It was reported last night on Newsnight that a number of activists from the climate camp had held discussions with the Met during a meeting brokered by a Lib Dem MP yesterday. The police it was suggested were now confident that the Climate Camp was non-violent. You might have thought they would have already known that however!

This is how it usually happens - the "protest" leaders wanting to keep everything nice and fluffy, not wanting to actually change anything but simply keep making the same tedious points time and time again so they appear important (Campaign Against Climate Change etc). Ward Churchill had it right:

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"One will find hundreds, sometimes thousands, assembled in an orderly fashion, listening to selected speakers calling for an end to this or that aspect of lethal state activity, carrying signs “demanding” the same thing…and – typically – the whole thing is quietly disbanded with exhortations to the assembled to “keep working” on the matter and to please sign a petition.

Throughout the whole charade it will be noticed that the state is represented by a uniformed police presence keeping a discreet distance and not interfering with the activities. And why should they? The organizers will have gone through “proper channels” to obtain permits. Surrounding the larger mass of demonstrators can be seen others…their function is to ensure the demonstrators remain “responsible,” not deviating from the state-sanctioned plan of protest."

Laughable, isn’t it, that such a well controlled event – and this is the way every official rally I have ever been on works – should be considered a “protest” by the organisers? The laws in each country are tailored to suit the appetite of the population for change: a country full of people that want to fight for change needs to be kept tightly controlled; a country full of catatonic, drip-fed consumers can march all they like, be given a well-controlled soapbox on TV – and the voltage on the tasers can be turned right down.

That is, unless someone decides to break the law.

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(from  http://www.farnish.plus.com/amatterofscale/chapter13.htm)

for ffs