Bernard Ingham: Spare us the disruptive antics of single issue protestors like Extinction Rebellion

Instead, my target is the 101 single issue pressure groups that think they have a divine right to impose their will on the rest of us. That means all authorities that indulge them – from the Mayor of London and the Scotland Yard Commissioner downwards – are also in my sights.

While the disruptive antics of Extinction Rebellion in London over Easter have got me going, we are also plagued with other imbeciles such as those who want unisex lavatories to cause every child to doubt their gender. Others have such febrile sensitivities that they see sexism and racism rampant everywhere – except, of course, in Corbyn’s own party.

Why, some even object to towns with “Wool” in their name because of supposed animal cruelty.

As a lad on the Yorkshire Pennines, I had some experience of sheep shearing and, while I am no animal psychologist, I never saw a shorn sheep that looked unduly upset by the loss of its fleece in summer.

As if this were not enough, student unions want to eliminate all vestiges of their institution’s historical roots if, for example, old benefactors had a hand in the slave trade, even though without them they would not be there.

The truth is that these vacuous elements are not the product of an ignorant proletariat, as Remainers see us. They are invariably led by middle-class types – e.g. Corbyn himself – who have never known privation. Their great failing in life is not to have been born into the working class.

Tony Benn, whom I served at the Department of Energy, was an early example of an adoringly uncritical approach to the proles whom they imitate. I thought it a bit much Benn parading up and down a first class airliner cabin with his tin mug and tea bag.

This brings me effortlessly to Extinction Rebellion whose supposed objective, if not their methods, seems to be endorsed by that sainted environmentalist, Sir David Attenborough.

Let me make it clear: it would be amazing if the atmosphere were not a bit warmer today after 250 years of burning energy. But whether this is producing runaway global warming is by no means proven. Indeed, some scientists claim the long term (500-year) trend in global temperatures is on its way down not up.

Warming or not, there is still a sound case for reducing carbon fuel on health grounds. Just think of the smogs before the Clean Air Act of the 1950s and levels of pollution now detected on busy roads.

This is not to mention the menace of plastic and rubbish pollution or the progressive extinction of animal species because of man’s intrusion into the natural world.

But the important thing is to do something about it, not bring central London to a halt, especially when the UK is doing more than most to reduce its carbon emissions.

Road-blocking serves only to increase pollution and to demonstrate by the graffiti left behind by protestors that so-called environmentalists are aesthetically dead from the neck upwards.

We already knew that from the wholesale wrecking of land and seascapes by wind farms and the blighting of productive countryside by solar panels – politically correct environmental measures that will eventually leave us with uncontrollable blackouts unless we soon build nuclear power stations that work like the old.

Extinction Rebellion seems to me to be another more ruthless branch of hard Left anarchism far more concerned with toppling democratic governments – as distinct from dictatorships like Russia – than saving the planet.

Their hypocrisy is monumental when their celebrity supporters such as Dame Emma Thompson fly the world flaunting their piety while emitting carbon dioxide with every mile.

All this is compounded by the authorities’ failure to keep the streets open and allow free passage to all going about their lawful business.

In the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher tamed the unions’ abuse of power. Now we must tame that of disruptive minorities.

Strikes should be banned in the public services and parades, demonstrations and disruption explicitly prohibited from our streets.

Why do protestors need to lock down Westminster when they have Hyde Park Corner? Answer: it doesn’t muck up the works.

Freedom of speech, already compromised by minorities, does not sanctify disruption. Mayors, Chief Constables and other snowflakes please note. Action this day.