This is not a protest

For the first time in my life, I wish I lived in London. Mayhaps the completely non-rights-infringing-camerae (hehe) around London will capture this event and subsequent clash between people who /chose/ to dress as police and place their batons in the way of "strollers".

Either way I want to see what happens.

EDIT: from the fb group it seems that people don;t take their freedom to walk dressed as masked freedom fighters seriously:

Jeremy Poynton wrote
at 11:54pm on September 22nd, 2008
It's my horticultural course that day, else I might well be tempted!

Emma JC wrote
at 8:24am on September 22nd, 2008
school term honey, although I'd love to of course...xx

Neil Millar-Robinson wrote
at 5:39am on September 16th, 2008
Sorry dude - already booked - but all the best!

Andy Lynham (London) wrote
at 7:11am on August 18th, 2008
What the heck?!

Nina Petchey (Sheffield) wrote
at 11:47pm on August 12th, 2008
Not sure if i'll be overly pregnant by this point?

Voyd Dante (London) wrote
at 7:26am on August 8th, 2008
I see mass v& action if this happens

P.square is right in the middle of the exclusion zone

have fun in the cells with Bubba folks

Simon Baker (Sheffield) wrote
at 12:50am on August 6th, 2008
What difference can this make? I've lost all faith in everything. Sooner a massive catastrophe wipes us all off the face of the earth the better.

Sarah Freeman wrote
at 4:21am on July 29th, 2008
sorry, I'll be at work. hope it goes well tho

Sean Barry (Sheffield) wrote
at 7:11pm on July 21st, 2008
mid week rambling - nice for some but I have to go and shovel my soul into the corporate machine I'm afraid.

Nicky Winsor (Sheffield Hallam) wrote
at 7:06pm on July 21st, 2008
I can't as its midweek, but I will be there in spirit. Have a nice walk 80)

Good wesites:
http://www.freebeagles.org/
http://www.noliberties.com/youdo.htm

It might be worth posting a copy of this on the stamp forum i think there are quite a few Londoners there and maybe you could get a few of them to dress as Twoflower taking pictures of those 'officials' that take pictures of crowds who may happen to be out on a healthy walk now where is the wooden spoon smiley when you need it

I'm not on the stamps board alex - would you do the honours?

MS

well, what's the harm in taking pictures of MASKED saunterers?

Well there is this terahertz freq radiation that allows pictures to be taken thru clothing these days 'officially' they are not allowed to use them but what's the point of belonging to secret government organisations if you cant flout the law i mean the open government organisations are constantly breaking UK Data Protection Act 1998 as can be seen by the number of Data sticks/CDs/DVDs left laying about in insecure situations. So rememberer the tin foil under the mask

I would like to do this.
I am at work but could join you in my lunchtime.
BUT knowing the lack of sense of humour of the authorities, I dont fancy being thrown in jail.

so I am in two minds.

ah yes, the solution to all our covert survailance problems. Tin foil. Even so, you serious? they could see THROUGH masks?

If the masks are just paper or plastic yes i think so.

For more info see link below or use your favourite search engine for many other examples.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terahertz

but a brief excerpt

Security:

" * Terahertz radiation can penetrate fabrics and plastics, so it can be used in surveillance, such as security screening, to uncover concealed weapons on a person, remotely. This is of particular interest because many materials of interest, such as plastic explosives, have unique spectral "fingerprints" in the terahertz range. This offers the possibility to combine spectral identification with imaging. Passive detection of Terahertz signatures avoid the bodily privacy concerns of other detection by being targeted to a very specific range of materials and objects. "

The body privacy thing is the reason why its "officially" not allowed as its thought by some that its inappropriate for security guards to watch naked bodies all day as the radiation can be set to see thru clothing and bounce off skin it would also bounce off metal and i think ceramic weapons. Tho the way to circumvent this is be a Kylie Minogue roadie and as the security guys eyes are occupied you could probably get past customs with a couple of AK47's gaffer taped to the back of a guitar

Nah, I'm sure someone would get suspicious if they saw a roadie for Kylie carrying a guitar

MS

I find Kylie offense to all five senses. And I've never even smellt, touched, or licked her.

V for Vendetta is a good film.

Yeah, I'm surprised they didn't try and censor it.

Weirdly, they not only didn't censor it, but in a sense it was supported by the govt: the scenes of them marching on parliament were actually filmed in parliament square, and the place was shut down for 2 or 3 nights, IIRC. It was the first time any film has been given that privilege (tho of course that may only be because it was the first film to ask).

According to the wiki article, there's a theory that they only got permission in the end because Euan Blair (Tony's son) was working in the production team for the film.

MS

Someone should film the whole thing, and post it on youtube...then steal the terrawatt footage aswell?

Isn't that illegal? something about filming and protests and governemnt buildings not mixing comes to mind...

Doesnt hurt to dream...

so...how'd it go?

Hmm... not too bad, really.

There weren't the hundreds of ranks of masked strollers that I might have imagined in my vividest dreams - only about a dozen in costume, and maybe 30 others - but then I never really expected there to be. It was all about making a point, and seeing whether it was still OK to walk through London... Apparently not if you're dressed for Guy Fawkes night... Every one of the masked walkers was stopped and searched under section 44 of the anti-Terrorism act, so I have a little search card to keep as a memento of the day. It's certainly not something I've ever done before...

A few photos are beginning to come out on some of the political blogs - see particularly order-order.com (which is written by someone who's been using the Guy Fawkes moniker for longer than any of us).

All in all, an interesting new experience.
MS

yaaay, I want a search card

Well it seems it's still possible to go to parliament but try for more recruits next year. Say it's for V for vendetta 2, a lot of ppl seemed to turn out for the film.