Today in Mayfair

Mayfair carpet shop

When I came out of the cinema, late afternoon, a few hundred people were walking through Mayfair, shouting Mubarak, out! There were many old Egyptians, as well as young - white beards and arm-in-arm, head-scarved girls, and the usual British back-up: Green Left, Stop the War... Waiters (mostly Middle-Eastern around there) emerged from the back doors of restaurants to watch them pass. At the front of this very unaggressive crowd was a tight rank of motor-cycle cops and at the back four large police vans with flashing lights, while armed guards swaggered prominently outside the embassies - an uncomfortable reminder of the limits on our freedoms.