It seems to me not unlikely that we may soon see an attempt to replay the
fuel duty protests of 2000, since the forthcoming budget will likely include a substantial increase in petrol taxes. These were assumed by the Office for Budget Responsibility's review of the previous administration's revenue and spending plans, even though it's unlikely the previous government would have introduced them just before an election, so either Rachel Reeves will have to impose them or find even more money to fill the "budget black hole" left by the Tories that seems so to have surprised her and Keith Starmer (which suggests they hadn't been following the serious financial press very closely before the election, but they were very busy, I guess).
In that event, I sincerely hope that people who try to emulate the fuel duty protestors of 20 years ago, and the gilets jaunes in France, by blocking motorways and other major routes, are dealt in the same way as the JSO protestors. I wonder, though, what supporters of JSO will make of it.
Blocking roads to protest Big Oil strikes me as the same sort of tactic that JD Vance uses to defend his "Haitians are eating cats & dogs" narrative. It isn't true, but it draws attention to the issues he wants to discuss, and to hell with the casualties.
I think JSO's attitude, and that of some of their less thoughtful supporters, is very much like that of many London cyclists -- "We're in the right, because we're using an environmentally-friendly mode of transport, so the laws governing other vehicles (stop at red lights, don't drive on the pavements, etc) shouldn't apply to us."
