So, the weekend saw more peaceful anti-Government marches ruined by a small minority who fancied a bit of a scrap on a Saturday afternoon. This time the Ritz was occupied (presumably by the TUC in a row over whose was the best cheese flavoured biscuit), windows were smashed and an angry mob occupied the ground floor of posh retailer Fortnum and Mason.
And, in a break from the norm, Labour leader Ed Miliband addressed the protestors in Hyde Park. This single act has made Boris Very Angry Indeed, and the Mayor used his column in the Daily Telegraph to express his displeasure and to criticise Labour for the lack of a credible alternative to sweeping cuts.
“The plan is to get a load of aggressive crusties and Lefties to attack the Ritz hotel, to storm Fortnum’s, and to cause so much argy-bargy that 4,500 police officers are obliged to waste their time (and our money) in putting out the bonfires and controlling events as peacefully as they can,” Boris said.
[I do understand why the protestors occupied Fortnum and Mason, though. Proper tea is theft, isn’t it? – Boriswatch Marxism Ed]But Bozza didn’t stop there. Oh no. Labour’s “very presence at the march – and Miliband’s speech – is the most disgusting cheat and fraud” continued the Mayor, before revealing that he and the Labour leader are alumni of the same school.
“As I shall never tire of reminding him, Ed Miliband attended the same excellent north London school as I did, and yet sometimes I fear he has forgotten the high standards of intellectual honesty that are demanded of Old Primroseans. If he had an ounce of candour or decency, he would have made a very different speech on Saturday.”
Ooooh. Strong words, eh? Boris concluded: “If this hypocritical silence is the best ‘alternative’ Labour can come up with, they will remain in opposition for years.” With a Mayoral election just over a year away, he’d better hope he is right….