Michael Bloomberg, New York City’s mayor, made himself unpopular with his decision to raid Zuccotti Park in the early hours of Tuesday and evict 200 campers from the Occupy Wall Street protest, but he was right. So is the City of London Corporation in attempting to shift the tents from outside St Paul’s Cathedral.
It is time for Occupy Wall Street, and its derivatives around the US and the world, to learn a lesson from the name of the leftwing campaign group formed in 1998 in response to the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and Move On. They have better things to do than fight for the inalienable right to a sleepover.
Whether or not it was exactly the most suitable moment for the park to be cleared of tents and tarpaulins and for the occupants to find beds of their own, it would have to have happened sooner or later, winter notwithstanding. Mr Bloomberg struck a good balance by insisting they could protest there, but not treat it as a home.