To the barricades, darling

Britain | Bagehot TO THE BARRICADES, DARLING PROTESTS ARE INCREASINGLY POPULAR IN BRITAIN. FORTUNATELY, THEY USUALLY FAIL WINNIE, the giant brown sow, didn't make it into Downing

Street. She was confined to the pavement in Whitehall, along with several hundred pig farmers (theme song: “Stand by your ham”) who came to London on March 4th to complain about the plight

of their industry. Down the road protesters had scaled a crane overlooking Parliament and unfurled banners demanding a referendum on the European reform treaty. Opponents of the construction

of a third runway at Heathrow outdid them a week earlier, hanging their banners from the roof of the Palace of Westminster and throwing paper aeroplanes into the square below—itself host to

an eternal peace protest, plus a lone environmentalist in an apache head-dress. This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “To the barricades,

darling” ------------------------- BRITAIN March 8th 2008 * →Rebels with a cause * →The big man leaves the stage * →You'll be a man, my son * →Filling it all back up again * →Spurious

shoots * →Debt reckoning * →Mud wrestling * →To the barricades, darling * →Correction: British prime ministers FROM THE MARCH 8TH 2008 EDITION Discover stories from this section and more in

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