Sunday, October 11, 2009

Protestors on the roof shows contempt for Parliament











Dear All

It is that time of year again when people get up on the roof to protest at Westminister.

The last protest involved 40 climate protesters!

40 people pottering about up on the roof enjoying the view, one has to ask what kind of security do they employ there?

The demonstrators, from the Greenpeace pressure group, then unfurled banners and flags stating "change the politics, save the climate".

So much equipment it is a wonder that the security never spotted them walking about with their arms full.

To show how serious the Police take the situation, a police helicopter was dispatched to fly round them and do nothing but use up fuel.

This is not the first time that people have been roaming around the roof as activists from Plane Stupid occupied the roof for three hours last year.

Five activists were found guilty of trespass following that episode.

The Police said that the protesters had entered Parliament on Sunday by using ropes and ladders to scale perimeter fencing.

Ropes, ladders, banners and flags, 40 people and no one noticed.

The current occupants intend to stay in their open air penthouse apartments until Monday when they hope MPs will sign a climate manifesto but that is hardly likely as the Police will shove them straight into Police vans under arrest.

These roof top protests are very much like student politics events and hardly likely to move the climate debate forward in any real fashion.

If you can’t win the argument on merit then stunts aren’t going to do it.

It may help with fundraising and raising awareness of the Greenpeace policies but that’s it.

As someone who has a passing interest in politics from time to time, I don’t think these types of stunts should be allowed in one of the seats of democracy, protest outside is fine and proper, not up on the roof.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

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