Monday, April 11, 2011

Laurie Penny - Lies in London

Laurie Penny's New Statesman piece on the police actions in Trafalgar Square after the TUC-organised March for the Alternative has generated 600 or so comments, many of them critical about both the protestors behaviour and her own standards of journalism.

Too many to read unless you're one of the increasing unemployed and can afford a good Internet link ... but this, from Kitty Wildmoor, struck me as apt given my age:

"I am an adult of 44 years and I was there in trafalgar square, with my friends in their 30s and 40s. We were there because we wanted to be counted with the younger protestors, demonstrating that we are all in it together, and having our photos taken for the intelligence services' photo album. We are not deserting you, but the reality for many of my friends of similar age is that they have young kids and could not bring them into that situation. But there are many many of us 'adults' who are absolutely standing square with you in spirit and principle."

So she is old enough to remember the miners' strike of the 1980s when my sister-in-law on a picket line at a mine got her hip broken by a picket-breaking truck.

No comments: