LONDON, England, September 12, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – An elderly anarchist shouted abuse at the children of a British Catholic Member of Parliament when they accompanied their parents outside of the house.
Ian Bone, 71, and his group “Class War” protested outside the home of Catholic MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, his wife Helena, and their six children. Bone was filmed shouting at the four youngest children, saying, “Your daddy is a totally horrible person. Loads of people don’t like your daddy, did you know that? No? He’s probably not told you about that. Loads of people hate him.”
Jacob Rees-Mogg, 49, the Member of Parliament for North East Somerset, is considered a mere backbencher in the Conservative government of Prime Minister Theresa May, but is nevertheless well-known throughout the United Kingdom for his socially conservative views. A Roman Catholic, Rees-Mogg is often grilled about his religious beliefs and stands on topics such as abortion and same-sex partnerships. Although it is not unusual for people in Britain to hire babysitters, gardeners, and housecleaners, the fact that Rees-Mogg has employed his own nanny as his children’s nanny is often held up for ridicule.
The “Class War” protestor, who objects to Rees-Mogg’s position on minimum wage increases, demanded to know how much he pays this nanny, Veronica Crook.
“Daddy won’t say how much he pays the nanny,” Bone shouted at the children. “He has a nanny who looks after you. Daddy doesn’t pay them very much. Daddy says the minimum wage doesn’t count for anything, or the London minimum wage. Poor Nanny Crook who looks after you and wipes your bottom, she doesn’t get enough money every week. But Daddy, he doesn’t care because he’s too busy posing as a Latin eating, gut-orientated toff which he does pretty well.”
When Mrs. Crook herself came outside, she refused to tell Bone how much she is paid but said that she was happy.
“You’ve got Stockholm Syndrome,” said Bone. “Do you have an independent life of your own?”
“Of course I do,” said Crook, adding that the Rees-Mogg family was “wonderful” to her family.
“Well, they would be,” sneered Bone, and Crook looked shocked when the man added, “My father was a servant as well.”
A young man passing by tried to remonstrate with a middle-aged female demonstrator.
“Well, if you don’t like it, **** off,” the protestor said.
The protestors then asked Crook if she wanted to join a trade union and seemed to accept that she didn’t. Then, when Rees-Mogg decided it was time the family went indoors, Bone mimicked the accent of the Eton- and Oxford-educated MP. He also told Helena Rees-Mogg that the group would be back every week.
“We ain’t going away,” he threatened.
“Don’t worry,” was the calm reply. “Neither are we.”
Amazingly, “Class War” posted their abuse of the Rees-Mogg family on their Facebook page, where some readers, often after professing their dislike of the MP, indicated that the group had crossed a line by harassing the children.
Bone, who professes to be the son of a butler, studied politics at Swansea University and became a professional anarchist.
In May, when Rees-Mogg was attacked by a BBC television interviewer, Jo Coburn, for his Catholic beliefs, the MP replied courteously but seriously.
“…This country believes in religious tolerance. We are a very tolerant nation,” he said. “And the act of tolerance is to tolerate things you do not agree with not just ones you do agree with and the problem with liberal tolerance is it has got to the point of only tolerating what it likes.”
Coburn tried to make it sound as if it was not she, but Rees-Mogg’s colleagues, who objected to the MP’s stand on abortion and same-sex partnerships, but he didn’t let her off without a lecture.
“The Catholic Church, of great antiquity, has taught these things,” he said. “And it is absolutely legitimate that Catholics in public life, in private life, believe and accept the teaching of the Catholic Church, as it is for Muslims to believe the teachings of Islam, and likewise for Anglicans, and also for agnostics and atheists.”
Rees-Mogg’s calm survival in British politics is in contrast to that of evangelical Tim Farron, a former head of the UK Liberal Democrat party. Constantly barraged by journalists about his Christian beliefs, Farron first refused to say he believed homosexuality was a sin, and then he said it wasn’t a sin. He also disavowed earlier remarks he had made supporting the right to life of unborn children. Finally he gave up the leadership of the Liberal Democrat party.