Rees-mogg’s tormentor says children are ‘fair game’
Francesca Marshall
Robert Mendick
THE children of politicians are “fair game”, according to the founder of the anarchist Class War group who targeted Jacob Rees-mogg’s family at their home this week.
Ian Bone, 71, said that his group had no objection to targeting children, despite widespread criticism over the ambushing of the Rees-mogg family.
Mr Bone told the youngsters: “Your daddy is a totally horrible person. Lots of people don’t like your daddy, you know that? He’s probably not told you that. Lots of people hate him.”
He said last night that if politicians use their children for political advantage, then so can anarchists.
“Involving the children depends on the particular situation, for example when David Mellor had an affair and then got his loyal wife to stand and look at their gates, they’re fair game,” he said. “If a politician puts his family in the frame, then the family are fair game. So when Rees-mogg got the kids out the house, they’re fair game. He’s trying to using them as a ploy as well.”
This week was not the first time the group has targeted the young to push its own agenda.
Footage yesterday emerged showing Mr Bone shouting insults at a group of Eton College boys in 2011.
“All you’ve got is a life of privilege, wealth, women and luxury, how can you take it?” he shouted at them, adding: “No good running away to your housemaster, he’s a pervert. He’s a twice convicted sex offender.”
When asked whether he had a problem when it came to targeting students such as those at Eton College, he said: “No, not at all,” adding that they “didn’t count as children”, despite it educating boys between the ages of 13 and 18.
Mr Bone also failed to rule out using children as tactic to gain publicity in the future, adding: “It worked this time, it might not work next time – but we use a variety of tactics.”
He has widely discussed his father, who was a butler to Sir Gerald Coke and grandson of the Earl of Leicester, as the reason for his hatred of the rich.
With him at the protest was Jane Nicholl, 68, his long-time partner, her hair normally green, who dressed for Tuesday evening’s protest as Veronica Cook, Mr Rees-mogg’s nanny. Ms Nicholl is leader of the Women’s Death Brigade, the women-only faction of Class War.
The third member of the group was Adam Clifford, 39, who donned a Reesmogg face mask. Mr Clifford is a certified children’s yoga teacher who has also appeared in naked yoga films rated for adults only.
Mr Clifford, a father-of-two, boasts on his website of teaching yoga at prep schools and at Merrill Lynch and at British American Tobacco, the kind of corporate giants Class War rails against.
The trio were aided by three more activists,
‘I don’t think what Ian said was bad… the whole thing has been blown out of proportion’
whose names the group has refused to divulge. One of the women – in her 50s or 60s with bright pink hair – can be seen in the background of a video of the protest putting on a fancy dress costume in the shape of male genitalia in front of four of Mr Rees-mogg’s children, the youngest being just two. The children appeared startled at Mr Bone’s “your daddy’s horrible” rant.
Tracked down by The Daily Telegraph yesterday, Mr Clifford insisted the protest had not intended to drag in the young children.
“We weren’t targeting any children, I love children, I’m a father myself and I don’t think what Ian said was bad. There were only six of us, and half of them were pensioners, we’re hardly threatening,” he said. “The whole thing has been blown out of proportion.”
The Class War protest has ignited a wider debate about the safety of MPS and their families. Labour’s Harriet Harman urged Speaker John Bercow to end the kind of “intimidation and harassment” of the Rees-moggs that other MPS and their families are also experiencing.