Mass Lone Demonstration and Carol Service

The last Mass Lone Demonstration of 2006 was as much fun as the others I've attended only much, much colder. It really was freezing but that didn't stop a bunch of die-hard democracy fans assembling in Parliament Square once again to make a mockery of the idiotic SOCPA law which forbids protest in the vicinity of the Prime Minister's office without written permission from the police which has to be obtained a week beforehand. There was the usual amusing array of diverse protests; from "Fair Pay For Elves" to my own "Stop the Surveillance Society".

After protesting for an hour, we gathered under the statue of Winston Churchill to break the law by singing Christmas carols, an event organised by Tim Ireland of Bloggerheads. Veteran peace protester Brian Haw was presented with a new and more powerful loudspeaker and then the singing commenced in candle light, and very tuneful it was too. Pausing only briefly for some mince pies, we sang:

• O Come All Ye Faithful
• Away In A Manger
• Little Drummer Boy
• The Twelve Days of Christmas
• Deck The Halls
• Good King Wenceslas
• The First Noel
• Joy To The World
• We Wish You a Merry Christmas
• Jingle Bells
• Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer
• Santa Clause Is Coming To Town
• Amazing Grace
• God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
• Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
• Silent Night
  

Sorry, I didn't record any of it. Christmas carols aren't usually my sort of thing but this was really quite charming and it again highlighted the utter stupidity of a repressive law. A collection was made for sick children in Iraq and we also had a minute's silent reflection. The police were nowhere to be seen. Obviously they decided to keep an even lower profile than they did last year.

By eight o clock it was all over and we took our frozen bodies down to the Red Lion to thaw out before moving on to another pub to continue the festivities. Among the revellers were Rachel, Gareth from D-Notice, the Disillusioned Kid and of course Tim. As soon as they post something on the Mass Lone Protest, I'll link to it. You can see higher resolution versions of these photos here and Gareth has some more over here. I expect Indymedia will have some more pictures soon.

*UPDATE*
Here are the links to the reports from some of the other bloggers who attended:

• Rachel
• D-Notice
• Disillusioned Kid
• Rabbit Strike
• Bloggerheads
  

If I find any more I'll update this post again. Oh, and we managed to raise £85.93 (and 70 euro-cents) for Medical Aid for Iraqi Children.

Tags: Mass Lone Demonstration, Protest, Democracy, Civil Liberties