Green MP off to a fine start

Stuff reports:

Green MP Chloe Swarbrick and Nobel peace prize winner Thomas Nash have shown up in support of an arms industry forum blockade at Wellington’s Westpac Stadium.

Nash is not a Nobel prize winner. He once worked for an organisation that won a Nobel peace prize. I once worked for the Red Cross, but that doesn’t make me a Nobel peace prize winner.

Swarbrick told 1News it was important New Zealanders’ continued to hold protests and stand up for their beliefs, in order to create change.

As always there are two sorts of protests.

The first sort are those who don’t break the law, don’t impede people going about their lawful business. They are about free speech and I’m all for them. We saw that in Morrinsville recently.

The second sort is the opposite of free speech. It is when a group of people decide their views are more important than the views of everyone else and they decide to impose their views on the others. So they blockade a conference to try and prevent people from attending. Their intention is not to protest but to disrupt others.