The police have been getting better at dealing with these loons. I think they were cleared in about 12 minutes yesterday including the police call out time.

I think the police have been a little unfairly maligned with regards JSO and XR, the reluctance to interfere in a “technically” legal protest should be the default position for the police. I think individual officers have done stupid stuff, like giving cups of tea and blankets to protesters glued to the road - but that was just bad optics and the commanders should have been better at briefing their officers on how to handle the protests.

What is apparent though is that the public is becoming better at dealing with the slow marchers, the stag-do guys totally destroyed the Waterloo protest the other day by chanting “we love you oil, we do” and marching with JSO. Ridicule will always win over violence, you can tolerate pain and beatings, but people laughing at you cuts harshly to the quick.

The Pride March had policing in place, the protestors were stationary in the road, which is an actual criminal offence, unlike the slow marches, and there was a pressing need to deal with them before a member of the public took matters into their own hands.

I mean, I wouldn’t dismiss the Met being biased towards Pride, especially with Sadiq Khan at the event, but there are other explanations - the big one being that they were stationary in the road which is a criminal offence.