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Did you see this protest last night by Just Stop Oil at the Snooker? If not, here is the BBC coverage, or watch below.

You probably didn’t see it because you don’t watch snooker, but I do, I love it. And listening to the players & commentators, and reading social media afterwards, they all condemned them as idiots, scumbags, and generally trotted out the usual narrative when direct action happens.

But here’s the thing: I applaud them. I think they should be doing more of this.

I fully appreciate the argument that it was a first round snooker match, and who is going to see it? (although perhaps in the two table set up that happens in the earlier round it’s easier to reach the table without getting caught) But isn’t that the point? To reach all different kinds of people? Just stop oil have attacked a van Gogh painting, blocked roads, and targeted sporting events (including my other sporting obsession, Everton FC). Getting in front of as many eyes as possible is a good tactic.

Of course, you hear the usual responses.

“But they’re only alienating people!”

If you need convincing that the climate is at breaking point and all civilisation is in danger of immanent collapse, and you feel that can actually be ‘alienated’ from the movement, then I’m sorry to say that you’re part of the the issue, not them. We can all agree (I hope) on the undeniable science that keeping oil in the ground is the first step toward a better climate future.

“They should use the right channels of protest!”

 What are the right channels exactly? When they block roads, they get called out and sometimes, run over. When they disrupt private airports they get castigated (and when I was doing it at Fanborough Airport, I was rammed by a car trying to breakthrough the protest line). Indeed, the UK government has just passed a law which has restricted ‘proper channels’ even further. There are no ‘proper channels’: when people say this it’s a euphemism for either, ‘I don’t like that it disrupted what I want or need to do’, or more nefarious authoritarian ideas.

I do understand that people pay a lot of hear-earned money to go to sporting events to enjoy it (as I have), people need to get to work, it’s very inconvenient when the roads are blocked. But that’s the point. I was annoyed as everyone else, but I don’t think these protestors are idiots far from it. I applaud their bravery. Besides, flooded tube stations, roads blocked by wildfires, heatwaves that melt our infrastructure and kill the vulnerable; the consequences of inaction will be far more inconvenient than delaying a snooker match by 24 hours.

Direct action is what we need because decades of ‘proper channels’ on climate change just hasn’t worked. The Suffragettes, the Civil Rights movement, the Arab Spring – they all effected change via direct action. If you don’t like it – then be angry at the government for not doing the right thing. But if you’re angry and these protestors, then I’m sorry, but you’re on the wrong side of history.