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4th March 2024
01:42pm GMT
A pair of activists have poured jam porridge over the bust of Queen Victoria before supergluing themselves to the floor beside it.
Sorcha Ni Mhairtin, 30, and Hannah Taylor, 23, carried out the act as part of the group, This Is Rigged.
They did so to "draw the public's attention to the extreme cost of living crisis" and to protest against increasing food insecurity.
Sorcha, who is an Irish activist and community food worker in Glasgow, said: “We refuse to be dragged back to the Victorian era. Diseases of starvation including scurvy and rickets are on the rise.
“Freedom begins with breakfast and if you can’t understand that, we’ll shove it in your face. Food is a human right, and we call out the rotten systems under which we are suffering.”
Taylor added: "You might see this action and wonder what this has to do with food insecurity in Scotland, putting some porridge on the queen, but the media have made it clear this is what it takes to get them to care.
“So, if we’re going to have to do something insane, something random, to get them to care, that’s what we’re going to do - that’s what I’m going to do. So, I’m going to pour some jam on the queen’s head.”
A spokesperson from Police Scotland told the Guardian: “Around 11.55am on Sunday March 3 2024, police were called to a report of a protest and alleged vandalism within Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow.
“Two women, aged 23 and 30 years, have been arrested and charged following the incident. They have been released on an undertaking to appear at Glasgow sheriff court at a later date. A report will be submitted to the procurator fiscal.”
The This Is Rigged group have said that they will continue to carry out attacks such as this until their demands are met, which include supermarkets reducing the price of baby formula to 2021 prices and the Scottish Government implementing and funding a community food hub in every 500 households in Scotland.
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