So yesterday being the 5th of November, or if you prefer Traitors day, I toddled down to a certain central London public house along with two friends who’d come down from up north to join like minded people to go for a little walk as I’d done on previous years.
So having seated ourselves with a small beer we proceeded to wait with the expectation of other people turning up, a mask casually lying in front of us to help with recognition. The weather outside being inclement we suspected that it might be a low turn out, but midday came and went (the traditional time for walking) and no one turned up. This was awkward as we had no rose and I’d no plan, but none the less we sallied forth, myself in the lead as I’d done it before and besides ?I had both a sign and a better mask. My compatriots having decorated their masks themselves and done sterling job. So off we toddled towards Whitehall (personally hoping that we’d see other like glad people so I could slink away from the limelight (such as it is)) – but no joy and the rain wasn’t improving. I called for a pause to do up my coat and to come up with a plan – both having being achieved we headed off once more. Strolling down Whitehall we made our way past some slightly concerned looking police at Downing street. We did a slight circuit of Parliament Square, observing that the camp which had caused such consternation due to it’s spoiling the enjoyment of the square for other people had been replaced by two sets of concentric fences with guards in the middle making the square harder to see and impossible to enjoy. A few tents clung to this perimeter, so there are still camps, you can hardly see the square and no-one can enjoy it at all; bit of a win all round that I really must inquire of Messrs Dale and Johnson as to how the view the current situation.
Onwards to Parliament where we admired the wonderful security barriers before stopping outside the gates to pay a respectful one minutes silence to our lost liberties. By the end of the minute the smiling policeman at the gate was smiling less and talking concernedly into his radio – we departed before discovering who he was talking to. Back up Whitehall we walked the rain slowly lessening, pausing only to enjoy the British Legions piper and acquire poppies as I’d left without one. We returned to the very fine public house to replenish ourselves pausing only for a few photographs requested by passing tourists.
We later failed to find the Westminster’s bikers demo as I got the time wrong.
Despite the very low turn out I’m once more glad to have gone for this little walk, as it was still most educational. Amongst the many things I learnt where:
- My video skills suck
- Holding even a small video camera up whilst walking for 40 minutes or so is oddly tiring
- There are a lot of men in suits around Whitehall that really don’t like video cameras pointing at them
- Wearing a sign and having just a few companions can make a success out of a walk and save me from wussing out
- I really don’t like leading this sort of thing
So to the future, I’ll be back next year and the year after and… regardless but with a better plan and having done better at letting people know it’s going on. I still think it’s worthwhile, it may not achieve much but I can work on that we got good reactions and attracted attention and may even have made a few people think. I need to decide a clear set of criteria both for why I’m walking and for what I hope to achieve, which I think I have but more on that later.
If I can salvage anything watchable from the video of the walk I’ll post it up later.
So if you were there and I missed you I’m terribly sorry and if you weren’t there hopefully see you next year. Meantime I have plans…
Well done for going it (almost) alone. Im curious as to why none of the usual suspects turned up? Any clue?
Not a scooby, lack of advertising and bad weather perhaps?
I was delayed that morning and could not find you in the pub, so I walked down to Parliament and had a good look round, including the pub just behind Parliament Square. Unfortunately I couldn’t see anyone who fitted your description and I didn’t think to put the mask on to see if it would call anybody up.
Even in this day and age there are certain problems with lone women looking for men in pubs. It’s very difficult to explain “Have you seen a person or persons in a mask?” I mean, you can do that stuff in Whitby and be as safe as tea at Bothams, but try it in London and you get some very odd responses.
Having the afternoon and being able to see where I was going for once, I had a good look round. Road crews were frantically finishing off for Remembrance as they’ve decided to make it more like a public threatre and boulevard. However, bearing in mind your excellent ‘Ring of Steel’ post, I noticed that there have been tons of artfully situated bollards and walls which are in fact barricades and, although there are cameras, the real increase is in security men. There are extra layers of steel all over Parliament. If I was an MP, I’d be wondering if it is to keep people out or to keep me in. Sure as heck that place is going to be very difficult to leave if somebody orders it to be sealed.
There’s a certain hysteria which covers the area from Trafalgar Square to just past the House of Lords, but it is unevenly spread. I had a pleasant conversation with the lady police officer on the gates just past the Sovereign’s Entrance. There the armed officer was well in the background while she was on the gate. She had one of those pocketed vests on but nothing like the outlandish rigs they favour at Downing Street. She simply wasn’t afraid in the way some of the male officers are, but I don’t know why that is since her experience can’t be all that different to theirs. She seemed to very much enjoy her job despite the obvious aggravations and undoubted danger.
The majority of officers looked twitchy; they clearly expect to be at the centre of any concerted attack and Whitehall thinks that when it comes it will be a maximum-PR assault aimed somewhere in that few hundred yards.
As I was there I also went to visit the War Cabinet rooms. I’ve been meaning to for ages; I’m going to join the IWM as there is still a great deal I’d like to go back and see. I went back to the pub eventually and got another set of funny looks to add to my collection.
That’s a real shame to have missed you, we did hang around for a bit but then decided to just go for it. Next year maybe? We weren’t being that visible I suspect and were probably just far ahead of you enough to not see each other.
As you say outside of Whitby asking around in pubs for a masked man will get you very strange looks at best.
Yeah we noticed all those additional security features as well, they’re really quite subtle until you actually notice them, especially the crowd control barriers. Definitely more security people about as well. Though some of it seems to be at least as much for theatre as function. Unevenly spread is the word some of it almost screams “this building is important attack me”, they should have spent the money to run bollards along the whole road at least it would have made it far more subtle. Twitchy was the feeling we got, though again the “normal” police guy on the gate looked quite relaxed and smiley till we’d stopped and stood for a bit. You might like the little plan we came up with which is to do small “Westminster security theatre” walking tour to just help people take a look at what’s going on – going to have o poke around a bit more for that.
Damn we were in the pub for ages after but with our masks not so visible, next time I’ll try to make sure to hang a mask on the back of the booth.
Sounds good to me. I’m not much interested in twitting police officers; I have great criticism of them on a case by case basis but that’s not the point at the moment. Their behaviour is a product of what has happened, not the cause of it. I also don’t locate the decline in the NL years; there were grave problems during the 1980s.
My objections are political and are about the way English law and custom have been undermined – deliberately, I suspect. I agree with your later post about the loss of sovereignty. I just don’t go for the rhetoric of ‘pooled sovereignty in designated areas’. You can’t pool sovereignty the way you can’t pool virginity.
I had hoped during the election that the Conservatives would listen to their Eurosceptic wing. More fool me. Candidates were repeatedly told that a referrendum had to be offered, even if it was legally ineffective. Instead, despite Al Jahom’s dissenting analysis, I believe the result can be summarized as “Cameron has to parley with his socialist wing because he refused to parley with his independent wing.”
I must agree I’m not interested in winding up the police, the few dealings I’ve had with them they’ve been excellent – some of them at times deserve criticism but that is a separate matter. The problem is of course that some of the things they are asked to do is political, and they are being asked to assist (wittingly or not) in the destruction of our liberties. But as you say that’s an effect and not a cause, and whilst I was less aware in retrospect the slow erosion has been going on for an awfully long time. The aim of my little tours wouldn’t be to wind up the Police which is part of the reason I need to plan them sensibly but to point out to people what’s happening under their noses and in their name – pointing at physical barriers and barricades might have more impact than a discussion in the pub as it gives people tangible evidence.
Agreed I haven’t quite worked out how you can have pooled sovereignty – I’m sure I probably just need to be educated.
Had similar hopes, and I suspect similar disappointment. That’s a good summary and possibly a tragic one, despite how the media sometimes portrays the British public I suspect that a more independent/eurosceptic Conservative party might well have found a better welcome amongst the voters – they’d have at least been offering something more clearly different.
For me there is one tiny personal bright side in that I’m being forced to thing about and articulate what I’m for rather than the easy target of being against NL – which is a much healthier thing to be doing.