Annoying Protests

Much as I disagree with Tom Harris, MP for Glasgow, and I certainly know he disagreed with the principles behind our Party organising to have him and his fellow 645 co-workers sent a copy of 1984 in the post, I can't help but ruefully admire him for being an MP whose blog is at least entertaining and readable.

And today was one of those rare days where I read one of his posts and thought he rather excellently hit the nail on the head, in reference to environmentalist wacko protestors ruining peoples' time at airports:

"I’M RATHER losing patience with the self-righteous, self-appointed guardians of our planet who, this morning, caused a number of cancellations at Stansted Airport by illegally entering a restricted area.

“But climate change is more important than obeying laws,” they will no doubt bleat when they appear in some magistrate’s court somewhere in the near future. And on recent evidence, they’ll have a better-than-50 per cent chance of getting off with it.

When did the rules change? When did we decide that vandals breaking into nuclear subs and occupying runways, causing havoc to thousands of ordinary people trying to go about their daily lives, who have no respect for the democratic processes of our country, are suddenly heroes?

As a minister at the Department for Transport I received word one day that I should avoid the main entrance when I returned to the office because some anti-Heathrow protesters had Super Glued themselves to the glass doors. Staff and police were busy using various solvents to release them, I was informed.

“Why?” I asked. After all, there was more than one entrance to the building and if they chose to spend the weekend stuck to a glass door with no food or access to the toilet, shouldn’t we respect their right to demonstrate?

Alas, my view did not prevail."