Cheapside Protest

Favourite; the die-hards who were paying no attention to the bus. 

Ian and I got off in Bank today and found ourselves wandering around the ghostly quiet business district for a couple of hours before we toddled into the Museum of London. We also found this rather boring (except there was a UK photo editors' choice awards which was the best part). 

Then we turned the corner in Cheapside and saw all of these people piled into the corner with picket signs. Naturally, I gravitated into the throng of people and Ian patiently followed. 

The protest was really lame and ill planned for the most part. Everyone not involved in actually protesting was either unable to escape the police blockade, taking pictures, or just along for the ride and commenting on how pointless it seemed. It got a little more interesting when the protestors milled into the street and sat down shouting. The only serious talk that was going on was people being interviewed by individual journalists. "Job cuts as a result of the recession," says Ian, is what the demonstration was about. However, the only excitement was when the buses were stopped because of the protestors and back-up police slipped in to shoo everyone off of the street. 

All but a core group of approximately six guys seemed relatively impassioned and uncommitted to the whole thing. There were a lot of legit cameras. After the police moved everyone onto the sidewalk and got the buses moving again the crowd dispersed almost immediately. The police officer in front of Ian seemed chill enough so I asked him directions to South Bankside. He very nicely gave these to us as if he were a traffic guard and not a man with a nightstick and helmet strapped to his belt.

For your entertainment, here's Ian in the fray: