Anarchists are plotting a rally at the State Opening of Parliament outside the Palace of Westminster on May 27

They chanted 'Get the Tories Out' and 'Tory Scum' as they abused police officers trying to keep the peace


Anarchists and Left-wing rabble-rousers plan to disrupt Britain with a 'summer of protests' after a violent mob tried to storm Downing Street.

Diehard fanatics are plotting a rally at the State Opening of Parliament outside the Palace of Westminster on May 27.

And members of anarchist group Class War – who clashed with riot police in Whitehall over the weekend – released incendiary posters calling on comrades to take part in violent protests later this month.

Far-Left groups are planning a mass anti-austerity demonstration outside the Bank of England in June – to which more than 37,000 people had accepted an invitation last night. Extremists across Britain are laying on coaches to the event.

Police fear it could mirror violent riots of previous years with businesses and shops under siege.

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Protesters brandished a range of home-made placards containing offensive slogans as they marched upon Downing Street

Officers tried to hold back the large group of protesters as they tried to push their way through the large police cordon on Downing Street

The Metropolitan Police said 17 people have been arrested on suspicion of violent disorder and assault as well public order offences

Some of the protesters wore masks and balaclavas in a bid to hide their identity from police officers attempting to keep the peace

Such large-scale protests are difficult to police as breakaway groups often have the sole aim of damaging property and injuring officers.

Anarchist group Reclaim The City said it would 'raise hell' at the Bank rally, writing on Facebook: 'Our voice is ignored year after year so now is the time to make them afraid and make real change happen for us all.' Supporter Sam Lacombe added: 'We will need to be violent and burn the buildings. This will end austerity.'

Police are monitoring a growing torrent of disturbing online messages. Using pseudonyms, protest organisers issued a call to arms on social media – which gathered pace yesterday as radicals gleefully posted pictures of officers injured in Saturday's clashes.

Class War wrote on Facebook that it 'salutes all those who fought the cops at Downing Street yesterday. We are a hate mob. We hate the f****** rich, the Tories and the cops.' Four police officers and a member of police staff were injured in the violence on Whitehall.

Protesters, some masked, hurled smoke bombs and missiles as a raucous crowd brandished flags and Socialist Worker Party placards with the slogan: 'Get the Tories out.' Ahead of VE Day commemorations, one anarchist sprayed 'F*** Tory Scum' on a memorial to women who served in the Second Word War.

Organisers had planned the rally on Facebook hours after the Tories' resounding election victory.

Hard-left thugs desecrated a memorial to the women of the Second World War who were vital to Britain's efforts of defeating the Nazis

PRIVATELY EDUCATED APOLOGIST: LAURIE PENNY DEFENDS VANDAL WHO DEFACED WAR MEMORIAL Left-wing writer Laurie Penny defended the vandal who sprayed 'F*** Tory Scum' in red paint on a memorial honouring the women who served in the war She was educated at some of Britain's finest academic institutions where she was taught about the sacrifices of the wartime generation. Her grandmother was even awarded the George Cross for her services in the Second World War. Despite this, Left-wing writer Laurie Penny defended the vandal who sprayed 'F*** Tory Scum' in red paint on a memorial honouring the women who served in the war. Hours later Miss Penny, 28, who was privately educated at Brighton College before studying English at Oxford, wrote on Twitter: 'I don't have a problem with this. The bravery of past generations does not oblige us to be cowed today. 'What's disgusting is that some people are more worried about a war memorial than the destruction of the welfare state.' Miss Penny, who writes for The Guardian, later admitted that she 'should have been more sensitive, especially given the day'. But she added defiantly: 'I meant what I said' and claimed: 'I honour [my grandmother] by staying angry.' Last night Miss Penny said: 'I really didn't mean to insult anyone, much less advocate vandalising public monuments. What I'm saying is that I understand the anger behind it.' Advertisement

The ugly scenes took Scotland Yard by surprise. Officers rushed to form lines across Whitehall and as flares were let off, they moved in with batons and riot gear.

By 6pm police insisted they had the situation under control, as dozens more officers were drafted in. A video on Twitter showed about 20 police officers running towards hundreds of demonstrators, as yobs threw a traffic cone and other objects.

Protesters handed out flyers reading: 'Parliament is no longer our priority, our priority is survival. A Tory majority is a declaration of war.'

Police arrested 12 people, including a boy of 16, on suspicion of violent disorder and three suspected of assaulting officers. All but one were bailed.

Last night there was widespread condemnation of the protests. Sir Gerald Howarth, former defence minister, said: 'I think it is despicable. It is extraordinary that just 24 hours from the formation of the Conservative government we have these disrespectful bandits … defacing a national memorial … People who have died for liberty must be turning in their graves at the sight of these disrespectful people.'

Former Commons speaker Betty Boothroyd, instrumental in the monument's creation, said: 'This is an absolute insult to the memory of thousands of women … who sweated blood and tears for the freedoms that some members of this generation have abused by this act. The vandals … talk of scum. They should look in the mirror.'

Former RAF chief Sir Michael Graydon, said: 'It just shows how out of touch these people are when the country has just overwhelmingly voted for a different kind of world.'

Welsh singer Charlotte Church joined a peaceful anti-government protest in Cardiff on Saturday, with a placard saying she was 'mad as hell and not going to take it any more'.

Police officers deployed their extendable batons in an effort to prevent the protesters, some of whom were masked, from Downing Street

It was reported that smoke bombs, bottles, cans and even a bicycle were hurled at police officers during this afternoon's disturbances

THE MONUMENT TO THE WOMEN OF WORLD WAR II: A REMINDER TO THE SACRIFICE OF A GENERATION OF BRITONS The Monument to the Women of World War II is situated, right, in Whitehall as a tribute to the those who helped with the war effort at home in the UK during the conflict. The idea for the memorial was first floated in 1997, as Britain was one of only a few countries without a monument recognising the efforts of females during the Second World War. A fund-raising campaign was then set up to raise the money needed to build a monument, and it was publicly backed by former Commons speaker Baroness Boothroyd, Dame Vera Lynn and the Princess Royal. The National Heritage Memorial Fund contributed to the project while a guest-appearance by Baroness Boothroyd on the quiz show 'Who Wants to be a Millionnaire?' raised further £800,000 for the monument. The memorial was sculpted by John W. Mills and features 17 uniforms of the jobs many women were forced to do while men went to war. Uniforms include those of the Women's Land Army, the Women's Royal Naval Service, a nursing cape and a welding mask, with the lettering on the side replicating that found in wartime ration books. It was unveiled by the Queen in July 2005, just two days after the 7/7 bombings, as part of the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in front of dignitaries and war veterans. Baroness Boothroyd dedicated the memorial saying: 'I hope that future generations who pass this way down Whitehall will ask themselves what sort of women were they and look at history for the answer.' Advertisement

Sneers and bile of hate-filled left, by Christopher Hart

That act of grotesque vandalism was particularly disgraceful as it defaced a tribute to those who, so nobly, were willing to die in the fight to protect democracy.

The truth is that the yobs who brought such chaos and anarchy to the streets over the weekend exposed themselves as enemies of democracy – because they rejected the democratic voice of those who voted last Thursday.

What is deeply disturbing is the degree of bile expressed by this Left-wing rabble. But they are not just a poisonous minority of student radicals and class-war anarchists – for many leading Labour figures and supporters of the party have betrayed a similarly anti-democratic refusal to accept the British voters' verdict.

Typical was the odious conclusion of former Labour leader Neil Kinnock who said that people who had voted Tory were 'self-deluded'. Self-delusion? Is that because voters had carefully weighed the options for the future stability and happiness of the country, considered the Conservatives' economic record, the future of the Union, the EU and placed their vote accordingly?

Then there was the reaction of Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh who opined: 'The UK is now a pointless entity.' (Happily for him, he makes this insulting comment from Chicago, where he now lives).

Protesters threw smoke bombs at police who were forced to respond with officers equipped with riot equipment to counter the threats

Hard-line socialist activists uwilling to accept Thursday's election result jostled with police outside Downing Street earlier today

Two police officers police were treated for injuries including one who suffered a suspected dislocated shoulder and another was cut

The demonstrators tried to force their way through barriers amid the angry scenes outside Downing Street and across Whitehall

Such comments about other people who disagree with them politically are becoming increasingly common among the mainstream Left. Not for them reasoned disagreement.

Indeed, the chattering classes and the Leftist commentariat, baffled and embittered by the election result, have been lining up to spout hatred and ally themselves to the rioters.

For example, the journalist Laurie Penny, who writes about 'social justice, pop culture and gender issues' in The Guardian (where else?) wrote about the rioting on Twitter: 'I don't have a problem with this. What's disgusting is that some people are more worried about a war memorial than the destruction of the welfare state.'

Meanwhile, The Guardian's grande dame of Leftist thought, Polly Toynbee, was in apocalyptic mode over the prospect of another five years of Tory government.

'Discord starts now,' she wrote, 'and the sun sets on a shrunken little England'. (Yet, even as she wrote, sterling was rocketing against the euro.)

Much more sinister was her claim that 'the Press will be rewarded for their filthy North Korean election coverage'.

Even by Toynbee's usual vitriolic standards this is an extraordinary thing to say. North Korea's newspapers, of course, are controlled by the state, while the British Press is proudly independent, and free to publish what it wishes within the law. But Toynbee doesn't seem much interested in facts, instead preferring her preposterous rhetoric of post-election doom and gloom.

Meanwhile, the BBC's favourite priest, Canon Giles Fraser, said he is so angry he feels 'ashamed to be English'. Also in The Guardian, the panellist on Radio 4's The Moral Maze said: 'Right now I feel ... ashamed to belong to a country that has clearly identified itself as insular, self-absorbed and apparently caring so little for the most vulnerable people among us ...Why do the poor vote when they merely give legitimacy to a system that connives with their oppression and alienation?'

But this is par for the course. Earlier this year, Toynbee published a book called 'Cameron's Coup.' What 'coup'? Did she mean a violently undemocratic, often military, seizure of power against the wishes of the electorate? If that's how poor old Polly sees it, then the Left is showing dangerous signs of contempt for the democratic process.

Some of the protesters lay down in the road across from the gates of Downing Street, forcing police to close the road to all traffic

One pair of protesters called for the introduction of proportional representation system in future British general elections

The reactions of other Labour stalwarts to the election result were similarly revealing. Take, for example, Ken Livingstone. 'Five more years of pure evil,' was how the former Labour London mayor summed up the result.

This merely showed the contempt that much of the Left has for the electorate. All those aspirational people in Middle England – families who want their children to prosper – are 'pure evil'? How deeply offensive.

And then there was Labour luvvie singer Charlotte Church who said she had 'lost faith in humanity.'

As ever, the trolls and idiots who use social media were a reliable barometer of bile.

'Stupid, stupid Britain,' wrote one; another described David Cameron and George Osborne as 'a two-headed monster of a dictatorship'.

Of course, politics has always been about fierce debate. But it demeans people such as the Mirror columnist Kevin Maguire when he attacks the Tory campaign, saying: 'The vilification worked with gloop-brained voters frightened into sticking with the Tory nasty nurse.'

Whereas, broadly speaking, those on the Right regard the Left as foolish, misguided, self-righteous and economically incompetent, the Left's attitude towards its opponents is much more virulent – seeing them as wicked, hateful and morally corrupt.

Some of the more sinister elements of the crowd were wearing full balaclavas and dressed in black to avoid being identified at a later stage

As well as riot officers, the police were forced to deploy mounted units in an effort to control the increasingly tense situation

But there is a new element of vitriol. Anyone who dares vote Tory is fit only to be vilified. Indeed, one Twitter user tweeted quite unapologetically: 'I'll demonise anybody who voted Conservative, thank you very much.'

Faced with such threats, was it any wonder that the 'Shy Tories' – who were intimidated into not putting 'Vote Tory' posters in their windows – were severely under-counted by all the campaign opinion polls?

Once, the Left was proud of its fire-in-the-belly tradition of fair debate. But now, it's much easier to abuse, insult and demonise.

In any case, what we witnessed with the marauding anti-Tory yobs in Whitehall was not the desperate protests of a downtrodden minority. In truth, photographs of them suggested they were well-fed, well-heeled, radical-chic students, drawn from the same stable as Charlie Gilmour, the son of a multi-millionaire rock star who notoriously swung on the Cenotaph in 2011.

To their shame, they have been joined by a highly-privileged and well-paid ruling class left-liberal elite – university-educated, Guardian-reading, almost exclusively metropolitan – all hugely distant in attitudes and values from the vast majority of decent people of this country.

They constitute an arrogant elite aghast to find itself losing its grip on power.

Having fluffed the debate and lost the argument, on pretty well everything from immigration to the economy, they have only venom and spite to resort to.

Earlier in the day, the protest was peaceful with demonstrators holding home-made posters and placards complaining about the election