Comrades, the politics of the streets is not always liberating

I am struck by the confusion of left-liberal opinion over the violence at the anti-cuts demonstration in London over the weekend. Poor Lucy Annson of UK Uncut on Newsnight last night was arguing gamely that she was an artist who just wanted to set up crèches and creative happenings in the occupied shops of tax avoiders. But, unfortunately she fell back on the old “Sinn Fein defence” when asked whether she condemned Saturday’s violence. “I reject the premise of the question,” she said, thus undermining her movement’s credibility in one ill-advised utterance.  

The likeable Laurie Penny also appeared on the programme to explain that the anarchists of Black Bloc (or is it Blac Block), were until recently Labour and Lib Dem supporters, though how she knows is something of a mystery. She has ruffled some feathers with her New Statesman blog about the events of the weekend by quoting Martin Luther King Jr’s: “A riot is the language of the unheard”.