London Calling

A little thought experiment...
  Let's suppose that the protestors currently trying to bring our capital city to a halt were not the usual bunch of gaphead ecofascists demanding a pointless emissions-reducing gesture by the Government. Let's suppose, rather, that they were protestors representing an organisation called Blackout Rebellion and demanding an end to the decommissioning of coal and gas power stations and an urgent programme of building small-scale nuclear plants – this in order to prevent the large-scale power blackouts that could well be hitting us very soon if we carry on along our present path.
  Now, do you suppose that such a protest would be treated sympathetically, as a kind of carnival event, by the BBC, that the Blackout Rebels would be chummily addressed by their first names and allowed to state their beliefs without any tough questions, that the police would handle the situation with kid gloves, and the authorities would have nothing of any substance to say? Call me an old cynic, but I rather doubt it.
  The difficulty is that the Extinction Rebellion mob are taking seriously, and acting on, what they have been repeatedly told for years by the BBC, David Attenborough, Prince Charles, Al Gore, their teachers, etc, etc – that we have [insert figure here] years / days to 'save the planet' and must act with the utmost urgency. The doomsayers can hardly challenge people who are doing what they themselves (the doomsayers) believe to be, well, right.