To cheers from the crowd outside the Royal Courts of So-Called, a silver Mercedes driver honks furiously …
… but she’s the exception. There’s no shortage of horn play but it’s mostly from work vehicles. A 76 toots as it passes: bus red; driver black. Delivery vans are gratifyingly noisy, and cabbies add to the cacophony, forcing Jeremy to speak up.
The speeches are short, two minutes max. I generally find them pointless – too many folk fond of their own voices telling us what we-already-knew-or-we-wouldn’t-be-here-would-we? – but today it’s good to get these snapshots and sound-bytes. Here’s John Shipton, Julian’s father …
I’ve forgotten this one’s name but she’s been big on Justice for Julian.
This one too.
And this guy. Swedish dude I think.
Here’s the lawyer who fell for her client.
The imperial blob is the Borg. It can appropriate and co-opt everything; critics included. Depend on it. In due c. there’ll be a $150m Hollywood tearjerker – Stella and Julian – billed as The Love Affair of The Century.
Chris Hedges, often referenced on this site, came all the way from America.
There was a redhead who looked like he might be famous ….
… and a rep from Staffies 4 Julian.
Then there were us. A friend emailed to say she’d seen me on TV, and grabbed the screenshot. Here I am, stylish in keffiyeh and barely discernible Free Julian t-shirt topped by mustard cord jacket and, to the north, anthem for the common man cap.
A memory jogger on why we’re here. Remember this video-still – captured, with accompanying sound track, from a helicopter gunship?
No? Here’s another memory jogger:
Chelsea broke the law and was pardoned. Julian didn’t but wasn’t.
You know you’re over the hill when cops are eye-candy.
It being a weekday you’ve likely picked up that this is an ageing crowd, with a few exceptions to prove the rule. Did I mention eye-candy?
Good of Lucinda Williams to show up for a spot of stewarding.
Free Julian Assange!
Free Julian Assange!
Free Julian Assange!
* * *
Great you could be there!
Hi Dineke. At this rate I’ll have croaked before this brave and despicably treated (not just by our rulers but by ‘woke’ idiots) man is freed! One of his most ardent defenders was fashion legend Vivienne Westwood. She died in late ’22, otherwise would have joined us I’m sure.
I haven’t been to London for fifty years and don’t really want to go there ever again, so thanks for going on my behalf, Phil. Good to see so many others with you. Hope for a good ending.
Cheers Jams. I think that whatever the judicial outcome, historians will place this outrage as one of the markers – in its way as telling as humiliation in Ukraine and genocide in Gaza – of the West’s moral and hegemonic unravelling.