Theresa May, the UK Home Secretary, has asked the OccupyLondon protesters to move away from St Paul's cathedral so that tourists won't get the wrong idea about the place.

  • Alistair Stray

    They do need to move. The public debate around occupy london has become pretty much entirely centred around the churches (and now the citys) reaction. The reasons why they’re actually there, the protest itself, has pretty much vanished from the media coverage. 

    • Niel de Beaudrap

      Much as the public “debate” around OWS centered around their presence at Zuccotti Park, perhaps?

      As long as it remains “The Corporation of London” versus the protestors, the ‘public debate’ is pretty close to hitting the nail on the head.

    • Guest

      If you say so.

    • Guest

      Why are they there, then?  I swear it was to stimulate public debate. But of course your right, much better to scurry off to some out of the way place so people can get on with ‘their business’.

  • http://twitter.com/amanicdroid Mari Lwyd

    Won’t someone think of the tourists?

  • phisrow

    Not to worry, she decisively refuted them by asserting that they were drinking Starbucks. They should simply melt away in the face of her cutting logic any day now.

  • Scott Barkla

    Many tourists interviewed on the BBC said they were there to see the tents and protest camp?  Ms May is suggesting those tourists are not welcome?!

  • http://lemoutan.blogspot.com/ Lemoutan

    Surely her problem is more that tourists will get the right idea about the place. If tourists (going about their quotidian touristy pursuits) aren’t already aware of what’s going on in the world, if this is really news to ‘em, then they probably need to be doing less touring anyway.

  • http://mordicai.livejournal.com Mordicai

    I wonder how many of the protesters are from out-of-London– aka tourists?  & I mean, OWS has its fair share of gawkers…huh.  Almost like the “tourist” story doesn’t hold up under scrutiny.

  • peregrinus

    It would be dreadful if the tourists actually saw a liberal modern democracy in action.  Heavens above.  Freedom of the People and all – how mucky!

    And imagine, if those very same tourists were to know that the Putney Debates were hosted at the Church of St Mary the Virgin in Putney, London, which is of course an Anglican place of worship, much like St Paul’s.

    And imagine if they knew that the discussions involved Social Justice.

    Wouldn’t it be simply horrid for them to conclude that St Paul’s was after all an appropriate place for the protest?  Just horrid.  It would tarnish the Olympics.

  • moonmoth

    I’ve just learned this morning that the OWS protestors here in Glasgow have agreed to move to a purpose built ‘Protestors area’ near Kelvingrove Art Gallery which is nowhere near the city centre. Not sure why this is.

    • uildaan

      ah free speech zones, the cornerstone of every modern ‘democratic’ society

      • http://lemoutan.blogspot.com/ Lemoutan

        Perhaps the authorities could set aside spaces in various museums as designated protest zones. Tourists, and the generally curious, could then visit such exhibits without being unduly alarmed.

        • teafordinner

          Brilliant! Lol

    • http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby

      Sounds like that bit in Arrested Development where there’s a protest outside an army camp, but it’s held in a small cage next to a quiet road no where near anything.

      I’d lol if it wasn’t real.  Certainly doesn’t sound like the Scottish spirit.

  • http://shadowfirebird.tumblr.com shadowfirebird

    Ms May surely has struck to the centre of the matter.  The most important thing about this demonstration is that it is untidy.

  • http://twitter.com/SchwarzchildRad Squeakstar

    Theresa May also made the same dumb mistake on Question Time last night as Louise Mensch did on Have I Got News For you last week. It must be a spin doctored scripted dig at protestors, that drinking coffee (from Starbucks) and using a Apple Mac to communicate online invalidates any protestation about the corruption and lack of responsibility at the very top of a capitalist society. Louise Mensch was rightfully ridiculed by the panel on HIGNfYand the floor on Question Time was over-awed with silence at her “funny” that should could be so stupid and short-sighted.

    • http://lemoutan.blogspot.com/ Lemoutan

      But what’s the thinking underneath this? If you’re using a computer at all, it ‘should’ be a windows box? Are the mac-nay-sayers telling us that microsoft is the voice of the downtrodden? Or maybe the street-cred-seekerati should be using linux on a laptop? And drinking tea of course (certainly not bottled water).

      • fett101

        It’s that Apple and Starbucks are thought of/known as high expense brands in comparison to a generic Windows PC and Dunkin Donuts.  The general idea being that these may be part of the 99% but they’re still more privileged than the other 95%.

        Oh, plus that would make them hipsters too. Everyone loves to rag on hipsters.

      • http://twitter.com/SchwarzchildRad Squeakstar

        Obviously Apple is like waaaaay more capitalist than other OS’s in the eyes of the tory scourge!

      • http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby

        They’re clearly not getting the 99% argument and think that the protest was started by homeless people.

  • http://lemoutan.blogspot.com/ Lemoutan

    By the way, why is Theresa May such a terrible example of a human being? I’m quite sure she doesn’t think of herself as being – well – just awful. I can even imagine she has friends and maybe even people who actually like her. So it’s a genuine mystery. I know that ‘getting personal’ is generally counterproductive, but this really does intrigue me on a technical level. How does somebody get like that? Did somebody hurt her? That’s the usual thing isn’t it?

    • http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby

      I don’t think it’s counterproductive; if there weren’t more important things going on in the world, then finding out why Theresa May represents ANYONE in this country would be at the top of my priority list.

      She doesn’t half spout some idiotic nonsense.

    • Antinous / Moderator

      By the way, why is Theresa May such a terrible example of a human being?

      They’ve been using the same Home Secretary robot for decades. They just change the name and the wig whenever government changes.

  • bjacques

    I’m waiting for Tory up-and-comer Priti Patel to weigh in.  Her tough, no-nonsense opinions concerning the lower orders, delivered in her posh drawl, are sure to persuade the protesters to see reason!

  • Lobster

    Makes sense.  After all, the Church has CERTAINLY never oppressed anyone.

  • http://scavenger-ethic.blogspot.com/ scav

    Hey wait, isn’t she the one who wants to scrap that inconvenient “Human Rights Act”? Why yes, I believe she is.  Her rationalisation was, IIRC, that it made it too hard to deport terrorists or something, but it’s clear from this latest ill-informed rant that what she really believes is that human rights are worth less than the marginal income from a handful of tourists, or any other made-up and implausible  objection she can pull out of her arse.

  • Howard Dickins

    Arguably, it’s the *correct* idea of the place…  Simon Jenkins has a good historical perspective here:  http://simonjenkins.com/blog/entry/crucible_of_debate_and_dissent/

  • http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby

    Just to give a little context for the non-brits among us.

    Our government uses EVERYTHING as an excuse to increase/protect tourism.  It’s the only remaining argument for keeping our monarchy (personally I’ve got nothing against them).

    At least we have the Olympics next year, which will of course do great things for tourism and the local economy.  If it didn’t cost us 400 bagilion pounds to host that is; and piss of every local resident within a 200 mile radius.  TOURISM!

    • Antinous / Moderator

      At least we have the Olympics next year, which will of course do great things for tourism and the local economy.

      When we said aspire to the Greek ideal, we meant ancient Greece, not 2011 bankrupt Greece.

      • Cowicide

        Antinous, did you guys know the submit form is broken and has been broken for a while now?

        boingboing.net/suggest.html

        Just gives an error after hitting the submit button that it can’t reach vex.net:
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        It’s very vexing.

        Anyway…

        Anonymous calls off outing of cartel after release of kidnapped member

        FTA:

        Anonymous IberoAmerica, the Latin American collective within the Anonymous hacktivist group, has called off its operation to expose members of the Zetas narcotics cartel after announcing that a kidnapped Anonymous member was released.

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        • Antinous / Moderator

          Dean says – The sysadmin there is aware of this problem, but he said it might take a little while to get it back up.

          In the interim, write your suggestion on a piece of railroad board and head down to your nearest OWS.

          • Cowicide

            In the interim, write your suggestion on a piece of railroad board and head down to your nearest OWS.

            Ok, I’ll do it!  Which one are you at, so you can see it?    ^-^

  • http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby

    Given that there’s a starbucks every 2 yards in central London it’s hardly surprising that they’re drinking starbucks.

    The funny thing is that in a strange kind of way this highlights some of the problems at hand.

  • Chuck

    So I’m guessing that “You’re scaring the children” didn’t work.  (It never does.  The children always seem to be giggling and pointing when someone tries to use that.)

  • Pedro Pinheiro

    So protesters should move to accommodate commercial interests? My, my. Talk about missing the point.

  • mesocosm

    It’s funny for me to read this, because I just spent three months in Europe, and the single worst experience I had in my travels was being grilled by customs in London, who wanted to make sure I wasn’t trying to sneak into the country to stay illegally. They asked me a lot of very intrusive questions, and typed down all the answers, and poured over my itinerary. What was I going to do, refuse to answer and be stranded in the international terminal?

    That was a much more negative experience than traveling in Athens and seeing large strikes every day, and missing a trip to Eleusis because the city transit workers were striking.

    I guess it’s a matter of perspective.

  • blastocystitis

    This is an interesting take on the occupation: http://i.imgur.com/JWhlK.jpg

  • Alistair Stray

    Reply isnt working this is for mdhatter03. Move to somewhere nearer the banks ? Somewhere where they could actually hamper ‘business’. Somewhere that actually fits the cause behind the protest.

  • Alden

    I misread this as “so that tourists won’t get the wrong idea about the police.” the first time. Yes, stop protesting peacefully! You’re making our police look bad when they have to beat you with their sticks!