(no subject)

Went down to St Paul's to have a nosy at the Occupy tent city. It was raining and cold - I'm one of the 99% that prefers being indoors at night so I felt nothing but admiration for the protesters. You don't see the EDL or other ultra-rightists camped out in October. Lots of people taking pictures, especially of the Banksy Monopoly sculpture. A woman walked past, barking on her mobile phone that there were "a lot of horrible posters making St Paul's look untidy". To be honest, I'm unsure as to why the cathedral is closed; there are no protesters on the steps. There was also no-one drinking Starbucks coffee, despite what Ms L Mensch claimed on Have I Got News For You - although I did see two policemen in the 'bucks on Ludgate Hill. There's a shop called tea near Paternoster Square and a Pret over the road so there's no need to go to Starbucks, and, anyway, it's fairly nonsensical to claim that because people are protesting against capitalist greed that they aren't allowed a hot caffeinated beverage. If you go by that rule then no-one who votes Labour is allowed a mortgage from a bank or Tories can't occasionally be nice to people. Unfortunately, the protest seems to have become, in the media's eyes, about anti-capitalism vs the CofE. I feel a bit sorry for the Canon of St Paul's, he did the decent thing in allowing the camp to stay but if you have this lot on your back, what can you do?

I put some money MADE OF CAPITALISM in the food donation box. There was a segment on last week's The Daily Show in which John Oliver went to talk to some people at Occupy Wall Street and got annoyed with people dressed as Vikings, or having tattooed faces or making funny hand gestures, but when talking to some 'normal' people who agreed with the protesters' points, they said (stage-managed, obviously) that they didn't have time to protest themselves as they had kids to pick up and baseball games to see. I have TV to watch and a bed to sleep in, so the donation was alms, I suppose.

(no subject)

Went down to St Paul's to have a nosy at the Occupy tent city. It was raining and cold - I'm one of the 99% that prefers being indoors at night so I felt nothing but admiration for the protesters. You don't see the EDL or other ultra-rightists camped out in October. Lots of people taking pictures, especially of the Banksy Monopoly sculpture. A woman walked past, barking on her mobile phone that there were "a lot of horrible posters making St Paul's look untidy". To be honest, I'm unsure as to why the cathedral is closed; there are no protesters on the steps. There was also no-one drinking Starbucks coffee, despite what Ms L Mensch claimed on Have I Got News For You - although I did see two policemen in the 'bucks on Ludgate Hill. There's a shop called tea near Paternoster Square and a Pret over the road so there's no need to go to Starbucks, and, anyway, it's fairly nonsensical to claim that because people are protesting against capitalist greed that they aren't allowed a hot caffeinated beverage. If you go by that rule then no-one who votes Labour is allowed a mortgage from a bank or Tories can't occasionally be nice to people. Unfortunately, the protest seems to have become, in the media's eyes, about anti-capitalism vs the CofE. I feel a bit sorry for the Canon of St Paul's, he did the decent thing in allowing the camp to stay but if you have this lot on your back, what can you do?

I put some money MADE OF CAPITALISM in the food donation box. There was a segment on last week's The Daily Show in which John Oliver went to talk to some people at Occupy Wall Street and got annoyed with people dressed as Vikings, or having tattooed faces or making funny hand gestures, but when talking to some 'normal' people who agreed with the protesters' points, they said (stage-managed, obviously) that they didn't have time to protest themselves as they had kids to pick up and baseball games to see. I have TV to watch and a bed to sleep in, so the donation was alms, I suppose.