As briefly noticed at reference 3, I attended my third demonstration in favour of dignity in dying, aka assisted dying, on Parliament Square, on the morning of 12th September, to mark the start of the two day Lords' debate on the Leadbetter Assisted Dying Bill. This to notice the more domestic aspects of the day.
To which there was an early start - to what was a cool but bright day at 06:15. A light breakfast of bread and jam, jam not being something I do very often, after which I accepted the offered lift to the station for the 06:31 to Victoria. It was not clear whether there was going to be much in the way of tubes first thing, and a walk from Victoria seemed a better option than a walk from Waterloo. Not sure now why, as the walk from Waterloo to GOGGS - occupying one side of Parliament Square - was reckoned to be shorter than the walk from Victoria to GOGGS in the many years that I worked there.
Along the way two of the four hubcaps on my Stockholm seat popped off when I knocked it - leaving me with the expectation that I was going to lose one or more of them permanently at some point. I was a but surprised at how easily they came off and on.
A splutterer got on and sat opposite me at Sutton. A middle aged male who proceeded to snuffle and splutter all the way to London. I wondered about my jab status - which I can say today is now fully in hand, all booked up. Standing room only by the time we reached Mitcham Eastfields, so there are clearly still plenty of people who need to get to work well before 09:00 on a Friday. Perhaps they don't wear white collars.
I noticed a big development for Peabody/Mount Anvil, up on the right, as we came into Clapham Junction. Bright and big in the early morning sun - with a website to match at reference 5. I wonder what sort of people are going to live in them - with Peabody being strong in the affordable sector. Perhaps they are diversifying.
Out at Victoria to the fine view snapped above of the surviving Palace Theatre with Portland House behind, in the throes of another refurb. A building I once worked in for a few months, ending up by occupying a sort of small glass hutch, a transition to my ending up definitively open plan in the new Home Office HQ in Horseferry Road. This after many years of the solitary splendour of my own office, with windows, litter bin, my own posters on the wall and so forth.
There were also views of the gardens of Buckingham Palace from the top floor, which we were asked not to take in.
On into Victoria Street, where I was rather startled by the very serious fencing across the street end of the piazza in front of Westminster Cathedral. OK, so there were openings to get through, but it was all a bit intimidating; not the sort of thing one expects in London. I can only suppose that it was left over from or ready for some demonstration or other where the police were expecting large numbers, trouble or both.
The concrete, plus restraining straps.
On parade at or about 07:45, at which time Parliament Square was almost empty. Just the odd red-capped security person (local government civilians) and the advance guard from Dignity in Dying.
The Abbey bell tolled for prayers at 08:00 - at least I assume that was what it was doing - a big bell with a good tone. For some reason I remembered about the business of the missing fundamental of many such bells, a matter which occupied me for a time some years back. See reference 6.
About two hundred demonstrators turned up and we made quite a decent showing on the side of the square facing the Palace of Westminster. I had no idea where the expensive new door to the Lords' precinct was - previously noticed - and no-one else seemed to know anything about it. There was some activity at the door we were opposite, mainly to do with delivery vans of one sort or another.
Ladies, of all ages, but mostly of middle years, outnumbered men by maybe four to one. Maybe because ladies are more likely to have had first-hand, not to say hands-on, experience of messy and unpleasant deaths. And a lot of them did have stories, which I did not.
Sadly, the Central Hall facilities had been massively downgraded. Their basement cafeteria and associated facilities have been closed - at least to walk-in trade - and the replacement on the ground floor was very mean by comparison. One can't blame the Methodists for wanting to get a bit more value out of the expensive space, but it is a loss to their part of London: it used to be a very good cafeteria.
We kept our spirits up by encouraging passing vehicles to toot in support. The lady next to me was very good at this, so all I had to do was make appropriate noises when she scored. She had not had any coffee and she did say that she got a bit zebedee on two lattes. Unsurprisingly, she did best with 30 and 40 something, male van drivers. Just the one London bus driver, a lady. I wondered whether they are under instructions not to respond to this sort of thing, be the cause ever so good.
I was impressed by an opposition lady across the road, who managed to keep her arms her and two small placards up for long periods, jogging and singing a bit to keep her spirits up. Not young either. Eventually she was moved on, as she was not in the space allocated to the opposition. Access to Parliament Square is managed and has to be booked - and we we due to be off and clear by noon, so I missed the noon time chimes.
I thought about, but decided against all of the Munich Cricket Club, the Polish place and Waterloo and the noodle place in Lower Marsh. It seemed a bit too early for lunch, despite the early start - but then, I had had a few discrete mouthfuls of raisins.
More serious crowd control opposite Portcullis House.
And something seemed to be going on in the graffiti tunnel, but I failed to work out exactly what. Just getting ready for the Friday evening scene?
Home to the trolleys noticed at reference 7, followed by one the fine bacon sandwiches offered by 'Los Amigos' at the start of East Street. They looked to get a lot of their business from the Laine School of Theatre Arts etc and from the sorting office.
On the way clocking an Aston Martin, heading east, F2 AFD. Carcheck confirmed that it was indeed a 2019 silver Aston Martin, capable of 211mph. Presumably a footballer or a drug dealer, although I believe these last are more into Mercedes.
A bit further on, the stationary water works remained stationary. I suppose it was Friday afternoon.
Whitebeam all present and correct. After which, blue sky notwithstanding, it came onto drizzle, although not enough to deploy the Hudson's Bay folding, recently mentioned. Then, having got home, it rained hard for about five minutes. Then another go an hour or so later. And another an hour or so later still.
Winding up the day with some lentil soup for one, BH having taking chicken for lunch earlier. 8oz of lentils. 125g of unsmoked back, sliced thin in the Sainsbury's way - branded Naked from Finnebrogue of Northern Ireland and reference 8. But it did well enough for soup. Plus celery in with the lentils, then butter, garlic, onions, bacon done separately. Some carrot chucked into the mix very near the end. The soup turned out very well and I wondered if having fresh celery and carrots, rather than elderly ones, a week or more out of the shop, made a difference.
And so endeth what might well be my last ever demo.
PS 1: for those not in the know, GOGGS is Government Offices, Great George Street, long time home of the Treasury, the Central Statistical Office and odd bits of the Cabinet Office. The Treasury got the fancy rooms facing Parliament Street. There also used to be a small scissor-action lift, once used to convey George Brown to his flat after a session. Inland Revenue have now got the Parliament Street end of the building.
PS 2: I saw quite a lot of Sunbelt Rentals during the day, in both London and Epsom. They seem to be growing.
PS 3: a souvenir of the day, presently adorning my No.1 raincoat - having taken the power of BH to work out how it worked. Don't know that I shall get much further use out of the pink hat that goes with it.
References
Reference 1: https://www.dignityindying.org.uk/.
Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/07/demo-two.html.
Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/09/fame-by-foot.html.
Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/09/more-progress.html.
Reference 5: https://mountanvil.com/news/mount-anvil-and-peabody-launch-well-connected-homes-in-clapham.
Reference 6: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/01/virtual-pitch.html.
Reference 7: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/09/trolleys-996-and-997.html.
Reference 8: https://www.finnebrogue.com/products/naked-unsmoked-back-bacon-rashers-ireland/. 'For more than a decade, we insisted that we wouldn’t touch bacon until we could make it without nitrites. In 2017, we proudly pioneered Naked bacon – made without harmful nitrites while still being naturally tasty. Our Naked bacon is made in Northern Ireland using Bord Bia quality approved Irish Pork. We saved your bacon!'
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