Tim Worstall

It is all obvious or trivial except…

 

 

The Potemkin Protest

October 25th, 2011 · 8 Comments

The camp forced St Paul’s to close for the first time since the Blitz and is costing local businesses thousands of pounds a day.

But most of the protesters are heading home to sleep in their own beds at night.

Infra red images taken by a police helicopter during the early hours show that only around 20 of the 200 tents on the encampment actually have people staying in them.

So, if the protestors reduced the number of tents to the number of people who were actually staying there over night then there wouldn’t be any problem from St. Paul’s or anyone else about their being there, would there?

Share

Tags: Woo Watch

8 responses so far ↓

  • 1 ukipwebmaster // Oct 25, 2011 at 8:33 am

    Monday 24th October 2011. A bad day for Dave and the political classes – A good day for the resistance:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmdzt3mxQjg

  • 2 Serf // Oct 25, 2011 at 9:30 am

    But then the public would understand how weakly supported the protests are

  • 3 JuliaM // Oct 25, 2011 at 9:45 am

    So, while there’s no-one sleeping in them overnight, those tents are litter, aren’t they? ;)

  • 4 ukliberty // Oct 25, 2011 at 10:05 am

    The St Paul’s = evil meme is really odd…

    Protesters against capitalism etc (OccupyLSX) roll up, St Paul’s says it’s fine (although there is apparently a dispute about who in the hierarchy was allowed to give permission), then it gets a bit much for St Paul’s staff, who ask protesters to leave and shut down St Paul’s in the meantime.

    Then this meme about St Paul’s and the CofE being too wealthy and in league with Teh Evil Bankers springs forth.

    I’ve got to say, when I heard about OccupyLSX, I didn’t see this coming!

  • 5 John77 // Oct 25, 2011 at 1:21 pm

    If the problem is with hygiene and fire risk, that would not solve the problem.
    It would, however, reduce obstruction.

  • 6 Monty // Oct 25, 2011 at 4:57 pm

    I agree with Julia, empty tents are litter, and should be cleared away by the council.
    But also, with a nod to the recent report on under-used houses in the private sector, perhaps we should be doing something about these greedy clingy tent-hoarders, their spare tents should be confiscated and re-allocated to needier homeless people….

  • 7 Wolfie // Oct 25, 2011 at 11:18 pm

    I wandered over there at lunchtime to see if I could find any of the workshy tossers to argue with and all I found was a load of empty tents. It is a sham.

  • 8 Churm Rincewind // Oct 26, 2011 at 1:14 pm

    The only problem with all this is that the police flatly deny ever having released any figures on overnight occupancy, nor will they confirm whether or not they’ve used thermal imaging cameras in the first place. The protesters themselves strongly deny the alleged 10% occupancy rate.

    Maybe the fact that this story originally appeared only in the Sun, Mail, Telegraph, and Times (though not, curiously, the Express) is a bit of a giveaway?

Leave a Comment