"Protest moves historic cathedral to close" October 22, 2011|Associated Press
LONDON - Protesters who have camped outside St. Paul’s Cathedral in central London for six days have forced the venerable cathedral to close to visitors for the first time since World War II, church officials said yesterday.
The Dean of St. Paul’s, the Rev. Graeme Knowles, said the decision to close the iconic church to visitors and tourists was made with because of health and safety concerns.
He urged the protesters - numbering about 500, according to organizers, allied with the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations - to leave now that they have made their point....
The protesters, who have set up about 100 tents around the church, arrived last Saturday as part of a series of protests in many cities across the world in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street activists in New York....
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Also see: Sunday Globe Special: Wall Streets Protests Go Worldwide
"Priest quits over London protest conflict" October 28, 2011|Associated Press
LONDON - The senior priest at St. Paul’s Cathedral who welcomed anticapitalist demonstrators to camp outside the London landmark resigned yesterday, saying he feared moves to evict the protesters could end in violence.
Other senior clergy and politicians urged the campers to leave peacefully, as the cathedral announced it would reopen to the public today after a weeklong closure triggered by the demonstrators’ tents.
“In the name of God and Mammon, go,’’ London Mayor Boris Johnson said, using a biblical turn of phrase to evoke the conflict between the spiritual and the material....
That's a word you don't see in the paper every day.
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"Officials sue to end London protest" October 29, 2011|Associated Press
LONDON - Church and local government authorities are going to court to evict anticapitalist protesters camped outside St. Paul’s Cathedral - though officials acknowledged yesterday that it could take weeks or months to get an order to remove the tent city.
As the iconic church reopened after a weeklong closure triggered by the protest, the City of London Corporation said it was launching legal action on the grounds that the protest is an “unreasonable user of the highway.’’ Scores of tents are pitched on the pedestrianized square in front of the cathedral and near a footpath alongside the building.
Several hundred protesters against economic inequality and corporate greed have been camped outside the building since Oct. 15, inspired by New York’s Occupy Wall Street movement. On Oct. 21 cathedral officials shut the building, saying the campsite represented a health and safety hazard.
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I would have thought the church would have stood with protesters. Once again I'm proved wrong regarding my faith in organized religion.
"Cathedral dean resigns over protests" November 01, 2011|Associated Press
LONDON - The dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral yesterday became the second high-profile clergy member to step down over anticapitalist protests that have spilled across the historic church’s grounds.
Graeme Knowles said his position has become “untenable’’ as criticism of the cathedral has mounted in the press and in public opinion. Knowles had urged protesters to leave the cathedral area to allow it to reopen its doors, saying that he recognized the group’s right to protest but wanted them to respect the church’s right to open for visitors.
His resignation follows that of Giles Fraser, a senior St. Paul’s Cathedral priest who had welcomed the anticapitalist demonstrators to set up camp outside the landmark, inspired by New York’s Occupy Wall Street movement. He said he resigned last week because he feared moves to evict the protesters could end in violence.
Senior clergy have been divided over how to handle the scores of tents set up outside the iconic cathedral near the River Thames in central London. Protesters highlighted the issue in their response to Knowles’s resignation.
While the management of St. Paul’s is “obviously deeply divided’’ over the protests, the movement has never called for any “scalps’’ from the clergy, protesters said on the Occupy London website.
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"Legal action to oust UK protesters on hold" November 02, 2011|Associated Press
LONDON - Authorities in London suspended legal action yesterday to evict protesters camped outside St. Paul’s Cathedral, after church officials gave the tent city a reprieve....
Translation: The state backed down.
The two-week standoff over the scores of tents set up outside the iconic cathedral has been an embarrassment for the church, but an attention-getting bonanza for protesters....
Yeah, right, pos media.
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Related:
"A British court has ruled that Roman Catholic priests are equivalent to employees, a decision that could pave the way for victims of sexual abuse to win damages from the church....
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Time to go worship somewhere else:
"Thousands of students gather in London to protest spending cuts, hike in tuition fees" November 10, 2011|Associated Press
LONDON - Amid a heavy police presence, thousands of students marched through central London yesterday to protest cuts to public spending and a big increase in university tuition fees.
Police said more than 2,000 people took part in the march, which set off from the University of London at midday with chants of “No ifs, no buts, no education cuts.’’ Organizers estimated the crowd at 10,000.
About 4,000 police officers were deployed along the route.
Previous student protests have ended in violence by a minority of demonstrators, including a spontaneous attack on a car carrying Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, in December.
Henceforth all acts of violence will be assigned to agent provocateurs.
Police said 24 people were arrested, most for breach of the peace and public order offenses, but the march was largely peaceful as demonstrators made their way through the city center.
At Trafalgar Square, a group of protesters erected more than 20 tents at the foot of Nelson’s Column in the latest spinoff of the Occupy Wall Street protest camp movement. The tents were quickly cleared away by police.
The marchers had planned to link up with an existing protest camp against corporate greed outside St. Paul’s Cathedral but were stopped by lines of police in riot gear. Annette Webb, an international development student at Portsmouth University, said tripling tuition fees to $14,000 from next year “will price out most students.’’
“It will mean that education is only for the rich, and I believe it should be for everyone,’’ she said.
Police had warned that anyone involved in criminal activity during the march would face arrest and prosecution. Police said protesters faced being “kettled’’ - contained inside a cordon - if there was a threat of serious disorder.
Ah, the free West.
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More provocateurs. That's how I see far-right and -left groups cited in my intelligence agency mouthpieces we call newspapers these days. Given the history of Gladio and the Force Research Unit it's not a bad bet.
"Far-right activists arrested in London" November 12, 2011|Associated Press
LONDON - Police arrested more than 170 far-right activists near London’s main war memorial yesterday, saying the officers acted to prevent a breach of the peace.
The Metropolitan Police said the English Defense League supporters were arrested outside a pub in Whitehall, site of the Cenotaph, a monument to Britain’s war dead.
Police would not comment on reports that the group planned to march on a protest camp against corporate greed outside St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Blocked them from joining with them.
Yesterday was Armistice Day, when people gather at the Cenotaph and across the country to observe two minutes of silence in memory of those killed in wars. It commemorates the end of World War I on Nov. 11, 1918.
Yeah, yeah.
The English Defense League casts itself as a peaceful opponent of radical Islam, but opponents say it is racist, and its protests have often turned violent.
More front groups (the both of 'em; radical Islam is simply a cover name for western intelligence agency assets and operations).
Oh, btw, don't want them at my protest.
Last year on Armistice Day, its members clashed with members of the small radical Islamist group Muslims Against Crusades.
The Muslim group planned to protest yesterday, but on Thursday the British government banned the organization.
Ah, the free West.
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How did this thing devolve into Islamic terrorists once again?
Oh, right, AmeriKan newspaper.
