It's a decoy,' grins the pole-bearer with a wink. In another way, it isn't funny at all. The masked, scarved-up black blocks move down Whitehall. One or two of the CCTV cameras have been neutralised, covered with RTS stickers. Don't spectate, participate' is a key RTS motto.
Masks are central to carnival, offering the liberation of anonymity.
At the M41 street party a gigantic stilt-walker wearing a ballgown and playing the bagpipes was masking a Kanga drill under her voluminous skirts. It was being used to dig up the tarmac and plant a symbolic tree. Then on to a McDonald's. McDonald's and the police must have seen this coming. Missiles thrown at the police hit press and protesters.