Activists arrested before royal wedding to challenge police in high court

Activists who were rounded up before the royal wedding are challenging the Metropolitan police in the high court on Monday in a case that could have widespread implications for the way the Queen's diamond jubilee celebrations and the Olympics are policed.

Scores of people were arrested and many more detained ahead of the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in April last year, leading to claims that police were unlawfully criminalising legitimate protests before they had taken place.

Lawyers acting on behalf of 20 of those who were involved are seeking a judicial review of the police action at the high court.

Sophie Priestley, of Tuckers Solicitors, is representing two environmental campaigners who were detained at what police described as an "environmental training camp" near Heathrow, the day before the wedding.

She said: "It appears that the police were determined to restrict or remove the sight of protest from central London during the royal wedding. With the Queen's jubilee celebrations and the Olympics approaching it should not be forgotten that the real strength of our heritage and tradition lies not in the spectacle and pageantry of events like these, but rather in the rich history of our hard-won democratic freedoms."

In the months leading up to the wedding there had been a series of demonstrations by students, trade unionists and other activists that saw hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets of London to protest against government cuts. There were outbreaks of disorder and in one case student demonstrators attacked a car carrying Prince Charles and his wife Camilla.

Senior police chiefs said at the time they were planning to take pre-emptive action to ensure there was no repeat of the trouble.

Lynne Owens, then assistant commissioner at the Met, told journalists: "We have both overt and covert policing activities on going and we will prevent people coming to London to cause criminal behaviour if that is their intention."

The police raided several squats and activist camps in the days before the wedding and stopped other protesters on the morning of the event.

Sophie Naftalin, of Bhatt Murphy solicitors, is representing 15 protesters who were pre-emptively arrested on the day of the wedding. They were all detained until after the wedding celebrations had concluded but no further action was taken against them.

"This matter touches upon the most important of constitutional rights – namely the right to free expression – which is fundamental to any properly functioning democracy," she said. "While our clients recognise the difficulties of policing large-scale operations, it is nevertheless clear that the police must strike the right balance between maintaining public order and allowing people to express their political beliefs."

Two of those taking action in court on Monday were detained at Sipson environmental camp near Heathrow and say they had no intention of protesting. Police claimed the camp was occupied by "extreme leftwing or environmental groups" and claimed there was evidence to suggest that paint bombs were being made at the site. However, no paint bombs were found and lawyers say police had no evidence of any link between the camp and any royal wedding protests. All those detained were later released without charge.

Theodora Middleton, one of the activists, said: "We simply cannot have a situation where the police are allowed to break into people's homes without any evidence that a crime has been committed. This kind of harassment, based it seems on crude political profiling, is entirely inappropriate in a democratic society."

Daniel Randall, who was detained near Trafalgar Square on the day of the demonstration, said: "This was a very explicit manoeuvre by the state to prevent people raising dissenting voices."

Another of the protesters, Hannah Eiseman, said: "It seemed like they had their script and once we were on the wrong end of that, we were being treated like criminals… any possible dissent was being cleared and human rights were being suspended briefly to make way for pageantry. Pageantry is all well and good, but human rights are way more important."

London 2012: Jessica Ennis storms to personal best and victory in Götzis

Sixty-one days out from the Games, there were intimations of Olympic immortality in Jessica Ennis's performance in Austria. She was so dominant that by the time it came to the 800m the only question left to ask was just how much she wanted to turn the screw on everyone else.

Before competing in Götzis, Ennis had spoken about the small psychological edge that a victory would provide. Never mind her modesty, by winning in such style she was not so much serving notice to her rivals as she was taking names and collecting dues; she is an athlete in the form of her life. Her tally of 6,906 broke Denise Lewis's British heptathlon record by 75 points, was the 17th best in history, and perhaps most importantly, surpassed the personal best of the 2011 world champion Tatyana Chernova by 26 points.

Ennis's overnight lead over Chernova was 229 points, but that margin was deceptive. One of the reasons why rivalry between the two athletes is so compelling is that the differences between them are so pronounced. Chernova is nearly 10 inches taller and 13lb heavier. Ennis has better personal bests in all four events on day one, Chernova is superior in all three on day two. If both had reproduced their average scores for the second day they would have tied on 6,770. When Chernova won the world championship in Daegu, she made up 280 points on Ennis on day two.

The defining moment of this competition came in the first discipline on the second day. Chernova's personal best in the long jump is 6.82m, 28cm beyond anything Ennis has ever managed. Ennis is an erratic long-jumper – 6.19m cost her the world indoor pentathlon title in March – and will always be under pressure in the event, forced to fret about just how many points Chernova's leap will take out of her lead. Ennis's first jump was 6.23m. Chernova surpassed that with an opener of 6.32m. Ennis, pushing herself hard, fouled her second jump, overstepping by 5cm. Chernova then improved to 6.41m. Ennis, with one jump left, was going to lose 57 points from her lead.

Under intense pressure, with Chernova prowling on the runway behind her, Ennis nailed the perfect jump with her final attempt. Her toe was hard up against the take-off board, and she flew out to 6.51m. That equalled her outdoor best. "Oh my, why do I coach?" said Ennis's coach, Toni Minichiello. He described the moment as "heart-pounding". All of a sudden the barometer switched right round. All the pressure was on Chernova. She could only manage 6.44m. Ennis ended up picking up 22 points in an event where she had expected to lose many more.

Ennis's score at that point was the best she has ever recorded after five events. And her afternoon was about to get better still. After lunch she came out for the javelin, another event where she lags a long way behind Chernova. In Daegu, it was the javelin that cost Ennis gold. In Götzis she carried the momentum from the long jump pit into the next event. In the first round she threw a new personal best of 47.11 metres. It was the first time in her career she had thrown more than 47m, and beat her previous best by 40cm.

In Daegu, Minichiello had been furious that she was forced to compete in the B javelin group along with the lesser competitors, while Chernova threw in the A group. Here Ennis was in the A group, and she thrived. In the 200m she had been running on the inside of the talented Dutch teenager Dafne Schippers, the fastest woman in the field, and had been pulled around by her.

In the javelin, being bracketed with the strongest throwers brought the best out of Ennis. Her second and third efforts were both over 44m. There was a consistency that spoke volumes about the hard work she has done over the winter.

The 251-point lead she took into the event gave her a 12.5m buffer over Chernova. In the end the Russian beat her by a little under 6m, with her first round throw of 53.21m. Ennis had a 133-point lead at the start of the 800m.

Chernova would have needed to been 9.77sec quicker over two laps to have beaten Ennis, which is tantamount to having no chance at all. Still, Chernova overtook Ennis in the final few metres of the race, just to make the point "I'm still here". Chernova won in 2min 8.94sec, six hundreths of a second ahead of Ennis, but still 132 points behind her.

The next time Ennis and Chernova go head-to-head it will be in very different circumstances, and with much more at stake. Götzis is a low-key meet, and the contrast with the Olympic stadium could hardly be stronger. Here the crowd was only 2,000 or so strong, and the small stadium is surrounded by grass banks dotted with würst vendors and schnitzel sellers. Ennis gave her post-competition press conferences while standing in a wheelie bin full of iced water.

In a little over two months from now Ennis will need to reprise her on-track feats on the biggest stage she will ever perform. If she does, her life will never be the same again.

The Vintage Years: Some day my prints will come

Something unexpected arrived in my groceries last week. No, not a slug in my organic lettuce but something almost as unwelcome: a free magazine. Why are free magazines always so patronising? I am instructed to "embrace the season!", "celebrate the sunshine!" and "ditch the cynicism!" As a middle-aged woman cynicism is my default setting (along with scepticism and many other types of "ism"). This magazine makes me want to throw things at the wall. To make matters worse it arrived with a Boden catalogue. I reserve special loathing for Boden's model Q&As: "What do you keep forgetting to do?" "Go to the dentist." Hah! That's about as likely as me buying anything from Boden. And yet… I'm horribly, irresistibly, drawn to them for the pure pleasure of being provoked into a furious, sweary rant. The country has developed a dual personality – on the one hand we're all going to hell in a handcart but on the other… Jubilee! Olympics! Summer! The bunting's out and we're all being told to jolly well cheer up. Well, excuse me for exercising my Invisible Woman's prerogative, but bugger off the lot of you.

I'm sure it's a conspiracy with the powers that be that the fashion world has come up with a whole load of jokey nonsense also intended to cheer us up. I can't bring myself to do it, I just can't. Hi-top trainers with the word "POW" dangling off the front, a banana-motif sweater, raffia bunny ears, baby pinks and blues, lace-topped socks, stripes, spots, flowers, checks, sequins, feathers – it's all too much. (Oh all right… I did briefly consider the bunny ears. Just for fun, you understand.) This fashion trend is, of course, for the young and the super-young. I see a smiley face on a jumper and immediately think Tiswas, and when Tiswas was on our screens was probably the last time I could wear such a thing. No, this look is really not for anyone over 25 or a size 10. Truthfully, I suppose I'm a bit put out because I feel a tiny bit excluded but if I can't make a grand entrance perhaps I can sneak into the party by the side door?

 From left: Liberty's Elevenses fabric, Laura Ashley's beach hut skirt and Hobbs' bold stripe shift.

At the risk of stating the obvious, the trick is to avoid top-to-toe cartoon colours, motifs and general busy-ness. Less is definitely more at my time of life. Wear scarlet jeans or a Mickey Mouse T-shirt, not both, and put down those dangly pineapple earrings right now. Make witty additions more of a nudge than a punch. I love the fantastic range of retro prints this summer – Dolce & Gabbana's chilli-strung skirt is gorgeous (and well beyond most budgets) but a full skirt is such an easy thing to make: Liberty's Elevenses fabric has a witty smattering of teapots and cups, or visit Cath Kidston online for some lovely nostalgic prints. Laura Ashley, so long in the style doldrums, has a smashing skirt with a straight-from-the-50s beach-hut pattern, or for prettiness and whimsy go for the hummingbird print instead. Not a fan of skirts? Then what about Hobbs' bold red and white striped linen shift? Or best of all, hit the vintage shops and markets – or trawl eBay but that, of course, is a whole other column…

How to dress: cocktail skirts

Fashion loves to change the rules and catch us out. One of my all-time favourite glossy magazine coverlines is What's Sexy Now. I love the brazen nonsense of the notion that Karl Lagerfeld declares he is over clavicles and loving side boob, or whatever, and all over the world our primal impulses are reprogrammed. Clearly, it doesn't work like that. What's sexy now is not that different from what was sexy last autumn. And yet, and yet, we all react to newness. If you don't have anything new to say, people stop listening to you. Clothes work in much the same way: you can't keep banging out the same look day after day and expect it to have any impact.

Fashion has erogenous zones, and they move all the time. One month it will be statement necklines, the next it is all about cinched waists or peplummed hips. This is perhaps the easiest way to ring the changes in your wardrobe. All you do is turn up the volume on one element of your look.

While we're on the subject of erogenous zones, skirts are about sex, apparently. According to Miuccia Prada, who without a doubt owns the fancy-skirt-with-simple-sweater look, waist-up dressing is cerebral and decorative while below the waist is about sex, birth, earthy stuff like that. Who are we to argue with Mrs P? And there's something in it. Wearing sequins on your behind is a different kind of dressing up than wearing a sequined collar on your blouse.

Could this be why the notion of wearing a loud skirt with a simple top seems outré to most people? Because we are so buttoned up and British? It could be, but I suspect it has more to do with the fact that the one piece of fashion wisdom every female seems to absorb at a tender age is that solid, dark colours can be used to make sections of your body slimmer. The fortunes of the black trouser industry are built on this adage.

Leaving aside subconscious prudishness, and enslavement to does-my-bum-look-big-in-this judgment, there is one good reason not to wear a skirt like this, and that is if you are going to a restaurant. Think about it. Pointless. This is a cocktail skirt: standing or bar stool-seated evenings only need apply.