Blimp Protests are Just Hot Air

It was with intense disappointment that I saw the story about the Sadiq Khan bikini blimp being flown over London.
An “activist” named Yanny Bruere has raised £59,452 to fly the balloon in an event supposedly about free speech. What a load of rubbish. It’s nothing more than an act of copycat defiance because he objects to Sadiq Khan. In his rant on the event’s crowdfunding page, he can’t decide if it’s Sadiq himself, knife crime or free speech he wants to draw attention to, and I’ve even read that far right groups are using it to campaign against so-called “Islamisation”.
If Bruere objects to Sadiq Khan, why isn’t he putting himself forward for office? Taking to the streets to encourage people to vote? Perhaps volunteering with the political party of his choice? If it’s free speech he’s after, it seems the only way he has exercised this right has been to troll people on the internet with anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Or if it’s knife crime that bothers him, there are plenty of organisations doing fantastic work throughout the capital to help the victims of knife crime, or to put an end to gang violence.
He could have raised money to help the victims of Grenfell or donated to any number of food banks to help those living in poverty eat a little better this weekend. Instead, he spends this massive pot of cash on an effigy to make some kind of point about the “fight back for free speech” for just 897 people. He says the surplus cash will be spent on a campaign to eject Sadiq Khan from office. I have my own suspicions about where the money will end up.
There were 134,244 three-day emergency food supplies given out to people in crisis by Trussell Trust food banks in London alone in 2017–2018. When so many people don’t have enough food to eat, what will a balloon do for them? In 2017, there were 24,543 homeless households in London. Will a balloon put a roof over their heads?
I applaud anyone who wants to raise awareness of important issues, but surely there’s a better way than blowing the best part of £60,000 on hot air?
(Figures correct at time of writing.)
