The bioscience community who use animals have rightly been concerned about free speech: it would be wrong to expect the freedom to do research and not allow the freedom to comment. Hence support for protests, even if they are a massive distraction. But let’s not get blase about protest:

A man was arrested during an animal rights protest which frightened pupils at a Ware primary school. A group of around 25 protesters were camped outside drugs firm GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) premises in Park Road last Friday, supervised by at least 12 police officers. Pupils at St Catherine’s C of E Primary School were playing outside during their lunch break at the time. One 10-year-old told the Mercury: “There were little children from Years 1, 2 and 3 that were crying their hearts out. “I’d like to know what the animal rights people thought they were doing by frightening young children, who thought they were going to get murdered.” Deputy headteacher Kirsty Robinson said: “On the advice of police we were asked to move the children to the playground at the back of the school and padlock our gates. The children were more frightened by the people shouting and the fact they didn’t really understand what was going on with all the police there.” Dennis O’Sullivan, headteacher at next-door Chauncy School, said: “The police offered to stop them because they were making a lot of noise and we had a GCSE French exam starting, but they couldn’t actually hear it in the exam room. “They were shouting things like ‘Murderers!’ at the building, but there was no-one around to hear."

Frightening little kids isn’t ‘legitimate protest’ to me.