Climate change, Palestine, Brexit, the Iraq War. Westminster has seen it all when it comes to protests, and the inhabitants of Parliament are largely desensitised to the angry cries at the gates. This week on Westminster Insider host Sascha O’Sullivan asks: what’s the point of marching on Whitehall?
Peter Tatchell, career protestor famous for his involvement in the gay rights movement, explains how the LGBT marches in the 1990s and early 2000s helped move the needle.
But former Conservative MP and gay rights campaigner Edwina Currie takes Sascha inside the back-room lobbying, which she insists was more effective than any protest.
Sascha speaks to Sophie Cowen, who spent years working for both Extinction Rebellion and Insulate Britain, about what the attention-grabbing stunts of the climate protests achieved.
And Dr Maria Stephan, political scientist and co-author of Why Civil Resistance Works, explains why the No Kings marches have been so successful.