Old Style

Stanhope Forbes records the Cornish fishing industry in its heyday, a time when large tuna could be caught off the UK coastline. I love the painting but can't help feel it's more or less fit for the lid of a chocolate box in this day and age. With the news reported by the BBC recently I wonder if the public and politicians eally learn anything from past disasters...

Performance?

Following the news yesterday there was little surprise when reports started being posted of eruptions of violence during the G20 protests. Sadly one person died after collapsing. If reports are true, what is also sad is the fact that protesters rained objects down on the police as they tried to help the collapsed man. The only excuse I can see, and it's a very poor one, is that the objects were being propelled by people that couldn't actually see there was a man down. Lobbing bottles at people is of course reprehensible in the first place. As usual the violence involved a very small number of 'protesters'. The majority protested without violence, and it's those I would perhaps have added my voice to once. When Maggie Thatcher's government was at the helm was the last time I took to the street. It's funny, maybe even a little sad, that I can't even remember what I protested about. Was it the Poll Tax?

The Getty photo that illustrated an article in my morning paper, on the G20 disturbances, was interesting in a couple of ways: The photographers outnumber the 'protesters' more than 3 to 1. The scene looks very theatrical.

...Was the attack on RBS protest and/or performance?