Are farmers extremists? I certainly never thought so. I’ve always understood them to be people who get up early, work hard, feed the nation, drive tractors, and some of them enjoy a cider at the end of the day. Yet, we see Mayor Khan and Labour’s political manoeuvring seemingly on display again, with the latest ‘strategic’ direction to the Metropolitan Police Service suggesting that anyone who drives a combine harvester into central London will be asked to leave or be arrested, simply for protesting a tax law change on Budget Day.

I did not expect farmers to be effectively banned in London under our supposedly principled Mayor, Sadiq Khan and this Labour Government. I was under the impression that the Met maintained ‘operational independence’ in such matters. Or is that phrase only wheeled out when the Mayor breaks his manifesto promises to keep 24/7 police front counters?

Never mind the giant pink boats hauled into Parliament Square for climate protests. Never mind the activists lying down in the middle of the M25. Apparently, it’s the farmers, of all people, who are now considered a threat of ‘serious disruption’ in London, rather than the backbone of British agriculture.

Last time I saw the Met nicking someone lying in the middle of the road for the environment they were told by some ‘High Court Judge’ that it had to be ‘more than minor’ traffic jam in central London.

Yet here farmers are, sounding the alarm over inheritance tax proposals, warning Labour’s change to inheritance tax on farms will devastate British agriculture, and they are banned from driving a tractor slowly around central London.

This isn’t just about a traffic jam, it’s about fairness. Whilst the top brass are being told to ban tractors from London, last Sunday night protestors screaming “baby killers” descended upon a place of worship.

Anti-Israel activists amassed outside a synagogue during a concert shouting “Israel is a Terrorist State” and projected “Stolen Lands Sold Here” with only two people arrested.

When the people who put food on our tables are treated as a ‘serious disruption’, and those who menace our communities are met with silence, something has gone horribly wrong.

These political choices made under the guise of ‘operational independence’ seems to have lost its moral compass. Less than a month ago, the Mayor said “Places of worship must be safe havens, and Jewish communities must be able to live and worship free from the fear of harassment, intimidation, or violence.”

But here we are again, seeing yet another two-tiered policing decision by the Labour Mayor’s force, favouring his allies, and failing London’s communities.