I just needed to share this little bit of Friday madness.

I'm presently working as a contractor for a Government department in Westminster. It's not one of the more controversial departments (they don't have anything to do with Iraq, animal rights or the economy) so things are normally pretty quiet around here.

However, this lunchtime we had a bit of excitement. There was a small but very loud demonstration by the main entrance on behalf of the "Fathers for Justice" group (at least we think that was who they were). Basically they're a bunch of guys who have been screwed by their ex-wives over child custody and visitation rights. To draw attention to their cause, they've been pulling off some quite inconvenient stunts all over London for the last few months (mostly involving climbing something tall while dressed as superheroes).

Today's demonstration involved about a dozen people with banners, klaxons, whistles and a loudhailer accompanied by - since we're on Black alert anyway - a lot of very nervous security people. The object of the exercise seemed to be to disrupt work in the building by making as much noise as possible and get the attention of the Govt. Ministers.

Unfortunately there were a few things no-one bothered to check beforehand.

1. It's Friday - all the MPs have buggered off to their constituencies for the weekend
2. It's windy - if there is anything written on the banners they're waving, no-one can read it as the banners are wrapped around their poles.
3. The windows are totally soundproofed. I've just stood indoors 6 feet from the guy with a loudhailer and I couldn't hear a thing.

Since the weather is so foul most people are using the canteen rather than go out. Hardly anyone in here has even realised that there's a demo going on.

So they're out there in the pouring rain, getting soaked to very effect.

The few people who have noticed them are starting to think that there might be a good reason they got screwed by their ex.'s...

posted at 1:46 PM
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