For a week, a thousand Thai protesters in yellow shirts, many clutching portraits of their beloved King Bhumibol Adulyadej, have camped out on the once-manicured lawn of Government House in Bangkok, demanding the resignation of the country's elected government.

Armed with golf clubs and sticks - and shielded by makeshift barricades of tyre and razor wires electrified by batteries, members of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) have resisted a court injunction ordering them to leave the grounds, half-hearted police efforts to evict them, and, as of yesterday, a state of emergency banning gatherings of more than five people.