KEVIN MCCALLUM: Running a marathon of disruption just makes you ready for a bacon sandwich

A few days after a protester from a climate change activist group jumped and threw orange powder paint on a table during the World Snooker Championships at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, it was revealed that the London Marathon had convinced another activist group to turn from poachers into gamekeepers.

“Extinction Rebellion has agreed to help guard the London Marathon from protesters on Sunday in a unique deal to protect one of the ‘crown jewels’ of British sport,” reported the Guardian.

“The extraordinary arrangement was revealed by event director Hugh Brasher on Wednesday after a meeting with the environmental group, which is expected to attract thousands of people to The Big One festival in Parliament Square this weekend.”

“‘I have just come from a meeting with Extinction Rebellion,’ said Brasher. ‘They will be uniquely asking all their participants to help guard the London Marathon. To do something that is quite unique in their history — to protect what is one of the crown jewels of British sport.”

For their part, Extinction Rebellion said: “We have been in dialogue with the marathon organisers since November to make sure we can hold both events at the same time and support one another. We have assured them that we have no intention to disrupt their event.

“We both acknowledge that the charities and campaigns groups that runners are supporting are unequivocally in favour of acting against climate collapse. In an emergency, as we are, we must find a way to share the London streets as we all want to support charity, but we also need to hold government to account.”

It’s an extraordinary step. Asking the disruptors not to disrupt one of the biggest sport events and, because of its size, the most vulnerable to protesters. For Roger Hallam, one of the founders of Extinction Rebellion, has previously stated: “The essential element here is disruption. Without disruption, no-one is going to give you their eyeballs.”

Activists have been getting eyeballs and more than a few side-eyes in the UK in recent weeks. Last Saturday 118 activists from Animal Rising were arrested at the Grand National at Aintree. Animal Rising recently changed its name from Animal Rebellion to take a “firm” step away from Extinction Rebellion. Which sounds a little like the Monty Python scene from The Life of Brian in which the People’s Front of Judea call the Judean Peoples Front and the Judean Popular People’s Front “splitters”.

Animal Rising believes change will only come through “repairing our connection” with animals — and targets farming, fishing, laboratories, zoos and sports. It “anticipates” disrupting other racing events such as the Derby and Royal Ascot because, it told the Guardian: “The overriding point for us is the fact that we are using animals for our entertainment. Everything is on the table when we are looking to prevent harm to animals and our relationship to them. Whether it’s over the jumps, on the flat, or in a bacon sandwich there’s very little difference as far as we’re concerned.”

For a while there, I had some sympathy for Animal Rising, as I do for many climate change activist groups. But, if it can see little difference between horse racing and a bacon sandwich, then it has lost me.

Activism at sports events is nothing new. It was effective against apartheid and swung attention on to racial injustice in the US. It worked because it was unusual for the time. Protests have been part of American sports since players from the aptly named Chicago White Stocking baseball team refused to play against teams with black players in the late 19th century.

But protests at sports events, particularly the big arenas, are on the up. Last year’s Tour de France and French Open were disrupted, and a protestor set himself on fire at the Laver Cup in November, Roger Federer’s last tournament. Sport is a soft target, an easy way to get the “eyeballs” that Hallam seeks. The protests prick the comfort bubble sport gives us, that moment of escape from the mundanity and the madness of life.

The activists are walking a fine line, not merely with the law. Pushing the frustration levels of those watching a little too far, distracts from their message rather than delivering it. We live in a world of disruption, where everything changes constantly, where we trip over a rubbish tip of messages that can be overwhelming.

Disruption is not the only way to make a point. Extinction Rebellion may have just realised that.