St Paul’s Cathedral camp, London

After the ugly riots of the summer, the tented occupation of the area around the entrance to St Paul’s Cathedral to highlight corporate greed and inequality is a cheerful and welcoming affair, dedicated to non violence. They’re well worth a visit, if you’re passing. The local traders are having a boom – apart from the cathedral, which, despite the church authorities’ sympathy with the protesters, is currently closed and losing out on about £20,000 a day from visitors. But it seems to me the protesters are doing a good job at making people think about the kind of society they want to live in, which perhaps the church should be better at. There’s music and laughter and animated discussions when I visit, and plenty of people stopping by to see what’s going on.
The protesters have been there for about ten days already, and there’s been talk about staying until Christmas, or longer. It’s raining as I type this. It won’t be the most comfortable night for them tonight.