One person’s protest

This account if from an elderly person who joined the silent demonstrators on Parliament Square on 9th August 2025.

I turned up at Parliament Square as advised at 12.50pm, and wrote the fateful words at 1pm ready for an arrest at any moment.

There were just a few arrests at the start. Then the police withdrew. Sitting on my fold-up chair in the hot sun, I was thinking we will be sitting for a long time if we have to wait for more than 500 arrests! But at 2pm people started standing up and clapping, when I remember that the plan was to protest for an hour and if not arrested to go home.

I ambled into the centre of the protesters only to have a police officer come up beside me and tell me I was arrested, pointing to my placard which I just happened to be still holding by my side. I was told I had breached Section 13 of the Terrorism Act (2000) for holding a sign supporting a terrorist organisation, told my rights, and we then made our way to the police van. Some people were carried carefully be police. If you are in a wheelchair you will be taken in that to the police van.

You may have seen some scuffles on TV reporting the event with supporters who were upset by what they were witnessing. Those of us in the Defy the Ban protest did not resist arrest, as we had agreed, and quietly made our way to the van.

When we got to the van, anything we were carrying was taken from us by the arresting officer. I then walk up the steps into a small compartment at the back of the van. Others were put in a minibus. The police officer who arrested me also came in the van and I had the same police officer with me all the time from then until I was released, which was nice.

We sat quietly in the van for about 20 minutes as we drove to a location to join many others. There was another guy in the van opposite me and I showed him a phone number Defend Our Juries had given us, written on my leg, and I could see him trying to remember it. This was the number for the police station support team who will have people outside the police station, if you are taken to one, when you are released.

We were taken to Great Scotland Yard (the real yard), off Whitehall, where there must have been more than 100 of us. There were two other ‘triage points’ nearby where the others were processed. There I, and the policeman who arrested, me stood in line for a few hours, so we had plenty time for a good chat. He was fine and treated me well, offering me water as the day went on. I am an old white guy. I am not sure some others would have gotten the same treatment, but from what I saw that afternoon, we were all generally well treated.

From my discussion I had with my police officer, and reports from others, many of the police, though not all, were uncomfortable with what they had to do that day, not least arresting so many old people. The gathering in Great Scotland Yard looked anything like a bunch of terrorists. The police were on time-and-a-quarter, so I did not hear too many complaints from the officers near me.

It took about four hours to get to the front of the queue, though there was a shorter queue for people who would find it difficult to wait all this time, especially people with medical conditions, so if you are thinking of doing it, do tell your arresting officer quite early about your conditions.

It can be quite boring winding around the street in the queue, so bring a folding chair if you can, the same chair you can sit on in Parliament Square. A fold-up one is best, and your police officer should take it with you in the van and they should give it to you again when you join the long queue. Also bring food to eat on the street, like a sandwich and fruit, or anything you fancy in a bag that your police officer will also carry for you. I thought it would be a long afternoon so I had a good feed before I left home.

When I finally got to the tent where we were interviewed, the officer asked me for any ID. I did not have any on me as we were advised but they found me on their database once I gave my name. I was handed a bail sheet which tells us when to present at a police station, and the conditions of the bail. Others followed the recommendation of Defend Our Juries, the organisers of the protest who wanted to maximise the disruption, and did not give their names at the holding centre, with the intention of being taken to a police station around London where they have their detail, and were held for the night.

The day ends with the police giving me a pre-printed sheet with the bail condition already decided and the police station I am to attend, to which they hand wrote my details and the date and time I am to attend at the police station.

I was then let go and made my way home. I did not bring my travel card with me, which was stupid, so I had to buy a tube ticket to take me to my home in London.

So the day went from high anxiety leading up to the event and before writing the placard, to ironically, once I had written the placard, feeling much calmer, a contemplative time sitting silently in the sun holding my placard, to the stress of the arrest, the strange feeling being locked in a police van, to the, often boring, but sometimes interesting and funny chats in the holding pen, to the relief at getting out and away home. I was feeling tired definitely, but very satisfied I had done something significant to help stop the genocide in Gaza and hopefully contributed to getting the ban lifted.

We cannot encourage you to attend the next event planned by Defend Our Juries, but if they can get 1000 people to sit in Parliament Square on September 6th, we will be making history and hopefully forcing the government to rescind the ban on Palestine Action who have been trying to prevent further slaughter in Gaza.

Good, for having done something to stop the horror in Gaza and a little bit to save the lives of the few people I know in Gaza, who have survived the genocide so far. Let’s see what the penalty will be.