By 5.30 this evening a small but noisy group of demonstrators numbering around 150 were shouting slogans and waving banners outside the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square. They had been corralled in by the usual police fencing, and the occasional wanderer was escorted back into the pen by a humorless police presence of some twenty or so officers including the ever present SO photographers - reinforcements stood by in vans, but it was generally a low key operation.

The crowd was made up mainly of students from several different colleges including LSE, UCL, Imperial, Goldsmith's, and Greenwich among others. An American female who had lost her parents in the WTC attack gave a short moving speech against war. The crowd kept up a steady stream of chanting and singing, as well as shouting out "shame" at any staff leaving the building. There were two large home-made banners tied over the railings too.

Despite the smallish attendance, the Socialist Workers were of course there, and had set up a little trestle table to sell their expensive tabloid toilet paper.

I left around 6.15 while the demo was still going strong, and walking up to Bond Street tube, I saw a group of 20-30 students from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine marching with a large banner towards the protest. They were on their way to distribute and deliver an open letter giving an analysis of the short, medium and long-term social and public health consequences of an attack on Iraq. The letter opposed war and was signed by around 240 staff and students. Well done LSHTM :)

Shame the demo wasn't more widely publicised, but lots of small demos with different groups all help to keep the pressure up, so well done to those that organised this action.