After a brief visit to Parliament Square, where there seemed to be a lot more tents on pavements than usual, the ride homed in on the financial district. I wonder why? There was joyful circling inside an expensive looking shopping mall and there were several circuits of Paternoster Square, where the London Stock Exchange is based. The corking of junctions by volunteers throughout the ride was excellent, as usual.

To start with the ride was painfully slow, due to the congestion and road narrowing caused by numerous roadworks. Cyclists using mobile phones didn't help either as the distraction seemed to affect their steering ability, especially while texting..Repeated hooting from over impatient drivers was greeted with jeering laughter and shrieks from very many happy riders.

Over the years London CM participants seemed to have been replaced. There used to be quite a lot of political activists, as well as riders from local cycling groups. Most of the groups advertised the CM ride but no longer do. Now there are lots of participants whose first language doesn't seemed to be English and Time Out regularly advertises CM rides but the London Cycling Campaign has stopped doing it. Maybe London CM has become more of a tourist attraction than a protest, though it still remains am enthusiastic celebration of cycling and still attracts large numbers.

There are very few problems with the police since London CM won its Law Lords case against them in 2008. Previously the ride was accompanied and controlled by about 20 cycle police and a police van, who were oddly missing every Christmas/New Year period. They used to order cycle sound systems turned off within the SOCPA zone and block the front of the ride at junctions. There is still very occasional ticketing of individual riders though, mainly for ignoring red lights.

London CM seems quite capable of looking after itself, despite incidents where riders are deliberately rammed at slow speeds by crazed drivers, which the police seem to ignore.

 http://criticalmasslondon.org.uk/