I was in London this weekend just gone and decided to head along to the XR protest on Saturday.
This was part of an extended weekend of events called 'The Big One', with the main procession/ stalls on Saturday, billed as something of a family day, 'talking to London Marathon spectators' about climate change and some other things on Sunday and then it's making some noise while a Bill to Limit Fossil Fuels is discussed in Parliament on Monday.
I ended up going on my own as the person I was supposed to be going with ditched me for Dopamine Land (which had been planned well in advance apparently, but there you go!), and I didn't hang around too long at the protest as it just felt a bit odd being there on my lonesome!
I wondered around Parliament Square briefly and had a look at some of the stalls, and it was the usual mixture of animal rights, green activist and leftist book stalls, all fair enough, although I wasn't tempted by the rather limited free food on offer, it looked like generic brown, probably vegetarian slop, I may have been wrong but it looked horrible.
I then found a decent spot to stand near Vauxhall Bridge and just watched the march go past for a good long while...
It was an unusual mixture of couples and small groups of friends hanging around, mixed in with groups of becostumed people along the general earth-theme like these...
They were doing this thing where they'd walk about 20 paces, then stop for about a minute and then walk some more so it was VERY SLOW.
And the attempts at chanting various slogans were a bit embarrassed too, as if people weren't really into making that much noise!
Still, at least it was peaceful and family friendly.
I hung around for a while then wandered over the bridge for a coffee, met up with my friend and went down the pub, planet well and truly saved!