Eco protesting

[Boomerwang]

Apparently there's a bill going forward to give police more powers to deal with protests and vigils that cause 'serious unease' or 'serious annoyance' and this bill has been blocked several times by Keir Starmer previously.

AIBU to think police should be granted more powers to stop protestors from blocking access points? I fully agree the right to protest must be protected, but what about when it affects others?

I'd argue to go even further and stop the waste of taxpayer's money by having to involve the police at all but then I know people would get seriously hurt this way and that's not okay.

At the same time, I wonder how effective these protests are by forcing us to confront what's going on and whether ultimately they are doing something good? Would they achieve results by sitting to the side of access points instead? Would anyone listen if daily life were uninterrupted? Does anyone stop to think of the cause just because they were physically stopped? Surely it's impossible to sympathise when you're angry?

Personally protesting is something I read about in the news but it doesn't prompt me to reflect on my contribution or research further.

Has anyone been affected by protests before and did it make you consider environment and ecology after the event?

Is it even a protest if it doesn't cause unease or annoyance?

I know someone whose has had to cancel a holiday with children to see elderly parents overseas they have not seen for years because their lorry was vandalised and blocked in at a depot. Need to catch up with contracted work or could lose it. Excess will go up lots too on insurance. Lost money on flights.

The protests at the oil sites last week have caused chaos for fuel delivery’s this week.

I know of a driver who was carrying hazardous good last week and ended up with a protester chained to his lorry. Because of the load he couldn’t safely be removed from it meaning the driver couldn’t get get home that night. His delivery was delayed too which obviously causes a knock on

Most of these kind of disruptive behaviour turns people against them rather than gains support

I fully agree the right to protest must be protected, but what about when it affects others?

I personally believe that the only protests that should be legal are when people sit in this own homes with the curtains drawn.

I fully agree the right to protest must be protected, but what about when it affects others?

That is sort of the point of a protest. Banning protests that cause “serious annoyance” is ridiculous.

Although I’d draw the line at anything that makes it harder for the emergency services - eg ambulances not being able to get through etc.

Nope. People need to be able to protest, as long as life isn't threatened.

Surely though it should be annoying for the people they are trying to target rather than the general public?

By all means they can protest, but I think greater power is needed to remove these idiots.
I doubt the incredibly squeezed public will be as tolerant this time. I'm certainly not. When you're struggling already and these twits are making your life even harder, it's difficult to be interested.
Remember last time? That woman having a stroke in traffic? Ambulances being refused access? I suspect someone will get seriously injured.
Will they deserve it? Not my place to say.
Will I give a flying fuck? Unlikely.

The people who they need to get to listen often aren't the ones who are being inconvenienced, and don't particularly care about those who are, and so nothing happens to change anything. It just means that the people who have problems as a result of the protests lose any support they may have originally felt for the protesters

What is the AIBU?

Sorry, I see it now, but also see that you provide a counter-argument to your original point.

So do you think protests should be allowed or not?

My view is of course peaceful protests, within the law, should be allowed.

These, not the road blockade ones, are within the law.

You have no right to prevent access to public highway like this, and there are other laws which are being broken re inhibiting lawful trade.

I think their actions harm their cause, although I agree with their premise.

But we have a public that is Ill-informed and/or doesn’t care, and a government who gives not one flying fuck about the environment.

nor the motorway blockade onea

It is anti-British to ban protest, freedom of speech is and always has been a cornerstone of the British democratic system.

This law being proposed by the government is a disgrace, they are following the Orban playbook and I am pleased the opposition is standing up for British values.

Patel has used the recent Extinction Rebellion protest as an excuse to remove long-established British rights, and the hard of thinking are not questioning why (looking at you @Boomerwang).

Personally protesting is something I read about in the news but it doesn't prompt me to reflect on my contribution or research further But you have started this thread, so you must have thought about the wider issues around protest a bit further

Protest has the potential to reach even a self-proclaimed ignoramus.

The situation is that we are facing mass human extinction if we don’t make significant changes. Before that we will go through food shortages, starvation and social instability.

Morality is a higher human need and once our basic needs for food, shelter and safety are effected then our morality is going to be much lower on our list of priorities. Just watch that film about the Fyre Festival to see what happens when resources are suddenly scarce. Here in the UK, we are mostly used to stability, food security and our physical safety, being secured. If we have lived here all our life then mostly, we have no concept of how harsh life can be when these things are threatened.

This is a pivotal point in history.

What are our government doing to prevent this future harm? Very little. In fact making decisions that are the exact opposite to what we need to be doing.

So what can informed people, who are concerned about the future of human kind (us, our children and grandchildren) do?

There have been marches upon marches, peaceful protests upon peaceful protests, petitions after petitions, scientific reports after scientific reports. For at least 30 years in fact. What is there left to do?

We should be making ourselves the biggest pain in the governments ass that we can, until they do what is actually needed to protect us from harm.

I’m not in a position to glue myself to roads (professional job that a criminal record would put an end to and DC that a prison sentence would effect) but I fully support direct action at this stage. I appreciate that there are people willing to do this to try and protect our future. To try and show the Government that this is so important that people are willing to make such sacrifices.

I think that laws to criminalise this are frightening and yet another way to keep us in our place, not complain and accept the dreadful policies that put peoples lives at risk (not just climate related either).

Those assholes make me want to guzzle as much oil as I can. Its not a protest, they don't give a shit its just a bit of fun for them. I wish there were more powers to remove and punish them.

From experience, it is bloody annoying being stuck on the M25 because someone has glued themselves to the road. However, protests are an important element in an open and democratic society because they work. Maybe not immediately, but it’s the one tool open to every citizen. And the day that protests are banned, is the day that the UK has become an authoritarian state.

@toomanydogsandcats

Those assholes make me want to guzzle as much oil as I can. Its not a protest, they don't give a shit its just a bit of fun for them. I wish there were more powers to remove and punish them.

This is completely illogical.

I do not understand how pointing out the scientific reality being faced by us all would make me want to make it happen faster.

carefullycourageous

I do not understand how pointing out the scientific reality being faced by us all would make me want to make it happen faster.

Indeed. It’s like saying ‘I don’t like the campaigns about smoking causing cancer so I’m going to smoke even more and increase my risk of cancer’. Totally illogical regardless of how you feel about the protests.

They can protest, but they get no support from me. In fact I go out of my way now not to support

The police do need more powers, which they then need to use, to move them on

The courts also need to back the police up with jail sentences for all involved, not wishy washy fines that won’t get paid

Yabu because you can't trust the government and police to determine what is 'serious annoyance' and it could be used to close down all kinds of peaceful protest e.g. Iraq war march, Brexiteer occupation of Parliament Square

There is far more at stake than people being inconvenienced. You chip away at your democracy when you lose the right to protest.

Soringhaze

There is far more at stake than people being inconvenienced. You chip away at your democracy when you lose the right to protest.

Well said! Much more succinct than I managed.

Chloemol

They can protest, but they get no support from me. In fact I go out of my way now not to support

What do you mean by ‘go out of my way’? Do you mean you are actively trying to make climate chaos worse?

Peaceful protests are one thing.

Blocking roads and causing misery for hundreds of thousands of drivers by causing fuel shortages is wankerish. We've had a nightmare getting fuel in Gloucestershire and we rely on a work van for bringing work in/taking it out again.

I'd personally turn water cannons on them.