Did they walk into a trap? The stain of authoritarianism is indelible.
What remains of yesterday’s graffiti on London’s law courts is probably a more enduring, meaningful, poignant image than the Banksy original.
First - a piece of art commenting on the role of justice in the subjugation of lawful protest and dissent.
Now - a reminder to everyone, including those in authority, that when protest swells on a tide of injustice it's much harder to wash away than one might expect.
You would be a fool to think we were not heading for dark times.
I'm in the business of helping people avoid "breaking news" ... but the headlines in the last 24 hours are inescapably alarming ...
➜ our PM undermining his already lacklustre credibility protecting Mandelson: a man who appears far, far too close to Epstein (and probably Trump, Maxwell et al) …
➜ the horrific and almost certainly incendiary shooting of Charlie Kirk in the US just an hour or so ago which, however ironic it might be (Kirk is quoted as saying gun deaths are fair price to pay for the Second Amendment), will only stoke the authoritarian crackdown Miller et al have been trying to foment for months …
➜ and all of that on a day when Poland has been compelled to invoke Article 4 of the NATO treaty following countless Russian drone incursions into their territory overnight …
➜ not to even mention Israel's incursion into Qatar 24h ago and the full-scale annexation of Gaza City and the north of the strip getting underway this week.
As the world descends into crisis we should ... no, we must ... be able to trust our government to act for the people ... which includes listening to dissent.
The more Starmer and his team stick their heads in the sand, ignore the moral hazard of supporting Israel's military, of supporting close friends of Jeffrey Epstein or prevaricate about pushing back Putin ...
... the more they undermine their credibility on any front whatsoever.
And the only people to win from that? Reform. Backed, it would seem, by the same people (Thiel, Putin, Trump etc) who are the root cause of most of the terrifying headlines above.
This country needs some real leadership - leadership that can take a Banksy for what it is - a criticism of the parlous state of our social contract - and leave it where it is until the problem it describes has been addressed.
Trying to rub it out solves nothing.
It makes the art more.
It makes our future less.