We walked alongside the samba band near the front of today's march. Compared to previous marches, numbers were much lower and police presence much higher. Despite that, there was a short symbolic sit-down at Piccadilly Circus, and a little bit of running around and space creation.

After listening to some of the speeches at Trafalgar Square, I took a stroll up to Grosvenor Square hoping to take part in the 'Picnic For Peace' there. This must have been a little after 3 o'clock.

At the Square, all the gates were closed and police were posted at each gate. The US Embassy was heavily fenced off and the cop there told us that they "had some intelligence (I resisted the obvious joke) that a group known as the Wombles were hell bent on defacing statues and damaging property" and so the area was no-go. We wandered off singing the Wombles theme tune and asking the bored looking coppers whether they'd seen any Wombles yet.

So, today's protest was really a damp squib - depressing really!

What the fuck happened to our Summer of Protest? - not an auspicious start.

Other breaking news is of course the queen mum's death. I predicted this would happen before June 4th so that the Firm could scale down their jubilee plans without looking like they were intimidated by the planned anti-monarchy protests.

I just hope people are going to be really creative and make something special happen on Mayday.

Peace