The Next Demo - We invite you to our own Civic Dinner

[Catwoman]

Home now - and just warming back up with a nice cup of horlicks & a cookie  We rogue bully boy bike protestors really like to live on the wild side 

Anyway, that was fun - didn't realise the panto season had been extended this year!

C.W.

[kaychanc]

Home now - and just warming back up with a nice cup of horlicks & a cookie  We rogue bully boy bike protestors really like to live on the wild side 

Anyway, that was fun - didn't realise the panto season had been extended this year!

C.W.

Thank you for the cookies C.W ! sorry if i popped up everywhere!

[themanwithaplan]

Well done everyone, excellent demo!

Not much riding involved but it was great fun and we were very vocal. I enjoyed welcoming all the guests, it was interesting seeing the different reactions. I'm sure we were the main topic of conversation in there.

I got the feeling Alastair Gilchrist came out for that fag in an attempt to Kevin Goad us. No sign of Chalkley, but I imagine he got there early to avoid us, or used a back entrance (wouldn't be the first time), the coward.

It was nice to see the Green Party supporting us 

I hope to join you all for breakfast in the morning, I'm feeling hungry just thinking about it   

[woodstock521]

Many apologies for this morning. Missed my breakfast club alarm....

Last night was brilliant.... persoanl highlights:
Chans bike pissing fluid all over parliament square!
Catwomans cookie (worth the wait!)
The cabbie getting the arse at parliament
Seeing the police sergeant telling all the other coppers that we knew our rights and not to touch us unless we crossed the street into the SOCPA zone!

[ldn1702]

Nice photos!

http://www.demotix.com/news/271611/no-bike-parking-tax-protest-london

[Grond34]

Great demo last night, thoroughly enjoyed it.  Gutted I couldn't make this morning, left a little late and checked for the text en route but there was no way I could get to Millbank anywhere near on time :-(  Better luck next week!  How did it go?

[templar]

We got shouted at by the Policeman in charge of Westminster. He wasn't very happy.

[Ogri]

He was a very rude man..he shouted at us and I cried a bit.

[templar]

Liar - you shouted back!!

It was this bloke I think:

http://cms.met.police.uk/met/boroughs/city_of_westminster/01whos_who_and_where_we_are/welcome_message

And as far as I can tell, he's basically number one policeman in Westminster. I wonder if Danny Boy knows him??

[FuBaR]

hehe it was excellent, I heard we caused a queue of traffic all the way back to the tate! Can't wait for next week! Some guy in a lorry got really pissed at someone on a scooter, and said to him if he didnt move he was gona hit him with the lorry, so he moved and then a bendy bus pulled out infront of him so he still had no where to go he did us a big favour gotta love public transport congesting the roads for us. Was the head of Westminster Police the guy in the black un-marked car? he told us to move or we would get arrested... we moved but it made no different to the mass of traffic      

[Ogri]

I dunno, they all look the same to me.

[MonkeyBoy]

Seeing the police sergeant telling all the other coppers that we knew our rights and not to touch us unless we crossed the street into the SOCPA zone!

So they WERE trying to intimidate us by claiming we were breaking the law not standing inside their death trap, sorry, cordon area

Why do the Police assume everyone is a terrorist and out to cause trouble? Don't they know we are a peaceful bunch by now?

[woodstock521]

Yeah they were really trying to cause some aggro... heavy handed policing at its finest. This is the closest I've felt at any demo/meet that there was actually going to be some trouble- and all from the police!
They were handing out bits of paper that outlined the SOCPA zone, which reading again this morning, were worded in a way to say "you have this bit of paper because we're about to arrest you."
A few of us pointed out that the exclusion zone ran down the middle of the road, and on the side we were on was outside it. 10 minutes later they all backed off. Citizens who know their rights.....scary!

[templar]

One of the police officers there was a good friend of mine, and he explained that they weren't trying to corral us because of SOCPA. According to him (and he is a very new beat officer, only been a cop for a couple of years), the organisers of the demo had apparently agreed to certain limitations, including the fenced off area. Also they had failed to ask permission to use a megaphone, which is why there were problems with that.

I tried to point out the many contradictions that exist in getting permission to protest in a free country, and not being allowed to roam freely in a free land, but his response (which I think was fair enough) was "Don't ask me mate, I just work here". He did admit that the SOCPA didn't count where we were, but his take on the corral area was to prevent an obstruction to the public highway, which includes footpaths. He did insist that it should have been agreed in advance with the demonstration organisers.

[themanwithaplan]

I wasn't too impressed with the police last night. I'm glad they saw sense about the megaphone in the end but I was unhappy that we weren't allowed to cross the road. I made sure I stayed outside their little pen at all times, as I don't see why I should be trapped between metal barriers while the councillors across the road blow £23,000 of our money! What happened to our freedom?

[MonkeyBoy]

I wasn't aware of any limitations and certainly didn't agree to them

I loved the leaflet, you will be arrested if you go against section 3 (no mention of what that was) or should be aware the demo was contradicting section 5 (again no mention of what it was)

So basically I could be arrested on two counts for not knowing what the hell they were on about - which is nice

No agreement in future, don't even tell them where we are going!!

[Catwoman]

I didn't get a leaflet    maybe I looked less like a terrorist because I was handing out free cookies 

C.W.

[MonkeyBoy]

Tony asked for a copy each - and they gave us one whole leaflet between us!!

You sure they were cookies and not explosive devices cleverly concealed? 

[templar]

I wasn't aware of any limitations and certainly didn't agree to them

I loved the leaflet, you will be arrested if you go against section 3 (no mention of what that was) or should be aware the demo was contradicting section 5 (again no mention of what it was)

So basically I could be arrested on two counts for not knowing what the hell they were on about - which is nice

No agreement in future, don't even tell them where we are going!!

The funny thing is that outside the SOCPA area (and we were outside it), you can flash demo to your hearts content, without getting permission from the cops. You simply have to ensure that the public highway (including footpath) isn't blocked, and that no-one is being threatened. That notice they handed out is crap, because it is all about protesting within the SOCPA area (I have it in front of me right now, and it mentions the act 3 times, despite the fact that their map shows we were outside the area.), not about our rights to protest in general.


I tried to explain this to my friend, at which point he shrugged his shoulders and mentioned he didn't normally do this kind of policing, he's normally being vomited on by drunks.

[Catwoman]

Tony asked for a copy each - and they gave us one whole leaflet between us!!

You sure they were cookies and not explosive devices cleverly concealed? 

Well actually some of them were loaded with a laxative - guess it was just pot luck who got those ones! 

C.W.