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So. The police report that states 750,000 marched in the anti-war protest is a joke.
Whoever wrote it (presumably at the behest of the government) is both a liar and a coward. The actual police on the ground carried out their duties admirably, and that such a desperately low estimate has been officially published just goes to show what a free and honest society in which we live. Ha.
I have never seen so many people in my entire life. The march was jam-packed, and we had to march at least a mile, maybe more, to get to the place where the march was supposed to start (at Embankment). From Embankment, it took two and a half hours to get to Westminister. This is the same walk that usually takes about 5-10 minutes when it's clear.
There were people as far as the eye could see in all directions. This was true for the entire duration I was there.
As I had Eulalia with me, I decided to head back to Blackfriars and go home when I reached the houses of parliament, home of democracy.
Some joke that's turned out to be. Tony Blair may press ahead with his moronic crusade against reason, but his real legacy will be that he and his cohorts have systematically destroyed the foundations of democracy in this country with a "la-la-la-can't-hear-you" attitude to argument, and complete and utter failure to listen to anyone who isn't president of the USA.
I am well aware that I have participated today in an event which may well would have seen me strung up and tortured as a result if it were to be in Iraq. But that isn't what's at stake here.
When the people lose their voice to the extent they have done so in this country, when those in power abuse their mandate to the extent of the current government, when even backbenchers in his own party who ask difficult questions are asked to leave parliament, democracy in this country is in a very sick state indeed.
Saddam Hussein, lowlife that he is, is not a menace to this country, no matter what propaganda we're fed. The true menace to this country lives in Downing Street, and answers to the name "Tony".
Update: If somebody as apolitical and apathetic as I am can be drawn to go on a march against something, and be pumped up into a slavering rage against this government, they must be doing something Very Wrong Indeed. I have left my above comment unedited, even if it could do with being shaped from incoherent rant into something with a little more structure.
Rich, my personal opinion is that the threat to this country is increased by action against Iraq rather than decreased. It's not simply a case of going in, removing saddam, and then buggering off again. I am not sure that too many people would be upset to see him go (although I am sure that al-qeada and their ilk will use it as another demonstration of the "western war on islam"). The problem comes post-saddam, and what the US/UK do in sorting out who governs it. Pretty much whatever happens will be perceived as imperialistic, especially as and when the oil companies move in. This is when people (and I am thinking fundamentalists in particular) will really start to get pissed off.
I also don't trust the motivation of our political leaders. They claim its a "moral war", but this is very much a tacked on argument that they are using to try to make it more palatable and "just". However, I believe it is actually the case that it is old-style response to a dramatically new kind of threat that the current administrations (and I mean all of the west, not just UK/US) are struggling to respond to adequately, instead falling back on techniques that worked 50/100 years ago. Of course, the fact that the old techniques actually led us in the first place is something that a lot of people seem to be ignoring.
There are many more reasons for my opposing the war as well - the whole thing makes me very angry. Unfortunately I still have to work, so I shall leave it there ...