after the events of the last few days, see
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/01/361062.html
and
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/01/361139.html

it seemed unlikely it would be long before police harrassed her again.

she took up her usual position on the small traffic island near the churchill statue at parliament square so that tony blair might see her pink genocide banner as he is driven to pm's question time. she has done this many times before, and has always acted peacefully. she was there at 11.40 with another campaigner, kat, when parliamentary police unusually came over. they claimed they were concerned for kat's safety and started to push the two women off the island into the road. as the protestors walked towards the square, four burly policemen pounced on barbara, pushing her to the ground. they claimed they were 'arresting' her for 'potential breach of the police', but once she was taken to charing cross the charge was escalated first to 'obstructing a police officer' and then one of the huge men claimed he'd been assaulted by her.

her solicitor attended the station where she was held for seven hours before even being interviewed. a doctor was called because she has recently started suffering from high blood pressure due to all the stress of the campaign against her.

her solicitor is hoping that cctv footage with sound is available of the time when barbara was fingerprinted, where police were 'joking' about how they like to bully old women and children.

eventually barbara was released near 11pm this evening and is bailed to return to charing cross at 5pm tomorrow evening.

left-wing mp (and possible contender in a leadership battle) came over to parliament square again this evening, and is hoping to place an early day motion about barbara's plight.

in the meantime, it is possible that judge snow may re-impose the conditions threatening her with a spell in holloway if she appears infront of him again.

please remember all this repression is because this committed peaceful activist, who has never been in any trouble with the law before and who is a good mother and ex-social worker, wants to stand up to blair and challenge his illegal war.

and blair still claims we went into iraq to liberate their people and bring them a taste of our democracy.