BY CHRIS HOBBS

I was less than impressed. After walking a mere six miles covering two protests, I’d just settled down to watch to watch Manchester City versus Chelsea when I was told that pro-Palestinian supporters had illicitly ‘taken over’ Tower Bridge and the City Police were rushing to the scene.

I had earlier been just a few underground stops away in central London where two fairly innocuous protests had taken place. The first gathered near the BBC in Portland Place and was concerned with the desperate situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo where, reportedly, millions have died over the years.

The Met provided a ‘tape’ lorry which, by ‘rolling out’ tape along the route restricts the protesters the one side of the road. A number of traffic officers on motor-bikes were also provided to facilitate the march.

About 200 protesters turned up and after a brief stroll along Regent Street, stopped and vented their anger at the Apple Store. Apple, they claim, fund armed groups and use children as forced labour to extract valuable minerals used in the construction of mobile phones and laptops.

March officials pushed some of the more over-zealous protesters back but although there was palpable anger, there was no violence. Police officers present looked on anxiously as a female protester had a hysterical meltdown but tempers subsided as the march moved along.

Congolese and Ukrainian protests converge