I revile George Monbiot. He is a columnist for Britain’s The Guardian whose writings are endlessly warning about the coming climate change apocalypse. These pieces convince nobody who isn’t already a member of the cult, so his tactic is perpetually scream louder and louder in the vain hope that sheer volume will substitute for reason and logic.

I follow him on Twitter because I sometimes suffer from happiness and low blood pressure, and he sets things right by outraging my sensibilities and making me despair, once again, for the salvation of mankind.

So imagine my surprise when I read a tweet of his that not only sparked my curiosity, but led me to the conclusion that contrary to my prior opinion, he is not always wrong.

If you attended any protest in which "serious disruption to two or more individuals, or to an organisation" occured, you can, under this bill, be forced to wear an electronic tag.
"Serious disruption" has been redefined by the Police Act to include "noise".

— George Monbiot (@GeorgeMonbiot) October 19, 2022

I thought to myself, a year ago I would have believed he was exaggerating. But today I wondered whether he could possibly be right on this one.

In order to find out I had to wade through a truly execrable column he wrote. One that argues that the children and morons who are throwing tomato soup and gluing themselves to walls, floors, and pavement are doing the right thing in order to save the planet from imminent doom.

Needless to say I disagree wildly. Frankly I think that anybody who tries to destroy a priceless cultural artifact of any kind should be harshly punished.

Monbiot asked rhetorically, as if it were a killer point, “Do we really care more about Van Gogh’s sunflowers than real ones?” To him the answer is obvious–no. To me the answer is obvious–yes! Watch any apocalypse movie and you will find the powers-that-be working to preserve great works of art and literature because they are the precious cultural inheritance of the entire human race.

Now, to my agreement with him, as painful as it is for me to admit: Moonbat warns about a new law passed by Parliament that not only criminalizes most protests–not just these particularly odious ones–but allows the government to put people arrested for both past and future protests under electronic surveillance:

The public order bill is the kind of legislation you might expect to see in Russia, Iran or Egypt. Illegal protest is defined by the bill as acts causing “serious disruption to two or more individuals, or to an organisation”. Given that the Police Act redefined “serious disruption” to include noise, this means, in effect, all meaningful protest.

For locking or glueing yourself to another protester, or to the railings or any other object, you can be sentenced to 51 weeks in prison – in other words, twice the maximum sentence for common assault. Sitting in the road, or obstructing fracking machinery, pipelines and other oil and gas infrastructure, airports or printing presses (Rupert says thanks) can get you a year. For digging a tunnel as part of a protest, you can be sent down for three years.

Even more sinister are the “serious disruption prevention orders” in the bill. Anyone who has taken part in a protest in England or Wales in the previous five years, whether or not they have been convicted of an offence, can be served with a two-year order forbidding them from attending further protests. Like prisoners on probation, they may be required to report to “a particular person at a particular place at … particular times on particular days”, “to remain at a particular place for particular periods” and to submit to wearing an electronic tag. They may not associate “with particular persons”, enter “particular areas” or use the internet to encourage other people to protest. If you break these terms, you face up to 51 weeks in prison. So much for “civilised” and “democratic”.