Britain's Protest.

Today, March 26th the Trade Union Congress (TUC) organised a large protest in London against the British government and it's policies. March organisers are claiming that 500,000 people attended while the police and the BBC are claiming that 250,000 turned out. What we do know is that it took over three hours for all of the march to past the starting point so we are looking at of figure of at least 300,000 with a reasonable estimate of 425,000.

Although the vast majority of the march passed off peacefully there was also a highly effective black bloc action alongside the main march. In part this was due to the 4500 police officers on duty being totally overwhelmed by the size of the protest. It was also though due to the fact that rather then just standing around gawping and waiting for the police to turn up the black bloc used the much more effective tactic of attacking a target and then swiftly moving on to the next target. This meant that multiple banks and branches of multinational corporations such as Starbucks and McDonalds were damaged across central London. The most high profile targets attacked though were Topshop's flagship Oxford Street store and the Ritz Hotel in Regents Street. However if you look closely at the BBC footage of the attack on Topshop you can quite clearly see the moment when one of the most aggressive protesters (in a gray hoodie) has to duck behind police lines because his police radio has just fallen off his belt.

At around 15:30 Chris Knight's group, this time calling themselves the armed wing of the TUC, attempted to gather everyone into Oxford Circus to watch an effigy of a horse being burnt. The idea was that the police would then be able to kettle the protesters and contain them within Oxford Circus much as the did on Mayday 2001. The black bloc were too smart for that though and at the first sign of the kettle forming quickly left the area and continued their game of cat and mouse with the police. At around the same time members of the UKUncut campaign staged a peaceful occupation of the luxury food store, Fortnum & Masons in Piccadilly. This was done in protest against what UKUncut perceive to be tax evasion by Whittington Investments, the investment company behind Fortnum & Masons as well as other high street brands like Primark. Although no damage was done the occupation succeeded in closing the store for several hours.

By around 17:30 the main march had arrived in Hyde Park and begun to disperse. This freed up police resources to tackle the black bloc and the UKUncut occupation. While short of a full scale riot this led to some violent scenes as the police appeared to be taking revenge on those protesters who had failed to fall into the cunning little trap that the police and Chris Knight had spent so long setting up. All those who were occupying Fortnum & Masons were arrested for aggravated trespass contrary to sections 68&69 of the 1994 criminal justice and police act.

As of 21:30 things appeared to have calmed down considerably although protesters continued to occupy camps in Hyde Park and Trafalgar Square. There are now (23:00) reports just coming in that things have started to kick off again as the police attempt to clear Trafalgar Square. As the events are still going on details of arrests and injuries are still emerging but current totals stand at 75 arrests and 38 injuries including 5 police officers and there are unconfirmed reports that one protester has been seriously injured after being knocked down by a police van.