Once again a group of people descended on Parliament Square to defend the right to peacful protest which is being eroded thanks to the SCOPA laws (.pdf). Like last time it was completely legal as everyone had applied for permission from the police a week beforehand. It was by no means a massive protest and was perhaps a little smaller than the previous gathering. However the atmosphere was just as friendly.
The different issues that people were protesting against were just as amusing as last time.
Some favorites were:
- Ban all grammatical mistakes on signs
- Equal rights for pigeons
- Down with people who dress as the Spanish Inquisition
- Stop putting bits in cheese
- Ban the bendy bus (I wholeheatedly agree)
There were of course many more issues being protested both funny and serious. My attempts at photographing the event using just the camera on my mobile phone were predictably unsuccessful so all these photos are from Gareth at D-Notice. He has more pictures which you can see here.
These Mass Lone Demonstrations are set to become a regular event. After the protest it was decided by a show of hands to hold this event on the third Wednesday of every month at the same time (6pm - 7pm). On Wednesdays MPs are still in Parliament so they will see the protest. Of course as the winter draws in it will be darker, colder and probably wetter so if you plan on coming to future protests remember to dress appropriately and bring provisions.
If the weather becomes too bad to hang about outside Parliament, Tony Blair’s local pub isn’t such a bad place to go for some refreshment (and that is exactly what Gareth and I did once the protest was over). Hopefully these protests will grow in size as people realise the right to protest is a fundamental element of a democracy.
Tags: Protest
