Morning glory

There are a number of pieces of equipment which activists should not be without and an alarm clock is pretty near the top of the list. Of course, even if you've got one they're of limited use if you don't bother to set it. While several of my friends were forcing themselves out of bed at some ungodly hour to get down to Harmondsworth detention centre, I'd planned a more placid day with an hour or two giving out flyers in Market Square. Given that the Stop the War stall didn't kick off until twelve I figured I wouldn't bother with the alarm. Surely, I thought, my body long ago slipped into the routine of getting up fairly early. How wrong I was.

Things got off to a bad start when I woke up at one, something I haven't done for sometime. Honest. Once I'd got myself sorted and in to town, Stop the War were long gone. Some of the guys from the NHS campaign were holding a stall as were representatives of the putative Notts branch of Unite Against Fascism, so I offered my typically enthusiastic support to the former (i.e. I stood around looking uncomfortable, occasionally proffering any passing pedestrians a pamphlet). Unfortunately there wasn't a great deal of material to distribute (which is strange, because the unions ostensibly supporting the campaign are hardly short of money), although on the upside this did mean I didn't have to spend that long standing around in the cold before beating a retreat to the comfort of a public house.