After snow that had brought London to more of a grinding halt than usual, and torrential rain, Xenu smiled upon us, and approximately ten suppressives had sunny albeit cold weather to picket the Tottenham Court Road 'org'.

The 'org' was as downstat as usual. No students, only the regulars on the Foundation shift (apart from one newcomer in a light brown leather jacket, who just stood around chewing gum as if his life depended on it - - we never actually saw him chew and walk at the same time). After the obligatory telephone call to get their orders, and the obligatory visit from the police, who made it clear to them that we were perfectly entitled to picket them, we spent a couple of hours leafleting and enturbulating.

Even the normal receptionist (the man who tries and fails to walk through solid doors) only turned up and took photographs after an hour, Before that they had been handing out Issue One of a newssheet about education (basically a puff piece for their private Greenfields School near Saint Hill - notorious for the 'death classes' and the 'withhold-pulling' sessions). After an hour they just went inside and hid, in blatant violation of all Scientology doctrines.

We remained outside, and had lots of support from the passers-by (as long as we made it clear that we were AGAINST Scientology)

After a couple of hours we ran out of leaflets and retreated to a warm pub.

P.S I have the Peruvian-style woollen hat that was left behind.

- --
John Ritson

PICKET REPORT 2003/feb/01 Saturday, in London (UK).
===================================================

There have been reports of a severe freeze and snow fouling up road and train travel, so I caught the train for London an hour earlier than usual. There was no snow lingering on the ground, roads or pavements, Birmingham. As the train moved south and east the snow built up to a couple of inches in the countryside, but none was left in central London: cities are just warmer because of heated buildings.

The sky was cloudless with winter sunshine, the weather cold and clear;

it was actually milder today than the Lisa MacPherson day picket.

There were no delays so I was very early and dawdled over to the venue.

I was the first one there and met "Kaye", and Tony Yarwood, both new picketers from ARS, plus Ron Lawley who also sometimes comes to pickets. Also present were Jens, John, Hartley, Dave Gerard who is now a regular picketer here, plus Steve Carmichael-Timson and his friend "Jay"; ten in all. Our numbers are going back up. Apologies from Roland (ill), Martin (tied up), and Damian (travelling elsewhere) plus Duke the Dog. Goodge Street Tube was closed today because today is also a fireman's strike, so we came via Tottenham Court Rd station instead.

Map, see... http://www.xemu.demon.co.uk/clam#londorgmap ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-oOo-

We turned out from the pub about ten minutes late. Jay, who was not known to the clams, wanted to go in and be body routed during the demo.

One rather surly clam in a turd-brown leather jacket came out to counter leaflet. He wasn't very successful. It took about an hour for them to get organised as they clearly weren't expecting us.

"Spanish Fly" was nowhere to be seen -- perhaps she's blown -- but a tall hatchet faced youth with short straight black hair was present from last time, and also the dim curly fellow who thinks he can walk through plate-glass windows. It tool about an hour for them to get mobilised. Turd-brown took one of our leaflets and tore it up, so I was a bit antsy when one of the other women wanted a sample leaflet unless they exchanged theirs for ours one for one. The police were called out on some bogus excuse and weren't very impressed. The two new constables wanted a quick brief on what we were about as they hadn't seen us before, although we were on the list of things-to-watch-for that shift. in Britain you tell the police, planning section, in advance of picket details;

they do not inform the people picketed. I noticed they didn't have FREEDUMB to give out but RESULTS (?), a magazine promoting the Greenwood (?) scientology school in East Grinstead.

John Ritson did most of the schpiel, but I did a twenty minute turn including a few verses of Do the ElRonRon and the Xemu Rap.

"Kaye" was quite into it, she was leaping out and making sure everyone who had a clam leaflet got one of ours as well. We finished about three fifteen when "Jay" finally came out and told us his tale. Then we spent a couple of hours back down the pub mainly getting to know the new people and plot various suppressive activities. I left about 5pm to get the train home.

-oOo-

All in all, we had a grand day out.

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               .'  '.       "OUR GRAND DAY OUT"

              :      :

              | _  _ |     cracking clams, grommit!

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               `\  /'                |      |       http://www.

               /`-.-`\_             /        \   xemu.demon.co.uk
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       .'/;:;:;\ /^\ /:;:;:\'.     |  (    )  |
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