The next speaker was the Mayor of nearby Otley - Councillor John Eveleigh - he is one of the few members of "the establishment" who seem prepared to speak out against the base. He talked of the unaccountability of the base and the fact that the National Security Agency (the NSA - who actually run it) seemed free to expand the base whenever they liked with the local Council being powerless to stop or control it. Danbert from the band "Chumbawumba" read a passionate speech that dwelt on the menacing nature of the base, spelt out the dangers of the military-industrial complex and called for the base to be closed (see Danbert's speech). The next speaker was Lindis Percy from the Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases who gave an update on the legal action to stop the building of SBIRS and pointed out that - despite the fact that an RAF flag was flying at the entrance - the base is run by and for the NSA and the US Space Command. As such it seems to be totally unaccountable and unreachable by citizens of the UK and the local residents - whose beautiful Yorkshire countryside is being ruined by its ugliness.

Finally, comedian Mark Thomas from the Mark Thomas Comedy Product spoke of his own experiences when he made a TV program that involved flying a balloon over the base (and narrowly avoiding landing IN it). He talked of the tapping of phone calls, faxes and emails and the echelon system that enabled the spies at the NSA in Fort Worth, Maryland to search for messages containing key-words. Mark also had the phone number in Paris of David Shayler the former MI5 officer and Whistleblower who was arrested in August 1998 and held, without charge for nearly four months in a Paris Jail. After his arrest, David's family and friends were denied permission to visit him for over sixty days. He is now forced to live in exile in France. After a few attempts on various mobile phones, Mark managed to contact David and relayed his part of their conversation to the demonstration. Through Mark, David stated that the existence of the echelon was totally unacceptable and continually and systematically breached all kinds of civil liberties. Of course, the conversation was probably being overheard by the base over the fence behind him and Mark pointed out that by having this conversation David was actually breaking the law!

Mark encouraged everyone to phone David Shayler with messages of support - his phone number is 0033 149 290 145.

Messages of support were read out from Tony Benn MP, National CND, Regina Hagen (Germany), Anti Bases Coalition (New Zealand), Joanna Miller (Canada), Billy Bragg, Glen Wangwala, Richard Salvador (Marshall Islands).

All the while the speakers were speaking, kites of various shapes and sizes were being flown in the chilly winds blowing across the top of Menwith Hill . The fence around the base was decorated with banners, slogans and other reminders that its presence threatens the lives in so many ways, of so many people -locally and throughout the world.

I'm afraid I missed the inter-universities three legged race - so can't report on the winner!

The demonstration proceeded to walk around the base close to the newly erected metal link fence topped with dangerously sharp razor-wire. The parade was impressive stretching some way along the road that runs around the perimeter of the base. Different parts of the march were chanting "Close down Menwith Hill", singing and drumming - all in good humour. On approaching the main A59 road (from Harrogate to Skipton) that runs along the third side of the base, the police escort decided that it would be in the best interests of safety to close this main road and allow the demonstration to walk along the nearside carriageway. This has not been known to happen before - there has never been a large enough group of people walking around the base to cause this to occur before! While the main road was being blocked off to traffic by the police - two large army trucks appeared along the road and tried to overtake the march. Of course, this was too tempting for many of the demonstrators who sat down in front of the lorries to block their way. The sit-down lasted for only about 10-15 minutes before the march continued on its way round the base.

We got back to the main gate at about 4 pm in time for an impressive drumming session at the gate and after a final message of thanks and a reminder that we must continue to demonstrate and protest in all possible peaceful ways - the demonstration dispersed at about 4.30.

There were no arrests despite the Daily Star putting out a 'scare' article earlier saying that according to a 'police source.....mass violence' was expected, the demonstration was peaceful and non violent. Many people did walk freely on the base - clearly in violation of the military land bye-laws at Menwith Hill and which have been used extensively by the Ministry of Defence Police.

I think we all went away with a feeling that there is much to do but that if we continue to work together and in enough numbers - we can make a difference!