Popping into the Bank

Today, thousands of protestors have decended on London, and converged on the bank of England. You have have heard that some have already managed to get on the roof of RBS, and you'll hear lots in the press and on the news about this as the day wears on.

Many bars and shops are boarded up and there are thousands of police here, but what was it like to be there.

Well, my workmate and I popped up to have a look, along with the press and lots of tourists.

For those of you that have ever been to an outdoor concert or to Pride it was rather like that. There was a brass band and music and the sunshine was glorious and if we'd been in Hyde Park I'd have taken out a picnic.

We'd walked through lines of policeman and women on our way in and after ten minutes of so we decided to come away, only to find our path back to work barred.
Each policeman we asked gave us the same advice to keep going left and we had done half a circuit of this cordoned off area, before a more senior police officer told us that we couldn't get out and to watch out for a funnel of people leaving that would let us know which exit had opened, we took this on board, chilled and stood around. However, not everyone was getting this advice and other people around us were becoming stressed and annoyed as they couldn't get back to the office, or to St Paul, depending on whether they were a worker or tourist.

It is strangely very frightening when you are told you can't go where you want to or that you are surrounded by a circle of police officers. Some of you may know that I lived with a policeman for many years and have a lot of respect for the profession, but on all the Pride marches and Section 28 demos I have been on I've never been trapped.

I know the police have a heard job and are trying to control a situation, but if anything is ever going to make me 'kick off' it is the feeling that I am being caged in.

So I hope that the protests pass off peacefully and I hope that those who need to listen do, but it is worth remembering that in many countries of the world you still do not have the right to protest and can be imprisoned for your beliefs, that God or goodness or common sense that it doesn't happen here....very often