Last night, hundreds of people gathered in Parliament Square to vent their fury at Boris Johnson and his decision to prorogue parliament for several weeks in September.
The crowd were in a raucous mood, but none were in finer spirits that the left-wing journalist Paul Mason. In a video published online, Mason could be seen (with added special effects) leading a chant among the crowd, where he issued a threat to Boris Johnson and promised to protest outside his Downing St home at the weekend, exclaiming:
‘We, the British people, will be outside Downing Street and 12 o’clock on Saturday. We are coming for you Boris Johnson, ready or f****** not.’
But could Mason have possibly gotten a little carried away when he organised an exciting new protest in London this weekend?
Rather awkwardly Mr S has spotted that the journalist is listed to speak at an event which commemorates the Peterloo Massacre on Saturday… until 11.15am… in Manchester… where the train to London takes at least two hours. Oops.
A representative of the Electoral Reform Society (who are organising the Manchester event) told Mr Steerpike this morning that ‘as far I know’, Mason was still planning to be there, rather suggesting that he hadn’t run any change of plans past the society.
Which can only lead Mr S to wonder: is Mason going to be letting down the poor people of Manchester who’ve paid to attend the event, or miss his own weekend protest?
As both of the great Spectator writers Madeline Grant and Gareth Roberts have pointed out here recently, the element of farce in British politics is notable as never before. Miss Grant opined that ‘It is genuinely astonishing that Rachel Reeves isn’t accompanied by the Benny Hill theme at all time… a shambles, but then which
A representative of the Electoral Reform Society (who are organising the Manchester event) told Mr Steerpike this morning that ‘as far I know’, Mason was still planning to be there, rather suggesting that he hadn’t run any change of plans past the society.
Which can only lead Mr S to wonder: is Mason going to be letting down the poor people of Manchester who’ve paid to attend the event, or miss his own weekend protest?
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