Years ago during the CND days in the 80s, I must have been about 17, I attended a public meeting at which Michael Heseltine was speaking. He was Minister of Defence at the time and cruise missiles were about to be delivered and the issue was a huge deal. As he started his speech, I stood up and heckled something. I can't remember exactly what I said, something about cruise making the whole of the UK a target or something. Anyway,almost immediately after I began heckling, before I even realised what was happening, I felt myself being grabbed and dragged horizontally, really violently, across the seats. I looked around and some red faced middle aged Tory bastard, cheeks bloated with rage, had me by my jacket and was dragging me out of the meeting.
Before I could respond or resist, a voice spoke out loudly through the microphone, "leave him alone. Let him go. Heckling is a part of the democratic tradition." The man dragging me out hesitated and reluctantly let me go. I looked up and I couldn't believe it. It was Michael Heseltine on the microphone, defending me. I pulled away, adjusted my clothing, tried to regain my dignity as best I could and sat down. Michael heseltine saved me from being dragged out of the hall. Say what you like about Heseltine and I still loathe everything he stood for, he proved himself an honourable man and a democrat that night and he defended my right to free speech.
But I recognise that look of rage and anger, that sense of absolute entitlement on fields face. It is exactly the same face as the man who attacked me. In my case it was anger that this gobby little kid, probably too young to even vote, dared interrupt his meeting, dared express an opinion, dared to "misbehave in the presence of his betters. in the Greenpeace woman's case, it was outrage that some environmental trouble makers, women at that, had dared come into his citadel of power and privilege and interrupt his dinner. It was the same dynamic in both cases, it was about privilege and power and contempt for anyone who dared think they could challenge it.
