Last week’s Extinction Rebellion protest reminded me of Reclaim The Streets, and other demos I went on in the 90s. So I took a dive into my boxes of photos, and found these. The demo closed Oxford Road for a while in 1996. (I checked the release dates of the films on the Odeon billboard to get the year.)

The English Defence League were in town yesterday, grossly outnumbered by people who think they’re scum. I went along to video their protest and the counter-protest, streaming it live to the Internet (isn’t technology great). The videos are at qik.com, which doesn’t seem to allow embedding. No apologies for the picture and sound quality. They were shot on my phone and instantly available online, which more than makes up for it in my opinion.

Taking a break from following devolved cretins around the streets surrounding Piccadilly we took a wander to Dantzic Street to look at ruins and the stuff that had been dug out of them.

All the while things had been getting more heated on Piccadilly. We tried to catch a glimpse on the way back, but couldn’t get past the Police cordon. Much as I know it’s important for us to show the EDL how vastly outnumbered they are, I’m glad I didn’t hang around to get kettled into the Gardens.

Then we went to the pub to drink a wee bit too much and laugh at the special parking.