Marching for Sanity - Yesterday's People's March

Photo by Mila Caval

No-one has ever told me that I was one in a million, but yesterday, I was just that. I took part in the People's March for a second referendum on Brexit. The right-wing press have been spitefully critical of the march, but even they have had to admit that the number of marchers reached a million - which is quite something of itself. People travelled to attend the march from all over Britain. One such person was Ali Lothian (60) from Dundee, who told the BBC:

 "It's a big commitment - it's a whole weekend. But I regretted not coming last time." 

I didn't go to the last one either, but, as Brexit appears to be drawing near, I felt that I had a duty to be there this time. I had no idea that the event would be so well attended. When I emerged from the Tube at Green Park station, I was astounded at the numbers.

Anyone who has attended a large demonstration knows how easy it is to lose contact with people. I had arranged to join up with friends, but somehow that didn't happen, so I joined in with a hotchpotch of interested groups. Several people told me that this march was less light-hearted than the previous one, which reflects the seriousness of the situation we now face. Katie Wright of the BBC says:

"In March a carnival vibe accompanied the slow walk from Park Lane to Parliament Square, but university student Ben Stocks said the atmosphere this time was "more sombre". Another member of the crowd, Simon Gosden, 63, agreed, saying: "There's more of an air of tension. We know we're getting down to the nitty gritty - it's all or nothing."

This does not mean that we all marched with a frown. There were moments that made me smile, at least. There was a young lady who brought her dog:

There were people who had made huge sacrifices to attend the demonstration:

Then again, there were people who dressed up to mock dear old Boris, as can be seen in this photo taken by Mila Caval:

The placards carried by marchers were pithy and accurate in their slogans.

I have to own up: I didn't make it to Parliament Square. I wasn't there to listen to the variety of speakers, including John MacDonnell and Sandy Toksvig. Nor did I hear the announcement that Boris had been thwarted in his attempt to enforce Brexit. I found it necessary to seek refreshment in the Whitehall branch of Wetherspoons, where I finally managed to meet my friends. I enjoyed the irony of this, as the pub's owner, Tim Wetherspoon, is a rabid Leave campaigner. Cheers, Tim!

Cynics, and sometimes demonstrators themselves, often ask "What good do demonstrations do?". In the case of cynics, there is little point explaining anything, but for myself, I felt that the march was more than worthwhile. I hope that it demonstrates to everyone, here and abroad, that we Brits are not just a bunch of lemmings headed for the cliff edge and, should the Brexit disaster happen, at least we can say that we did our best to stop it. It also united Remainers of all political persuasions and none. The whole spectrum of Remain opinion marched together yesterday, from Socialist to Liberal Democrat to Conservatives. The only jarring note was the hounding of MPs at the House of Commons. As has rightly been said - that kind of behaviour is unnecessary and counter-productive. If we can't win by peaceful pressure, we can't win anything at all by threats of violence.

Chilling in The Lord Moon of the Mall, I noticed something remarkable. There were many people from the march, as expected, but there was also a contingent of people in camouflage trousers, sporting military style berets. One even wore a t-shirt with the logo: "Northern Ireland Veteran." These were people who had come to counter-demonstrate, yet, within the confines of the pub, both sides ignored each other. That changed outside, where these aging ex-servicemen began singing songs in praise of Boris. To my surprise, I found myself feeling sorry for them. None looked as if their post-service lives had been rewarding, which is typical of many ex-military people of all nations and all ages. People like this look for scapegoats. Many German WW1 veterans blamed the Jews for their defeat in 1918; these men blame the EU for their woes. There were very few of them and, like I said, they looked somewhat pitiful. I can only hope that Brexit will not reduce us all to a similar impoverished state.
Irrational as the beliefs of these men were, they are no more muddled in their thinking than all the Brexit supporters I have ever met or listened to. I have yet to hear an opinion in favour of Leave that isn't either based on emotion, distorted facts or downright lies. These counter-demonstrators were probably motivated by xenophobia - but aren't all Brexit supporters to some extent? For this reason, I say that yesterday's march wasn't just about Brexit - it was a march for sanity.
As I walked to Leicester Square tube to catch my train home, I felt glad to have taken part in what must have been one of the biggest and best attended demonstrations in our history. I hope we did some good. We did, didn't we?