PICKET REPORT 2003/june/28 London (UK)

Forward: For a systematic, detailed, professional exposure of Scientology's "Narconon" front group, visit the Narconon Exposed web site.

PICKET REPORT 2003/june/28 London (UK)

Dave Bird <dave@xemu.demon.co.uk>

28 Jun 2003

I arrived at the venue early before the others, but we soon had a good crowd crowd comprising Dave, Jens, Hartley, Katie, Tony, SteveCT, plus Andy and Pam. Apologies Damian (at Glastonbury), John Ritson (at a cricket international), Ron Lawley (private) and Dave Gerard (private). No Roland either, though he doesn't always attend London demos.

The clams were quite snappy, but I was in remarkably good voice and spirits... I did the mic 95% of the time, with a short break in the middle to rest and buy a diet coke. Tony went on the mic for a few minutes too, and a guy came past -- the clams will reckon we paid an actor but this was a completely unsolicited endorsement! -- who laid into the clams based on 20 or 30 years of experiencing them. We just gave him the mic and let him rip!!

The police were there at the start of the start of the demo. They were particularly concerned that the sidewalk south of the Org, which was already narrowed by scaffolding, should not be further obstructed by leafleters and we carefully complied with this by staying at least 5mtrs north of there.

The most notable feature for me was that I acquired a body thetan, not so much a clam as a barnacle, who persistently stood in front of me with his back to me. I responded by using him as an example "this is your mind on scientology, I nice back suit if a little old but a complete idiot in it, staring with a googly-eyed look and parroting his few set phrases. I couldn't see the reaction on his face, but others tell me he was becoming a bit of a steamed clam.

Oh, and when they tried to leaflet another guy, he said "you bounders stole the entire content of my website URBAN-75, and passed it off as yours in the Nar-CON-on drug rehab site." The story has been reported in the Guardian (uk national) newspaper, and you can find it on google.

So, all in all, we had a particularly enjoyable grand day out.

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