George Freeman’s lefty remain tent has become so broad it now apparently covers environmental extremists. His ‘Big Tent Ideas Festival’ has announced it is “unbelievably excited” to be “partnering with Extinction Rebellion”.

Unbelievably excited that #BigTent19 will be partnering with @ExtinctionR!!!✊🌎

They’ll be in our #EnviroTent proposing that the UK’s current net zero target of 2050 needs to be revised to 2020/2025

Incredibly excited – not one to miss! Tickets here: https://t.co/HCClmxwv8b pic.twitter.com/16IeLWz1QR

— Big Tent Ideas Festival (@BigTentIdeas) August 12, 2019

But just last month the think tank Policy Exchange published a paper on the group by Counter Terrorism experts which outlined that Extinction Rebellion:

• rejects both our representative democracy and the liberal free market economy and explicitly seeks to overturn both.
• originates in the anti-globalisation Occupy Movement, and promotes ‘post-capitalism’ ‘de-growth’.
• espouses a ‘civil resistance’ strategy of mass protests involving large numbers of the public who are encouraged to break the law, cause serious social and economic disruption and place a burden on police resources.
• emphasises the importance of achieving economic damage to a city.
• believes that the economic costs of protest increase exponentially day by day.
• has groups behind the campaign with social media accounts that reveal notable examples of extremist content including conspiracy theories, including “concerning instances of anti-Semitism”
• has a leader who has spoken about people dying for its cause, having said “we are not just sending out e-mails and asking for donations. We are going to force the governments to act. And if they don’t, we will bring them down and create a democracy fit for purpose… and yes, some may die in the process”.

There is no doubt that Extinction Rebellion is an extremist organisation. What is Government Minister George Freeman playing at..?