“Learn some manners”, PCSO tells OAP on Bristol Peace Vigil.

bristol | peace | opinion/analysis Tuesday June 09, 2009 08:37 by oap vigiler

Should the final curtain come down on the Bristol Vigil?

So few people now attend the Bristol Vigil that the question must be asked, is it time to call it a day?
There are often only two or three people in attendance, if that, and this makes them particularly vulnerable to the predatory, or just the moody, “out for a bit of sport”.
The two founder members of the Vigil, Lois who’s ninety and Neville, ninety-six, need not be so concerned in this regard, but just a couple of people on the vigil may well fall prey to the opportunist bullying fraternity.

Bristol Peace Vigil with the Red Notes opposite the Hippodrome.

It was 3.00 pm last Saturday on Bristol Centre opposite the Hippodrome and this is the time that the vigil usually begins, but so far only two of us had arrived.

I was performing the usual task of tying the large vigil peace banner between tree and lamp-post, the banner reads, “Bristol Peace Vigil 8th Year, Say No to War”. Then I realised that my activities were being observed by one of those Police Community Support Officers. “What this all about then?” he asked. Rather taken aback, feeling somewhat patronised, and busy in the execution of a reef knot on tiptoe, I said, “Why don’t you read the banner?” The PCSO retorted that he couldn’t read it from the back, (he was facing the reverse side). So I said it was the peace vigil, and expressed my great surprise that he didn’t already know that, ”it’s only been in the centre of Bristol for nine years for heaven’s sake!”

My spontaneous retort didn’t go down too well and he followed me about as I set up the other banners, trying to provoke me some more. But not knowing the extent of these PCSO powers, it often wisest to say nothing. He soon tired of my silence and left me to get on with the vigil, but not before telling me that I, “should learn some manners”. An OAP, born into a world at war, decades before he was even dirtying nappies should “learn some manners”.

But you can forget respect for the elderly, respect is another victim of pop star Blair and his entourage, along with the million dead in Iraq. Blair’s policy of wealth and self first, and the slaughter of the weak and the under-privileged in other lands has killed off respect. Public indignation at this lack of morals or justice is ignored by our leaders and by our media and this is reflected in the violent way the police treat the public, with impunity, as highlighted in recent police violence on demonstrations.

How can we expect our young custodians of the law to behave any differently when they see their superiors upholding a government, the majority of whom allowed war criminal B’liar to illegally invade a sovereign country? When they see their superiors upholding a pack of hypocrites, MPs who, according to the press, are getting ready to resign in droves in an attempt to avoid arrest for fraud, paying for porn, moats and wisteria with taxpayer’s money, fleecing the electorate who voted them into office.

I believe that this young PCSO tried to provoke a confrontation, but was this simply a spontaneous incident or had it been suggested to him that he ‘have a go’ at the Bristol Peace Vigil? A gradual war of attrition until the peace banner is hoisted no more opposite the Bristol Hippodrome.

There must be plenty of people who would much prefer that the war in Afghanistan quietly festers on unnoticed by the British public. As war garners wealth for arms trade shareholders, as unmanned drones destroy human life dropping their payload on taliban and innocent civilian alike.

It was the war in Afghanistan that prompted the beginning of the Bristol Peace Vigil almost nine years ago.

And wouldn’t it be nice to have great big military parades with all the pomp and ceremony marching around Bristol City Centre where the Bristol Peace Vigil once stood.
Pavements full of an adoring flag-waving public, pavements unfettered by those spoil-sport peace vigilers - after all, they would be a reminder of how we got into Iraq in the first place.

A big "Thankyou" to the Red Notes who sing on the vigil once a month. Great singing! Really appreciated!