Hundreds of Pasty Protestors braved the pouring rain on Sunday afternoon

From OAPs to toddlers and from Plymouth to Penzance snack-fans furious at toffee-nosed George Osborne’s 20 per-cent pasty tax plans joined the throng.

The swelling crowd massed on Falmouth’s Moor and made their way through town to Events Square for rally speeches and local bands.

Ned Robertson, 27, from Plymouth, Kit Thomas, 32, from Calstock, 29 year old Tricky Matthews from Metherell near Callington and Joe Scarrott, 32, from Golberdon, turned out with colourful banners.

Kit explained: “I’m pissed off George Osborne wants to tax my pasty.”

And Joe added: “We’re all fed up with being taxed for this and then that and everything else – now he wants to get his hands on our pasties – and we’re not having it!”

The Keating family showed up with twin tots Madeleine and Freya proudly displaying their ‘Keep Your Hands off My Pasty’ poster.

Dave Keating explained: “This is Madelaine and Freya’s first protest: we’re raising revolutionaries!”

And the twins mum Estelle added: “I think with the average wage so low in Cornwall a 20 per-cent levy on the Pasty industry is going to make a massive difference.

“The effect on the local economy could be phenonemal and hopefully the march showed how strongly we all feel about it.”

Little Madelaine and Freya backed up Mum and Dad by shouting: “What do want? PASTIES! How do we want them: HOT!”

The event was organised by local comic Ed Rowe; the 33 year old from Falmouth headed the march as his popular character ‘Kernow King’.

Ed told us: “It was minging weather. But there must be been between 500 and a thousand people here; it’s a fantastic turnout.

“Highlight of the afternoon has to be Andrew George speaking to the crowd ahead of Porthleven Dinghy Club.

“But we were all really pleased with the turnout. Everyone made a fantastic effort.”

The Pasty Tax saga kicked off when the coalition decided to slap VAT on pasties and pies as they went cold for this years budget.

Cllr Alex Folkes got the ball rolling on Facebook with his Say No To The Pasty Tax page, currently standing at 6,000 followers plus.

The Pasty protest caught the national mood and before you could say ‘Don’t Tax My Pasty’ the nationals were all over it.

Pretty soon the Prime Minister had made a total arse of himself in Parliament wibbling about a pasty he’d never eaten at a railway station somewhere in the dark recesses of his addled mind.

Then Deputy MP Nick Clegg was forced to apologise on TV after Cornish Lib Dem hopeful Joseph Swain unfairly blamed the Tories for the disastrous VAT-hike.

And finally Lib Dem MP Steve Gilbert stepped in line for general pillory after comparing hot pasties to a hitherto unheard of brand of hot caviar.

A rebel vote against the pasty tax was defeated, but Cornwall’s united MPs are still hoping to lay on the pressure.

Local Cllr and deputy opposition leader Alex Folkes turned up to back the march.

The Launceston Cllr said: “In Parliament, all Cornish MPs backed the campaign to abolish the pasty tax.

“This is a campaign where, regardless of party, Cornwall is united against a proposal which will cost jobs and hurt our economy.

“Local MPs and councillors are working closely with the pasty manufacturers to make our case to ministers.

“We are still hopeful that they will see sense and withdraw this stupid idea.”

“The more people who come along to the march on 29th April, the louder our voice will be heard in Whitehall.”

Meanwhile Penzance teenager Chris McKee celebrated the AntiPasty Rebellion by baking a cracking ONE FOOT LONG traditional snack – pictured above.

The sixteen year old posted: “A Big Foot Long Pasty, that’s what the Cornish want, and without any Pasty Tax attached ”

Chris went on: “Here’s my giant home made pasty measuring a whopping 1foot 1inch in lenth and 9inch in width.

“Now thats a proper job well done!”

So well done one and all!

Now don’t forget to say Kernow King’s anti-pasty tax prayer before you go to sleep tonight!

THE ANTIPASTYTAX PRAYER

Tastin the bewtie
Of a real Cornish Pasty
For ever and ever
YumYum

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Upper crust Tories from the Prime Minister downwards have been falling over each other to convince the public they enjoy the pies they’re mercilessly taxing – and failing hilariously.

Prime Minister Cameron boxed himself into a unsavoury scandal dubbed Pastygate , after lying through his teeth about when he last bought one of our national snacks.

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne was made to look an even bigger tit than usual after a Labour MP mocked his posh, pasty-deprived background.

Evil twin from hell Ed Miliband made almost as big a fool of himself by rictus grinning like a dead idiot as he toured a bakery and tucked into a sausage roll.

And across the UK ordinary people sick of being taxed for no reason joined Cornish Cllr Alex Folkes’ Facebook revolt to protest the complex and gratuituous tax on “Goldilocks’ food that’s neither too hot nor too cold – but of ‘ambient’ temperature.

Mr Cameron was knocked flat by Pasty Power yesterday (Wednesday).

The 45 year old Etonian told a packed press conference: “I’m a pasty eater myself I go to Cornwall on holiday. I love a hot pasty.

“I think the last one I bought was from the West Cornwall Pasty Company who, I seem to remember, I was in Leeds station at the time.

“The choice was whether to have one of their small ones or their large ones and I’ve a feeling I opted for one of their large ones – and very good it was too.”

The West Cornwall Pasty Company at Leeds station has been closed for the last five years.

The news came to light after reporters at the world’s second biggest online paper the Daily Mail asked Network Rail about Cameron’s pasty boast.

The day before Parliamentary proceedings got underway with notoriously posh George Osborne taken to task over when he last bought a take-away pie.

Labour MP John Mann asked the Chancellor: “When’s the last time you bought a pasty in Greggs?”

The toffee-nosed Tory replied: “I can’t remember the last time I bought a pasty in Greggs to be honest with you”

To which Mann hit back: “Well – that kind of sums it up.”

Finally Labour loser Ed Miliband got on the pasty-wagon and posed for reporters at a bakery, opposing the VAT hike.

The out of touch MPs are clamouring to cover their arses as it emerged the pasty tax is a bureaucratic farce in the making.

Nobody really knows when it will apply, and to what.

Cornish critics have pointed out from day one that taxing food judged to be at ‘ambient temperature’ is going to mean a field day for busybody bureaucrats.

South East Cornwall Conservative MP Sherryl Murray stormed: “Surely the last thing we need is to employ an army of thermometer wielding tax inspectors poking our pasties to see if they have cooled enough? 

“If a pasty is sitting in a window and the sun is shining then is this pasty VATable? 

“If a pasty is sold cold but an oven is made available to customers, is this then VATable? 

“Would it be VATable if a charge was made for the use of the oven?”

Cornwall’s six MPs, three Tory and three Lib Dem, have all joined forces to lobby for the Pasty Tax to be scrapped.

North Cornwall MP Dan Rogerson is going to see if the Cornish Pasty’s EU protected status might mean it’s disqualified from the ‘ambient tax’.

Local Lib Dem Deputy Leader Alex Folkes is still pushing his ‘Say No To The Pasty Tax’ people power campaign .

And last but not least on the Lizard Ann Muller, independent pasty maker extraordinaire, told CCN she had found an immediate solution to the new tax.

Ann explained: “I’m going to put a sign in the window reading: ‘Pasties: Hot for the Rich, and Cold for the Poor’”

To add your name to the 2,500 people from across the UK who have joined the ‘Say NO’ Facebook page just click this sentence.