REPRESENTATIVES of environmental pressure groups who promised to play merry hell at this week's annual general meeting of the giant Shell petrochemical company were true to their word. Campaigners from Friends of the Earth and other similar eco-conscious group's lobbied shareholders on their way to the meeting.

Those who compromised their principals by actually owning the obligatory single share enabling them to attend the a.g.m. disrupted the order of business from the floor with a full repertoire of shenanigans.

Among the demonstrators were a group of pseudo city gents in pinstriped suits, with blackened faces and devil horns - chairman's night mare made flesh, "shareholders from Hell" - or, in this case, shareholders against Shell. The protestors oppose Shell's membership of the Global Climate Coalition, a lobby group which attempts to block international agreements on climate change. Old Nick, were he there in reality, would be sitting at the top table with the Shell directors. And who's to say he wasn't. ...?