Friday Night

Saturday, April 1st, 2006

I was supposed to be meeting some friends and colleagues at the Philharmonic pub in Liverpool on Friday night for a leaving do. Except no one had noticed that Condoleezza Rice was going to the Philharmonic Hall across the road. So we adjourned to a pub further down the hill. This isn’t going to turn into a political blog but there were a few things I saw worth mentioning…

On my way there I noticed news crews filming pieces to camera near some road works. The road works have been there for a couple of weeks and have a couple of weeks to run. They just happen to have really big, solid plastic structures that block the road. Now I didn’t see their reports but call me cynical but given the camera angles and the handily placed protestors it could have been they were attempting to make the road works look like some sort of security barricade.

The demonstration seemed to be noisy but actually quite small. Jack Straw’s comment on the Blackburn Town Hall demonstration “If they had asked me I could have done better for them.” reminded me of an episode of the “West Wing” where Toby tries to explain to a demonstration organiser how to organise a protest so it works.

When the protest broke up some placards were abandoned and then briefly used to make clubs by a couple of ASBO seeking youths. The police clipped their ears (metaphorically speaking) and sent them on their way. If you want to change the world start by cleaning up after your demonstration.

As the demonstration broke up I spotted several people I went to university with who were walking away in the crowd who were dressed like students. Maybe it’s me but it’s over ten years since we graduated maybe its time to move on to new challenges? I wont say they should get a haircut because I need one 🙂

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