English Nostalgia Continued....

from Ben's mom

19 October 1994


We visited the Tower of London today....Stopped by the BBC....From there we walked to the Houses of Parliament. Along the way, there were a lot of police, some in yellow jackets with face gear. There were police vans with riot police sleeping inside them. Police with dogs were stationed along the grass by Westminster Abbey. Debate is currently underway in both the House of Lords and the House of Commons on what is known as the Crime Bill. It is supposedly quite the revolutionary piece of legislation and has anarchists and extremist factions up in arms.

When we entered Parliament Jane and Anna were frisked but they let us in to go to a meeting of Young Conservatives....We heard John Redmond, Sec. of State for Wales speak on the Four Cardinal Principles of Conservatism: 1) Choice--of school, doctor, products, etc...; 2) Ownership-of property; 3) Responsibility and; 4) Opportunity.

We loitered around the building for awhile. I went to the water closet and when I came out was told I had just missed seeing Tony Blair, likely to become the next PM. As we were leaving, riot police began running up the stairs past us and said "We're under siege." So we were directed away from the entrance and down into a Great Hall that is usually blocked off. We went out into a great courtyard with a fountain. We headed toward the gate...but just as we arrived, they closed it. So we were told to head for the subway (underground walkway). But when we arrived there, we were told to go back to the gate. When they realized that was closed, they took us back to the Great Hall.

We could hear helicopters above and faint sounds of a mob but nothing to indicate the seriousness of the situation. There was one metro police who told us that the police were charging, which they do on horseback. Once the police told us to get up and we could leave, but by the time we reached the courtyard, it had become too dangerous again.

Shortly thereafter, we were taken out on a different side of the hall into a VIP car park in a small courtyard. One police said to me that we should look around as we went out; it was a "restricted" area. We were being hurried, so we were nearly jogging. But another police, a woman, tugged on my sleeve and told me to turn around and look up. I did, and there was Big Ben almost directly overhead and so beautiful. She said: "No one sees this, no American." We were in an area forbidden to foreigners. We went out through a subway used by people who work in Parliament and got on the Tube.

When we arrived back at school, we watched the news. 2000-3000 people rioted. A country with a deeply hidden, explosive unrest. One to tell the grandchildren someday.