Protesters target Lord Mandelson as he takes charge
Lord Mandelson's home was besieged by protesters today angry at the closure of Britain's only wind turbine factory.
The Climate Rush demonstrators chained themselves to his railings and planted miniature wind turbines at the front of the house in Regent's Park as they demanded he invest in green energy.
Dressed as suffragettes, students Elly Robson, 21, and Ali Freeman, 22, bore the slogan "Deeds not words" on their costumes. They held up a banner referring to Vestas — the factory that was closed down on the Isle of Wight — reading "Mandy put some wind in Vestas' sales".
Protesters also targetted former cabinet minister Hazel Blears's car, which was attacked last night while she canvassed voters.
Vandals smashed the windscreen of the Citroen Xsara Picasso and slashed all four tyres while she knocked on doors in Weaste, Greater Manchester.
The Salford MP, who was at the centre of the MPs' expenses scandal, dismissed the idea the attack could be the result of a vendetta, saying it was "teenagers with nothing to do on a hot afternoon".
In London protests outside Mandelson's house included two demonstrators called the Yes Men, part of an American group who have performed stunts across the world exposing what they claims is corporate greed and the effect of climate change on the globe, and Tamsin Omond, 24, who founded Climate Rush and is the London co-ordinator of protest group Plane Stupid — and who chained herself to an aircraft at City Airport in June.
Miss Robson, from London, who is studying history at Cambridge, said: "We are going to get to a point where we can't stop catastrophic climate change. Closing Vestas shows a complete lack of regard for the problem we are all facing.
"If the government can bail out banks, they need to be bailing out our green future."
Miss Freeman, also from London, who is studying human science at Sussex University, said: "Climate change is not being given the same level of attention that climate science shows it needs. In this case, we decided to go straight to Peter Mandelson, as he has the power to change this."
The Yes Men, Andy Bichelbaum and Mike Bonnano, protest by pretending to be powerful people and spokesmen for prominent organisations. They create fake websites similar to ones they want to spoof, and then they accept invitations received on them to appear at conferences and on TV.
They have posed successfully as representatives of oil giant Exxon Mobile, the American government's department of housing and urban development and the World Trade Organisation.
Their documentary, The Yes Men Fix the World, will be released tomorrow.
The demonstrators vowed to stay outside the house until the First Secretary and Minister for Business and Enterprise returned from his holiday in Corfu.
The protest comes three days after bailiffs evicted workers from the Vestas factory. Six employees had occupied the top floors of the building following its closure, which ended more than 700 jobs.
