"Siege" drabbles by Neville Hunt
Postscript
Siege PS
I've had a few close shaves over the years. Take the bear poo in the Bulgarian forest or escaping angry demonstrators bearing down on me in Sofia. Then there's the high decibel, threatening Ukrainian border guards and the fear of getting caught in Russian mafia crossfire in St Petersburg.
In London, another near miss walking past a postbox at Piccadilly Circus minutes before the IRA bomb inside blew it asunder. And narrowly escaping the Kings Cross fire with seconds to spare... plus the Libyan incident.
I'm just an ordinary guy, but maybe it's best not to hang around with me.
Down at the Yard
Siege #12
Our gift went down well at lunch at the Yard, as did the lunch. This was a real demonstration of humanity from our hosts. At lunch we were presented with a police walkie-talkie on a plinth, shortly to be displayed on our desks in rotation.
Then we were given a tour and sneak preview of a new floor of the Yard sporting state of the art communications kit about to be commissioned.
There was no need for all this at all, but hey, we all had a great laugh.
Sad for Yvonne's family who had nothing to laugh at.
Summoned to the Yard
Siege #11
Not long after, we were given back our offices. The communications people from the Met were very warm and friendly. Although we'd had little choice in the matter, they were grateful to us for letting them squat in our space.
They invited me and my team to lunch at New Scotland Yard. Exciting!
We knew we couldn't go empty-handed, so, being creative, one of my execs took 'mugshots' of us all - front and side and completed the pictures with 'handles' and details of our 'previous' and our normal 'MOs'.
Was a bit worried about giving them my dabs though!
Resolution and fall out
Siege #10
After 11 days, the British government allowed 'embassy' staff to leave and expelled them from the UK. Diplomatic relations were immediately broken off. The Libyans detained 6 British nationals for 9 months, releasing them just 4 days after the unveiling of a memorial to WPC Yvonne Fletcher in the Square.
Pan Am flight 103 was brought down over Lockerbie in Scotland by Libyans in 1988. Eventually Tripoli admitted to the WPC's killing, and then denied it. Tensions eventually prompted the aerial bombing of Libya, the execution of the Colonel and some say no good has come out of it all.
And out in Libya...
Siege #9
Libyan radio reported that the embassy had been stormed and that its occupants had fired back in self defence against "a most horrible terrorist action". Libyan soldiers then surounded the United Kingdom Embassy in Tripoli in response.
Meanwhile, for 11 days, in one of the longest police sieges in London's history, armed police surrounded 5 St James's Square. This was the tense, exciting, nail-biting stuff that the media crave. Myriad opportunities for background pieces, conjecture, analysis, prediction and politics. Timely but ephemeral.
But the tragic story of WPC Yvonne Fletcher was not ephemeral. It lives on with her family.
Exodus
Siege #8
Midway through the siege, with the media as hungry as half-starved hyenas, it was the day of the agency's annual staff meeting. A leading advertising company, this was a big affair at a swanky Park Lane hotel, an easy half-hour walk from the Square. So come 2.30pm, me and others not working from home trooped out through the blue plastic that 'sterilised' the Square.
At the end of the little street were the media, microphones in hand. Being the first to reach them, one asked me excitedly "What's happening, what's happening?"
Amazingly, I resisted the urge to extemporise!
Meanwhile...on the Square
Siege #7
What was it all about? Why the shooting? Why the killing?
We called it the Libyan Embassy, but the Colonel didn't. He called it the 'Libyan People's Bureau'. He staffed it not with diplomats, but with Libyan thugs, armed to the teeth and ready to kill. And they did.
The demonstration by the Libyan National Salvation Front was peaceful, if rather noisy. They objected to two of their number being executed for daring to criticise the Colonel. A harsh penalty for dissent, but so much harsher for Yvonne Fletcher for keeping the peace.
And still on TV, her solitary hat.
Displaced heroism
Siege #6
It's surprising, but when your routine is suddenly turned upside down, it's a change that's as good as a rest.... and we gained hero status with our clients up north. We knew nothing of course about the progress of the siege, but the clients still pumped us for the latest updates. And if any work was delayed, they weren't at all bothered!
All we discovered about the siege we actually gleaned from the BBC news.
Occasionally I had to pop back to my own office to collect something. The men from the Met were really great. They were the heroes.
Shame
Siege #5
Our building had another entrance round the corner in Charles II Street. That door was usually favoured by latecomers, but right then it was the only way into the building. Getting to the entrance that fortnight involved sidling past the police guards through the big blue plastic sheets that adorned each of the five roads into the Square. We were granted access because of the importance of our jobs.
I spotted an official plan lying around describing the square as 'sterile'.The situation was tragic, but I'm ashamed to say, the experience of going 'sterile' behind those blue sheets was exciting!
Business as unusual
Siege #4
The siege would last for 11 days. The problem was that we were at #2 and the Libyans at #5. That's mighty close in a siege situation.
Even if it lasted for one day, our agency still had ads to create, deadlines to meet, airtime and press space to buy. So what?
What?.... was the entire building being commandeered by the police, MI5 and the SAS. We operated at the back of the building, occasionally needing to collect stuff from our offices, close to the Square. The 'Met's' communications people resided there. Friendly people.
The SAS were another thing altogether...
Hat
Siege #3
I did my best to calm Tessa. Other executives sitting outside my office came to comfort her.
I couldn't resist going to the offices overlooking the Square to see for myself. I saw the hat, blown by a gust of wind, that of WPC Yvonne Fletcher, just 25 years old. A poignant sight - unforgettable. There it would stay.
Yvonne was taken to Westminster Hospital, fatally wounded... shot in the stomach by automatic gunfire from the embassy. Her fiancé, also a serving officer, had been by her side.
An hour later, she died. 10 others wounded too. The siege had begun.
10.18 a.m. Tessa saw it all
Siege #2
There was a right old commotion going on in the Square, but I didn't hear much of it. I was busy. I had advertising accounts to service and staff to manage. And besides, my office faced the building's inner well; all I could see were other offices and heating ducts.
Tessa, one of my executives, came rushing into my office from her own, which overlooked the Square. She was in a panic and in tears. She wasn't prone to histrionics; she was tough.
"I've just seen someone shot in the square," she cried.
My disbelief became shock. Tessa wouldn't lie...
17/04/84 St James's Square
Siege #1
I strolled down Duke of York Street heading for work, which meant cutting across the top corner of the square. Today there was no cutting across though. A friendly policeman ushered me across to the central pavement skirting the gardens and behind crowd control metal barriers where people seemed to be slowly gathering. Then back across the road and into my office doorway.
I was curious, but not so much that I hesitated, although the growing crowd across the road was getting rather noisy. I was an adman. I had work to do.
Just as well I didn't stick around....
