HARBINGER

The recent shenanigans carried out by Extinction Rebellion over a fortnight in and around central London marked the nadir of British politics as heretofore understood and practised. Waving placards,demonstrating en masse and venting vacuous platitudes on any matter is of course de facto guaranteed by our unwritten constitution.Largely because any given demonstration by itself doesn't herald much if any of a change in government policy or challenge any set of accepted legal norms. Unless,that is we have a government in meltdown and we're in the midst of an unprecedented fully blown crisis of constitutional legitimacy.Which we are. Up pop a mysteriously funded,fully formed campaigning organisation capable of launching a planned,co-ordinated two weeks long disruption of daily London life and traffic flows. An eco-millenarian cult that has metastasized across the european continent and has its own High Priestess/Delphic Oracle in Greta Thunberg. In the face of this largely...

For an apparently inchoate protest movement, Extinction Rebellion certainly seem to have caught the limelight. Here's what the inveterate, smug metropolitan Labour cultural elitist hack Polly Toynbee  spewed forth on Thursday April 18: " D ay four of  Extinction Rebellion , which has been a phenomenal success, as climate protesters occupy four pressure points in Britain’s congested capital. Everything has conspired to maximise attention for their climate cause, with the news unnaturally quiet in this pause in Brexit hostilities.   Extinction Rebellion: trio charged over train protest in Canary Wharf   Climate protesters are the soul of peace and goodwill, their pink boat welcoming Oxford Street shoppers, who mainly stop to talk. The surprisingly few police are friendly, with the 400 arrests curiously voluntary, people well-warned in advance so those who can’t be arrested step back. Is it true the police cuts have left too little capacity to arrest eve...