march for the alternative

I didn’t make it to yesterday’s march. I feel bad about this and about how I’d pathetically left it to the middle of last week before trying to sort out transport. In the event, over 250,000 (500,000 if you believe the “Mail on Sunday”!) demonstrated in a powerful, peaceful and good-natured protest against the government’s cuts in public. Moira+I have just been drinking coffee by the harbourside and were saddened to see the right wing press’s “take” (well, “Mail on Sunday” and “The Sunday Telegraph” at least) on yesterday’s events – the two newspapers being read by a couple sitting at a neighbouring table. ALL they wanted to concentrate on were the activities of a violent minority of anarchists (perhaps 300 people?). These people had NOTHING to do with the march itself. Check out the “Mail on Sunday” online stuff and keep scrolling down to see if you can find ANY photographs (there are 16 in total!) of the march itself… no, you won’t be able to.

I thought the letter from Caroline Lucas, Green Party Leader, in yesterday’s “Guardian” letter got it right: “Today will see the largest march in London since the 2003 protest over Iraq. People will march to Hyde Park in support of an alternative to the coalition government’s savage cuts. These cuts are not inevitable – they are driven by ideology, not economic necessity. We can address the deficit by putting hundreds of thousands of people back to work in low-carbon jobs, implementing a Robin Hood tax, cutting spending like Trident, and seriously cracking down on tax evasion and avoidance”.

Photo: the “real” demonstration.