Activists have covered one of Scotland’s most famous monuments in soup in a protest over rising inequality in Scotland and the cost of living crisis.
Campaigners from the ‘This is Rigged’ group doused the Scott Monument in Edinburgh’s Princes Street with orange liquid from fire extinguishers to highlight “skyrocketing” food insecurity.
The protest follows similar statues and monuments being targeted with soup, including those of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in Glasgow’s George Square on Monday. Two people were also arrested two people after defacing a bust of Queen Victoria at Kelvingrove Museum.
READ MORE: Eco-warriors steal Glasgow's tattie scones in cost of living protest
Married couple Carol Johnson, 58, and Adrian Johnson, 57, a married couple from Perthshire, claimed to be behind the incident of vandalism in Edinburgh. Both were arrested at the scene.
The couple released a statement, saying: “We are appalled that in 2024 one in four suffer food insecurity in Scotland. The accelerating collapse of the climate will only make this worse."
The statement continued: “For our grandchildren, our children, and ourselves, unless we urgently address the inequality between those who have food and those who don't and, at the same time, adapt to the irreversible loss of the conditions we need to grow our food, the deadly threat facing us will most likely be social unrest - societal collapse and the breakdown of law and order as desperate folk fight for survival over food.
READ MORE: This Is Rigged campaigners stage sit-in at Holyrood Palace
“So, we are engaging in civil resistance to call upon our government to take these threats seriously and fulfil their primary responsibility to keep everyone safe.”
This is Rigged have vowed to continue to escalate actions until their demands - that supermarkets reduce the price of baby formula to March 2021 prices (a 24% decrease on average) and that the Scottish Government fund and implement a community food hub in every 500 households in Scotland.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “A 57-year-old man and a 58-year-old woman have been arrested and charged in connection with breach of the peace and vandalism offences after officers were called to Princes Street Gardens around 12.50pm on Tuesday, 5 March, 2024.
"They’re due to appear in court at a later date and a report will be submitted to the Procurator Fiscal.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel