Is vandalising a war memorial ever OK?

You told us your thoughts

noad

Scribbling “fuck” on the walls of toilet cubicles will always be funny — but what about on war memorials?

Last Friday was the 70th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day and Saturday saw a massive anti-Tory, anti-austerity protest for people who were miffed about the election result.

And at that demo, someone thought it would be classic to deface the Women of World War Two monument by scrawling “FUCK TORY SCUM” on it.

Is doing this OK? We asked people visiting the now-cleaned up memorial.

Before

Georgina, 21, Birmingham City Uni

“It was disgusting. These people fought for us and died for us”.

Mirko, 19, German tourist

“It’s horrible and it shouldn’t have happened.”

Dennis, 19, German tourist

“Everyone should express their opinion, this just wasn’t the right way to do it.”

Janine, 24

“The War should remain independent of a political argument, we shouldn’t deface something which is supposed to be honouring people.”

Daniel, 20, American tourist

“They could have picked a better spot. Especially with the VE day celebrations, the protest wasn’t demonstrating anything positive.”

Geoffrey, 20, American tourist

“People are obviously frustrated.”

Lee, 25, day-tripper

“I don’t think graffiti and free speech are the same thing, personally I think it was wrong.”

Jemma, 25, day-tripper

“It was quite disrespectful.”

Joseph, 27, protester

“Firstly, I don’t condone it and I think we should honour the dead, but we should also honour those who are still alive.

“What about the soldiers with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?

“When tensions are running high and people are being kettled and hit with batons, you shouldn’t be surprised when a policeman gets hit in the head with a traffic cone.

“We need to concentrate on things which are happening now, like fighting in the streets and the paedophiles in Westminster who are still free, not things which happened hundreds of years ago.

“A conspiracy I heard was how the graffiti was done by a plain-clothes police officer.”

Downing Street Police Officer

“What do you think? A criminal investigation is taking place.”

He was unable to offer any more comment.

Phoebe, 21, grad

“It’s definitely inappropriate and ridiculous. Being on a war memorial makes it a lot worse.”

Jordan, 22, Lincoln grad

“Can they not spell words with more than four letters?

“The red paint probably means it was a Labour supporter, maybe.

“They should’ve just made a sign.”

Lacey, 22, American tourist

“It’s free speech, but it’s poor speech. They shouldn’t expect to be taken seriously.”

Brittney, 28, Australian tourist

“It’s not nice, it’s really inappropriate.”

Romally, 24, Australian visitor

“It’s free speech but they should’ve gone about it in a better way.”

‘With respect and love’

Diane, a 60-year-old pensioner from Hertfordshire was distressed by what she had seen on the news.

“I came to pay my respect and leave some white roses.

“I’m very upset, it was extremely disrespectful.”