
Chris Packham is right that protest outside MPs houses is a legitimate protest tactic, albeit in 2024 one would expect them to be peaceful in intent, if noisy in practice, and not very late at night.
The traditional practice known as rough music was often more robust and far from always progressive. It involved uproarious protests outside the houses of people who were thought to have trangressed a moral code or figures of authority believed to be corrupt.
Packham is right too in backing other forms of protest. He made it clear that while he understood the importance of direct action protests personally he kept to legal means, albeit as protest is increasinly criminalised this becomes more difficult.
The historical sociologist Charles Tilly identified a repertoire of contention. It went from petitions and meetings to demonstrations, riots and armed revolt. The Chartists in the 1830s and 1840s tried all of them.
All might be legitimate depending on context and indeed what works, keeping in mind in that respect that there is no hierarchy that says you have to start with a petition and end with a revolution


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