Comments of a Nobody

I am a firm believer in a person’s right to peaceful protest. Within any democratic nation protest is one way in which ordinary people can make their feelings know to those in power and at times has proven highly effective affecting government policy - The Boston “Tea Party”, The Jarrow March and the “Poll Tax” protest to name but three. Watching the recent protests that took place in London in relation to the G20 summit I just had to wonder what they were actually protesting about. It has become customary whenever world leaders gather that there should be a protest of some sort, usually degenerating into violence and damage to property. There has been some vague theme about globalization, but….well, what exactly.

If the protesters cannot get their point across to the rest of us, then it rather loses it purpose. I think it becomes even more confused when you have a larger number of leaders present as there are whole range of issues to protest about, but to bring it together into one coherent campaign is rather more challenging. So what we are left with is images of protesters and police clashing, and absolutely no idea what the protest is about.

So here is my message to the protesters - if youactually want to achieve change, then you first need to decide what you are protesting about and put together a coherent campaign that can be communicated to the rest of us. Oh, and you might want to move away from the violent clashes with the police and damage to property. This is rather a distraction!