Accidental Protesting

Riot Police on Cannon St

Unite Members

Walking gets me into many situations. It just so happened that I walked into another protest in London after a friend had to cancel a meet up. So from London Bridge I walked to St Paul to take a second viewing of the Occupy London group - the whiff of piss from the port-a-loos occupying most of the space and the sound of a megaphone announcing where to wash dirty mugs and place for plastic recycling. One announcement was asking "Could you please reimburse me for the £200 that I put in to the Occupy Rally kitty", as the audience shook their jazz hands in agreement at another announcement that everyone should bring their own mugs from home instead of using paper cups.

I decided to move on after a coffee, and walked through Cannon St, noticing a helicopter hovering over head. I was a bit slow to realise that there was not one, not two but three helicopters and a mass of police surrounding a group of men outside a Costa Coffee, holding a red Unite Flag. "If anyone knows how to get to Westminster Square could you let us know? We haven't got the Knowledge," shouted a Geordie voice from the group - "But it doesn't look like we are getting anywhere anyway!" That was true enough - there were two policemen for each Unite member. 

Policemen organising themselves

But on I walked, after buying a disposable camera from an excited Boots employee. "It was wild earlier," she said, "They closed the shop and we got to stop working!". In fact the pubs were full of men with beers and Unite flags as I approached even more Police on Cannon St, getting nearer to the focus of the helicopters where a group of Police on horses with barriers kettled a, what seemed to be, large crowd. (In fact after hiring a Boris bike and cycling around the crowd, it turned out the protesters only took up the space of around ten metres).

A lady concerned with NHS care for he mother

A woman lay on the road near by, as if injured and being helped up by Police, but again it was another protester, this time to make aware of the problems with NHS care for the elderly, as she cried and screamed into the cameras that planned to film her. It seemed everyone was protesting against something, whether it was the NHS, Workers' Rights or Student Tuition Fees, as coffee houses continued to sell drinks and shops continued to sell stock to customers who walked on the street. London either seemed to take great pleasure in this event, or show disinterest.

I cycled through to Westminster, where Police held tents in their hands and laughed, and then I cycled back to Cannon St, which within half an hour, had emptied apart from three parked Police vans and two policemen which were talking to three Unite members who seemed happy to find that they all five were from Yorkshire.

Riot Police

And so I had another coffee, but as I was about to enter the branch of Costa, two teenage girls with thick London accents and head scarves asked, "S'cuse me, S'cuse me! Do you know the way to Trafalgar Square?" They held a banner with of Margaret Thatcher and David Cameron with devil horns, proclaiming, 'Same Shit, Different Day.' I /smiled and pointed them west, straight down the road. 

"Oh... Well do you know the way to St Pauls?" The large building was clearly in sight on the same road but at an equal distance East, which the protest must have travelled from. "Oh!" one said, and gazed blankly, confused. "I think they are starting in St Pauls. Thanks" and off they headed East, across the road... and straight in to McDonalds.

This summed up the day for me - it seems that protests have turned in to a new form of day out; a hobby in which valid arguments are turned in to extremely simple digestive nuggets and summed up by form of a festival.

I am afraid I can not help but be cynical. It seems extremely hard to define oneself as Liberal or Conservative in a world where points of view must be flexible enough to encounter a wide range of problems that need a wide range of solutions.

Police surrounding Unite members

Police at Trafalgar Square, confiscating tents

These protests automatically take an extreme leftist view with little realistic grounding that if a genuine leftist view is to be heard, it seems almost right wing. I wonder how much these days out help the situation or the economy? I feel that these events can belittle genuine concerns and create a pantomime that divide a political debate further. But I may be wrong.

An abandoned protest plaque and beer can