Charlie Gilmour has, for a brief moment in time, eclipsed his adoptive father (Pink Floyd's David Gilmour) in his media presence but for all the wrong reasons.

Why has this young man become the face to the mayhem that swept across London during the tuition fees protest? Is it because he was particularly violent and aggressive?  no it's because his mother married one of the world's greatest guitarists.

If it were any other young lad out to bring down the establishment  we probably would have seen a quarter of the media attention Charlie has had. But he is a man who has spent his teens and early adult life living the opulent life offered by multi-millionaire parents.

It is this background which the public at large find a bitter pill to swallow with regards to his legitimacy to protest in such a manner, but once again the public are wrong.

Charlie Gilmour is not the offspring of a businessman and a middle class ballet teacher. No, his biological father is none other than Heathcote Williams the notorious anarchist, poet, songwriter, actor and artist whose exploits during the 1970s rival those of his son's.


After Charlie's father abandoned Charlie and his mother Polly Samson it was Pink Floyd's David Gilmour who stepped into the parental role for young Charlie and lovingly adopted him as his own child after marrying his mother.

To find fire in the guts of Charlie Gilmour is not to be unexpected. But at the same time it is in no way a reflection on the love and stability offered by David and Polly or any wrong doing on their parts and this is something which I am sure any parent who has watched their children grow up will recognise.

It is called rebellion.

We all did it in varying degrees in order to establish our personalities outside of the confines of our upbringing and if your upbringing was unconventional then the rebellion may well be exaggerated.

When your parents are themselves known rebels then what form does your rebellion take? Do you chose to conform with society that your parents have questioned? Probably not if it goes against every core value you developed during your upbringing.

However you will seek approval and that is what I see when I look at the photos of Charlie Gilmour, a young man looking for approval from his mother, father and adoptive father.

I do not condone Charlie's actions which were extreme and may well have been premeditated (which he denies) but I find it hard to point a finger at what is to be fair a brilliant expression of the human soul to establish itself and act through the desire we all have to please.

His actions on the Cenotaph were disrespectful and distasteful but many young men and women have no idea of the significance of that statue. And I am sure in years to come as he grows up he will squirm at that photo in which there is no pretence and by that I mean he looks like a privileged twit trying to look cool and it makes him look like a laughing stock.

Only with age, maturity and wisdom do we get to regret the foolish works of our childhood and that is the luxury of hindsight.

The manifestation of Charlie's coming of age rebel yell has been a bit unfortunate in as much as it has singled him out unjustly and demonised him through sensationalism.

We should expect great things from young Charlie who has made a mark without the assistance of his parents or reality television, you may not like what he did which was basically stupid yet there was brilliance in it.

He was photographed continuously and spotted in all the hot spots with the demeanour of an awkward almost geekish rebel without an IPod.  He had a sense of how to make himself known even though he looked more like Richard E Grant's Withnail Character from Withnail and I than he did Che Guevara.

Naughty boy Charlie but still rather an amusing and brilliant execution of a flawed and unfocused rebellion none the less….which actually makes it all the more brilliant.

However 'de law iz de law' and he must face up to his actions even if it is his generation that pays for our excess.

Judging this young rascal smacks of hypocrisy, of course the young will commit such acts as those by Charlie Gilmour because they are angry to be saddled with our debt whilst we tell them how very silly they are  to protest and attack our great monuments which they perceive as emblems of a nation which has rested the responsibility of debt squarely on their shoulders.

The tuition fees protest is simply the cause these young people felt affected them most directly so what will happen when austerity begins to really bite? Will we see the parents of these children out on the streets protesting?

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