Mayday Protests

Posted on 2003/05/02 10:42:51 (May 2003) by john.

A bit of a non-event.

Yesterday I was in central London. I hadn't realised until the morning that it was May 1st, and therefore there were the usual protests planned. I'd considered not going, but in the end thought what the hell and went anyway. Two years ago I was there during the May day protest, and met lots of really nice good natured people, and the whole thing was actually quite good fun.

Yesterday I had heard on the news that some people were thrown out of department stores (maybe Selfridge's) in the morning for causing trouble, probably with good reason, I think it was something to do with the fur trade. On the other hand, I couldn't help but wonder if any of them go all the way to Brighton for their shoes. I was in a couple of department stores during the afternoon, but didn't see any trouble. I amused myself with the potential irony of being attacked by anarchists whilst in Liberty.

I wandered around quite a lot of central London, and didn't see a single protestor all afternoon. There were lots of police around, some with very big and scary guns. But not a single protestor. I heard one policeman commenting "It's too nice a day to come out and protest. You can guarantee if it was raining they'd all have been going mad". An odd philosophy, but maybe there was some truth in it.

Perhaps the country has devolved back into its familiar state of apathy. A million people protested against the war in Iraq on that famous march (I think it was the 15th February), but the government ignored them totally. So I guess a lot of people are probably wondering what the point of trying is. I guess people will just have to wait until the next general election before they can really make their voices heard. Perhaps.

I voted against the bastards yesterday evening, thankyou very much.

Posted by Jimmy at 2003/05/02 11:35:54.

Which bastards are you referring to there?

Posted by John at 2003/05/02 24:26:56.

Tony's cronies.

Posted by Jimmy at 2003/05/02 24:58:26.

Oh I see. On the downside though, apparently 35% of seats in the local elections were won by the conservatives. However much I disagree with the current government, I can't bear the thought that the conservatives might get back into power at the next general election. It's all down to lovely Mr. Kennedy and his chums to perform some kind of miracle in the next two years.

Posted by John at 2003/05/02 14:13:02.

I work very near Oxford Circus and was gutted not to get the day off yesterday - as my company has apparently closed the past two years on May Day. I kept up to date with what was happening on the websites, and it was kicking off a bit in trafalgar square in the afternoon, but apart from that nothing. Oxford Street, however, was much more pleasant than normal. It was very empty and I managed to buy a tiara without even queuing. I do want to know about the trouserless demo that was apparently taking place at Tot Court Rd in the afternoon. The slogan was `combat trouserism`.

Posted by Scabz at 2003/05/02 17:38:24.

Personally I try to avoid any demonstrations which might get hairy. 12 years living in South Korea has given me enough harrowing riot experiences to last me a lifetime. Running through streets full of panicked people, coughing and wheezing unable to breath, crying like a baby and unable to see anything because of the tear-gas... And then there's the masked student-rioters with molotov cocktail bombs and baton-happy riot police to avoid. Well, its -really- unpleasant. No fun whatsoever.

Posted by Omar at 2003/05/02 18:14:14.

The are no May-day riots. May does not exist. If anybody mentions such a month again, we will kill them like dogs, as we did the Americans who tried fruitlessly to invade Baghdad.

Posted by Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf at 2003/05/04 23:31:21.

Because most of the political parties have elements that I agree and all have elements that I don't, I've decide that I might form a new party called 'The Inn-dependant Party'... but then again... nah I can't be bothered.

Posted by Karl at 2003/05/06 12:26:21.

Inn-dependant... I like it!

Posted by John at 2003/05/06 09:12:39.

I'll drink to that!

Posted by tom at 2003/05/06 14:44:05.

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