To Eat With Unwashen Hands Defileth Not A Man

With characteristic Anglican eagerness to get on the wrong side of every debate, the dean of St Paul's Cathedral has requested the protesters occupying his front yard to vacate as quickly as possible, ostensibly on health and safety grounds. The Right Reverend Graeme Knowles stressed that the cathedral had maintained good relations with the protesters; but Christians are required to love their enemies, the tourists are getting away, and it is past time for St Paul's to resume its courting of Mammon. Asked whether he would be treating the protesters to a temple-cleansing scene in the style of Dale Farm, courtesy of the Metropolitan Firearms, Headbangers and Venus Trap Club, Knowles said that the legal issues are so complicated that he would be forced to bring in the scribes and moneychangers to help. Possibly this was a coded plea to Caesar to do the dirty work for him; in the meantime, no doubt, we may look forward to Daveybloke, his cat lady and the London Haystack fervently protesting the manner in which health and safety concerns have trumped the democratic right to protest.