Monday 6 July 2009

I May Not Know Much About Art ...


In a 'security sensitive' part of London,

Housewife Rachel Wardell was due to be the first to take up her position at 9am this morning - although she was narrowly beaten to her post by a protester who scaled the plinth and unfurled a banner warning of the dangers of tobacco.

Stuart Holmes brandished his sign, which read: 'Save the children. Ban tobacco and actors' smoking', and initially refused to come down.

There's never a trigger-happy anti-terrorist cop around when you need one, is there?




9 comments:

Mr. A said...

Funny - we're used to eco-nutters damaging property and unfurling grubby, badly spelled banners but anti-smokers have generally been loathe to do that. They tend to stick in the shadows, applying for grants and engaging in shady deals with other "charities," "pressure groups" and Big Pharma.

This new development is a good sign. It shows they're getting desperate. They can sense the tide of public opinion is turning -just look at the recent "Money Week" article where the journalist advises not to buy pub shares until the Ban is lifted (something that he hints is becoming increasingly likely). Or look at the Dutch crushing their Ban in cafes and bars with no staff last week. Globally, anti-tobacco is on its last legs. Their lies have become so extreme, convaluted and numerous that they contradict themselves at every turn or fight campaigns against one thing while another branch fights for it. Their power is waning, their funding is being cut.... they're getting desperate. Hence lone misfits clambering up plinths with tatty banners hanging from their bitten fingertips.

I almost feel sorry for them. No, wait. I don't.

Unknown said...

This nut job, Stuart Holmes, goes back well before the 1st July 07:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4288918.stm

And he was arrested for going naked to 'sex up' his hatred of tobacco:

http://archive.theargus.co.uk/2004/2/9/117769.html

Anonymous said...

"Martha Crockatt, 28, an ecological researcher at Cardiff University, will wear a mushroom costume to raise awareness of the importance of fungi."

Looks like 'shrooms are now more socially acceptable than cigs ...

Sue said...

This is NOT art! It's a minority propaganda fest! What a complete load of bollocks!

Just the sort of thing that Labour advocates, giving a bunch of losers a platform!

Mark Wadsworth said...

OK folks, it's spot the deliberate mistake time.

Unknown said...

We may be missing the point here. It was a day that Rachel Wardell was set to be the first on the plinth for an hour, followed by others…but who got the publicity?…Stuart Holmes with his ridiculous banner, you will note that no one else had their photo in the country’s most read paper, the Sun, concerning this event.

Sometime ago I made up several no smoking signs with different slogans i.e., ‘Smokers will be persecuted like no other minority’…Britain is now officially a nanny state’, ect.

I put to F2C the idea that these could be made into placards, and someone who lives in the London area could find their way to Parliament green where they could stand in camera shot while someone was being interviewed, this would have provided enormous publicity…but nothing ever happened. Even if a placard were seen just once, then the job would have been done.

There are many interviews taking place all the time with politicians on this green, so why not take advantage of it…if I lived in the London area then I would have made an attempt to gain this kind of publicity.

As for Stuart Holmes, perhaps he can form part of a concrete plinth with one of my placards on top…now that would have a nice ironic twist don’t you think?

Anonymous said...

Is there enough room on the plinth
for my mates,they just relish
attention
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drqO8aySdFg

Visigoth (Northern Encampment)

Witterings from Witney said...

Dick,

Firstly I admire your post - I could not be bothered to post anything on what is but a stupid publicity stunt, dreamed up by some idiot without a brain!

One also has to wonder at the mentality of those actually wanting to take part in this!

banned said...

BBC Radio 2 News at 11am yesterday introduced the item about the plinth 'art' by jocularly informing us that the start of the event had been hijacked by an anti-smoking protester ( right on, you could hear the presenter smile ).

However, by noon he had been purged from the airwaves and become a non-person.
I expect it took that long for them to hear the man in the street deriding the picture in the Sun as the actions of a twat.

Stuart Holmes may turn out to be an angel in disguise for those that have no wish to see a 'tobacco free world', just a Free One.