This is a tale of two murals: one painted on the side of a building in Greenwich by an artist commissioned by the owner, the other scrawled on a building in Finsbury Park by a fly-by-night graffiti artist. You can probably guess which one the local authority has ordered to be removed under threat of enforcement action and a large fine, and which one has been welcomed by the local MP Jeremy Corbyn, who said he was ‘delighted’.

Once again, the law has been shown to be blatantly on the side of middle class taste. Chris Kanizi, who owns the Golden Chippy in Greenwich, just wanted to brighten the area up a bit with a painting of a bag of chips, a Union Jack and the words ‘a great British meal’. Many would argue that Banksy, too, has succeeded in cheering up a dull street in Finsbury Park with green paint splashed over a wall to imitate the leaves of a bare, pollarded tree.

While Banksy has the support of the middle classes, an advert for a fish and chip shop is just too oikish

But why are planning laws, not to mention property laws, continually bent in order to favour the pseudonymous artist when they continue to come down so heavily against anyone else who has a go? Banksy is not just tolerated: some of his works have been listed, so the owners of the buildings on which they have been sprayed couldn’t even remove them if they wanted to.

Surely, if Banksy’s works are to be welcomed by officialdom, local authorities should be happy to allow others to try their hand at street art too – at least where the owners have given their permission. But it won’t happen, of course. While Banksy has the support of the middle classes and, importantly, claims to have a counter-cultural, anti-consumerist message, an advert for a fish and chip shop is just too oikish.

It can’t just be a disregard for commercial adverts, though, which offends local authorities when it comes to them taking a dislike to people who try their own hand at decorating their homes. Patrick Spens, a homeowner who daubed Mary Poppins on the side of his property in Chelsea, seems to have offended Kensington and Chelsea council: he, too, has been ordered either to apply for planning permission or to remove it.

I wonder, though, whether Jeremy Corbyn – the local MP posed beaming for a photograph in front of the latest Banksy – has looked hard enough at the work and noticed its similarity to the ‘scribbled oak’ logo that David Cameron commissioned for the Conservative party. If I had a spray can to hand I would be tempted to hither down to Finsbury Park under cover of darkness this evening and add my own Banksy-style, ironic visual reinterpretation of the streetscape by adding the word ‘Conservatives’ beneath the tree, thus completing the logo. I just wonder how Corbyn would take it then: accuse me of a wanton act of vandalism, I suspect.