It could just be that a global catastrophe matters more than a pause in sport | Emma John

The outraged reaction to Just Stop Oil's mild protests says far more about us than it does about the activists themselves

Play was not disrupted." With those four words the R&A summed up its message after Just Stop Oil made their latest protest on the 17th green at the Open on Friday.

A police statement had already done the heavy lifting, with its charges of conspiracy to commit criminal damage and its stern disapproval of public disorder. That left the golfing establishment to sound cool, calm and - unusually for them - like the good guys. They had, after all, triumphed. No one had been inconvenienced in the course of watching their sporting entertainment and that, by and large, has been the focus of anger at Just Stop Oil's activity this summer. Critics find it frustratingly hard to accuse them of anything else. The protesters haven't endangered players, or broken equipment; they haven't altered the course of the sporting action or brought it to an unwanted conclusion. They've shown up, made something temporarily orange, then disappeared peacefully in a police van.