Alan Moore on austerity measures and protests.

I saw this recently, and with the various economic woes in the Eurozone and the US, I thought it relevant.


I saw footage of you recently campaigning against the closure of your local library. What are your thoughts on the cuts and the situation we're in?

"AM: I think it's completely indefensible. I think I understand what has been happening economically, pretty much since the collapse of the Berlin Wall. It's the bankers and financial institutions who have knowingly got us into this mess. Either they did knowingly or they were unbelievably stupid and incompetent. This is not even capitalism any more. Capitalism employs a rough and ready Darwinian survival of the fittest. The banks have become like monarchies. They are too big to fail, too big to punish. They are above parliament. Banks are treating themselves as if they were a new class of fiscal royalty. The kind of royalty they most resemble is Charles I. He was above parliament and not accountable for his lavishness. He put the pinch upon the country to the point where the poor people simply starved.

"No, this cannot be tolerated. You cannot have libraries, schools and things that people need for a basic standard of living taken away while George Osborne is making deals with companies to allow them to make better use of tax havens because they are threatening to take their business elsewhere. There are alternatives. We are not all in this together.

"I'm all in favour of anti-cuts demonstrations. And it's always very pleasing to see so many V for Vendetta masks in the crowd. I'm very proud of those boys and girls."