David Cameron decoy debacle in Margate

Anti-Cameron protest, Turner Contemporary (74 pics)

The Tories don't exactly have a good track record when it comes to the flagrant squandering of public money.  While driving the mentally ill, disabled, desperate, vulnerable and poor to despair and often suicide with increasingly severe and barbaric cuts aimed at saving a relatively small amount of cash, they think nothing of throwing vast sums at pointless nonsense, much of which benefits wealthy public schoolboy chums.

So it probably shouldn't come as too big a surprise that when the hugely unpopular David Cameron visited Margate to 'cut the ribbon' and open the ugly blight on the Thanet coastline that is the London Array wind farm, all sorts of convoluted and no doubt very expensive tricks were used to ensure he got in and out of the Turner Contemporary without having to face the crowd of protesters waiting outside to greet him.

Dozens of police surrounded the Turner.  Likewise private security bods.  Lots of very obvious spooks tried and failed to look unobtrusive at various points around the gallery.  A 'select' audience was chosen for the private function which closed the public car park, and this seemed to include very few people from Margate.  Helicopters came and went.  Several (obviously deliberate) false alarms went up that Cameron had arrived.  It was as though a much hated dictator like Robert Mugabe was due to appear, rather than the democratically elected leader of a free country.

Finally at some time around 9.45am, a Land Rover suddenly screeched along Margate seafront and dangerously lurched on two wheels into the Turner car park.  I think the driver had probably been watching old episodes of the Sweeney.  The vehicle was there and gone so fast that the waiting press snappers barely had a chance to think about getting a shot.

The activity and general demeanour of the gathered police and security were meant to suggest this was Cameron arriving.  But it wasn't.  The prime minister wasn't in this car.  When it left approximately an hour later, I was one of the very few people who got any kind of picture of the occupants of the Land Rover.  None of them was David Cameron.

I suspect he either left via the rear entrance, where further police, security and undercover officials loitered near two black Mercs, or was in one of the various helicopters that came and went.  I would be very interested to know how much this decoy pantomime cost to put on.  And what the overall cost of this one short visit cost taxpayers.  Given that Cameron is out and about all the time, huge sums of money must be spent smuggling him into and out of locations so he never has to face the increasingly angry public he is supposed to represent.

Take a look at the photo above.  The guy in the back seat, adjusting his tie in exactly the same manner Cameron does, is clearly not the prime minister.  The man to his left wasn't Cameron.  The passenger next to the driver wasn't Cameron.  And the driver, obviously, wasn't Cameron.  Was he in the following silver vehicle (with blacked out rear windows)?  Possibly but I doubt it.  Was he in fact being spirited away via another exit?  Almost certainly.

David Cameron is a spineless coward.  When Ed Miliband visited nearby Deal, he had only a PA and an aide with him and was quite happy to rub shoulders with the local people.  I'm not a big fan of Miliband's but at least he had the balls to get out there and not hide behind a wall of secrecy and police protection.  Cameron, on the other hand, knows how much he's hated.  He must have heard the constant loud barracking of the protesters outside while he was schmoozing with his 'select' mates.  Many of those pals looked distinctly uneasy when they had to face the banner waving group.

The whole scene perfectly summed up modern Britain.  The poor, the normal members of the public, the plebs were kept outside on the streets of one of the UK's most deprived and run down towns while the privileged whooped it up on champers and prawn sandwiches inside the Turner, kept safe from the baying mob by police whose wages are paid by us, the taxpayers.

Thatcher would have been proud.

One Billion Rising, Canterbury

Happened upon this flashmob event while having a wander round Canterbury.

One Billion Rising, Canterbury (50 pics)

Police harassment at Ramsgate's port of shame

Another day, another live export shipment, another completely over the top police presence and this time they decided to harass people for the crime of walking on the beach and then attempting to use a public footpath.

It looked at first as if someone had seen sense and sent an appropriate number of officers to the port - only four were visible when I first arrived.  But no, a wander along the port road revealed plenty more police in various locations, and soon more vehicles arrived.  Strangely, a very large throng of officers were keeping a low profile behind some of the container lorries parked in the port.

I counted a total of a dozen or so police vehicles, including five large vans.  I would estimate that there were between 40 and 50 officers present, though it was difficult to be sure as they seemed to be spread about all over the place this time.  What on earth were they expecting to happen?  There was a small group of protesters, less than usual at the port as I believe others were demonstrating at other points.  Despite this, it was deemed necessary to have approximately two cops per peaceful protester.

A couple of guys were walking along the beach - doing nothing, not carrying banners, not shouting, just walking.  Suddenly eight cops appeared and started tracking their movements - I can only assume they've been watching too many American movies.  One of these guys was prevented from leaving the beach area and using the footpath.  I heard one of the officers keep saying 'I believe you to be a protester.'  Which he was, and wasn't making any secret of the fact...but was doing absolutely nothing that could be construed as a threat to public order, to the lorries about to arrive or to the safety of the officers.

A short while later, these two guys and two further protesters were escorted away from the port area and prevented from going back to where the group were gathered near the roundabout.  The police seem to be assuming powers they don't actually have (at least not legally).  If this kind of nonsense is deemed necessary for a low key protest by a small group, what the hell would happen if 500 people turned up and decided to get rowdy?  Cameron & co seem to have decided that all protests must be crushed - and we take another step towards living under a regime much like those seen in China & Iran...

More pics here

Freedom of the press? More from the port of shame

As if essentially providing an escort to allow the safe passage to live export lorries operated by convicted criminals wasn't bad enough, the police have taken their war on protesters against this sickening trade a step further and prevented press photographer Val Cameron from doing her job.

Around midday, 23 October, another shipment of live animals passed through Ramsgate's port of shame.  Once again there was a staggeringly large number of police officers in attendance (I would estimate 50 were involved, including some deployed along the port entry road and even on the steps nearby leading up to the clifftop).  I counted six large police vans, four cars and two SUVs but there may well have been even more.  The protesters were kept well back this time - there is some evidence to suggest that they were only allowed to the gates of the port on Friday so that Meridian could get footage for its news coverage.

Protesters, the number of which I would put at around the 30-40 mark, were vocal but peaceful.  I saw the photographer going about her business as I was also taking a few pictures of the proceedings...and then moments later she was being led to one side by the officer shown in the pictures below and stopped from taking further photographs.  I was standing a few feet away - there was absolutely no reason at all why she would have been prevented from covering the event, not least because she'd already gained prior permission and regularly attends these protests in the role of official photographer.

The officer involved seemed somewhat taken aback to find himself being snapped by me as he overstepped the mark.  For some reason, many officers seem to think they can make up their own law, especially when it comes to oppressing people with cameras (who they seem to think fall into one of two categories - paedophiles or terrorists).

Meanwhile, it was reported that one of the poor animals in this shipment was found to be badly injured and had to be destroyed.

Ramsgate port live exports protest 23 October (33 pics)

Port of shame update - 4 arrested for no good reason

Further to previous post, 4 people were arrested at the 22 October protest for no good reason.  Having witnessed the heavy handed treatment they received at the 19 October protest, I have to say I'm not surprised.  On the 19th, there were 14 officers present and they quickly lost control once the activists did what they'd gone there for - and started protesting as the live export lorries made to enter the port.

Clearly someone decided that what was needed for the smaller gathering on the 22nd was four times the number of officers and a few arrests to show the rabble who's in charge.  The following pictures were taken on the 19th October and show the police overreacting and losing the plot.