This, it seems, is the big one. After the interminable logistics briefings in the Convention Centre yesterday (during which one jet-lagged Fleet Street economics editor complained that he felt "like a pig shat in my head"), today will see 10,000 fishermen, peasants, sex workers, migrants and the generally irate march to within yards of where the WTO’s opening session will be underway.

Before it all kicks off, Our World is Not for Sale - the group that formed round Seattle and continues to be the lynchpin of resistance to neo-liberalism - will brief hacks on the inside. (Their blog is here). Then it's to the streets.

A word in your ear. Amid the raucous banter with the unionists last night, a man who knows the local scene intimately told me he fears a stitch-up. Reports such as those yesterday claiming police had stumbled on a cache of 100 gas masks, he said, were being fabricated in order to tar the entire protest with a brush of violence. The police here are desperate to be seen as China’s liberal neighbours. They may, my source suggested, be preparing to excuse their zeal in advance.