The most troublesome protestors since the suffragettes? Yes, but I back the Just Stop Oil disrupters

They might block your road and derail your sporting event, writes Alan Rusbridger, but they are on the right side of history

Just Stop Oil protesters outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, where activists Morgan Trowland and Marcus Decker are appealing their jail sentences (Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire)

I’ve never met Marcus Decker, though I did speak to him once on the phone from his prison cell. On Wednesday I saw him again. I was in the ornate mock-Gothic surroundings of the High Court in London, listening to m’learned friends picking over arcane points of law. Decker, bearded and wearing a colourful T-shirt, was scribbling notes on Zoom. Still in prison.

I should explain, since it’s a near certainty you won’t have heard of Marcus Decker. Last October – nearly 10 months ago – he and a man called Morgan Trowland shinned up the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge at the Dartford Crossing in London. They rigged up a banner drawing attention to climate change. And there they stayed, swaying gently in their hammocks, for around 36 hours.

In April they were respectively sentenced to two years seven months, and three years in jail. Eco-zealots caged. Small news item, soon forgotten.