Representatives of CAFT ("the visiting Swampy with the bullhorn") appeared in court today to defend the campaign against Beyond Retro's continued sale of real fur. The company were seeking an injunction, hiring the notorious (Arthur) Timothy Lawson-Cruttenden.

Starting the day off by getting the named representative's name wrong, much to the confusion of his clients who presumably expected a little bit more for their money, TLC went on to repeat the wild, inaccurate and absurd accusations made against CAFT campaigners. For a visual example of the recent aggressive and intimidating demonstrations, dare to watch "Fur Is A Drag III" at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8DchJKK3DQ - but be warned, this video may contain scenes of a terrifying nature and may be disturbing to sensitive individuals.

Having eventually established that leafleting is part of, and not separate from, a demonstration, they got down to business, managing to win a minor victory against the proposed "DPAs" (Designated Protest Areas) which, in one case, would have seen campaigners demonstrating in the loading bay of Marks & Spencer (not too sure how they would feel about that!) The judge was persuaded that having one person handing out leaflets by the entrance to the shops would not amount to an intimidating presence, and therefore allowed this following much discussion. But while the judge preferred the campaigners' idea of an exclusion zone around the door, as opposed to a DPA, he decided that the zone should be 7.5m radius from the doorway and not campaigners' suggestion of 2 or 2.5m.

After a 30 minute debate, a "5 minutes on, 5 minutes off" rule was secured. "For megaphones?" I hear you ask. Unfortunately, no. Back in 2007, Justice Holland said that the use of a megaphone as an addition to lawful protest was also lawful, providing that no one was provoking violence or intimidating others. Having agreed that "unless there is a degree of noise, no one knows the demo is there", Justice Seymour went on to prohibit megaphone use... "5 minutes on, 5 minutes off" relates to the wearing of animal costumes with head pieces... Yes, seriously. However, it was nice to confirm that "synchronised enunciation" (or chanting) is an "inevitable feature of a demonstration and may well irritate others, but that is life". Having almost certainly lost the will to live following that debate, the company's representatives decided not to argue against campaigners wearing "blood-splattered" clothing on protests.

Despite the already agreed restrictions meaning that any potential aggravating feature of a demonstration would be removed, further restrictions were still imposed. So now that campaigners have been prohibited from molesting, assaulting and threatening people, using pyrotechnics and burning effigies on the street (it's not like those things were already against the law), they need your support more than ever. If you would like to join the protests, please get in touch! You may want to contact the campaign in advance as they can only have 10 protesters at each demonstration of which one is allowed per week (at each of the 4 locations) for up to 2 hours - 1 hour is not long enough, but 3 hours is too long, you see.

Once CAFT reps had corrected TLC on the Public Order Act, Justice Seymour added that they could hold larger demonstrations twice a year on special occasions, with prior notice. Prior notice to the police for regular demonstrations would be "like a sledgehammer" - long live spur-of-the-moment demo's! On these special occasions, there can be up to 40 people at a demo, however they must all still be at least 7.5m from the doorway. Campaigners had explained that protesters would not all be banded together in one place near the edge of the exclusion zone and would be more spread out (and so less intimidating) but everyone else in the room seemed to have gotten confused and decided it would be best if protesters were closer together and so a provision was made along the lines of: "each protester must stand no more than 25cm away from another protester". So keep an eye out for police enforcing this order with their pocket-rulers!

All in all it was an interesting day and campaigners came away feeling like they'd learned a lot.

Note to ALF "members" - any unlawful action taken against Beyond Retro will put you in breach of the injunction and we know you'd never want to break the law or anything so thought we'd better let you know! "It's no peaceful protest even if you set it to music!"

Until every cage is empty!

Miss Marcham