Photo by BEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty ImagesLife & CultureNewsMilkshake Girl is the political prisoner of our timePolitical prisoner Victora Thomas Bowen has been charged with two separate crimes for chucking a dairy-based treat at Nigel Farage. And the UK dares to call itself a democracy?ShareLink copied ✔️June 6, 2024Life & CultureNewsTextJames Greig Everyone loves Milkshake Girl, the girl who threw a milkshake at Nigel Farage – everyone, that is, except the Essex Police. After capturing the hearts of the nation with her dairy-based stunt, which took place on Tuesday during the former UKIP leader’s election campaign launch, Victoria Thomas Bowen, 25, has been charged with “assault by beating” and “criminal damage”. Throwing a milkshake might sound trivial. But what if she’d dropped a piano on Farage’s head, and when he opened his mouth his teeth had been replaced by piano keys? What if she’d fed him a stick of dynamite disguised inside a tempting apple pie? What if she’d drawn a road on the side of a cliff, thus tricking him into running into it and being flattened like a pancake? Suddenly, it doesn’t seem quite so light-hearted, does it? It is, of course, ridiculous that Victoria is being persecuted by the state for exercising her democratic right to yeet a milkshake at a far-right politician. This shouldn’t be a criminal matter, but if it absolutely has to be, then the charges should be more honest. “Assault by beating”? Really? With a milkshake? “Common tomfoolery,” “aggravated shenanigans” or “actual bodily hi-jinks” would be more appropriate. No one who tries to draw a comparison between a young girl throwing some milkshake at Nigel Farage and a far right extremist fatally shooting and stabbing Jo Cox should ever be taken seriously about anything ever again.— Alfie Potts Harmer (@ahtralfie) June 4, 2024 When it comes to the question of whether it’s ok to throw foodstuffs at a politician, it turns out that everyone is a hypocrite. Several of the politicians and pundits who spent yesterday hand-wringing about a grave attack on democracy, it turns out, had reacted with glee when Corbyn was egged in 2019 (this actually goes a little beyond double standards: the guy who egged Corbyn punched him in the head while doing so, which is just plain old assault.) I admit that I didn’t like it when Corbyn got egged and I did like it when Farage got milkshaked, which might seem inconsistent. But there’s a clear and simple moral framework underpinning it: it’s funny when bad things happen to bad people. Is this you @JamesCleverly?Boom. https://t.co/qRz4clyRT0— Marina Purkiss (@MarinaPurkiss) June 5, 2024Expand your creative community and connect with 15,000 creatives from around the world.READ MORE InstagramHow do you stand out online? We asked two Instagram Rings judges InstagramIntroducing Instagram’s 2025 Rings winnersVanmoof8 Dazed Clubbers on the magic and joy of living in BerlinWe asked young Americans what would make them leave the USKiernan Shipka and Sam Lansky know what makes a good memeWhy are young people getting married again?Grace Byron’s debut novel is an eerie horror set in an all-trans communeNot everyone wants to use AI – but do we still have a choice?Mary Finn’s message from the Freedom Flotilla: ‘Don’t give up’Are you in a party-gap relationship?For Jay Guapõ, every day in New York is a movieDakota Warren’s new novel is a tale of sapphic obsession