Sunflowers painting targeted by activists.

I was reading last night (on twitter, (but haven't checked it) that the painting is behind glass, so won't have sustained any damage.

Ug, your Tarquin comment was contemptible.

Yes, of course it’s behind glass.
They all are.

MaizieD

I was reading last night (on twitter, (but haven't checked it) that the painting is behind glass, so won't have sustained any damage.

Ug, your Tarquin comment was contemptible.

I don’t see why MaizieD
As James Cleverly tweeted
“I’m just wondering what the reaction would be if a couple of black boys from Lewisham had thrown soup on a Van Gogh or poured milk all over the floor in Harrods.”

Did Cleverly really tweet that? The man is Foreign Secretary. And he is tweeting things promote racial and inter class tensions? Is he off his head?

For all those saying well they use phones don't they? They wear shoes don't they?

It really is a vacuous argument. They are trying to change the world. At the moment, phones and shoes and everything else relies on the extraction of oil. They are trying to change it. They won't change it by staying home and writing strongly worded letters using a quill pen.

I think they think they are trying to change the world, that's a slightly different thing.

Fair comment Galaxy.

But posters trying to pretend they are hypocrites because they use computers is just facile.

Just watched the video from Edinburgh Waitrose of the milk pour straight off of the shelves.

They should be prosecuted for theft, as well as public disorder.

This applies to those in Harrods and F & M along with M & S who were all subjected to these wilful illegal acts yesterday.

Seeing as the previous posters were charged with theft I'm sure these will be too.

Why do posters keep saying 'the Police not doing their jobs' when all reports and evidence show they are?

Those most insistent on punishment seem the most resistant to considering the message of the protest....there must be something in that.

'previous posters' should have read 'previous protestors'.

Good post RichmondPark1

I am not sure what the message is. Mainly because I am not sure they are clear on their message, which is fine, I am sure their job isnt to provide a clear political message.

"I have an idea which side of the fence Vincent would be on.
He would be horrified that his paintings have become currency."
Dear FannyCornforth, I reckon he'd have been quite pleased to see his paintings "becoming currency" - particularly if it had happened before he died penniless and convinced he was a failure.

This is the message. It's been widely reported in all the articles about the milk pour. They are clear on it and have been clear about it.

"We urgently need the government to support farmers in the transition to a plant-based future. In a plant-based food system farmers and countryside, alike, would thrive. Instead of desolate fields we could see beautiful woodlands stewarded by independent, well-supported farmers.

"This is a the critical solution to the climate and ecological emergencies that are ravaging the Global South and seeing 40 degree temperatures in the UK”

The group is Animal Rebellion. Detail about their message here. www.plantbasedfuture.animalrebellion.org/plant-based-future

MawtheMerrier

MaizieD

I was reading last night (on twitter, (but haven't checked it) that the painting is behind glass, so won't have sustained any damage.

Ug, your Tarquin comment was contemptible.

I don’t see why MaizieD
As James Cleverly tweeted
“I’m just wondering what the reaction would be if a couple of black boys from Lewisham had thrown soup on a Van Gogh or poured milk all over the floor in Harrods.”

It was small minded ignorant inverted snobbery.

Thats not what was said or what was reported to be said at the actual protest, I thought what they said was quite unclear.

MazieD “Your Tarquinius comment was contemptible”.

How so? Those protesters pouring milk all over the floor were wasting food when so many people are forced to use food banks or go hungry to feed their children. What about the store employee, likely on minimum wage, who had to clear up all the mess? Who was treating him or her with contempt?

Not only do these kinds of protest NOT achieve the desired effect, they turn people away from the very cause that is being promoted.

Tarquin and Poppy can “afford” to have such an offence on their record and will not be harmed by it, otherwise they wouldn't have done it.

If you want to get a message across, then using TikTok or Instagram or social would spread it further and faster to the younger generation and older generations who have time to spend on social media.
TikTok videos persuade people to do things they might not otherwise think of doing, or so I’m frequently told. Why aren’t the protesters clever enough to come up with a video campaign that doesn’t involve damage to other people’s property? Doing that makes people focus on the damage instead of the message.

I actually think there is something in that. What happens to middle class people involved in this kind of protests will be very different to what might happen to people from other backgrounds. Its naive to think otherwise. This doesnt mean that middle class or wealthy people shoildnt protest, just that the consequences are often different.

MerylStreep

What makes me more angry than the protesters is the Police not doing their job ?

A lot of standing around with their hands behind their backs doing absolutely nothing.

Trying to deface a famous and beautiful painting is the lowest of the low. A horrible action perpetuated by selfish individuals. There are ways and means and this isn’t the way.

We have laws in this country. Police are there to enact the law. Not physically assault people who have broken the law.

A lot of people here need to remember we don't live in a fascist police state. Yet.

maddyone

Trying to deface a famous and beautiful painting is the lowest of the low. A horrible action perpetuated by selfish individuals. There are ways and means and this isn’t the way.

They weren’t trying to deface it.
They knew that a bit of soup wouldn’t damage it.

These works of art are pretty much bomb proof.

It was attention seeking, not hard core vandalism.

If you want to see ‘the lowest of the low’ in attention seeking vileness, I’ll link in a minute…

Here, she faces jail for this
www.staffordshire-live.co.uk/news/local-news/dads-shame-over-daughter-who-7672392.amp

For several years now whenever I have entered a museum or art gallery I have had to go through a security check. Has this now been stopped? Surely two people each with a tin of soup might have been questioned?

Nightsky
I was caught up in one of the demonstrations last year.
I thought that any minute the police were going to bring out pillows for them to lay their heads on.