The right to protest is an integral part of any democracy.  Left-wing politicians are wrongly claiming this right is under threat in our country.  There is a huge difference to an organised protest that respects the law and seeks to sway public opinion, to so-called ‘direct action’ that actively seeks to cause disruption to people’s lives.  The stress and problems created by ‘direct action’ can have all sorts of unforeseen consequences.  In the worst scenarios, delays to ambulances could lead to someone’s death.

The Conservative government has rightly been strengthening laws to deal with extremist protestors, such as ‘Just Stop Oil’ and ‘Extinction Rebellion’, both of whose tactics end up damaging the environmental causes they claim to support.  The reality is that frustrated motorists will take the law into their own hands with disruptive protestors If they don’t feel the law and politicians are on their side.  That isn’t what I want to see, but it’s an inevitable risk if we don’t toughen up on preventing self-entitled disruptive protestors spreading their misery.      

Government measures to deal with disruptive protestors have been opposed by Keir Starmer and the Labour party every step of the way.  I had assumed this was because Labour are not a credible party of government, being a party of protest who are not the side of ordinary working people - preferring to side with special-interest groups instead.  It now appears more complicated than just that, as it has emerged recently that that one of the biggest financial backers of these two protest groups, has also given £1.5 million to the Labour party.

Joining the dots, this has given the Labour party 1.5 million reasons to make their recent announcement that they would stop all future oil and gas exploration in the North Sea if they win the next general election.  As well as badly damaging our economy, it would benefit dictators like Putin and increase our fuel and energy prices plus carbon emissions, due to the need to import more.  When the chips are down, only the Conservatives can be trusted to put ordinary working people first.  

Councillor Duncan Crow, Leader of Crawley Borough Council Conservative Group

7th June 2023