Finally on the rails

A fairly standard Saturday. I did my class first thing, which was fun, and then we went to the supermarket and re-stocked. After a pit stop at home, we went out for a walk in somewhat changeable weather. We got caught in one brief shower going across the park, but by the time we were on the Walk it was sunny again. I’ve been planning to get a blip of the rails finally being laid on the Walk, only 10 years later than originally planned (or longer) and today the light was in the right place, and of course the sight lines were clear as the works were not in progress.

We remarked as we headed down the Walk and back home, that you can always find a blip on Leith Walk.

On the way back, we picked up a new plant pot at Anything and Everything. This afternoon, I planted out the small number of plants I’ve picked up at supermarkets in the last two days, but Mr A has also got some seeds at the supermarket (that’s a novelty, as well as the supermarket stocking compost), so we are going to try and grow some flowers. Let’s see whether my green fingers extend that far.

This evening, we’ve just watched I’m a Cliche, the film about Poly Styrene (pretty good), and now I’m reading some stuff about the vigil on Clapham Common that the Met refused to countenance turning nasty. I’m really worried that our rights to protest are being significantly curtailed by the pandemic of authoritarianism that is accompanying COVID-19. Germany sorted this issue out in April 2020. A case went to the Federal Constitutional Court where the Court concluded that because of the constitutional guarantee of freedom of association, there could not be a blanket ban on protests during the lockdown. On the contrary, each had to be considered on a case by case basis and protests should in principle be permitted if the organisers could put in place appropriate safety measures and social distancing. One might suggest that the court judgment yesterday that required the police to make a proportionality assessment was something similar, but it seems to me that it gives far too much discretion to the police, and they are *not interested* in facilitating any sort of right to protest at the present time. One can disagree about whether this type of gathering is the right sort of approach in the situation we find ourselves in, but I think like me many people are worried about the direction of travel right now.