Plodding towards Parliament

Plodding towards Parliament
To London Bridge by bike to ride with the cyclists in the climate campaign march. On our flanks, yellow-and-black clad biking bobbies on very serious machines: the Force was with us. At one moment, intimately so, as a blonde policewoman stumbled against me and I was swept by a sudden enthusiasm for women in uniform.

At Lincolns Inn Fields, there we lay down and wept; or I might have, as I find these events vaguely depressing, were it not for the sound system of the Rinky-Dink, belting out cheerful music while volunteers like Bev provided pedal power.

The rear part of the march moved off to the rhythms of pink-clad percussionists, more of a dance than a march. They played their hearts out, a welcome antidote to an otherwise glum plod towards Parliament.

There was little of the sharp humour of the anti-war demonstration in New York that produced

How did our oil get under their sand?

I left at Berkeley Square, having no business at the US Embassy that day. No matter how richly they deserve it, it is folly to use foreign political leaders as lightning rods for our energies. Or oil companies, for that matter.

We need rather to understand both politicians and corporations as expressions of our own desires; that it is our enthusiasm for cheap energy and our unwillingness to give it up that determines what they do. They respond to how we vote and spend rather than what we say; and they are very, very attuned to how we vote and spend.

A leaflet from Action On Oil proposes reducing oil production and demand together. The writer believes that since there are few large producers of oil, this is an easier task than reducing demand. Rationally this makes good sense, lest restraining demand (for, say, petrol for cars) lowers oil prices, leading to increased usage for other purposes. Reducing supply and demand in step would prevent oil prices falling.

Rising Tide had the best leaflet I saw, and promotes the Art Not Oil group.

Today the Parliament Square Picknickers beat the bounds of the Democracy-Free Zone established for 1km around Parliament by the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (2005).