It is hardly as if the police have had no warning about these protests. Extinction Rebellion has been blocking streets and bridges since November. It has repeated its tactics on a regular basis.
On this occasion, police held meetings in advance with the protesters. They knew who was behind the protests, where and when they were going to be held and the methods the protesters were going to use.
So why have the Met not provided a stronger response as the great metropolis of London has ground to a halt? And where is the Home Secretary?
The problem with anarchists — which is what Extinction Rebellion are — is that by disrupting the lives and wellbeing of their fellow men and women they damage the cause they are trying to advance.
Instead of engaging in debate and dialogue they have turned against them the very people they are trying to persuade.
They are using tactics — bullying and intimidation — which in any other context they would condemn. They have disrupted emergency services and put lives at risk.
Extinction Rebellion says it has no option but to cause chaos because we are facing a climate 'emergency'.
Yet over the past three days, as ever in a large city, there have been dozens of genuine emergencies which have required ambulances, fire engines and police cars.
The actions of the anarchists have made it much more difficult for emergency vehicles to respond and have diverted valuable police resources.
Not only that, their actions have resulted in deeply perverse outcomes. They claim to be campaigning to cut pollution, but by choking up a capital city and causing traffic jams, they have achieved exactly the opposite: increasing pollution and damaging the environment.
You don't have to be highly intelligent to work out that, by blocking bus routes and disrupting trains, you discourage people from using public transport and force them to take to their cars to find a way round the jams.
Bankers who normally commute by DLR were reported to be resorting to taxis to get around — spewing out diesel fumes in the process.
As the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: 'It is absolutely crucial to get more people using public transport, as well as walking and cycling, if we are to tackle this climate emergency.'
Extinction Rebellion has launched its assault not on the politicians it is trying to address — the Commons and the Lords are both in recess this week — but the poor men and women who are just trying to make a living.
Many fear their Easter breaks are in jeopardy. Businesses face severe losses. According to West End shops, hundreds of millions of pounds could be lost to the London economy.
These anarchists seem to think they own the issue of climate change, yet they have blithely ignored the serious efforts that are being made to reduce pollution more generally. Last week, for example, the first phase of London's new ultra-low emissions zone came into effect, banning the most polluting vehicles from the city centre.
There has been huge investment in renewable energy, improving insulation in buildings, promoting hybrid and electric cars and tackling carbon emissions in many other ways. UK carbon emissions, according to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, have fallen by 44 per cent since 1990.
These are achievements which Extinction Rebellion should surely be praising. Yet the anarchists ignore them, and instead try to make out that governments, over many years, have done nothing, while only they have recognised the seriousness of the threat of climate change.
Unlawful protests in a democracy ultimately achieve nothing. Just look how Occupy the Streets failed in its campaign to bring down capitalism.
If climate change protesters want an example of how they should be conducting their campaign, they should instead look at the Make Poverty History movement, with which I worked when I was Home Secretary.
The organisers didn't break the law. Instead, they organised peaceful demos and staged concerts around the world.
They conducted their campaign in a manner which persuaded rather than alienated — and as a result they achieved their objectives.
They persuaded world leaders to agree to debt relief for developing countries and also contributed to efforts tackling climate change.
It fills me with contempt to hear the protesters 'apologising' to the public for causing disruption. People who make no effort to engage in public debate don't deserve our support. They claim to care about the public, but frankly they don't care one bit.
Extinction Rebellion wants us to think that it is central to the fight against climate change, but it is rapidly turning itself into an utter irrelevance.
The real work tackling climate change is being done with those who engage in proper political debate, not those who engage in childish acts of sabotage.