Occupy London

As I said, the woke thing is now about the stand off with St Paul's. Every recent article has been about that. Few seem to remember exactly why they are there, it has just taken over from Dale Farm and every other story about squatters refusing to move. The original purpose is lost.

I do wonder at what point the right to protest morphed into the right to pitch a tent on someone else's land and then refuse to move for weeks on end. One was quoted as saying you can't invite someone onto your property and then tell them to leave. I'm sorry? Isn't that exactly what you can do when it's your property?

Exactly

Possibly, but there are lots of people who support capitalism who were against Labour's light touch regulation of banks and who were against casino capitalism and politicians bailing bankers out with the public's money. Vince Cable supports capitalism, but not casino capitalism.

I am not Quentin, but he is a very funny writer and an all round jolly good egg, as are all Daily Mail journalists [swink]

The Daily Mail's excellent Quentin Letts said "good on teh protestors for protesting" and said he thinks the Church has made a hash of it and he can't see what the problem is with a few tents at the site.

It all seems like rather an epic fail now. They are on the very edge of the City, out of sight and out of mind of the Square Mile. The whole thing now seems like a battle between a bunch of squatters and St Paul's cathedral. I don't think most of the world knows what they are there for or what they want to achieve other than in the very vaguest sense, ie they're a bit pissed off and want some sort of change, just not really sure what but it involves everyone being a bit nicer. Fantastic, how's that for a battle cry and a roadmap to a better future.

I was there last weekend and it just seemed aimless, lots of posing for tourist photos, some groups of earnest looking people discussing how they would change the world if they were in charge whilst tucking into their M&S lentil salads. St Paul's has now given them the whiff of battle, I get the impression they want the police to break it up, that way they get to punctuate it with some good media pics of being oppressed by The Man and can finally go home without losing face. Otherwise it will just drift on and on and the world will carry on as it was, with the protest becoming an ever increasing irrelevance.

No, nothing had to close for that protest.

I thought his protest timely, enduring and effective and it got right up the noses of people it was targeted against.

That is simply not true of those who have had an impact only on the Church of England (not even an RC church, where you might make a case for global reach). They are not in his league, and it is an insult to him to associate them.

How can you possibly compare this shower, who have only caused harm to the wrong target, with the amazing, focussed and effective Mr Haw.

If only this lot had 1% of his standards, then they wouldn't have misfired so disastrously.

I'm sure the church don't want to look like they are being capitalist pigs by focussing on the money they are losing. But at the same time each day that goes on, they're losing money whilst bills rack up.

Just in the same way that if I couldn't get to work and so wasn't going to get paid because some idiot had barricaded themselves into my office, I'd be getting mad too.

At the end of the day the protestor's really need to think about what they're achieving. The bankers are all still going to work, the politician's don't seem at all bothered. The only people who are suffering are the church. Is that what they really want?

From the snippets I've read so far about Frasers resignation it seems he's concerned about what 'might' happen than about what actually is happening. And he's said the discussions with his colleagues have been 'incredibly thoughtful'. So it's not exactly fire & brimstone stuff. It looks at the moment as though accommodation may be made between the Cathedral & the protesters so maybe his pre-emptive action may be unnecessary? None of the statements I've read that have come from the Church itself have been critical of the protest itself, yet there's been a lot of finger pointing from the left-leaning press trying to make it out as this awful capitalist villain. It doesn't particularly surprise me but it's pretty depressing. I don't personally feel, from what I know as an outsider, that the Cathedral had done anything wrong. The Church & St Paul's can't function on fresh air. Who can? Also feel the 'throwing the moneylenders out' stuff is a bit disingenuous (that's not aimed at you personally btw, have lost count of the number of times that's been bandied about!). Jesus didn't shut the temple down

Interesting to note that Giles Fraser, the cathedral's chancellor, has resigned, apparently over differences on how to respond to the protests. Fraser was initially very willing to accommodate the protestors, but was obviously side-lined within the cathedral last week (suddenly all the officially pronouncements were coming from the dean rather than from him). As a Christian I'm frustrated with the tone coming from the cathedral since the dean took over from Fraser as its media voice. It seems to have shifted to an obsessive focus on how much dosh the cathedral is losing. Horror of horrors the gift shop has been closed! And the coffeeshop! I can't imagine Jesus losing much sleep over this (and judging by his actions in turfing merchants and money changers out of the Temple in Jerusalem he mightn't have been too hot on giftshops either. Indeed the preservation of old buildings doesn't seem to have been high on his agenda). It makes the Church of England look like the ecclesiastical wing of the National Trust rather than a Christian church established to preach the gospel. I have mixed feelings about the protests, but Fraser was at least trying to articulate a Christian response rather than twittering on about preserving old buildings and choral evensong.

You run the risk of 'it'll be alright after the revolution, love'.

Well, we'll see. I'm bitter and twisted and mistrust all invisible, equallist things now; do stuff explicitly for the benefit of working, class women and hit the desired target.

YY glasnost St Pauls v. disappointing there. I have a vague memory of some bloke going on about money lenders, temples, camels, needles....ut apparently the Finsbury Sq camp is filling up instead.
I've read the occupy events are all v male dominated. The presence of all those Anonymous boys doesn't inspire confidence
Didn't know about the married name thing.