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Mark Thomas , comedian, author, activist and dissident (nice CV) has been busy organising a series of “lone protests” in Parliament Square. The Guardian describes this as “designed to subvert the government’s widely criticised ban on taking part in protests within a kilometre of parliament without prior police authorisation. Each participant is being encouraged to apply to the police for a ‘lone protest’ licence (one demonstrator holding one placard)… The police cannot refuse an application made at least six days in advance… Mark Thomas, said: ‘What we hope to achieve is to put a sense of fun and play into protest. We want the police and the politicians to know that these laws preventing us from peaceful protest are ridiculous. The government needs to know that it has passed bad law.’ But he warned that any protester without a licence could face a �5,000 fine and even prison.”

And so last month (yes I really should update this blog more promptly) I joined around 100 other like-minded individuals to register my protest at Charring Cross police station. The day itself was good fun, and the police were patient and amused, if a little annoyed at people filming and taking photographs inside the station. One week later, on the 31st of August, I turned up to Parliament Square, to make my lone protest, and to join the throng. And quite a throng it was. There were probably 200 people, although I’m not very good at estimating crowd sizes. A token police force of 3 luminously-clad coppers ambled about on the other side of the square. Mark himself looked characteristically pissed off, or maybe he just hadn’t had enough sleep, it’s hard to tell.

There were all sorts of protests going on, and the atmosphere was one of mischievous fun and cameradery. A lot of people didn’t know each other, and it was great to meet new people and talk to them about their causes. I even bumped into two people who have signed the Art Not Ads pledge!

The last I heard, Mark Thomas is busy organising more of these protests, so check out his site for more info. I took a few photos of the event, so here they are:

From the registration day at Charring Cross police station:

And on the day itself: