A trip into London yesterday provided an opportunity to take a look at the secondary Occupy London site in Finsbury Square. Yes, Occupy protests in other cities around the world have fizzled or been rousted out, but thanks to a combination of clerical dithering and a relatively benign winter, Occupy London are still there.
At least, their tents are still there. A collection of canvas can still be found at the south end of the square, opposite the Bloomberg offices, but there wasn't much evidence of many actual protesters in attendance. Maybe they were in one of the three nearby Starbucks, plotting the end of capitalism while swilling down £3 lattes paid for by their financial supporters. Most passers-by didn't even spare a glance for the whole scruffy mess.
The original camp at St Paul's may be a different proposition, inasmuch as there may actually be people there, but the Occupy protest long ago lost its raison d'etre. A couple of months ago the Occupiers actually seemed to have some worthwhile things to say, as I pointed out in a post on 28 October, "Who are you calling incoherent?". Not any more. Now the protesters only seem to be hanging around because they can. Their legal representative told a judge just before Christmas that "the tents ARE the protest", and at Finsbury Square, that seems to be literally true.
For most people, Occupy London is now either an eyesore, a health hazard, or -- and this one should be the most galling for the protesters -- a complete irrelevance. The Occupiers are, you might say, all in tents and purposeless.
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