DEMOCRACY is increasingly under threat from mob rule.
A mood of deepening anarchy now hangs over the British state, unchallenged by the enfeebled authorities.
As the elected politicians cower, unaccountable zealots bring mayhem to our streets and disruption to our lives in pursuit of their radical agenda.
Last week it was an attack on the World Snooker Championships by eco-loons from Just Stop Oil, and before that the infiltration of the Grand National by attention-seeking Animal Rebellion demonstrators.
This week it’s all systems go once again.
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On Monday, traffic in London’s West End was brought to a halt by green trouble-makers marching at a funereal pace.
Yesterday, Just Stop Oil protesters were out on the streets of London causing misery for people trying to get to work.
The disorder is spreading like a contagion.
“There will be ongoing disruption until the Government meets our demand to end new oil and gas,” says Just Stop Oil, with gleeful menace.
In a similar vein, Extinction Rebellion has vowed to “step up” its campaign, building toward “the greatest acts of civil disobedience in this country’s history” within the next three months unless the Government agrees to stop the search for fossil fuels.
This should be a moment for ministers to get tough with the extremists, who have no mandate from the people to promote disorder.
If more of them felt the long arm of the law, most decent citizens would cheer.
But all such rigour is missing from the official response, which mixes panic with appeasement.
In this climate of weakness, one of the most shocking sights came in Whitehall on Sunday during the London Marathon.
Terrified that Just Stop Oil or Extinction Rebellion would exploit the vast crowds, and global attention on the race, to mount some kind of political agitation in Whitehall, the police adopted the bizarre tactic of providing a new style of escort for the Prime Minister’s motorcade.
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Getting tough
It featured a set of officers on bicycles ahead of the fleet of cars and dozens of officers jogging on foot.
What this strange, distinctly un-British spectacle evoked was the security used by the infamous North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un during a summit in 2018 with South Korea.
But if the Government and police feel there must be an authoritarian display in the heart of the capital, why not use it for a much better purpose?
Instead of indulging in this ridiculous pantomime, why not focus on getting really tough with the activists?
That means a willingness to arrest law-breakers, impose long sentences, crack down on vandalism and maintain order.
At present, eco-ideologues are treated far too softly, which only emboldens them.
In fact, the police often seem to be on their side.
On Monday in central London, when a tiny group of environmentalists was holding up the traffic, one furious motorist honked his horn, then stepped from his vehicle to tell the protesters to “get out of the f***ing way”.
But footage of the incident seems to show that when he moved to grab some of their banners, he was stopped by several police officers and urged to go back to his car.
He told the officers: “You like this sort of stuff, you like it, you’re supporting it.”
The authorities are certainly more lenient with the eco-mob than with other protesters.
It is impossible to imagine the police would allow central London to be reduced to a standstill by demonstrators against immigration or transgenderism.
In fact, the double standards are already obvious.
Recently in Birmingham, devout Catholic Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was arrested for “praying” near an abortion clinic.
Though she was subsequently acquitted by a court, her case shows how the state is sliding into the Orwellian realm of thought crimes for certain, unfashionable opinions.
But nothing could be more fashionable than the green agenda.
The absurdity of the hardliners’ antics is that the British state largely agrees with them.
Net Zero has triumphed. Sales of new petrol and diesel cars are to be banned from 2030.
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Energy bills have soared. Gas boilers are out, heat pumps are in.
Insulate Britain is not just a pressure group. It is also official policy.
But the greens are never satisfied.
Far from recognising that concern about climate change is now the dominant political theme of our age, they become ever more radical and extreme.
That is partly because they are not genuinely interested in the future of the planet.
Too many of them are just over-privileged brats who love to wallow in drama and self-pity as they signal their moral virtue.
But that strengthens the case for action against them.
Their hysterical fervour is not matched by their numbers.
They have neither justice nor credibility on their side.
Collusion by the state must be replaced by a new confidence to uphold our society.
