If you wanted to go to Hennes yesterday from, say, Carnaby Street, just across Oxford Circus, you’d have found your route blocked. By a massive pink boat. And about 2,000 of Britain’s great unwashed, sitting around, getting arrested, being released again, drinking tea, weaving yoghurt, picking nits out of their children’s heads and eating them, other than the vegans, obviously, and generally ‘protesting’ in a very peaceful but also very annoying way. If there were any trees on Oxford Street, they’d be hugged.

Extinction Rebellion is a nationwide movement trying to attract attention to the fact that climate change is ruining the planet and specifically that our government is doing precisely nothing about it. They’d recruited lots of kids. Which is good for the quotes, heart-warming that they care and easy because kids can be wonderfully naive. Like the one yesterday who was saying, beautifully and sweetly, as 11-year olds do, that ‘old people’ have fucked up the planet (my words, incidentally) but its their future that’s in jeopardy. As in ‘like 30 years time’ kind of thing. Rather than the 5,000 years time which is more when the problems would be.

It’s a noble cause indeed. Saving the very planet. But is that any reason to cause such a massive disturbance in London for 2 weeks? I mean, there’s loads of other planets. Billions of them. And in fact there’s loads of other cities too. Ok, there are protests in many of those cities too, so why target London for so long? As one man said, he works in the renewable fuel industry; how can he save the planet when he can’t get in to work?

The end often justifies the means. But not when strikes, protests and disruptions are concerned. And without wishing to sound too ‘London-centric’ about this, ITS THE MOST IMPORTANT CITY IN THE FUCKING WORLD; LEAVE IT ALONE!!! (And the only place to see Champions league football there this season is STILL at Tottenham, just FYI)

The photos of the ‘carbon reducer movement’ piling into 17 year-old diesel powered Transit vans did nothing to impress. Neither did Emma fucking Thompson arriving in a (metaphorical) limousine to join (read: patronise) the oiks.

Also worth noting a couple of salient facts. Britain currently produces 2% of the world’s carbon emissions, which are reducing, even though perhaps not quickly enough. China produces 30% and are building coal-fired power stations as if… as if… as if they had 1.5 billion people all needing heat and light or something. Surely these protests should be in Beijing? Problem is they won’t fly. Too much carbon. Better get peddling now then.

Happy Saturday (currently 1-nil down at the Etihad and I’m not panicking yet)

A xxxx