About 20 people went this morning to public question time in the lovely big gothic town hall. In the service of justice, truth and democracy the City Council have a public question time where members of the public can talk to other people who they have voted for (or more usually not).

This morning, there was a motion put forward to the City Council about the right to protest in Manchester. I won’t go into too much detail, cause its been done before and is on Indymedia. But briefly, the M & S picket has been totally done over for having the audacity to consistently stand outside M & S with a pastetable, a few placards hanging over the railings there and some leaflets. Scary bad stuff for M & S who clearly are concerned with the fact that they are not quite making enough money. M & S then push the City Council into proscecuting the picket (they said this in court – not me).

So there we go, stage set, back at Manchester Town Hall. There was a motion to be put to the Council about the way people protesting in Manchester are treated and some possible solutions.

But the motion could not even be put. People knew that it was unlikely that specific questions could be asked regarding the picket (because its going to appeal at the moment), but our understanding was that the issue is also about the right to protest in Manchester, so we can talk about that. (The way people in Manc got totally harassed and bullied on the street, forced to move on, to shut up…were threatened with arrest from the police and pushed around by street wardens… up to recently – its because of this going on, they’ve backed off now, if they win they will be back) but no. We can’t talk about anything.

Questions were not allowed from the public. There had to be a vote for the public to be allowed to stay (and, ooh, guess what, we lost). People were not even allowed to know what the motion was. And in the end, the council refused to discuss the motion.

So then people asked the questions anyway. Loudly. Much uproar.

The question is what happens next…..