“Put People First” G20 Demonstration
March 28, 2009
Yesterday, a huge march took place in central London in response to the G20 Summit which is being held next week. By huge, it seemed a lot bigger than the Bush protests a few years ago, and those were massive. However, officials reckon around 40,000 people took part.
There’s been a lot of talk about the G20 Summit, mostly centering around possible riots that could take place. Of course, the media loves to sensationalise these things, and the protest was incredibly tame. So tame in fact, that I struggled to find many interesting things or people to take pictures of :P
Still, the protest was headline news which can only be a good thing. After all, the purpose is to raise awareness.
This man makes regular appearances at protests like here in 2007. He was out again with a lovely positive message for us all.
This man sat at the bus stop and fiddled with a radio for ages, tuning it until he got to a classical station. He then sat with a cigarette, listening to his music acting totally oblivious to the movement around him. Legend. I don’t know if he realised the road was closed to traffic and therefore no buses would be arriving any time soon. Oops.
People congregated around Embankment and Temple Stations where the demos began.
Two of the four “Horsemen of the Apocalypse” who are part of a coalition of anarchists, communists and green activists. Collectively, the operation is known as the G20 Meltdown and they will be out again next week to demonstrate in the financial district.
The protest had a heavy police presence. This is what the front of the protest was like, which I’ve never seen before.
Aww :D
So, next week in City (financial district) we’ve been told to dress down at work, cancel meetings and people have also been advised not to go into work. Major disruption is expected, but we shall have to see if all the media hype materialises into reality. All this talk of riots.. if we were in France I’d believe the hype!
For more information on the G20 Summit – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G20_industrial_nations
Information on the protests – http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/blog/2009/mar/23/online-guide-to-g20-protests
2nd February, 2009 – South London
Last Monday, I woke up to this:
10cms of snow : )
I was starting work at 7am that morning, so I left the house before 6am, knowing it’d take much longer to get in.
It turned out to be impossible. You see, when it snows (which it rarely does on this scale – but even a sprinkling has a similar effect), life in London comes to a standstill.
All buses had been suspended the night before, and this was the state of my train station:
A train arrived but the driver said it wasn’t going anywhere because a train in front had broken down. Not surprising. In this city, public transport isn’t the most reliable on a good day.
Normally at this time my station would be busy, but most people had clearly decided to stay in. People stood around, staring at the screens wondering when any train would arrive.
My camera clearly couldn’t cope with the extreme change of temperature:
It was amusing seeing people loitering around wondering what to do and how to get into work. I’ve never seen so many strangers talk to each other!
Eventually, it was announced that all trains were suspended. With literally no way of getting into central London, I walked back home.
There was only one shop open on the high street – a butcher’s:
I asked the butcher why he had bothered opening. He told me that the shop had been around for 100 years, and a bit of snow wasn’t going to stop him now. Even during wartime it had stayed open. That is serious determination and resilience! Quite rare really these days.
He invited me in and showed me some old pictures.
Until now, I had never even noticed the shop even though I walk past it every day..
Of course, the snow was headline news for days. It’s funny how a bit of white fluffy stuff can bring lives to a standstill. I was happy enough to see my town looking the best it’s ever looked.
The next morning was a similar sight:
This time I managed to just about get on a train, although most of the snow in central London had turned to grey slush by now. The ice that followed, on the other hand took about a week to clear, and meant that walking to the station was a seriously dangerous mission! What would normally take 5 minutes took 20, and I could dedicate an entire blog entry to just how bad the roads were! Us Brits love to rant about the weather.
Bring back the snow I say!
I never got to build a snow man. 
