Mood

The atmosphere around the bank is a very different one now compared with last week. The police have erected a fence around it and declared an exclusion zone, which means anyone near by can be asked to leave and arrested if they refuse. The effect of this is twofold. Nobody can get back in the Bank once (if) they leave and the previous method of delivering food and the like to those inside, by a pulley operated from the 1st floor window is no longer viable. Complaints have been made that this is the police starving out the activists, but reports vary as to how much food and water they have inside, with some saying there's plenty for a while yet. Apparently the police offered a deal to the activists over the weekend whereby they could leave without being arrested (their breach of the eviction order is a criminal offence), but they aren't buying. It looks as though this might run for a while.