Thursday, October 23
Can't Think Of A Good Title
Fuck going to watch David Blaine in a perspex box (although I have to admit that I did stop to have a gander on Saturday night as I walked past after a solid night's drinking. Shame on me), the real entertainment is the two "Caped Crusaders" who have spent the last 48 hours on top of the Royal Courts Of Justice on the Strand in London.
I walk past this building a few times each day, on my way between my university and its library, and its been quite amusing to see just how many policemen there have been about. Yesterday there were also a number of supporters of the two protesters, who were promoting the Fathers For Justice campaign. There's a big motherfucker of a banner hanging off of the front of the courts as well, nicely decadent in purple, standing out against the near-white veneer of the courts building itself.
The main thing that has me thinking about this is why the police cannot force them to come down. I'm not sure whether the Courts are private or public property (I suspect public), which means that I don't know if they can be arrested for trespassing or similar. There also doesn't seem to be any public disorder resulting from their presence, just a few supporters congregating on the traffic island in the middle of the road.
How long can they stay up there? As far as I know, they are not imitating Blaine, in that they are getting food / drink / etc, so in theory indefinitely. How long until they've made their point? Who knows.
The Somewhat-Amusing-Rather-Random-Fact-Of-The-Moment
The single public toilet at the corner of Strand and Arundel Street has a maximum occupancy time-limit of 20 minutes. It says so on the outside...