this weekend nottingham university was graced with a visit from none other than tony blair, who was in town to address a policy forum on... the usual incomprehensible gibberish:

[Education and health reform] is a programme based on translating Labour's traditional values into the modern idiom. And thematically it is about empowering individuals through collective support to make the most of their lives. The absolute pre condition for electoral success.

yeah right, tone, whatever. fortunately about 100 of nottingham's activists (and an errant member of lenton anarchist faction (chelmsford branch)) were on hand to march right up to the entrance of the conference centre and scream their lungs out, not to mention getting pushy with the porcine mercenaries. what follows is a report i wrote for the student magazine with the vague hope that i could convey that protest can be fun. well i had a larf:-

Unbeknownst to many students, Tony Blair turned up at the East Midlands Conference Centre on Sat 14^th Jan to address a policy forum on issues including nuclear power (he’s a big fan). Thanks to a leak of details about the venue and the estimated time of arrival to Nottinghamshire Indymedia about a day before, about 100 members of the public also showed up to gatecrash the party. This is a personal account of what happened next.

We arrived at the PortlandBuilding at 10am to find around 70 others already amassed. The action was supported by Nottingham Student Peace Movement, Lenton Anarchist Forum and the Student Union, as well as the local Stop the War Coalition, Nottingham Trent’s Peace & Liberty Society and many other groups and individuals. There was a fine array of banners attacking nu-killer energy and Trident replacement, as well as ongoing crimes like the Iraq war. We were soon approached by a member of the Notts constabulary who informed us that a cosy designated protest area had been set aside for us if we would kindly follow him. We declined the offer and set off in the opposite direction past the library and towards the Downs. We’d soon picked up an escort of fluorescent jacketed officers who looked baffled by what we were up to. Someone cleverly suggested a change of direction and we headed up the hill, through the trees and down the path towards the conference centre’s carpark. A couple of coppers and a security guard tried in vain to stop the mass of people from descending and we seemed to have caught security completely off guard. We made our way right up to the line of police outside the front entrance of the centre, to get our front row seats for Blair’s arrival.

Chanters chanted, drummers drummed, a football was bounced about and someone’s terrier wouldn’t stop yapping. On the other side of the police lines photographers snapped away and various officials bustled around looking furious. The usual intimidation tactic of having several police waving camcorders around was used (how terrifying!) The atmosphere was carnivalesque and good-natured in the crowd although someone at the designated protest area had apparently been arrested after not giving his personal details to an officer stopping and searching him (he was perfectly within his rights not to do this). The ramshackle police finally got their act together and surrounded us, although we were right where we wanted to be. After quite a bit of waiting and making lots of noise, the “meet and greet” line outside the centre were rushed inside the building and we received the news that Blair had been bundled in the back door. You know that democracy is alive and well when the Prime Minister is too scared to face dissent! Our Great Leader obviously prefers the company of those who’ll moronically applaud each and every line. We greeted him with a scream of protest.

Soon a senior officer informed us that we were being detained under Section 12 of the Public Order Act due to “an ongoing security risk in the area”. This was shambolicaly relayed to us by a megaphone wielder and various groupings huddled together to discuss our options. Apparently if we didn’t move to the designated protest zone we’d be arrested. It had started to rain and many wanted to go home to feed children, walk the dog, or just to pee. Many walked up to the police lines and attempted to leave but apparently no one was allowed to leave, even though we’d been asked to! The stalemate continued with the police perpetually saying we’d be able to move in “5 minutes” until out of frustration a group huddled under their banner and crawled up to the police lines in an attempt to wriggle out between their legs. People started moving down to that end and the police were looking increasingly nervous. “We can’t do anything without orders from our senior officer,” one apparently not-senior-enough officer wailed, “Just give us 2 minutes!” We waited about a minute and then started counting down from 60 seconds as we rallied behind the banner to push. At about 20 seconds police resolve crumbled and we easily shoved our way down the hill to the pen. They did have the cheek to try and keep us in there as well, but after a few of the more athletic vaulted a wall and ran off they finally gave up.

Looking back it may look as though our protest didn’t achieve very much. We didn’t get to challenge Blair’s diktat or get very much mainstream media attention for our arguments. However, I saw many people getting a taste of their own power by standing up to authority for the cause of democracy. A local reporter was so infuriated with the police’s tactics that she rallied to our cause. Whilst the politicians had to hide their “discussions” behind police lines, we sought to reclaim our campus for an alternative vision, and had fun in the process. Whilst within the Labour party dissent is clamped down on, our group encompassed many different viewpoints and there was scepticism towards those who took it upon themselves to lead or negotiate with the police “on our behalf”. Perhaps next time Blair will think twice before taking on Nottingham.