Police saved farmers from possible loss of support

IF there's one organisation which farmers should be thanking this week it’s the Metropolitan Police - the force which stepped in to jab a stick in the spokes and stop disgruntled producers from staging a potentially catastrophic mass tractor invasion of the capital, writes Adam Sherlock.

- Adam Sherlock

Because in the process it has, I would argue, saved the farming community from suffering severe reputational damage and a loss of support among the very public whose backing it was illogically trying to win for the protest.

The Met, let’s not forget, did not stop farmers from demonstrating against the Budget and its architect. But they had to do so on foot, rather than from the seat of their tractors. Because had the police not stepped in to forcibly scale back the protest widespread, chaos - as I pointed out here two weeks ago - would have ensued.

That would have impacted heavily on London’s workers and inhabitants. "Gridlock" hardly describes the debacle that would have ensued. Any naive thoughts that the effects would have been confined merely to Westminster were woefully misguided: most, if not all of central London would pretty rapidly have been at a standstill.