Widdecombe gets her just desserts?
SHADOW HOME SECRETARY Ann Widdecombe was the victim of a custard pie attack when she visited Oxford on Thursday. Mel Jarman, a member of the 'Biotic Baking Brigade' and known to her fellow pie-throwers as Agent Orange, threw the pie that landed squarely on Miss Widdecombe's face as she was entering the Waterstone's bookshop.
A security guard who witnessed the attack said "Someone threw a pie - it hit her full in the face." He added, "they threw it aggressively." Jarman was later charged with assault and affray, and remanded on bail to appear at Oxford Magistrates' court on May 4th. Agent Custard Pie, who was backing up Agent Orange with a second pie, was also charged.
'Flan' Widdecombe washed the pie off her face and clothes in a bookstore toilet, and continued with the booksigning.
The politician-cum-novelist was at Waterstone's on Cornmarket Street to promote her new novel, The Clematis Tree. Post-pie, she issued a statement: "I deplore entirely the behaviour of these protestors. This demonstration was a mindless waste of police time carried out by people who clearly have no respect for free speech." Her aide Adam Newton, who also witnessed the incident, added: "Ann had just gone inside when a young woman confronted her and from a few feet hurled the pie into her face - the pie was the size of a breakfast plate." He went on to say "Naturally Ann was shocked, but fortunately she wasn't hurt and she quickly composed herself. It's a pity that politicians or anyone else cannot go about their legitimate business without having to put up with this kind of behaviour."
Later, in an interview with the Oxford Student, Miss Widdecombe was reluctant to talk about the attack. But when asked if she had experienced trouble of this nature before, she replied, "Not often, but I have been through it before."
The Biotic Baking Brigade claimed responsibility for the attack, which was intended to be a protest against the Conservative Party's strict stance on asylum seekers. The Shadow Home Secretary has recently attracted controversy over the new Tory policy to detain all asylum seekers whilst their claims are being processed. One of the detention centres is Campsfield House, near Oxford. The site of the National Refugee Detention Centre has attracted local protestors including the 'Close Campsfield Campaign.'
A spokesperson for the campaign, Teresa Hayter, was at the bookshop handing out leaflets when Miss Widdecombe arrived. She claimed that there were more protestors than customers at the shop, and that security guards had ejected several of the protestors. Pie-wielding Jarman - not herself part of the Close Campsfield Campaign - issued a statement after the custard missile had been launched. She claimed that it had been prompted by the toughening of Tory policy on asylum seekers in recent weeks. "I don't particularly want to go to jail. But when a politician comes out with something that is racist and offensive, how does an ordinary person respond?" She made it clear that she had turned to custard as a last resort, saying: "I've written letters but nothing changes."
Miss Widdecombe is not the first target of the organisation's unusual brand of protest. She joins a long list of the custard-clothed. It is estimated that two flannings are carried out each month in the United States, of which the most active is the San Francisco-based Biotic Baking Brigade. The eco-anarchist group began in October 1998 by launching a coconut cream pie in the face of free market economist Milton Friedman. The pie-thrower later said of free market economists, "they offer us pie in the sky, but being a down-to-earth guy, I brought that pie and gave it back to him."
The protestors' next target was their most famous victim - Microsoft leader Bill Gates. That same year, the supermarket chain Tesco became so alarmed by rocketing sales of its custard, egg, cream and lemon meringue pies that it carried out tests to see if its pies would cause injury on impact. A spokesperson later said that egg custard tarts were the best for throwing because they were deep and large, while lemon meringue pies held together well during flight.
The group, known as BBB has set a precedent for a spate of 'pie-rect action' assaults against public figures. Last week, a custard pie was hurled at scientist Keith Campbell, co-creator of Dolly the sheep. The bakery-based bombing, which took place at a talk in Sussex, was masterminded by London-based anarchist group PIE (People Insurgent Everywhere.)
Anger has been known to erupt on impact, causing criminal charges to be brought against the assailants. Three BBB protestors were convicted of battery after pelting furious San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown a couple of years ago.
27th Apr 2000