Shannon's Report

It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life....I can't say it wasn't stressful, or that I got even close to enough sleep...but I wouldn't swap those three days for anything...

From the moment we arrived it should have been obvious how things were going to go but its only later that you have time to reflect and really notice....Penny, Mike and Tom had already arrived and had started unloading and were busy making banners before I'd even finished finding out where the cleaning materials were! As people arrived we got more and more functional...there was more to do and more people doing it....It reminded me of some of my best moments at Newbury....It wasn't even a case of asking people to do things, although whenever I did there was always a willing volunteer....No! One of my great joys over those few days was finding someone already doing the thing that needed to happen next,or someone coming and asking me about something before I'd thought of it....Ahhh! ....Bliss....

It's often the case that in stressful and unpredictable situations (like risking arrest for the first time...!) people often function erratically or poorly....Not so on the Seize the Day blockade.....and it makes me so proud!

Not only is it fantastic that so many people felt able and willing to spend a lot of time and money coming to try and block a nuclear submarine base for two days....but when they got there they were amazing....families with small children....couples who had never done anything like this before...people recovering from operations and illness, seasoned campaigners from way back, all of them....lovely, gorgeous, caring, intelligent, funny, highly motivated people....and they were all part of my gang....!

I didn't feel that it was because of me you understand....its what we sing about...people who like our music are making a difference in the world all the time....so what did I expect really? No one to turn up? Everyone to be crap?....of course not but neither did I have any idea how incredible it would be....We even had a packed lunch every day (and spare toilet roll for when the church ran out....)

I have the wish to name everyone and say what they did that was so good but I've got an album to finish and a 2 and a half year old who is sick of the computer!!....so sorry for that...

I can't say we did everything well....we could look after the needs of the parents with children better and knowing the route on the first morning would have been great!! But hey if there's no room for improvement where can you go?

I also want to say well done to the Strathclyde police for such thoughtful policing and thanks for all the support we got from the Peace Camp and the organising/steering committee of Faslane 365...Its not easy to hold the vision of a world without nuclear weapons in the face of our current world situation....but I know....that even if a nuclear weapon was fired at our country I would not want one fired back....the people who would die are just the same as me...they just live somewhere else.....

Good luck Faslane 365.... we will be back....(....once we've recovered!)