hearing adjourned till this afternoon. boris dropped part of battle for now.

more than fifty supporters arrived at the high court this morning to contest the papers served on behalf of the GLA to remove them from the square.

the papers name rebecca hall, brian haw, barbara tucker, and other persons unknown as the respondents, and they comprise both a possession order (as the GLA manage the parliament square gardens on behalf of the crown, who were given the land in 1999) and also an injunction to stop the various breaches of bye-laws and restore the square "for the general use of the public".

as so many people had turned up, a bigger court room had to be found and by 11.30 this morning, everyone was piled into court 76 at the top of the building. there they waited, and waited, and waited. after about twenty minutes an usher made the announcement that the judges were held up by an over-running previous hearing and that proceedings would commence 'shortly'. various people called out they were in no hurry and could come back another day if wanted!

after cigarette breaks and soaking up the hot sun, people returned another half hour later for further announcement. the judges were nearly finished in the other case, but then they'd have to have lunch, so the hearing was adjourned to 2pm.

and so justice grinds on.

outside the court was a spirited demonstration.

we DID hear that at the last moment the GLA had decided to drop the injunctive portion of their case, relying on a simple possession order. the papers also separate out brian haw and barbara tucker and recognise the right they have won to continue protest in the square, but re-inforcing that that protest must be conducted only from the pavement (owned by westminster council) and not from the grass, (managed by the GLA on behalf of the recent owner, the queen).

more news later........