Parliament Square protesters win eviction reprieve

The Parliament Square peace camp remained in possession of the bleached square of grass in front of the Houses of Parliament today after winning a stay of execution minutes before an eviction order was due to be imposed. According a high court ruling of 29 June, the Democracy Village protesters had to pick up their tents, cooking pots, bicycles and banners reading: "Capitalism isn't working – another world is possible" and "Soldiers, come home alive" and leave the square by 4pm. The high court order was won by the London mayor, Boris Johnson, and seemed likely to see the assembled anti-war demonstrators and climate change activists evicted before the weekend. However, they were instead told the eviction notice had been suspended until the courts could consider whether three appeals against the ruling should be heard in full. Earlier in the day, a small bonfire was made of some injunctions served against named individuals . Many of campers had already moved out during the afternoon. Some were heading to another camp in Camberwell, south London, while word was spreading of a new eco village in Hounslow, west London. Around 50 people remain, their numbers swelled by wellwishers and passing tourists and the former Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik, who has announced his intention of contesting the next London mayoral election. "I'm a libertarian," Opik said. "I absolutely loathe the erosion of civil liberties. At the end of the day, these people aren't nuts."