2 weeks in, and the new Lovely Cuddly Condems are bulldozing a protest which stood throughout the reign of Gordon The Terrible, and has arrested the dissenter on unspecified charges. Free at Last! Free at Last!
Apparently, people thought it looked terrible in a place that so many overseas visitors come to. They naturally agree we need the right to peaceful protest but the tents and signs were just ridiculous. If they have to be so tiresome, why can't they go and be ugly somewhere just as ugly and leave respectable people to ignore everything as they always do. Protesting against war is just too inconvenient and too untidy to be allowed. And then there are the property values to consider.
The sensitivities of the genteel classes have always been wheeled out to defend suppressions of all kinds, and their willingness to sacrifice freedom for order is a characteristic of their class and the part it played in the nastier parts of C20th history. But today's Marie Antoinettes must be told to get back to their ornamental cows and pastoral idylls and leave real life to the grownups.
As for tourists, they presumably come just to see such free expressions of dissent. Otherwise, there is nothing in Parliament Square but a shabby patch of clods and trampled turf. For eye of toad and adder to watch, as the poet says.
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