Bournemouth Town Hall: Occupied Land

Foreword: This is my written article for Occupy Bournemouth, as covered last week. It's still not up on the WINOL website, and may not be. I wrote it a bit differently than we usually write our news stories... this came about when one subeditor told me the level of writing for the written side was often poor. So I know it's a little bit different, and I know it's possibly quite a mistake - as Chris often says, originality is overrated. I tried to add some life to the story though, and this was the result. As I really put an effort into this one, I feel the need to show it off on my blog, even though it's now a dated piece.

Bournemouth Town Hall: Occupied Land

A slogan hangs over hedges between Bournemouth Town Hall and the surrounding roads. 'HONK 4 CHANGE', it shouts to commuters. Of the hundreds of cars passing through during the day, around one in every ten minutes has a sympathetic driver behind the wheel who beeps their support. On that cue, the protesters salute the passing traffic with a cheer and a wave.

The protests that began in Wall Street in September and spread worldwide hit Bournemouth on Saturday the 29^th of October, when the first protesters set up camp on the lawn outside town hall, proclaiming the beginning of the latest occupation: Occupy Bournemouth.