neave. Google Brighton Bomb. Or Stephen Timms. Maybe you are too young to remember how nasty shit gets when people use undemocratic means to attack MPs.

That well known leftwing bleeding heart < > Theresa May has suspended him as a Foreign Office minister,
while the police investigate

She apparently wasn't that impressed at a minister over-reacting

Hopefully he isn't so macho aggressive in his day job dealing with China, Russia, Iran etc

Greenpeace are a known quantity, who have organised thousands of demos, never once violent - even when others are

I’m plenty old enough to remember and this isn’t even remotely comparable to the murders of Neave and Timms. This thread is descending into lunacy.