The M1 was a car park, someone said, and the Tube a nightmare. It was a good day, though, for the street traders who were selling whistles on rainbow necklaces and loud horns.Some people chose to stay away yesterday because they were wary of one or other of the groups who usually dominate such events. But the Socialist Workers, Palestinian solidarity and Islamic campaigners must have been away at the front of the march because there was little sign of them. The ranks of Barbours and ski jackets could have been on the Countryside march.It took more than an hour to cross the river, plenty of time to read the extraordinary array of banners, from unions, churches, mosques and “house music against war” to one that said, bizarrely, “It’s the black worms working under Tony Blair’s skin”. “I just saw a banner that said, ‘Arse!’” said a gothic teenager to her friend. “I told him I agreed with him, absolutely.”Peter Mitchell, a 53-year-old carpenter, had come up from Dorset for the day with his granddaughter He was absolutely livid at Tony Blair’s speech that morning.
“He can’t just dismiss us like that, surely? Doesn’t the man realise that he has been elected by the people? Leadership is one thing but he’s there because of us, and public opinion is massively against what he is doing.”Alongside Mr Mitchell was a man in sunglasses on a freezing afternoon, clutching an inflatable banana. Behind us were the usual quota of bongo drummers whose rhythms gave frozen feet something to do. A child’s buggy had been decorated to look like a tank; painted on the side was a question: “I am two years old today – will George Bush let me be three?”The Butlers broke away from the crowds at Lancaster Place; nobody seemed to know which direction they should be marching in, but everybody seemed to be taking their own route through to Hyde Park “So that’s it,” said Erica. “Now the march is everywhere.” Yesterday afternoon it did seem that way. Many streets had been blocked off to become pedestrian zones and the capital was an eerily quiet and vastly improved place for it, despite the crowds and the helicopters hovering overhead.The Butlers finally reached Hyde Park in mid-afternoon, cold and weary but moved by the “overwhelming numbers of peaceable people” One of the girls was even asleep in the buggy. There was no sign of the trouble Guy had privately feared, and now he was glad to have made the effort “Tony Blair is a populist,” said Guy “He seems to want to take people with him Now he’s got to know that he’s losing our support The march will send that message loud and clear.”. No one is to escape the congestion charge Not even the congestion charge patrol vehicles.
That was the unintended message from Transport for London as it gave The Independent on Sunday an exclusive preview of its mobile tracker units last week
No one is to escape the congestion charge Not even the congestion charge patrol vehicles. With twin cameras sprouting from their roofs, they will not be hard to spot. And when the clock strikes 7am they will begin the job of sweeping up all rogue vehicles that have dodged into the central area and somehow missed the fixed cameras at the entrances to the zone.The vans are fuelled by liquid petroleum gas and so, in theory, exempted from the £5 daily congestion charge But in practice it is the wrong sort of gas. “So for the time being we’re having to pay,” admitted TfL.Everything else about the vans seems to be working. There is disappointingly little gadgetry inside, just a couple of computer screens, one displaying a moving collage of number plates as they are captured by the cameras; not much is going escape their surveillance even on a busy main road, as the system generates 25 frames a second and the pictures are undeniably clear.The same technology is already used by City of London police in the “ring of steel” set up protect the capital’s financial heart from terrorism. The cameras take infra-red and colour pictures which means that they can see your number plate even when you cannot see them – in thick fog for example.But vehicles and their registration plates are the only things to be filmed.
TfL insists pedestrians should have no concerns about any unwarranted spying.There is no drama, no blinding flash when cars go by. The van’s equipment quietly absorbs the images, munching its way through plate after plate as the traffic roars through.TfL’s head of visual imaging, “Matthew” – not his real name because TfL is nervous about the threats made to its staff since the charging scheme was announced – claims most opponents of the fee are deluding themselves when they claim the cameras can be beaten. He logs on to the “Sod U Ken” website every morning so that he can read about the latest scams – and have a good laugh.Tomorrow, as the vans start work, their doors will be firmly locked against any possible threats. TfL is also keeping secret the 300 city centre sites where the mobile enforcement teams will park and snoop (though apparently they are all close to food and lavatories, and staff will have to put cash in the parking meters, just like everyone else).. From tomorrow, congestion charging starts within an 8 square-mile zone in London
From tomorrow, congestion charging starts within an 8 square-mile zone in London
Most drivers will pay £5 a day for entering the zone between 7am and 6.30pm.