Happy days at Heathrow

Climate camp: next year we’ll go for longer

Samantha Weinberg

25 August 2007

A family outing to the climate camp protest

In the kid’s tent, a giant aeroplane was being made out of scrap cardboard and covered in shiny paper and streamers for the march the next day. An environmental film was showing in the cinema tent — I think our children were hoping for Harry Potter — while volunteers in the legal tent were busy compiling guides on what to do if arrested (we nabbed one for Notty’s holiday scrapbook). In various other large tents, people were painting banners, or discussing plans for the following day’s protest. The decisions were being made, we were told, by consensus: if you agreed with a proposal, you ‘twinkled’ — waved both hands in the air as if gently shaking cocktails. Adamant disagreement was signalled by a block. The problem, it soon transpired, was that after five days of discussion, a firm consensus had yet to be reached.

There were plenty of other children there, wild-haired and confident, jumping on the trampoline, or playing with a giant white rabbit hopping peacefully around the camp. Ours were wide-eyed, but happy. They liked the idea of the ‘bicycle library’, and didn’t balk at the unconventional loos: separate ones for the different functions, wooden seats, fully composting. Everyone we met was friendly, even if some of them, to Alfie and Notty’s private-school eyes, looked extraordinary.

‘Why’s that girl got rainbow hair?’ Notty asked loudly, as a tall woman with multi-coloured dreadlocks turned to smile at her. Another with multiple piercings was stirring a vast, steaming saucepan in the kitchen area of one of the ‘neighbourhood’ marquees. She asked whether we’d like dinner. We had just twinkled at the plan to stay the night at camp. But eating vegan food was a definite block.

We thanked her, and scuttled away to an Indian restaurant in the village of Sipson. A bunch of local residents was sitting at the next table. ‘Good on you,’ said a man with a large belly. ‘We’ll be marching with you tomorrow.’ Buying milk chocolate from the Co-op down the road, we bumped into several fellow campers on a similar mission. One admitted she was also having a ‘vegan moment’.