Yea, me too Hugh
I was quite surprised at the support from the public, people were leaning out of windows and waving and cheering everybody on.
Firetrucks, trucks, buses and cars were almost constantly sounding their horns in support. Members of the public were giving us the thumbs up, cars were going past reaching out their hands giving "past 5's" to everyone within reach.
The taxi drivers mind you were having none of it, a couple that I saw were quite rude and nearly ran over a couple protesters.
I can understand their inconvenience mind you. Overall we seemed to get a heros welcome from most people watching the demonstration, a rather pleasant surprise.
Police taking no chances in front of Parliament
Flares lit
Hoodies
Now it wouldn't be fair to say everyone was looking for a peaceful day out, I'd say that about one in a hundred had their faces covered, kept in groups and were clearly up for a ruck should the opportunity present itself.
I was quite shocked when a young hoodie, probably around 14, flicked his cigarette onto the windscreen of a top of the range Audi whilst it was sat in traffic. The passenger, looking a bit like a "shocked Camilla", was clearly not impressed. I couldn't find the cig butt or I would've removed it.
In my view, the "trick" is to keep the protest moving, having it strung out over miles. When the crowd bunches up, is when the hard core elements can start to cause trouble. No kettles happened during this demo, but if it had, I dare say they may well have been some trouble.
At Millibank, the protest group split up, some of us stayed with and continued on the agreed route, but the rest went to pay the Egyptian embassy a visit - later ending up at Westminster. We ended up in China town and by that time there were only a few hundred left and shortly after we made our own way back to Malet street.