There’s a joke doing the rounds at the moment, which the chatterers on Andrew Marr’s sofa on BBC1 yesterday morning seemed to find particularly funny.

There’s a joke doing the rounds at the moment, which the chatterers on Andrew Marr’s sofa on BBC1 yesterday morning seemed to find particularly funny. It goes: ‘Why did the anarchists occupy Fortnum & Mason? Because proper tea is theft’

Very amusing. I’m sure it wouldn’t have seemed quite so funny to the staff working in Fortnums on Saturday afternoon, when hooligans occupied the Piccadilly store and, based on the amateur footage shown of them in the store, were seemingly allowed by the police to roam the shop to their hearts’ content.

This tolerance of disorder, and perception of retail premises as legitimate targets has to stop. For a start, if the sort of episodes we saw on Saturday are allowed to continue, London’s status as a retail destination will be severely damaged. People who come into town to shop don’t expect to see bonfires being lit in the middle of Oxford Circus.

Secondly, and more importantly, the intimidation of retail staff by these thugs has to be stopped. People coming to work shouldn’t have to put up with being hostage in their own stores, and if things carry on as they are at the moment, someone is going to get hurt.

The current softly-softly approach to dealing with these protests isn’t working. Retailers pay enough in taxes, and deserve some protection.

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