Stansted Closed By Protestors

[dominator]

I don't agree with a method, but at least in a good cause - not just plain political game

Excuse me, why is it a good cause to deprive people to go about their business/holidays???

[Ricardo]

At least it's only Stanstead, and not one of the main Internatiol airports!!

From the BAA-site, Stansted has 22.8 million passengers a year, is the 3rd busiest in the UK, and 46th in the world, so it can hardly be considered a minor operation either.

[churchill]

I guess the difference is that the UK protestors who delayed some flights for about 2 hours will feel the full force of the law, while the PAD occupiers who have done real damage to the Thai economy and spoilt a lot of holidays will get off scot free.

No Flights disrupted for 3 days

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/ne...icle5305860.ece

[ThaiEye]

Posted by: onzestan

p.s let's also not forget who and what was behind the PAD actions.

Well, please tell us who and what was behind it all? Thaksin's wants to tell us but never does. His friends always say they'll tell us but never do. Now, farangs on thaivisa are telling us not to forget who and what was behind the PAD.

To tell you the truth, i'm getting more than bored with this silliness. Farangs are now jumping on the Thaksin band-wagon waving their foot-clappers and stirring their child-like conspiracy theory, while rejoicing at Truth Today rallies live on MBT.

Edited December 8, 2008 by ThaiEye

[mrbojangles]

They did it through force of numbers, something that's impossible to do now in the UK legally as the police can disperce gatherings under 'anti-terrorism' laws!

So if you try doing that in the UK you'd be locked up for 42 days on terrorism charges!

And rightly so.

We shouldn't allow a bunch of jobless losers to damage property and disrupt lives of ordinary, law abiding citizens and let them get away with it.

I wonder how many of these activists go on planes themselves or have parents, sisters, brothers, Aunts etc who fly away to foreign shores on holidays. Bet they don't don't disrupt Aunty Ethels annual flight to Benidorm

[girlx]

More than 50 climate change activists have broken in to a secure area of Stansted Airport and forced the closure of the runway, resulting in four people being arrested.

copycats

[phaethon]

Walked past the London Evening Standard vendor today with their headline board proclaiming:

STANSTEAD SEIGE

LOL

As Crocadile Dundee might have said:

"That's not a seige... THIS is a seige..."

The Stanstead lot didn't even have plastic clappers - amateurs!

[mssabai]

Airport re-opened.

All protestors removed, 39 arrested and facing criminal charges.

Total delay time 2 hours.

A lesson in law enforcement from Essex Police

Yes except these protesters were armed only with good intentions rather than handguns and grenades. Those brave bobbies!

Oh and Stanstead better be an international airport else I guess my Air Asia X flight to KL from there in April will be taxi-ing the whole way across land and sea. Come to think of it though considering I paid £50 for the ticket, that wouldn't come as a surprise...

[LooseCannon]

"Once the state of emergency at bkk airport was called then the protestors were actually acting ilegally and not legally as per rules of the state emergency."

"Excuse me, why is it a good cause to deprive people to go about their business/holidays???"

"We shouldn't allow a bunch of jobless losers to damage property and disrupt lives of ordinary, law abiding citizens and let them get away with it."

From the 'inconveniences' that I listed in post#27 almost all of them were illegal & all of them would have resulted in someone losing money. You would be struggling to argue that the Burma street protests were wrong, but some people lost money, property was damaged, 'law abiding citizens' were injured, disrupted & inconvenienced & god forbid some western tourists would have had their holiday ruined.

If an organisation such as the PAD can mobilise thousands of otherwise law abiding citizens onto the streets over a number of months, then there are obviousely some legitimate (in their eyes) issues, whether you or I are sympathetic to the political agenda of Pad is totally irrelevant. Civil disobedience & action is a legitimate political tool & we are sure to see more of it in the future from both sides.

[duncaw]

Yes except these protesters were armed only with good intentions rather than handguns and grenades. Those brave bobbies!

True, but you also have to compare the number of police involved.

The removal of all protestors in the UK was sucessfully accomplished with by a grand total of eight (8) overweight middle-aged bobbies assisted by an incontinent half-blind german shepherd dog.

I think that makes for a reasonable like for like comparison.

[Kerryd]

Oh my kwai ! I'm sure that some people have claimed this could never happen in a "civilised" country !

And for those that tout how well it was handled in the UK, try, try to remember they were dealing with 50 people, not 5,000+. And they were on the runway, not in and around the terminal mixed in with innocent workers and passengers.

Had 5,000 or more people showed up at Stansted and suddenly revealed a sea of green shirts and announced their protest, the result would have been just as dramatic as Swampy.

I highly doubt the bobbies would have just waded in with truncheons and tear gas, especially knowing that their every move would likely become international news in minutes if not seconds.

The first clip of someone getting a baton up along side their head would be flashed to (almost) every media outlet just as fast as the clip of the PAD protesters shooting from the truck did.

Had it only been 50 people protesting at Swampy I have no doubt it too would have been over rather quickly.

Oh yes. And it appears that some here seem to think that if 5,000 protesters had of descended on Stansted, they would have all been peaceful, gentle hearted souls armed with nothing more than some flowers (with any thorns carefully removed of course) and love beads.

Yeah. Right. Keep dreaming. The birthplace of modern (western) civilisation is in flames right now over something considerably less significant than global environment or a national crisis.

Hmmm, looks like "civilised" nations aren't quite so civilised after all.