I don't drive
Personally I think they are misguided ( to put it politely)!!
How would I deal with them?
Tear any banners down and fncking leave them there.

Yep, let them stay on the gantries as long as they wish without their banners. If they fall off and get squashed, tough luck. The pair who climbed up on the Dartford crossing should have been left there and told to make their own way down when they were good and ready, which I suspect would have been a lot more tricky than getting up there. After a couple of rainy days, they too may have come down rather more quickly than they planned.

Like most people I get their message but not the way they are trying to get it across. People are going about their lawful business, including, some time ago a woman who was filmed trying to get to a hospital to get to her dying mother. They wouldn’t let her pass. Pathetic.

However, the Police are overreacting. A few days ago they arrested a member of the press at a protest and kept her in the station for five hours until it was clarified. Bloody ridiculous.

I remember Woody Harrelson getting arrested in 1996 for protesting the planned deforestation of a large area of 2000 year old redwoods. Someone was understandably aggrieved that due to the ensuing traffic chaos they'd missed the birth of their son. Woody apologised but said, in so many words, that maybe one day he could walk through the forest with the man's son, and show him the beauty of what he was trying to protect.

I applaud the protestors. If I wasn't such a couch potato I might even join them.

excessbee wrote: November 9th, 2022, 10:06 pm Yep, let them stay on the gantries as long as they wish without their banners. If they fall off and get squashed, tough luck. The pair who climbed up on the Dartford crossing should have been left there and told to make their own way down when they were good and ready, which I suspect would have been a lot more tricky than getting up there. After a couple of rainy days, they too may have come down rather more quickly than they planned.

The problem is others would get hurt with that approach

Yes, my reaction is very 'knee jerk'. A more workable solution would be for the police to enforce the law more swiftly and put the demonstrators before the courts and impose jail sentences.

JonD wrote: November 10th, 2022, 9:45 am I remember Woody Harrelson getting arrested in 1996 for protesting the planned deforestation of a large area of 2000 year old redwoods. Someone was understandably aggrieved that due to the ensuing traffic chaos they'd missed the birth of their son. Woody apologised but said, in so many words, that maybe one day he could walk through the forest with the man's son, and show him the beauty of what he was trying to protect.

I applaud the protestors. If I wasn't such a couch potato I might even join them.

Well ,l hope you're health doesn't go tits up when you're on the couch and the ambulance can't get through because of protesters

But that's just me. One life. Their cause is greater than that. They should be applauded for their sacrifice.

Go and protest outside the Chinese, American, Russian etc embassies, you know , the countries that are causing most problems with climate change.
Failing that, protest outside government offices and leave the general public go about our business, earning money to feed our families etc

Exile 1976 wrote: November 10th, 2022, 6:20 pm Go and protest outside the Chinese, American, Russian etc embassies, you know , the countries that are causing most problems with climate change.
Failing that, protest outside government offices and leave the general public go about our business, earning money to feed our families etc

Well said dear chap.

I do think we need people like this to stand up for the climate and our quality of life, and new stone-age legislation makes it harder to demonstrate fully without breaking the law.

But the sad irony of this particular group is that, while they’re climbing gantries and bridges, the traffic beneath them is spitting out more poisonous fumes while the police are taken away from proper crime fighting and racking up huge overtime bills which we’ll be paying.

I look at it this way - as football fans we are often herded, searched, demonized an elderly chap has just been put in prison for selling ,mince pies during lock-down (yes really), people were battered and beaten for protesting lock-downs, people have been fined/imprisoned for posting jokes online, etc, etc SO if a bunch of [lets face it] middle/upper class buffoons disrupt the lives of literally thousands of people they should feel the full force of the law.

On their points I do feel whole it is very clear climate change is real the doom-mongering and catastrophising is excessive and simply not backed up by any evidence - the figures of '6 billion people displaced' (total lie as that’s pretty much the whole planet), etc are just plain false as is the issues around deaths due to natural disaster (a plain LIE as such deaths have hugely deceased) - also the issues of how we fuel our lifestyles - it’s all very well saying 'juts stop oil' but for me the focus should be on realistic alternatives.

Overall, my view is we corral these protesters in a compound with no modern tech (including no internet!) - a few Victorian era hand tools, a bit of livestock and a few horses and let them try to live without fossil fuels or anything plastic based (no plastic, etc) - they’d be begging for oil within the week.

I'm no mouth frothing right winger btw I just see the just top oil people as a bunch of out of touch buffoons who have not idea of how 99% of us live.

Perhaps it will come that away travel should be banned with the carbon footprint
Also they called the women who died for the vote at the time idiots

Makes you think really

Cathedralcity and any other witch-burners ought to go and live in China. They'd like it there . Proper law enforcement. None of this namby pamby stuff we have to tolerate here.

By the way, I read this week that the detection rate for reported burglaries in this country stands at a rather impressive 4%. So that should calm the nerves of folk worried about police being occupied by climate protestors instead of crime prevention.

UTP makes an interesting point. What if these protestors are right? Shouldn't we heed their warnings rather than huff and puff about the inconvenience as if we were a bunch of NIMBY tories? Mightn't that expedite positive change?

JonD wrote: November 11th, 2022, 1:10 pm Cathedralcity and any other witch-burners ought to go and live in China. They'd like it there . Proper law enforcement. None of this namby pamby stuff we have to tolerate here.

By the way, I read this week that the detection rate for reported burglaries in this country stands at a rather impressive 4%. So that should calm the nerves of folk worried about police being occupied by climate protestors instead of crime prevention.

UTP makes an interesting point. What if these protestors are right? Shouldn't we heed their warnings rather than huff and puff about the inconvenience as if we were a bunch of NIMBY tories? Mightn't that expedite positive change?

I believe in proportionate, fair and unbiased policing - so if this bunch of middle class buffoons disrupt the lives of 1000's of people a 'robust' approach is called for - we can't pick and choose which protests are 'allowed' we either baton charge and pepper spray people or we don't - the nature of the protest is irrelevant - chucking a statue in a river and then rioting and firebombing a police station? 'well its a BLM thing so let them get on with it eh?' - [peacefully] protesting against lock downs 'right lads visors on tasers out lets smash them' - 'er why guv' - 'its politics init lads - we don't police fairly we police politically' - 'oh I see inspector - right go it now - tasers on full power for this lot then?' - I'm being slightly facetious but that's not far off (whether one agrees with the protesters/rioters in either example or not).

I'll update my position - we should put them to work building and staffing and living within 1 mile of a new nuclear power station and make them pay for it [the building thereof] as well...