The OccupyLSX protest outside St Paul Cathedral seems to have boosted the rate of attrition among senior Anglican clergy to levels last seen in the mid-1550s.
Given that the Church of England is factionally riven to the point that exposes the far left as wilful amateurs in the backstabbing stakes, we probably do not know the full reasons for the departures of the Rt Rev Graeme Knowles, the Rev Dr Giles Fraser and the seemingly untitled Fraser Dyer.
Like most others not affilated to Britain’s last remaining nationalised industry, I had never heard of either Knowles or Dyer until this morning. Giles Fraser is a friend of a friend, and I am told that he is both personable and left-leaning. If that is so, it is a shame that he has decided to quit what is presumably a plum job within his chosen profession.
Even I feel sorry for Dr Rowan Williams on this one. As if splitting the difference between strident Nigerian homophobes and equally irreconcilable US gay rights advocates wasn’t a fulltime job already, having a couple of hundred crusties, Trots and peaceniks setting up shop outside his premier London retail outlet was probably the last thing the Archbishop of Canterbury needed.
But OccupyLSX has every right to stage a peaceful protest, and these activists enjoy widespread support among the general public. At a time when FTSE 100 directors are making fun of the rest of us and awarding themselves 49% pay rises, while hundreds of thousands of people find themselves suddenly on the dole, they speak for many. Not 99%, I guess, but certainly the majority of society.
If eviction goes ahead in the next few days, the camp will naturally shift to somewhere else. Once it is evicted from wherever it moves to, it will simply move again. And so on and so forth. Boris should pull his finger out and come up with a suitable location to allow them to make their point.
Here’s a comparison they may want to ponder in City Hall. The FT today reports on the privileges that will be enjoyed by around 40,000 sports officials, diplomats, politicians, commercial sponsors and assorted mistresses and toy boys when they pitch up in London for the 2012 Olympics.
If the big cheeses can be sorted out with dedicated road lanes, in much the manner of senior politburo members in the Brezhnev years, is a camp site with elementary sanitation facilities for OccupyLSX really too much to ask?
