alert but calm

As I only tend to wander past the parliament in the evenings and at weekends I tend to think of it as being fairly quiet and peaceful except for the tourists. There's usually one police visible somewhere round the front even at night and occasionally during the summer there was an extra one helping the first to stand and watch people on the grass. I don't think I've ever seen as many as six in front of it even if the other three were a wee bit out of shot to the left and were trying to hide behind the pillars. There appeared to be a small sort of candle-based vigil/protest happening next to the bus stop and cycle racks which I presume to be the reason for the extra police even though there were only about five people involved plus three taking pictures and film of them and one person vaguely peering at it from the other side of the road. I didn't get close enough to see exactly what was going on; perhaps if they had chosen the colour of paint they applied to their banner a little more wisely it might have been visible in the available lighting. I did wonder about maybe creeping up behind the photographer and surprising him by clicking in his ear and making him jump but he might have dropped his camera which wouldn't have been very nice.