home | news l

Old Bill digs up little weed beside Big Ben

The plants are believed to be the result of an allotment plot hatched by the anarchists who invaded Parliament Square two months ago for the May Day demonstration which descended into violence.

Armed with spades, seeds and compost, the group Reclaim the Streets had invited "Avant Gardeners" to turn London's urban spaces green. Capitalism would be destroyed by the edition of flower beds to car parks and, while the statue of Churchill was being defaced, green-fingered revolutionaries had buried a crop of grass in the Square.

The plants would have continued to prosper were it not for an observant group of Aborigines who were themselves staging a protest over land rights. "England has advanced a bit, hasn't it?" said Michael Anderson, from the Sovereign Union of Aboriginal Peoples. "You must be a very liberal country. We should all emigrate to England"

Police said they would send the plants for analysis, but were treating the mater as a "low grade offence".

MPs in the Strangers Bar were slow to recognise the plant. Dennis Turner, the chairman of the catering committee and MP for Woverhampton South East, asked: "Is it mint? It smells lovely."

However it was eventually identified by a member of the Upper House, Lord Evans of Parkside, who shouted loudly: "That's cannabis, that is".

Source: The London Times

related links:

• Celebrating Aboriginal genocide?
• Sorrry Motion in House of Commons
• Westminster Demonstration photos

Further information: human rights issues page - includes news index and external links