We parked up on the mountainside and soon realised that every other van in the carpark was full of sleeping policemen (the real kind), At dawn there was a heavy mist over the loch, but the view from the carpark showed the whole extent of the Faslane WMD base far beneath us, the lights all haloed and fuzzy. This is a vast complex devoted to destruction, futility and the politics of despair, surrounded by razor wire, armed troops and dog patrols. So we trekked down the roadside through the forest to the North Gate, led by two small people from Bethesda, Yasmin and Haisee, carrying the Ddraig Goch, and tried to bring along something of the politics of hope.

From about 6.30am to 10am the gates remained closed as group after group locked on to each other and everything and the road was blocked with wheelchairs and drainpipes and bodies and festooned with incident tape and banners and model policement and stilt walkers and drummers. The fabulously pink painted group were so sticky and pink that they could not be moved for hours (the policemen, now woken up, didn’t want to smudge their uniforms, I suppose). Superglue and tarmac are said to bond well. One policeman wore a kepi, gendarme style; perhaps there is an infiltration of Clouseaus in the Strathclyde police department. They were certainly photographing every one of us in great detail and writing copious notes too. Aberystwyth’s clown army were marching to and fro in a most disconcerting way and lobbing a plastic bomb across the highway, before they too were bundled off in the arms of the law, with some very nice singing going on in the background . The arrests went on and on: 171 in all during the day. Meanwhile the South gate too was blocked for 2 hours with a tripod lock-on. The sun broke through and the carnival continued. Great to see so many from all Wales there, and former Bangorites too: Susan Brush, now living in Glasgow, put us up for the night (many thanks, Susan) and Jean Oliver, Bangor peace campaigner from many years ago now living in Scotland, came over to say hello having seen our banner adorning the main roundabout.

By mid-afternoon the motorway home beckoned and we now saw the panorama of mountains and lochs that are sullied by the presence of the base. An inspiring end to a year of protest that for us began with Merched Beca going to the Gates last November. Over 1,000 arrests in all. The commandant of the base said that the year of protests had not interrupted their operations a bit. Well maybe not (he would say that, though). But it certainly has raised public awareness of the vast sums being wasted on this form of state terrorism, of the double standards applied to Iran and Iraq, of the UK breach of the Non Proliferation Treaty, of Gordon ‘British’ Brown’s bizarre way of showing his professed admiration for Gandhi. People now know that nuclear weapons won’t make the world a safer place, quite the reverse. So there is a deadly serious message behind our cavortings. Politicians of Wales, please take note.