Cheer up everyone, it's almost Pims o'clock

First of all, a word about the young lady in the photograph above.  Her wedding went ahead, despite St Paul's cathedral being forced to close due to the hoards of protesters who have 'occupied' the area surrounding the main entrance.  She looked wonderful and I hope she enjoyed her day, despite the distractions.

It's raining men, hallelujah

A week has past since the protesters failed to occupy the stock exchange, settling instead for the steps of the cathedral.  Plenty of time for the rest of the 99% of the nation the protesters claim to be, to get down there and show their support for the movement.  They didn't.  The reason they didn't is that the protesters do not represent 99% of anything, let alone the population of the UK.  They are a  confused bunch, with most representing a eclectic mix of little known protests.  We do not live in an Arab country.  No-one has self immolated due to high taxes in this country, we might complain a bit, I even heard of someone paying their tax in 1p pieces, but set themselves on fire - no, not in this country.  If they want to see what it's like to  really suffer at the hands of a govt, they should sod off to somewhere like Libya or China.   We have our problems in the UK but lets be honest here, they are nothing compared to those countries whose protests  the UK protest movements try to emulate.

If there ever was a chance that this protest would cause trouble and therefore hit the headlines, it was Saturday.  The Dale Farm activists are now without a cause.  The East End was hosting an Anarchist book fair which regularly draws crowds of 1000 or so. There were two other demonstrations going on in London on the same day.  In other words, there were lots of left wingers in London on Saturday.  Why did they not come to support the occupy St Paul's cause?   There were one or two 'faces' but they seemed to be on their own.   The smart money is on the thought that the 'occupy' movement is just too soft and cuddly.  The trouble makers will be saving themselves for the two big protests in the coming month.  No point in getting lifted with the 'cuddlies' and having bail restrictions that stop them taking part in the big demos is there? More on this point later.

Cuddly and naive

The naivety of the occupy protesters is breathtaking.  This is seen time and time again.  An example of this was demonstrated in Starbucks.  I was sitting filing some shots on my laptop  I was wearing a press card around my neck.  No one could mistake me for anything other than a photographer.  Despite this, three members of the camp came and sat at the table behind me.  They were fuming.  It seemed that one of their number had done a runner with £105 of their [the protests] money.  No one knew who he was, or why he had been trusted with the money.  They continued on the theme of protests and 'things'.  Lets just say that what they were talking about should not have been said in a public situation, especially not within earshot of the press.  What they said was noted and some of it will provide an opportunity for me to steal a yard or two on the competition during the coming weeks - providing they don't have the same conversation with one of the undercover cops currently plying their trade in the St Paul's community!

The occupy mob are an easy target when it comes to ridicule.  I am as guilty as anyone.  My posts have been littered with comments about lentils, veggies, tofu, etc, etc.  Hey ho, that's life eh?  The following is a true recollection of a conversation overheard, again in Starbucks, but earlier in the morning and in the queue.  There were four of them.  Two guys and two girls.  It seemed that they had been on the piss the night before.  There body language marked them as a pair of couples.  They looked a mess.  The conversation went like this -

1st male - Ah man, I feel like shit dude
2nd male - Yeah me too.  God I need a coffee
1st Female - I'm going to have a cold drink
2nd Female - So am I.  A nice cold fresh orange
1st Female - Shrieks and jumps up and down excitedly,  OOOhhh know what I fancy? a big jug of cold Pimms with loads of fruit and ice, mmmmm.

Kinda says it all doesn't it?

The protesters had tweeted that they were going to march around the financial area.  The arrival of the samba band (yeah, them again) signalled that perhaps the march was to be soon.  Despite heavy traffic, around 3/400 of the crowd just marched and danced onto the road and away from St Paul's, led by the samba band.  Cops were running about trying to get into position.  It seemed despite the twitter warning of the intended march, they had been caught on the hop (again).  Don't they have intel watching twitter?  Or instead of working on actual situations, were they sitting in an office somewhere filling in mountains of paperwork relating to whatever  the out of touch, shiny arsed, high ranking, never seen an angry man, office dwellers  have decided is a good idea.  During the day there was only a token police presence at St Paul's.  There were others in vans parked around the area, but the march was well underway before perhaps 7/8 vans managed to catch the march and could only tag along at the back.  Mind you, perhaps there were not enough on duty.  Cuts don't just affect the great unwashed.

The march shouts at Top Shop

   They marched towards the Bank of England but turned left just before they arrived there.  Approx a mile later and they suddenly rushed onto Finsbury Square.  There were already four or five tents pitched and a huge protest  tripod set up.  So there it was - the occupy mob had occupied another square in London.  The cops could only look on as more tents were pitched. 

I keep calling the protesters 'Occupy St Paul's, or Occupy LSX', well from now on I'm going to refer to them by the name they are more commonly known by 'UK Uncut'.  Yes, that's right, the same mob who last year regularly trashed Top Shop, among a host of what they perceived as targets.  They seem to have been re-born though.  During the march from St Paul's to Finsbury Sq, the march went right past the doors of a huge branch of Top Shop.  I braced myself for the paint bombs and smashed windows that normally happen.  However, aside from a few choruses of 'pay your tax', there were no incidents at Top Shop.  There was not an anarchist flag in sight.  There were no people with their faces covered.  Perhaps the rumours of a leadership split in UK Uncut are true.  What could cause a split?  UK Uncut have been happy to work hand in glove with the anarchists in the past?  Could it perhaps be that a well known union has decided to 'donate' some funds, drawn from the subs paid by their hard working members?  Could it be that the same union could not afford to be associated with anarchists and violence, not now, not with a campaign to disrupt the Olympics underway?  Time will tell!

More photographs from the day are available at www.mitchell-images.com