I arrived early on a sunny morning in Trinity Square Gardens, in readiness for a 10.30 demo start. Happily, the first group I came across were from the West Midlands and it was fantastic to meet people whose faces I’d previously seen on the Coordinators’ Zoom sessions.
After a while, the number of rebels arriving started to exceed the number of police present and a wonderful, friendly, excitement filled the square, helped by the lively XR drumming.
In our groups, we were covertly briefed about our action, (although our city destination was not revealed) and then we all heard a wonderful, rousing, Tannoy- talk from one of the organisers before setting off, two hours after I had arrived!
It took us 30 minutes to walk half a mile to Lloyds of London which had already been infiltrated by XR and Just Stop Oil members. Two arrests were made near me – people who were holding smoking flares – and a few other arrests were made during the day. Drumming and dancing at the destination were impressive and there were enough demonstrators to hold hands around the building which precipitated Lloyds to evacuate its employees through a side door!
There is no news from Lloyds as a result of this action but other insurance companies have released statements to confirm that they will not be insuring gas and oil projects and the Zurich CEO, Marco Greco, has said that he’s ready to enter talks.