Protest is the mark of a free society but that doesn’t mean that upstaging Parliament and causing disruption and much worse is the best way of resolving society’s arguments.
Posted by RDN under Handling protest / Politics and campaigns on 1 November 2011. No comments.
Much of the encampment and debacle at St Paul’s is good and even hilarious news, but the best bit is that it has produced a nearly perfect confrontation… More »
Posted by RDN under Handling protest / Mind and body on 12 August 2011. One comment.
Here’s a stab at an explanation for these nice, middle class rioters and looters. It’s clear that they are not immoral or wicked, or even all that badly brought up. More »
Posted by RDN under Handling protest / Politics and campaigns on 28 March 2011. No comments.
It’s early days, and I’ve seen no definitive accounts of the mini-riots in the West End of London on Saturday 27 March 2011. But they produce further evidence that the police are being told or are assuming that they should not maintain public order in the face of protest, even if the organisers (or non-organisers) signal that they won’t co-operate at all, or much. More »
Posted by RDN under Handling protest / Politics and campaigns on 21 February 2011. No comments.
I had a fairlydecent outing on the Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2 today. Since I was defending the UK’s behaviour toward Libya in recent years, that was about the best one can expect, I think. More »
Posted by RDN under Climate change / Handling protest on 10 January 2011. One comment.
The case against six protestors collapsed today in the wake of an extraordinary saga involving an erstwhile undercover policeman. Even now, early in the story’s unfolding, it is worth saying that in principle the police are probably right to operate undercover amongst protestors, even at considerable expense. More »
Posted by RDN under Handling protest on 10 December 2010. One comment.
I won’t rehash my previous arguments about protest: you can find them here easily in the “handling protest” category. Now’s the time to redefine the right to protest. More »
Posted by RDN under Handling protest / Mind and body / Politics and campaigns / RDN's media cribsheets / TV and Radio on 12 September 2010. One comment.
I had a v brief outing on Radio 4′s Sunday religious current affairs programme, and it’s a privilege to be asked. Here’s the crib I prepared for the event, in which I was asked about the protest dimension of the Pope’s forthcoming visit. More »
Posted by RDN under Climate change / Handling protest / Politics and campaigns on 17 October 2009. No comments.
Typically, the media (I’ve just been watching Sky news) has got in a muddle about the latest direct action protests. More »
Posted by RDN under Handling protest / RDN's media cribsheets on 29 August 2009. One comment.
I’m due on the BBC’s The Big Questions show in the morning. One of the subjects is protest and in particular the Climate Camp. If you save the planet, can you break the law? More »
Posted by RDN under Handling protest on 7 May 2009. No comments.
The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights is revisiting its inquiry into policing protest in the light of the G20 protest, the Iona School mass arrest and the Tamil takeover of Parliamentary Square. Here’s what I sent in evidence. More »
