LONDON:  TNC was one of the lucky reporters who got to head round the streets of London the night before the royal wedding and took some pretty special pictures. Most of the pictures where taken right in front of Westminster Cathedral with some of the crowd having some amazing spots during the day.

The atmosphere was palpable; people in full costume, dresses, dinner suits, and at least 10 different countries. One of the more funnier groups I talked to was the five students from France who had been in London for five days and decided to spend the night with the wedding watchers. Drunk, loud, and funny the guys added greatly to the evening and seemed to enjoy every minute of it.

Opinion: I think it is time to try and put Laurie Penny in her place. For too long now she has been allowed to spread her vile and one side biased views of the protest and the whole events around them for too long now and this has to stop. It is clear who she writes for and why she writes in the way that she does her own feeling of self importance is as obvious as that of any of the students who had been taking part (or are still taking part) in misguided occupations up and down the country.

Once I read this, # Being intimidated by cops pushed back by a cop who said I had a weapon on me. Harassed by 3 cops so far, they don’t want me here! #march26 I realised that Laurie’s own self importance isn’t really the issue it is her incredible ego that seems to keep trite comments like this pass for journalism. Her near perfect use of language to give her well protected reader a feel of the ground is all geared towards the negative and paints the police as the ones out of order.

Also, really, ‘…they don’t want me here! I don’t really think even Laurie is that important to a riot officer but what is important is that Laurie’s readers and followers are willing to believe that all MET officers have been issued with a picture of her and have been told by their desk Sargent to ‘make sure she doesn’t do too much’, or whatever situation you want to give. Rubbish but its inclusion in her tweet can not be mistaken.

This Tweets where followed by these and the irony seemed to have escaped Miss Penny:

# No longer quiet. More riot cops move in, outnumbered, chased back by thrown sticks and surging crowd. #march26

# Flare bombs being thrown, v loud. Chants of ‘your job’s next!’ This is an angry crowd #march26

You don’t need a crystal ball to know that the protest was, at some point at least, heading down the same old path of violence and attack of public property. This was never going to be done by the TUC or other union groups because with them come maturity that the students/youth protesters seem to lack. So around 2pm the first signs that this was going to go negative was during the attack by a ‘fringe’ group of protesters once again made a beeline for Top Shop on Oxford Street.

Note: It is interesting to see how little sympathy or care these breakaway groups have for the public and for members of staff, many of whom at Top Shop will be students. Saturday is an incredibly busy day in London, well all days are, but Saturday is always going to one of its busiest. For them to think that anything at all could be achieved by heading there and trying to force their way in was laughable and beyond counterproductive to their overall aims. Dealing with Philip Green will, and should, take place at another time and not at a the cost of arguably the most successful and peaceful demo for decades.

Though slight it was enough to get people weary and long and behold it did all ‘kick off’ and the negative ‘fringe’ groups thought it in the best interests to rob as much of the spotlight on the peaceful protest as they can. And as soon as this went negative you can bet you granny that Laurie Penny would be there to give her one side account of things. Earlier in the day Laurie tweeted these gems of impartiality:

This is what Laurie had to say about the unprovoked and unplanned ‘occupation’ of high end department store Fortnum & Mason which had been organised by UK Uncut yet from the images again in the BBC most of them where kids with obviously no real idea of what was going on:

PennyRed Laurie Penny
Protesters are being dragged out one by one, cuffed and taken away. #march26

PennyRed Laurie Penny
Riot vans just turned up with barred windows.

PennyRed Laurie Penny
All occupiers are out of the store, being herded together. Dozens of riot police here #march26

PennyRed Laurie Penny
Quiet standoff outside fortnums as the arrestees wait to be brought out. #march26

PennyRed Laurie Penny
RT: all peaceful occupiers inside fortnum and mason are being arrested one by one on suspicion of aggravated trespass.

Emphasis has been added by TNC

In the videos that are already up on Youtube the large crowds, the clashes with police, the yellow paint thrown on the wall of the department store, and the chants ‘No Justice, No Peace, Fuck the Police’ seems to paint a less ‘peaceful’ protest than what Laurie suggests. From the footage we saw the police handled themselves with decorum in the face of obvious antagonism from some members.

Surly you can’t have it both ways, you can not be a peaceful occupier if you walk into a private shop in a Saturday then ‘occupy’ the space. Peaceful or not this is wrong and damages the broader message and whole reason for the protest in London in the first place. Yet note the language she uses. Laurie likes to, even in the face of total and blatant law breaking, give the impression that the protesters are simply innocents who should be treated much more fairly. For the many hundreds of thousands of people who follow Laurie and like to think they are getting a balanced view of what is going on during these events are going to be very much mistaken.

Readers of this will think that I have a beef with Laurie and you would be right. Her style of writing is simply that, writing, there is no real journalistic merit to her work and though she is published in a variety of publications that still does not make what she does good or right. Her words simply add fuel to the negative situations that arise and lack any balance or fairness. Some of the language she uses in her work almost forever paints the police as some Orwellian thugs out to destroy the peace. Journalists like Laurie need to stop this style of reporting which neither helps the cause or herself but perhaps Miss Penny’s ego is so inflamed that her own sense of importance trumps doing credible journalism. Clearly she is lacking a much broader understanding of what is going on.

We found this Tweet that I think sums it up nicely, but the last words will be Laurie’s herself:

sukesbad #bbcnews #26March very naïve journalist, Laurie Penny, interviewed by BBC. Here for “a little party” in Traf Sq.

PennyRed: Hand on heart, I saw both sides kicking off today. But this is totally disproportionate. It was just kids having a party.

We tried to contact Laurie Penny for comment but was not got back to.

After some self-serving self promotion by Diversity  at this years final of Got To Dance the winner was finally announced. It was down to three acts, Chris & Wes, Razzle Dazzle and Eleviate. The final acts all put in the best you are likely to see on TV and it was clear from the start that Chris and Wes where the strongest contenders and they won.

The final was full of all the energy you could think of but as soon as the winners where announced that seemed to be it. No real reactions from the winners who seemed stunned even though it was clear they where the front runners from the start!

Our thoughts are with the family of WW1 hero Henry Allingham was was 113. As well as bing one of the worlds oldest people he was also the Oldest WW1 servicemen. Having served at the Royal Naval Air Service in ww1 he would later move to the Royal Air Force when I was first set up.

Last month Mr Allingham became the worlds oldest man, he was born in 1896.  Queen Elizabeth said ‘he was one of the generation who sacrificed so much for us all’.

Mr Allingham was a member of a gerneration we should never forget.  Men and women, boys and girls gave up so much for the freedoms and life that we enjoy today.  The Prime Minister and The Prince of Wales have described Mr Allingham as a war hero and a true character.  We must never forget the debt we owe the likes of Mr Allingham.

Mr Allingham, whose life has spanned three centuries and six monarchs, has five grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, 14 great-great grandchildren and one great-great-great grandchild.

The UK has lost a true hero, a man of character, heart, and a bravery and dedication that we here all wish one day to be able to aquire, God Bless Henry Allingham.