The difference in atmosphere of the two sites was astonishing. Finsbury Square was friendly, calm, instantly accessible and welcoming, whereas at St Paul’s the atmosphere was edgy, tense, frenetic in parts, with many different causes being voiced alongside the towering beauty of the cathedral.
I spoke to two of the protestors at Finsbury Square and I felt a little like they could become good mates of mine. Ian, who features in the article, had an openness and optimism that I found utterly disarming and encouraging. These were serious bleak economic issues being protested about, but here was a chap with his eyes only on the prize of communal living, harmony and knowledge. Lindsay, up front on the info desk, had spent her first day at St Paul’s and was now at Finsbury. She was simply an all round good person. Working as a volunteer youth worker and a long term protestor on a variety of good causes, she really didn’t fit the troublemaking activist stereotype.
At St Paul’s the people were different. I received a frosty reception from the first bloke I approached. He went on to lament that he and his girlfriend had already done 3 interviews that day and were too tired to talk to me. My second attempt for an interviewee was a man prostate on the floor in front of the cathedral steps with a sign around his neck about racism in religion, I couldn’t get him to even respond to me as he rolled back and forth on the floor wailing. Then I finally found two young protestors happy to chat, “but” they told me, “don’t ask us why we’re here”…… Righto.
