Notices by Daniel Durrans (dan@mastodon.durrans.com)

@skinnylatte @slothrop Attempt 1!

@skinnylatte Do you have instructions for this? I have ordered some pork belly!

@skinnylatte Oooh! *scroll back to find your Bristol posts*

#SilentSunday

@sand We only have two and the choice is Men's Big Hair or Curling. I went with the big hair.

@skinnylatte I would like to draw your attention to the little known documentary film “Cool Runnings” :)

@sand I call this the “last thing Friday email" where someone sends me a work email on a Friday afternoon that I can't resolve until Monday. It plays on my brain all weekend and I can't properly switch off.

I didn't realise gov.uk already had a web page that told you what day of the week it is… nice!

#Tuesday #govuk #ukgov

@skinnylatte Yes this! True in the UK where human healthcare is mostly free but pet care is absolutely not.

A CAT scan for a cat is a lot of money.

@Kuchenschwarte @skinnylatte I am not aware of a fee schedule for the UK. It very much feels like it is at the whim of the vet.

Pre-operation appointments with a consultant were costing me £300 each time.

CT scans were in the region of £1500 (I think we had 3 in the end)

@skinnylatte they were handing them out on the Malaysian Airlines flight I am currently 11 of 14hrs into.

I could see how it could work but it was, as you say, a lot when you aren’t really expecting it.

@skinnylatte we just tried some sea salt and egg yolk potato chips.

Not to my taste.

Gingerbread Doritos?

I’m not sure about this.

@skinnylatte You've been working at an aquarium too long when... 😉

8/n

I’m not exactly sure how it happened, but a large and shouty group of ‘right' managed to get into the top of Whitehall, blocking the ‘left’ from being able to leave.

Police lines formed and tried to keep everyone apart. Horse moved in and the odd scuffle broke out. Bottles were thrown. I also saw two fireworks thrown into the crowd.

My observations about the policing:

- There were not enough police on the ground to set up effective police lines with zones of separation. The lines were razor thin and made it impossible for the police to push either side away from each other.

- It could have been much more violent had people not had a certain amount of self restraint. The police wouldn't have been able to stop it.

- The police completely failed to keep the protests away from each other.

- When lines did form, they often separated people who belonged to the same group.

#London #Protest

7/n

Policing was a shit show. I feel for the officers on the ground because there simply were not enough of them to keep the left and right apart. The following is what I saw in the afternoon while walking around The Strand, Trafalgar Square (and that end of Whitehall), and Northumberland Avenue.

I was standing at the top of Whitehall. Small family/friend groups of flag clad people were making their way to the 'right' rally, having missed the start of their march earlier in the day.

The 'left’ was marching down The Strand towards Whitehall, with the vanguard of the protest arriving at their stage and started giving speeches.

A gap in the 'left' formed at the top of Whitehall and suddenly the ‘right' were there at the top of Northumberland Avenue and outside Charing Cross. Both sides shouting at each other. A razor thin police line formed to keep the two sides apart.

The ‘right' grew in number at the top of Northumberland Ave with police vans used as barricades. The remainder of the ‘left' filed into Whitehall, while people clad in flags shouted at them from either side (with the left shouting back I might add).

A group of Antifa stood around the statue of Charles I and were quickly cut off from the 'left’ in Whitehall.

By this point the crowds were as follows:

- ‘Right' at the top of Northumberland Ave, blocked by police.
- ‘Right' in Trafalgar Square
- ‘Left' in Whitehall
- Antifa around Charles I
- ' Right' down the bottom of Whitehall

#London #Protest

9/n

This is what the 'right's march towards Westminster looked like. I think that's Katie Hopkins that I managed to take a photo of isn't it?

#London #Protest

11/n

I love the Welsh word for 'police’

Heddlu!

Well heddlu to you too!

#London #Protest

10/n

I managed to get a bit closer, even with a security contingent keeping everyone back, and made a photo of the man himself.

Unless you were in this crowd, it is hard to describe how much they love ‘Our Tommy'. He is their saviour. They are following him, and he can do no wrong.

What I did notice was that his head was bowed down for the brief time I was able to follow this part of the march. It wasn't just to check his phone... this was over an extended period.

#London #Protest

13/n

Side note and general muzzings:

I think the ‘right' have an easy message on the streets, which to me is summed up as, “your life is a bit shit, it has been a bit shit for over a decade, there is little hope for it getting better, all these others are the problem, join us and your life will be better.”

Whereas the ‘left' has a harder message on the streets, which to me is summed up as, “you need to care about all these causes, some of which are in countries far away, and there is no easy solution, and these streets... the ones you are standing on and that your parents stood on, and their parents… they belong to us... a group of people who you already struggle to relate to”.

#London #Protest