WHEN it comes to politics, I am in the Henry Root camp. Like Root, I would like to protest about everything.

Root, supposedly, was a retired fish merchant who sent impertinent, spoof letters to important people in the late 1970s and then published their extraordinary replies. It turned out that Henry was the nom de plume of a mischievous satirist, but that did not lessen our pleasure at his playfulness.

People in high places who received Root's splendidly pompous correspondence, responded by being bewildered, dismissive or furious and, just occasionally, amused, but when his book of letters was published, it was apparent that few had had much effect.

One recipient, for example, was the then Police Commissioner at Scotland Yard to whom Root wrote a letter of congratulations saying that it was "better that 10 innocent men be convicted than that one guilty man goes free".

The police chief's letter back said: "Your kind comments are appreciated."

Root's experience exemplifies why people wanting to protest can get frustrated. Writing to people in authority does not always get an adequate response. Even in a democracy, petitions and marches, too, are often ineffective.

So what else can protesters do? Last week five activists, including a woman whose family live near Poole, climbed on to the roof of the House of Commons.

It was a daft thing to do from safety and security points of view but got the issue of the third runway at Heathrow back in the spotlight. And no one was hurt.

Today Tamsin Omond's landowning grandfather, Sir Thomas Lees, of Dorset, is rooting for her, applauding her action. But would Henry Root have approved?

Of course not. He would, of course, have protested.