Those of you who are not familiar with the comedian-activist (activist-comedian? comediaist? actimedian?) Mark Thomas should make yourselves so. His primary occupation is as a stand up comedian. Nonetheless he has also done some of the best investigative journalism about the shame and disgrace that is the British arms trade. His book on the subject
is well worth a read (enlightening and funny).
As a reaction to the "age of terror" the government has passed legislation that has made it more difficult to protest in London. All protests, unless given prior police approval , in Parliament Square outside the Houses of Parliament and much of central London, are prohibited. Many believed this legislations was passed specifically to force protestor Brian Haw out of the square. The law, as implemented, has even led to the arrest of those wearing "political" t-shirts.
Where others saw repression of free speech and creeping fascism Mark Thomas saw an opportunity. The law, as passed, requires that all of those who wish to protest within the exclusion zone (does this affect Speaker's Corner?) must apply to the police for permission however the police can only refuse the permit on public safety grounds.
And so the was born. The idea being that hundreds or thousands of individual protesters could apply for permits independently of each other thereby inundating the police with work and paper.
Now Mr. Thomas has gone one better. He has staged a one man (with assistants) serial protest all around the exclusion zone with twenty one separate protests (and twenty applications and approvals) in a day. Having obtained the necessary approvals he heads out for a day a protest covering such diverse and serious (or not) subjects as:
is well worth a read (enlightening and funny).As a reaction to the "age of terror" the government has passed legislation that has made it more difficult to protest in London. All protests, unless given prior police approval , in Parliament Square outside the Houses of Parliament and much of central London, are prohibited. Many believed this legislations was passed specifically to force protestor Brian Haw out of the square. The law, as implemented, has even led to the arrest of those wearing "political" t-shirts.
Where others saw repression of free speech and creeping fascism Mark Thomas saw an opportunity. The law, as passed, requires that all of those who wish to protest within the exclusion zone (does this affect Speaker's Corner?) must apply to the police for permission however the police can only refuse the permit on public safety grounds.
And so the was born. The idea being that hundreds or thousands of individual protesters could apply for permits independently of each other thereby inundating the police with work and paper.
Now Mr. Thomas has gone one better. He has staged a one man (with assistants) serial protest all around the exclusion zone with twenty one separate protests (and twenty applications and approvals) in a day. Having obtained the necessary approvals he heads out for a day a protest covering such diverse and serious (or not) subjects as:
- Reduce Police Paterwork!
- Trolls for London Bridges!
- Ban Static Mimes! (those buskers in silver suits and face paint who expect you to throw money in their hat because of their uncanny ability to remain motionless.)
- Give MI5 a Nameplate! (The ostensibly secret security service in housed in a rather striking modern building perched on the bank of the Thames in Vauxhall but there's no sign or acknowledgement on the building as to who or what is resident there. Of course everyone knows anyway so I'm not actually telling the terrorists something that they didn't actually know.)
- Big Brother is Shit (Outside of Channel 4 who are responsible for Mr. Thomas's television show.)
- Take Kongra Gel Off the Terrorist Organisations List! (Kongra Gel aka the KGK is a Kurdish group that Thomas believes that the UK and the EU have wrongly claimed is a terrorist group. As any show of support for KGK will contravene anti-terrorist legislation he has written his placards in Kurdish hoping that no on will notice.)
He ends his day back in Parliament with a protest in support of making "Protest Mandatory". Unfortunately there has been an illegal anti-war protest in front of Parliament and the square is filled with police arresting these threats to society. The police are concerned that there might be difficulty. Fortunately he is saved by the officer in charge who assigns him to officers to "escort you into the square, find a bit of it that isn't in the thick of the melee, and make sure you can legally demonstrate without getting any hassle from any of the other cops."
We may have silly and repressive laws but at least the coppers are generally polite!
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