London Peace March - 22 March 2003

Here we move into an area that can only be described and conceptual art/wank. Armed with a staple gun, some plastic sheeting, duct tape and a lot of discarded placards, I began to build my own terror shelter.

A number of people watched me build over the hour or so that followed, which meant that my wanky installation had fulfilled its first purpose; to prove how easy it is to distract people with some duct tape and a few yards of plastic. The final touch was the 'out of order' sign. The point of this being?

Well, I would like to think that its pretty obvious. The shelter was soon surrounded by spectators, and delivering its message nicely. I left it to its job and headed over to the U.S. embassy in the hope that it would be inundated with protesters and therefore in need of an 'out of order' sign.

I was quite surprised to find it this quiet. Probably something to do with the (ahem) modest police presence.

I headed towards Oxford St, where I could see police blocking the road in even greater numbers. I met these chappies on their way back from what I assumed to be an effective redirection of the crowd.

These nice blokes were also on hand to discourage any unruly behaviour.

The protestors headed for the embassy had decided to take their stand where they were - by sitting down. Oxford St had suddenly become a pedestrian mall for peace, and the line of buses went back 6 blocks. I sat down and joined the protest.

The police moved in with a row of vans and an aggressive cordon. Sorry, but there's no other way to put it. They came at us in a line - too fast at some times - causing a very unhealthy crush, and pushing people over trash cans and benches in the name of public safety (to cries of 'shame' from the protesters and onlookers).

Here's a photo of the nice chap who moved me along. Things got interesting after this.

Click here to move on to Part 3