Interesting Facts

According to the Daily Mail,  90% of the tents being used in the protests outside St Pauls Cathedral are empty overnight. (This just shows me that the protesters are very sensible.  Any fool can be cold and wet.)

St Paul's Cathedral in London has closed to visitors for the first time since World War II. (The decision was taken to close because of protestors in the area. It is the only the second time Sunday services have been cancelled - the other time was during World War II, when the cathedral was closed in 1941 for four days during the Blitz. The protestors had attempted to set up camp outside the London Stock Exchange, but they were prevented. After all, the great cathedral of capitalism mustn't be inconvenienced.)

The police tactic of confining demonstrators in a confined space is called kettling. (It's a particularly nasty practise that involves the formation of large cordons of police officers who then move to contain a crowd within a limited area, often holding them there for hours at a time. In January 2011 1.900 people signed a petition calling for the practice to be banned. In the USA it is known as corralling, which is an interesting analogy in itself. Should protesters be treated like cattle or tea bags?)