Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Chris Johnston and Damien Gayle

Million Mask march in London - as it happened

Anti-capitalist protesters wearing Guy Fawkes masks take part in the Million Masks march in Parliament Square, London
Anti-capitalist protesters wearing Guy Fawkes masks take part in the “Million Masks March” in Parliament Square in London on November 5, 2014 Photograph: Jack Taylor/AFP/Getty Images

Summary

This year’s Million Mask march in London is pretty much wrapping up, so and we’re going to put the live blog to bed. No word on arrests other than the three made this afternoon by the Met, but more could follow this evening.
Thanks very much to Damien Gayle for his tweets from the scene. He will continue tweeting for a while yet at @damiengayle if you want more updates. Thanks again for reading.

Updated

Best to avoid the Westminster area if you’re driving in central London tonight.

Police push down towards Trafalgar Square from Charing Cross Road after their kettle became surrounded:

Updated

Boiling the kettle?

Time is well and truly up for protesters more than an hour after the protest was due to end.

Lucky escape from the kettle for the Guardian’s Damien Gayle on the scene:

Officers continue with their efforts to curtail the protest in central London.

One protester tweets:

Police are closing off each corner of Trafalgar Square, Damien Gayle reports from the frontline:

As the crowd returns to Trafalgar Square, police are warning them that once they are inside they will not be allowed to leave.

Updated

One sizeable group of protesters is making its way through Soho and Chinatown, heading towards Leicester Square.

Updated

Press Association reports that protesters ended up splitting into different factions, with some ending up in Mayfair’s Conduit Street, where windows were smashed.
Staff and customers also became trapped inside a designer shop off Regent Street.

The Met police had given protesters a curfew of 9pm - and have been telling them to disperse.

Updated

Officers are blocking the entrance to Lower Regent Street, below Piccadilly Circus.

This might be why:

Police are also out in force elsewhere in central London tonight.

Police are out in force on the Mall.

Police on the Mall stop protesters.
Police on the Mall stop protesters. Photograph: Damien Gayle for the Guardian

Updated

Burning up ...

A protester stands by a burning police car that was vandalised during the Million Mask March in central London on Thursday night.
A protester stands by a burning police car that was vandalised during the Million Mask March in central London on Thursday night. Photograph: Hannah Mckay/EPA

Updated

Police have donned their helmets now and seem to be aiming to push protesters back towards Trafalgar Square away from the palace. However, officers possibly outnumber protesters at this stage.

There are several hundred protesters on the Mall, with reports of riot police coming up from Whitehall to contain them. There are also hundreds of officers outside the palace with horses and vans. The real fun could start in less than 30 minutes, when the three hours allotted to the protest expires. That’s when the arrests could start.

Updated

Maybe Buckingham Palace won’t fall tonight after all:

More from the palace:

Updated

The Guardian’s Damien Gayle is at Buckingham Palace, where many protesters have now gathered.

Violence erupts near Buckingham Palace

PA reports that what began as a largely peaceful protest again showed glimpses of violence, as crowds gathered outside Buckingham Palace, a long way away from the agreed route. Some lobbed cones and fireworks at police horses as officers battled to contain the crowds.

Also quite a bit of chatter on Twitter tonight about what the protesters want to achieve. Many commentators are rather unclear about their objectives. Sky News presenter Niall Paterson is typical of many views:

The gates await:

Car collides with protester in London:

St James’s Palace breached?

Another image from Parliament Square tonight:

Anonymous Million Mask March<br>protestors demonstrate in Parliament Square in London on Thursday night.
Anonymous Million Mask March protestors demonstrate in Parliament Square in London on Thursday night. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

Updated

And with all those smartphones too ...

Updated

Protesters head up the Mall:

Terry Small, 20, from Plymouth, emerged from the crowd of protesters in Great George Street with blood pouring from his head. He alleged he had been hit a number of times by an officer with a baton.

“I was at the front, I was chatting with the officers asking them what their agenda was and why they were trying to stop us walking down the street when it’s supposed to be public land,” he told Press Association.

“I got pushed in the back by people trying to move forward. I get pushed in the back and put my arm up because I know the baton is coming. I couldn’t move - it took all my force to shoulder-barge my way out of there.”

Updated

Vice News’ Sally Hayden with another view of the police car under attack:

Bound for Buckingham Palace:

Protesters have targeted a police car:

More from Damien:

Some protesters have broken away and are heading for Victoria.

Heres’s a video from protest organisers Anonymous Online:

The organisers of the Hunger Games: Mockingjay premiere in Leicester Square may have hoped they had picked another night.

Updated

Another tweet from Damien:

In case you were wondering, the Million Mask march has been held in London on 5 November - Bonfire night - every year since 2012, organised by hacktivist group Anonymous to protest against the excesses of capitalism. Similar events are being held in hundreds of other cities worldwide including New York and Berlin.

Updated

The Guardian’s Damien Gayle is keeping us up to date with events in Westminster:

Damien has been shooting some video of his own:

Nice vantage point for journalist Luke Dray:

PA reports:

There was a sudden surge of activity around half an hour into the march, as several protesters at the front near Parliament Square broke off from the agreed route and ran towards the Churchill War Rooms near Great George Street, a short distance from Conservative party headquarters, which were closed off.

A line of police and mounted officers formed a barrier against the densely packed protesters, some of them screaming about inequality. Those who could get their arms above their waist held phones aloft.

A couple of stray bottles were thrust over the barriers towards officers, which was met with cheers and chants of “Shame on you, we’re human too”.

Updated

A video of protesters outside Downing Street:

This is England after all ...

Updated

A video from the scene:

Looks like protesters are going off piste ...

Updated

Seems that police have a laser scroller and they’re going to use it ...

Updated

One protester, who gave her name as Lola, told Press Association she had travelled from Hull: “There are people who aren’t represented, they should be here. I am the people,” she said.

“I said I was coming down here and people said OK, but they deny it. They don’t want to face the truth. They are brainwashed and they fill their body with dead energy.

“The media twist it. We are peaceful, we are doing this in a peaceful manner, but the media focus on the 1% who cause trouble.”

Glad she’s cleared that up for us.

Updated

Ben Pruchnie is covering the protest tonight for Getty Images:

A masked protester at the Million Mask March in Trafalgar Square on Thursday.
A masked protester at the Million Mask March in Trafalgar Square on Thursday. Photograph: Ben Pruchnie/Getty Images

The Metropolitan Police said that three men were arrested this afternoon after officers on patrol in Trafalgar Square saw them acting suspiciously. They found the men carrying items including knives, smoke and paint grenades, gas canisters and lock picks. The three men, aged 38, 55 and 50, were arrested on suspicion of being in possession of offensive weapons and are being held in custody at a central London police station.

Another tweet from Damien on the scene:

Damien Gayle tweets from Trafalgar Square:

Reuters photographer Peter Nicholls is one of the many journalists reporting from Trafalgar Square tonight.

Supporters of the activist group Anonymous hold up placards in London on Thursday night.
Supporters of the activist group Anonymous hold up placards in London on Thursday night. Photograph: Peter Nicholls/Reuters

There’s a live stream from a protester at Trafalgar Square here.

Jason RockDodger Sangster‎ has posted this video on Facebook of the crowds gathering in Trafalgar Square tonight.

Protesters gather for the Million Mask March in London.

Damien is off to Trafalgar Square to report on the rally, so Chris Johnston here taking over the live blog.

Updated

I called out on the Million Mask March London Facebook page asking people for the reasons why they were attending. Setting aside the bunfight over mainstream media, the most articulate and complete response came from Keith Brady. He said:

I won’t be attending, but you want reasons? Jobs are down, educational standards are down, industry is down, public and national services are down, everything’s being sold off, taxes are being increased or diverted elsewhere and investments in infrastructure are being reduced to practically nothing by the greedy ba*ds the people who attend are there to protest too. Even the poverty stricken unemployed, who are struggling to live on benefits they are often sanctioned on, still pay taxes on products we buy to survive with, so why is it being claimed they’re such a massive drain? Answer the question why NOT march? It’s much tougher to answer.

Updated

Here’s a segment from the TV news featuring Ch Supt Peppa Mills explaining why the Met has imposed such stringent conditions on tonight’s Million Mask march.

She says:

It’s absolutely essential that the police are able to balance the needs of those who want to protest peacefully with those who live, work and visit London. Over the last three years, we’ve seen people going about their daily business seriously intimidated and disrupted by these protesters at this event.

Updated

The Million Mask march is not the only place that will see anti-authoritarian hi-jinks this evening. A giant effigy of a naked David Cameron with a pig’s head resting in his lap is to be set alight at the Lewes Bonfire night celebrations.

My colleague Jamie Grierson wrote the story earlier:

Images of the surreal sculpture, depicting the prime minister perched on a golden chair clasping the animal head, have circulated on social media before Thursday’s event in the East Sussex town.

The wooden structure alludes to claims made in an unauthorised biography of Cameron that he had put a “private part of his anatomy” into a dead pig’s head as part of a university dining club initiation ritual.

Cameron later denied the allegations made in Call Me Dave, which was written by the former Conservative donor Lord Ashcroft and the former Sunday Times political editor Isabel Oakeshott.

Updated

The Metropolitan police has imposed strict conditions for tonight’s demonstration. This tweet shows what restrictions are in place.

There are unconfirmed reports of a heavy police presence at Trafalgar Square and claims that people arriving early are being arrested.

One person on the Million Mask March London Facebook page has also posted a picture of a steel wall close to the scene, ready for deployment to contain protests.

People posting to the page have so far given me a range of reasons why they intend to protest, ranging from alleged VIP paedophile rings in Westminster, to poverty, the environment and Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Thousands of protesters are expected to gather in Trafalgar Square tonight, with Westminster the focus for the now annual Million Mask march, a worldwide event on Bonfire night that is organised through the Anonymous hackers’ collective.

So far about 18,000 people indicated on Facebook that they plan to attend the demonstration, where protesters don Guy Fawkes masks in an effort to recreate the closing scenes of the cult comic-book-cum-movie V For Vendetta.

The demonstration is expected to focus on proposals to increase powers of the security services. It comes a day after the government published a new bill seen as a revived snooper’s charter. Under the plans, internet companies will be required to store details of every website visited by their customers for 12 months.

Previous years have seen fireworks fired at the Buckingham Palace and the Palace of Westminster, as well as arrests and clashes with riot police. Scotland Yard is to deploy thousands of extra police officers and impose tough public order restrictions over fears that the protest will again turn violent.

On Wednesday the Metropolitan police urged “anyone with an organisational role” to come forward and liaise with them. Ch Supt Pippa Mills said:

We will always facilitate peaceful protest and have a strong history of doing so. However, over the last few this event has seen high levels of anti-social behaviour, crime and disorder.

This year we have strong reason to believe that peaceful protest is the last thing on the minds of many of the people who will come along.

Social media accounts linked to the event’s organisation have merely called for attendees to “respect diversity of tactics” by their fellow protesters. The Facebook page for the event, which begins at 6pm, says:

We have seen the abuses and malpractice of this government, and governments before it, we have seen the encroaching destruction of many civil liberties we hold dear, we have seen the pushes to make the internet yet another part of the surveillance state, we have seen the government’s disregard for migrants, for the poor, the elderly and the disabled, we have seen the capital, profit and greed of the few put before the well-being of the many and we say enough is enough.

We invite all the activists, the workers, the students, all doctors, nurses and all those that want to see a positive change in the world, to join us, in Trafalgar Square from 6pm, November 5th. The government and the 1% have played their hand, now it is time to play ours.

Updated

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
A24's New Docuseries Neighbors' First Episode Is Bonkers, But There's One Thing I Didn't Like
What’s the point here?
Cinemablend
Cinemablend
Dunkin’ fans frustrated as new coffee buckets launch in limited stores — see if yours made the cut
The 48-ounce bucket is sold at locations across Massachusetts and New Hampshire
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Savannah Chrisley Thought Whoopi Goldberg And Joy Behar Would Be ‘A Pain In (Her) A--’ While Guest Hosting The View
Reality star opens up about her experience with the co-hosts.
Cinemablend
Cinemablend
What happened with Androgenic? Unexpected on-camera moment goes viral within hours
A viral video showing Androgenic’s hat being pulled off sparked major debate online. Viewers questioned his image after seeing what appeared to be a receding hairline. The term “fraudmaxxer” trended on X, and some online rankings reportedly dropped him. While the video’s authenticity remains unverified, the incident has fueled discussion…
The Times of India
The Times of India
Nicki Minaj shares photo of ‘meaningful’ bible signed by Trump
The ‘God Bless The U.S.A.’ Bible is sold for $1,000 online
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Nutritionists Warn: The 3 Toddler Snacks Parents Waste $400+ on Yearly
Image source: Pexels.com
Kids Ain't Cheap
Kids Ain't Cheap
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.
Download on the AppStore Get it on Google Play