The farmers, the police and a near exemplary protest

Chris Hobbs attends one of the most law abiding and well organised mass protests in recent memory.

As I walked down Whitehall from Trafalgar Square and saw the thousands of farmers grouped there, stretching out in front of me was a sea of green albeit of various shades, as the majority of those attending were in their working coats and jackets.

The keen observer would also have noticed that many were sporting their working wellingtons or boots which bore the trademarks of hard graft, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

The build-up to the protest was marked by disinformation or, to use a less kind phrase, fake news. Initially there was reports that whilst police were content to let ‘pro-Hamas mobs rampage around London,’ they had banned the farmer’s protest. When that was denied by the Met, the next piece of ‘fake news’ was that the Met had banned tractors and other farm machinery, from central London. Again, this was denied by the Met and indeed the protest organisers had clearly stated that they did not want to see farm vehicles forming part of the event; they added that their protest did not intend to cause the level of disruption seen in France and elsewhere in Europe during farmer’s protests within those EU borders.

A late arrival and food banks

I arrived in Whitehall much later than I originally anticipated; a shoe ‘malfunction’ noticed on the station platform (after many years of active service the sole of one of my waterproof Marks and Sparks shoes had come adrift) which meant a return home.

Thus, on my arrival, the crowds of farmers and their families was so dense that it was impossible to get to within sight of the stage. As I was leaving the area, I noticed that arriving farmers were bringing produce to a van. It transpired that they were donating fruit and vegetables to collection points around Whitehall and indeed that the amount of produce that had already been donated was impressive. The produce was to be donated to suitable charitable food bank organisations.

I then decided to make my way via the Embankment to Parliament Square where I anticipated seeing some farmers queueing to lobby their MP’s. In fact, the queue for MPs offices was opposite Parliament at Portcullis House; Parliament Square was relatively quiet other than in respect of two small protests for Ukraine and Palestine respectively.

Tractors in Parliament Square

Despite the appeal in respect of tractors, around half a dozen had materialised. One indeed was blocking a lane of traffic in Parliament Square before being persuaded to move by police. An old London bus clearly hired by the Reform party was circling Parliament Square with a male plus megaphone on the bus’s platform, proclaiming support for the farmers and a dislike of Prime Minster Starmer. The dislike for Sir Kier was prevalent throughout the protest.

Police eventually closed off Parliament Square which then attracted the world’s press as a number of smiling young children posed happily on toy tractors.

A walk up from Parliament Square towards the stage saw more densely packed but good- natured crowds. The weather was cold and damp, but predictably this was taken in the stride of farmers and their families but not by those of us covering the event.

A march, a ‘chant fest’ and an orderly dispersal

The conclusion of the speeches saw a crowd of several hundred march from Whitehall, past Parliament and then around Parliament Square, however the head of the march then encountered the middle of the march as the former completed the circuit. The scene became somewhat confused in that some wondered whether there was to be a further, more expansive procession.

In fact, various groups formed while others began to drift away via Westminster Station, Charing Cross or across Westminster Bridge heading for Waterloo.

One group of around a hundred formed a ‘chant fest,’ in the centre of which was a  smartly dressed individual who, via a megaphone, led a repeated chant of ‘no farmers, no food.’ As more drifted away, police circulated quietly politely asking protesters to move on to the footway. The protesters happily complied; gradually the chant fest ended and traffic began to flow.

A walk back up Whitehall saw the stage being dismantled on what was now a cold, wet miserable afternoon. Outside Downing Street was a small but, considering the weather, determined protest that was directed against the Indonesian government and its ‘genocide’ of the people of West Papua.

The pubs at the top of Whitehall were, predictably enjoying a busy session but there was no hint of the disorder seen previously at the conclusion of other unrelated protests.

Incidents and auditors

This protest was decidedly one of the best behaved, well-ordered events that I’ve attended but there was, amongst such numbers, the occasional incident. One, captured on a mobile phone, showed a tractor trying to ‘nudge’ his way past two officers and progress along a section of road which was closed. The Met later stated that he was reported for unspecified traffic offences.

Other incidents concerned so called ‘auditors.’ These are individuals best known for hanging around entrances to police stations and, whilst filming, attempt to ‘wind up’ officers hoping to provoke a reaction which will gain them ‘views’ on social media and the excuse to make a complaint.

At a previous protest in Parliament Square, witnessed by me, a serious accident involving a lady who went under the wheels of a lorry, resulted in a section of Parliament Square being cordoned off for accident investigation. Amazingly a well-known auditor spent some time abusing an officer on the cordon insisting that it was his right to walk through the cordoned off area.

On this occasion an ‘auditor’ decided to attach himself to two officers for half an hour whilst hurling abuse and insults, the most frequent being ‘paedophile protecters;’ a taunt favoured by the far right.

In the old days, ‘his feet wouldn’t have touched the ground,’ but magistrates and judges appear to have made it clear that officers should expect to be abused and insulted during the course of their duties. Officers on crime scene cordons can also become the victims of abuse. As has been suggested, perhaps now is the time for there to be an offence of ‘failing to obey the instruction(s) of a police officer’ with, appropriate safeguards.

Fake news

Inevitably, in the aftermath of the exemplary behaviour of the farmers and their excellent relations with police officers, fake news appeared. One showed massed ranks of police officers in front of protesters with the suggestion that the event was overpoliced unlike the pro-Palestinian protests. Not only was the photo apparently copied from a photo agency, but it was identified as an image from the student protests in 2011 which saw serious disorder.

Another suggested that protesters had been ‘kettled’ by police when in fact the ‘incident’ was simply officers politely ushering farmers and their supporters onto the pavements in order to open Parliament Square to traffic.

The issue of fake or distorted news is worthy of closer study as it becomes more prevalent. A ‘fake news’ post can attract thousands of views and, even if challenged or taken down, the damage has been done.  Police forces need to be more adroit in reacting to fake or distorted posts and the Met has recently responded to historic images/footage which purport to be current. However, on other occasions the force has remained silent even when prompted to respond.

Despite attempts to criticise policing on the day, one of the principal organisers, the National Farmers Union Director of Communications & External Affairs.  posted the following;

“I’ve been dealing with the Met Police for weeks on part of today’s events. They’ve been amazing.”

A Met senior officer concerned with planning the policing operation returned the compliment, praising the conduct of those attending.

Chris Hobbs is a former Special Branch officer who follows public order events as an observer for Police Oracle.

Category: OpsPublic Order