After the CND rally against Trident replacement, several hundred of those taking part walked the short distance to Parliament Square and stepped over the low wire with warnings against trespass to protest with Occupy Democracy on the sacred grass.
It was the latest in a series of protests by Occupy, part of their attempt to introduce real democracy to the UK which has certainly resulted in some strangely extreme responses from parts of our establishment, particularly London’s Mayor and his private security force. Though there have been times when I would not have been surprised if they had called in the troops.
There are relatively few of Boris’s Heritage Wardens, but they seem to have been able to call on the Metropolitan Police to make some very doubtful interventions in the square. Its something that has been going on for some years; long before ‘Occupy’ it was the peace protest by Brian Haw and his associates, and later the Democracy camp that attracted their attention.
It has never quite seemed rational to me, perhaps because I’ve always considered Parliament Square to be a missed opportunity in London. Until fairly recently it was an almost impossible to reach square of grass, surrounded by traffic with no way to reach it except putting your life at risk and hoping not to be run down as you dashed across in the gaps. Now at least there are several light-controlled crossings to the central area, though still not one at the most used and most needed crossing point at the corner leading to Parliament St.
As grass goes, for a country which invented the lawn mower and prides itself on the quality of its lawns, from the striped close-trimmed gardens of suburbia to the sacred turf of Lords, Parliament Square, at least as long as I’ve known it, has always been a disgrace. It starts by being badly drained, but has never had the kind of care it requires and probably suffers from the wrong kind of grass.
But for an area at the centre of a World Heritage Site, the whole area is wrong. Closing the roads along the south and west sides might be a good start, but it also needs some sensible landscaping, which could also replace or cover the ugly defences around Parliament, while providing equally effective protection. We should long ago have had a competition to redesign the square, probably including smaller areas of grass with larger paved areas where protests and celebrations could occur. Although given the official lack of any care for the grass the current fanatical attempts to prevent protests on it are nonsensical, if the area was improved it would be sensible to try and make it more robust.
On this occasion at least the police behaved sensibly and did nothing but keep an eye on things, despite what appeared to be a certain amount of jumping up and down from the ‘heritage wardens’.
I listened briefly to the wardens complaining to the police, thenspent some time talking with an officer at the corner of the square where a crossing is needed, near the statue of Churchill. It seemed the police had no worries about a few hundred people having a peaceful meeting on the grass, but did fear that there might be some who wanted to show their hatred for Churchill by desecrating his statue on the 50th anniversary of his death on 24 January 1965. Although many revere him for his inspirational leadership in the Second World War, there are others who cannot forgive his hostility to socialism and the 1926 General Strike, support for the Black and Tans in Ireland, anti-semitism and opposition to Indian independence and other policies.
The protest caused no trouble and dispersed peacefully, though by that time I was home and eating dinner. There are a few more pictures at Occupy defy GLA ban on Democracy.
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My London Diary : Buildings of London : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage
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