It seems that people in the UK are becoming more militant as the effects of the 'new depression' are hitting wider, deeper and faster.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7905172.stm

It's now envisaged that the usually complacent and compliant 'middle classes' will become involved in civil disobedience as they suddenly become personally affected by issues from which they had previously been shielded and had chosen to overlook with an 'it couldn't happen to us' attitude.

So, are they (we) right to protest? Is civil disobedience a legitimate means of political protest to a situation that successive governments have created and have now allowed to get out of control?