Banksy Gives Occupy London Demonstrators a Giant Monopoly Board

Image Credit Flickr User Beth PH

You might say that protesting as a full time occupation might be exciting. Yet there is a limit to how much protesting you can actually do in a day – and time out must at some point be called. There isn’t anything quite like a board game to while away the hours between protests, so the demonstrators outside of St Paul’s Cathedral in London have been gifted a giant Monopoly board.

Image Credit Flickr User Beth PH

Image Credit Flickr User Beth PH

It is thought that the enormous board has been created by the infamous street artist, Banksy. It certainly bears many of the hallmarks of his works. The enormous depiction of the renowned board has Mr Money Bags, begging with his top hat. There are also the usual top hat and sports car to represent the bankers.

Image Credit Flickr USer Beth PH

Image Credit Flickr User Beth PH

Instead of street names the board includes the names of places in cities where other protests are taking place. However, this is where my one question comes up – the street names are rather amateurishly done. Either the protestors have changed the names to please themselves or Banksy has let his quality of work slip a little!

Image Credit Flickr User Beth PH

Image Credit Flickr User Beth PH

The pièce de résistance for me, however, is the red plastic house which has the tag ‘tox’ upon it – a reference to the toxic mortgage lending which helped to trigger the crisis in which we find ourselves. Not that it has stopped the director’s of Britain’s largest companies pocketing an average 49% pay rise over the last year. No wonder they have been labeled ‘elite greedy pigs’ by the unions.Or, this may actually be in reference to a tagger by the name of Tox who was convicted of criminal damage in London earlier this year and may currently be in prison. Banksy has previously tagged the artist's name elsewhere:

Image Credit Flickr User Duncan