I know it’s a bit late but please could we put forward Mark Field MP as a wild card candidate for the Conservative leadership contest?

Sure he’s a Remainer – and clearly no match for Boris Johnson.

Even so, he deserves some kind of recognition for the brisk way he dealt with that Greenpeace protestor at a private dinner in London last night.

Watch as Tory MP for Cities of London & Westminster @MarkFieldUK grabs a Greenpeace protester who interrupted a Philip Hammond speech in London tonight https://t.co/wZTzEC8lKF pic.twitter.com/tJuwCZ1P0X — ITV News (@itvnews) June 20, 2019

You’ll presumably have seen the footage by now because it’s all over social media. Somehow, a group of Greenpeace activists managed to infiltrate a black tie dinner event at the City of London’s Mansion House.

Since the main speaker was (soon to be sacked: yay!) Chancellor Philip Hammond you could argue that Greenpeace was doing the guests a favour – sparing them what could have been death by boredom. Even so, it’s always a bit unsettling when a private event gets invaded by noisy strangers bent on mischief. Frightening too, when there are senior government ministers present: how are you supposed to be able to tell, in the heat of the moment, whether these screeching harpies who have appeared out of nowhere are harmless loons or dangerous terrorists?

This is what I find so bizarre about the armchair criticisms now being levelled against Mark Field for having supposedly used excessive force to manhandle one of the protestors out of the room.

UK Government Minister Suspended After Grabbing Eco-Protester at Economy Speech https://t.co/kHFVyqxWcm — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 21, 2019

You expect this sort of nonsense from the left, who’ll seize any opportunity to slap down a Tory. (Had it been a Labour MP slapping down a Brexiteer, of course, they would have cheered him to the rafters)

But even one or two Conservative commentators are exploiting poor Field’s moment of drama to signal simultaneously what perfect gentlemen they are and how they are nice right-wing people not nasty right-wing people.

It is astonishing there are people defending Mark Field. The video is horrifying. He didn't simply manhandle a protestor. He grabbed her by the neck and slammed her against the wall.

And he says in his defence he reacted 'instinctively' – that is all the more damning. — Stephen Pollard (@stephenpollard) June 21, 2019

I’ve no doubt that Pollard – and all the other people criticising Field – would have known exactly how to handle the situation had they been there. Their years of martial arts training would have kicked in and they would have found the perfect way to eject the Greenpeace woman without touching any part of her anatomy: a kind of magical force field would have emerged, tingling, from their fingers and gently but firmly steered the young lady out of the room in a way that left her mildly chastened but which in no wise violated her dignity…

Meanwhile, in the real world, Field acted. Sure, he could have sat around looking confused and scared and ineffectual like all the other guests.

Instead, he took the initiative.

And isn’t it just typical of the times we live in that instead of applauding him for it half his parliamentary colleagues are throwing him to the wolves?

The trolls who sit on the Labour benches are baying for his blood but, of course, you’d expect that. What’s of much more concern is that Field has been suspended by his own party pending an investigation.

What kind of message do you think this sends out to all those leftist rentamob activists planning to stage similar disruptive events this summer?

It tells them that – certainly as far as environmental activism is concerned – the government has completely lost both its appetite for a fight and its moral compass.

One of the most basic principles of democracy is that if you want to effect change you do it through the ballot box not through physical force, breaches of the peace, threats, bullying, vandalism or economic terrorism.

Yet the current government has surrendered the pass on this one.

Last month, Extinction Rebellion was able to bring parts of London to a standstill – closing a whole bridge for a week – and cause millions of pounds worth of economic damage in terms of lost income, not to mention the costs of additional policing.

Police Want to Charge 1,100 Climate Activists for 'Extinction Rebellion' Disruption https://t.co/IiGoWxxVID — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) May 25, 2019

The government’s response? To pose eagerly for photos with sinister pigtailed eco-activist Greta Thunberg; to introduce the most expensive and pointless policy in British governmental history – a virtue-signalling commitment fully to decarbonise the UK economy by 2050. In other words, to bend over backwards to signal to the eco-fascist loons that “Yes! This government is open to blackmail!”

I was going to suggest that, far from being punished for manhandling the Greenpeace harpie Mark Field should be rewarded with the post of Minister for the Environment.

Then, unfortunately, someone showed me this.

Truly, one does despair of this awful government. I’ve no doubt things will get better under Boris.

But better enough? That’s the thing I’m not so sure about, especially where green issues are concerned. I’m beginning to fear that despite my years of heroic struggle against the Green Blob, the eco-loons are on the verge of total victory.

Please tell me, someone, that I’m wrong – or that this is all just a terrible dream.