Custard pies, anyone?

+A debate has been raging—if that’s not over-egging it—about the targeting of artworks by climate change activists. Does throwing custard at an old masterpiece advance the cause? Or is it just attention seeking? Is it morally justified? A whole range of questions are thrown up. One might ask how many artworks will be damaged by climate change itself—a sudden flood in a low lying city perhaps (Venice?) or an out of control fire? Or just new financial pressures facing museums, which can be big energy consumers? Fossil fuel wars are another possibility—think Iraq and the destruction of its cultural heritage. These are things which climate change activists rightly draw attention to. The question is, are these actions effective in changing public/political thinking? I would say probably not, and if they aren’t effective in that sense then they might be intellectually valid but practically useless, in which case they serve no real purpose. And in which case I cannot bring myself to support them. Direct actions which garner public support and pressurise politicians would be far more beneficial.
 
Politicians have a weak point. They’re not popular. Perhaps a few custard pies aimed in their direction would persuade them to do more on climate change. The public would not object. N.B. Vegan custard pies only, please.
 
+In light of the fact that some potential Labour parliamentary candidates have been excluded from shortlists for committing such crimes as ‘liking’ (whatever that means) a Tweet by Green MP Caroline Lucas, I wonder what steps the Party will now take against former Labour Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt, who has been appointed the Tory government’s NHS ‘efficiency’ (cuts) supremo. What a choice. Back in my time I described her as a Maoist for her continual inability to stop ‘reforming’ the NHS. She couldn’t stop meddling—a bit like a manager searching for self-justification.