I'd estimate about two hundred people showed up for this vigil, and for quite a while it was actually two rows deep - something I haven't seen in this city for a vigil since the heady days of the 2003 pre-Iraq War protests.

Some folk even went to the lengths of making little cardboard squares to stand upon, in the hope that this would stop their feet getting too cold!

Also in attendance was Local Liberal Democrat MP David Howarth, who stayed for about an hour. In fact he was the only local MP to show solidarity with this action - the others were conspicuous by their absence.

Many Saturday shoppers slowed down or stopped to investigate what was happening, some even taking pictures of this massed act of compassion. On the whole, there seemed to be no negative reaction shown by the wider public to this demonstration of solidarity with the Palestinians' plight, which should be seen as very encouraging.

Now all we have to do is get the Israeli government to show a little more of the same mercy to the Palestinians, trapped as they are in two of the planet's biggest Open Prisons. Gaza with it's 1.5 million inhabitants, crammed into a tiny area of land on the southern coast of The Mediterranian, and the West bank with it's approximately 4 million besieged occupants.

Strange times we live in, where in effect a whole (unacknowledged by Israel) country's population can be held under House Arrest by another state.