Anarchy in the U.K.

Last Saturday, Anne and Mark attempted to visit the sights along the Thames (not sure how that is pronounced, but it definitely does NOT rhyme with 'James') River in London.  Unfortunately, their path was blocked by about 200,000 British protesters.  Maybe they heard Anne and Mark were coming.

Readers of this blog will remember (*editor's note: in actuality, we doubt that anyone who reads this blog will remember anything that was posted earlier) that Anne and Mark already had to change travel plans due to unrest in Egypt this semester and missed a bus due to an afternoon-only strike in Amalfi, Italy last semester (*editor's note - Anne and Mark have committed to not visiting Wisconsin any time soon due to recent protests in that unsettled area - also because the Packers fans are super annoying after they win the Super Bowl).  Always attempting to avoid conflict, they chose a nice, safe location - the U.K. - for a long weekend and boom -> protest.  Not to be paranoid but... are all of these people really protesting the visit of Anne and Mark?

In Madison, Cairo and Amalfi, Anne and Mark believe the answer is no, but in the case of the London protest it is all together possible.  Anne and Mark stood near the protest for some time (they really could not go anywhere else with such a large crowd blocking all the streets), but were not able to figure out exactly what the protest was against.  The photo above seems to show a protest against austerity measures.  But is that what these people are protesting?

Protesting troop involvements in far away wars?  Ok... but what does that have to do with cuts to the salaries and benefits of public employees and education?

The Cornwall and Isle of Scilly contingent appears to be actually promoting their nut industry rather than protesting anything...

Standing up for the rights of "Thing" from the Addams Family?  Seems like a good cause, but it makes you ask the question - why now?

Not sure exactly what was going on, Anne and Mark decide that they should probably ask someone...  Who looks like they know what's going on???

Caption contest: "Just back from Mardi Gras - What a Party!" or "Why so serious?"

.... um, no.....

Kent Brockman?  Maybe he could tell us, but he looks busy (holding his own boom microphone?  this guy is a real pro)...

How about this guy?

Tony.

Say what you will, but the grown man in the tiger costume smoking a cigarette and appearing to be wildly inebriated at one in the afternoon raised some interesting arguments regarding the current coalition government and its attitudes toward the business community vis-a-vis the working man in this economic recovery period.  He then added, "Theeeey're GREAT"

So, eventually, Anne and Mark figured out that the protest was arranged by an organized labor entity, but was joined in by "organized anarchists."  Ok, a few problems with that.  If an anarchist organizes, does he cease to exist?  This is like a procrastinator who gets an early start or a lawyer who tells the truth - it immediately ceases to be the thing it was before, aye mate?

Second, how do you get anarchists to show up on time and stay on point?  Apparently you don't.  They protest whatever they feel like, whenever they want, in whatever way they feel like (of course they do, they're ANARCHISTS!)

In this protest, they took some interesting tactics.  It was reported in various sources that they attacked a branch of a bank with bottles and rocks and occupied a department store (not sure what the goal is when you occupy a department store, but then again, Anne and Mark are not anarchists).  The next day, Anne and Mark drove by the area of one of the protests and surveyed the damage.

The heart and arrow was deemed to be "cute" and will be on display for 3-6 weeks.

This graffiti was found on that common target of protest - the Ritz Hotel.  The A with a circle around it is a symbol meaning anarchy (probably?).  What did Ritz do to upset the protesters?  It's not clear - again, they're anarchists.  In any event, this probably really got the attention of the establishment annoyed some poor janitor who had to clean it up on Monday.  But department stores and hotels were not the only targets of the anarchists.  They also stuck it to the banks and the press.  Kind of.

The plywood covers a window broken in the protest.  Spray paint spells out "Beat the Banker" on the next window.

Ok, I realize that you are saying that the newspaper is right wing.  However, your arrow is actually pointing at the left wing of the angel in the logo.  I'm not telling you how to protest, I'm just saying...

But this is not to say that the protesters were all violent or all anarchists, this is a small group.  For the most part, it was a huge, peaceful protest.  And it appeared to have been well planned.  Anne and Mark saw promotional materials for it far out into the English countryside.  And it appears that the protesters were well informed of their rights by the organizers.

Box at the bottom: "For more information, get a bustcard."  Bustcard?  Is that like a 'booby prize'?