this morning, the high court lifted the injunction against westminster council preventing them from removing the last tent and the large 'peace strike' box from parliament square. police are now in parliament square to enforce the controversial new PASRA law and clear the square before the state opening of parliament next week. [additional pics]

last week, while covering the protests on budget day, i wandered on to the grass at parliament square. a heritage warden and various police told me both that i couldn't be there, and i couldn't take photographs there. holding my ground and after further inquiry, i was told by the head of the security company managing the 'heritage wardens', that the GLA have a list of websites that the bye-laws pr…

last week, while covering the protests on budget day, i wandered on to the grass at parliament square. a heritage warden and various police told me both that i couldn't be there, and i couldn't take photographs there. holding my ground and after further inquiry, i was told by the head of the security company managing the 'heritage wardens', that the GLA have a list of websites that the bye-laws pr…

yesterday, the 'boris' fences came down in parliament square. unfortunately it wasn't due to popular uprising. rather, it was part of the continued attack on protest, as a new swathe of laws and bye-laws criminalise the right to 24-hour protest. among the moves, the GLA placed a discreet notice in the evening standard last week announcing their intention to enforce new bye-laws which will dramatic…

today and tomorrow are respectively the deadlines for getting your comments in to the two consultations aiming to criminalise protest camps in london.

after a postponed hearing at the high court today, parliament square protestors won the right to sustain their injunction against westminster council, stopping the council from enforcing the new and untested PASRA law to clear tents and other structures from the square. the injunction will run until a further 2-day high court hearing during march, which will effectively decide the legality of the …

this is the first part of a two part piece outlining current moves by the authorities to attack the 'occupy' movement, starting with the imminent closure of the decade-long protests in parliament square. in this piece i outline the new PRASRA law, which has been enacted already, and how westminster council and the GLA are planning to roll out similar controls throughout london. you can act now by …

several hundred people took part in a march to parliament this afternoon. but a huge police operation ensured they couldn't exercise their democratic duty to protest outside the democratic heart of the nation. however, with non-violent persistence the protestors got close, ending up outside the house of lords, a stone's throw (not that any were) from the square.

Protest against Parliament Square's closure by attaching a padlock to one of the fences.

last thursday, two people were found guilty at westminster magistrates court under section 128 of the serious organised crime and police act (socpa), which creates a criminal offence of trespass on certain 'designated' sites. the convictions were related to a banner drop from scaffolding at the front of parliament during the only debate there has ever been about the war in afghanistan. read rikki'…

brian haw, the parliament square peace campaigner, passed away in the early hours yesterday morning after a long struggle with lung cancer.

brian haw died peacefully in germany where he had been receiving treatment for lung cancer for the past six months. his parliament square peace campaign marked an extraordinary ten-year milestone just two weeks earlier.

Some recent articles about Brian Ha…

Haw, whose tent became a familiar sight in Parliament Square, dies in Germany after a long battle against lung cancer

david cameron's threat to remove protestors from parliament square well before the royal wedding has been thwarted by the high court, who will not hear an obstruction case until may 9th..

the 'police and social responsibility bill' trundles through parliament, filled with clauses clearly designed to rid parliament square of brian haw's decade long peace vigil, with precise legal constructions that overturn years of hard-fought arguments in the high court. but it will not be in place in time for the royal wedding, and cameron has made a pledge that parliament square will be free of …

there have been various promises, and big media stories based on no more than a sentence or two from a dodgy peer - or recent big stories based on a quote by housing minister grant schapps for example, but finally there are some bones on the story that the con-dem government is serious about removing brian haw's 10-year protest from parliament square.

parliament.uk have published a proposed "poli…

polls show around 70% of britons want troops out of iraq, but only a few thousand turned up today for the 'stop the war coalition' march and rally in trafalger square. however, as the rally ended, a small band of people walked down whitehall and set up their response to the war pledging to remain outside downing street until the troops come home. now they just need a morsel of support from all tho…

Final call for support for 'White Flag Revolution' protest after the stop the war coalition march tomorrow.

This protest will challenge the government directly over Afghanistan

Article about a recent House of Lords debate of 8th Nov 2010. Following a question by Baroness Trumpington of the Conservative party asking: "Is any agency responsible the removal of those occupying the pavement in Parliament Square?" , Home Office Minister Baroness Neville-Jones declares the UK government's intention to bring in new legislation to remove the Parliament Square protesters.

bbc jamcam is currently showing a protest in parliament square against guantanamo bay trials

up to 100 people attended the democracy rally in london yesterday afternoon. as boris was suddenly using trafalgar square, the rally moved to the much more convivial st james park, where speakers spoke, musicians played, people's assemblies discussed, and bridges got built. at the end of the afternoon, some of the attendees marched to parliament square and later reclaimed the grass and took down s…

after this afternoon's 'democracy rally' (indy article), a group of about forty people decided to reoccupy parliament square. fences were dismantled and the security guards' tent was occupied and officially squatted. there were two arrests for alleged criminal damage, but the space was held for nearly six hours before guards man-handled protestors out after the police had left.



see past reports on …

the two protestors who banner-dropped parliament during the afghanistan debate, were taken into custody last night. they were released early this morning with highly restrictive bail conditions.

today, with little media attention, and little protest apart from a courageous banner drop in parliament grounds, MPs voted to continue the occupation of afghanistan, as is.

business as usual.

the two protestors who yesterday eluded security to climb the scaffolding at the front of parliament have now been told they can remain until the afghanistan debate is over

two protestors climbed up on the scaffolding at the front of parliament (inside the security area) this afternoon.

they are protesting about the afghanistan war prior to a commons debate tomorrow. the STWC have called a protest at noon tomorrow before the debate.

the protestors have vowed to remain on the front of parliament overnight and until the debate (more...) updates: 1 | 2 | 3

on 25th may this year, when the queen visited parliament for the state opening, several democracy village citizens attempted to get past massive security and scale the building with banners. just one (known as "Sky Warrior") succeeded, and here is their rather inspiring and wonderful first-hand account of the day.

yesterday afternoon, citizens from the democracy village held a people's assembly, open to all, in victoria tower gardens next to parliament. this was followed by non-violent direct action to reclaim parliament square and disobey high court injunctions. after dozens of incursions, eventually one person was arrested.

democracy village activists cordially invite all to an open tournament of fence jumping in parliament square

eviction over - huge green fences erected all round the grass, and even over some of pavement restricting access to the remaining pavement area where brian haw is. around 25 activists on the pavement there with little police presence.

the square is fenced off. three activists remain in resistant positions. no arrests. brian haw still there, and unaffected by operation. villagers have declared two call-outs for action. tomorrow (tuesday) and on saturday.