Rotten eggs: Debate, not direct action, is the way to change policy

(Getty Images)

When a young Conservative dressed in a snappy, expensive suit is pelted with eggs by political protesters outside the party’s annual conference in Manchester, it inevitably makes headlines. The image circulating this week is less a dispatch from the front line of class war, and more a Twitter-friendly distraction from the peaceful and mature voices of tens of thousands of protesters marching on the city to share their anger at the impact of Conservative policies on workers, communities and – importantly – disabled people.

But the hard core of protesters who continue to take violent physical and verbal action cannot be ignored. Boris Johnson was hit with projectiles; journalists and lobbyists have been shouted and spat at. An Independent reporter, who uses a wheelchair and attended the conference to take part in debates about disability rights, was called the most foul expletive simply for turning up.

These agitators are tapping into a certain mood among the hard left. It cannot be a coincidence that the aggression comes as, in John McDonnell, the Labour Party has appointed a shadow Chancellor who only three years ago said one of the three ways to elicit change in society was “insurrection”, adding coyly, “we now call it direct action”.

Spokespeople for the disabled have much to be angry about. Their income has been slashed by a Government determined to force some disabled people into work even where employers prove themselves unable or unwilling to adapt. Many are hit not only by changes to living allowances, but by the bedroom tax, which penalises the storing of essential equipment for disabled people in social housing.

But Mr McDonnell is wrong. Direct action on the sidelines does nothing to change policy over the long term on such sensitive matters as disability rights. To be inside the tent, winning the argument, is essential for the Labour Party and its supporters, including the thousands of disabled people who feel abandoned by the Government. It is a travesty that those who value participation and debate are publicly attacked in the name of protest. That is no marker of commitment to fairness or equality.