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It must be a source of pride for any parent to see their children wanting to follow in their footsteps. Well, perhaps it depends a little on the career. Stepping up to run a multibillion-dollar private corporation may signify fewer pure emotions than, say, following your mum or dad into teaching.
So it must have been heartwarming for the legendary environmental campaigner known as Swampy when his son Rory, 16, followed him into the family business, joining him underground as part of a protest designed to delay the new HS2 rail project.
In an interesting spin on home-schooling, it turns out that Swampy (now just known as Dan) has taught his son GCSE tunnelling and that, at the time of writing, the two of them are unsafely ensconced in some burrow beneath Euston station.
The protest is not only a costly delay for developers but also a flagrant breach of social-distancing guidelines. Ministers have however denied that, once cleared, the tunnels could be redeployed as one of Priti Patel’s reception centres for asylum seekers. Apparently, the home secretary would never sanction anything as desirable as a central London location.
I take my hat off to the Swampster. The rules of teenage rebellion would normally require Rory to become a property developer. He would start small, concreting an area of greenbelt, before going global with investments in the deforestation of the Amazon.
So it says something for Swampy that his son admires him sufficiently to follow him into the tunnels. Because once the glamour of being wedged together in a narrow hole underground wears off, the fringe benefits are pretty limited.
There is no defined career path, private medical insurance or even a staff canteen. I have to admit to being impressed, possibly a bit jealous. I couldn’t even get the boy to come with me to QPR.
Bring Your Child To Work Day is one thing but, as a first-generation tunneller, Swampy should want more for his spawn. “Listen, son, this is not the life for you. I had no choice, I had to dig, but you can do anything. You could superglue your hands to trains or learn to dance on stilts in street protests. You could work for Ed Miliband, be an environmental lawyer or an ethical investor, I wouldn’t think less of you.â€
It must also have been a hard call for Swampy. Rory doesn’t even have a cool pseudonym, all the good ones having been grabbed by grime stars. But more importantly, it cannot be entirely safe. He clearly felt the boy may come to less harm with his more experienced dad than striking out on his own with less seasoned mole‑men. I hope he’s right.
Many will question a father who encourages such futile and dangerous activity. Had the cause been something other than the environment, social services might have been round to inquire why young Rory was spending his days in a damp and dangerous tunnel.
It is true that many others have brought their children on political protests. During the Brexit battles, the weekend streets were filled with Remainers’ offspring being dragged along to rallies — although at least they faced nothing riskier than a Starbucks latte.
But no one sees your flaws like a teenager, so his son’s choices are also a compliment to a patently sincere, decent man who, with his partner, lives his beliefs raising a family in a turf-roofed, wooden yurt in a Welsh eco-village.
My real complaint is that there are better ways to harness Rory’s inherited eco-enthusiasm than pointlessly blocking public transport projects. While Swampy’s past protests raised attention and costs, they were a failure. His greatest hits — the Newbury bypass, the A30 and Manchester airport’s second runway — have one common outcome: they all got built. It is one thing to inspire your kids, it is another to teach them to respect futility.
If a man is measured by the respect of his children, then Swampy has got something right. Even so, they might thank him for lifting their gaze at least a little from his own tunnel vision.
Follow Robert on Twitter @robertshrimsley and email him at robert.shrimsley@ft.com
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