Daily Mail: He may have shelled out £1.4million ($2,216,201 US) on a Hollywood Hills mansion. But self-styled revolutionary Russell Brand decided he was the right man to lead a protest against inflated house prices in a fashionable area of London which he frequents.
Dressed as a street urchin, the comedian led his first action against Britain’s richest MP Richard Benyon and his brother Edward after their family firm bought a housing estate and inflated the rent. More than 90 households within The New Era Estate in Hoxton, East London, fear the plan to charge ‘market rents’ will treble their bills.
The star, who is worth £9million ($14,247,007 US), invited people to join him for a day of ‘Dickensian fun’ to protest against the ‘three Scrooges’ – Boris Johnson and the Benyon brothers. He was seen attaching a fake eviction notice to a Benyon Estate property and hanging a banner which said ‘social housing not social cleansing’ to the scaffolding.
‘As you know property developers – in partnership with corrupt, inept or lazy politicians – have created a housing crisis for ordinary people all over the world,’ he said on his website. ‘I bet your rent is soaring; I bet you are finding it hard to pay. It’s especially bad in cities, and for this first action we want to focus on London.
‘In Hoxton, East London there is a diabolical situation that we need your help with. The New Era estate provided affordable homes for ordinary working families (they ain’t that ordinary I hang out with em – some of em are right weirdos). ‘Then unfortunately (and I’m partly to blame by moving in and being so cool) Hoxton became ‘trendy’.
‘That’s when the old Etonian Edward Benyon (brother of richest Tory MP in Britain Richard Benyon), along with billion dollar American property firm Westbrook, purchased the property. ‘They backtracked on the deal to keep the estate as affordable housing.’
At least 100 people turned up to the first stage of his revolution, which had a heavy police presence.
But the sales figures may further fuel his reputation as ‘a champagne socialist’ – after he ducked out of left-wing demonstrations in London to head to an exclusive celebrity-packed West End party.
Two days before the ‘peaceful’ protest, he wrote on his website: ‘Dress up as a pauper or an urchin – pretty soon you’ll have no choice if they get their way – and support The New Era residents whose demands are simple – to stay in the homes they’ve worked to make their own at the rent that was agreed.
‘I’ll be there – I’m either going as Fagin or Elephant Man – I know he wasn’t a Dickens character, he was a real bloke, but he was Victorian and he was exploited.’
The tables were turned on Russell Brand earlier this week after Twitter users started using a Blur song to mock him on the internet. Whenever the outspoken 39-year-old posted messages online in recent days his remarks have been met with the response ‘Parklife’ – the name of one of band’s best known hits.
This is because Twitter user Dan Barker posted a line from the comedian’s book and remarked that his writing ‘feels like someone is about to shout “PARKLIFE!” at the end of every sentence’.
Berkshire MP Benyon is a director of his family’s 300-year-old Englefield Estate, which owns 20,000 acres of land from Hampshire to Scotland. Its portfolio includes the 250-property Benyon Estate in East London which is now a ‘minority shareholder’ in the flats on the New Era Estate. His brother Edward Benyon confirmed the family was part of the consortium that snapped up the social housing.
DCG