Comments on: Pushing thru the market square, so many mothers sighing

By: Jim Bliss

Jim Bliss — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 16:18:28 +0000

Oh, and personally I blame all the fat-skinny people.

By: scotch

scotch — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 09:50:17 +0000

Jeez, five years already? My brain indeed hurts like a warehouse. I did find the cops on the London march pretty OK, unlike the couple I met outside Downing Street on “end of Blair day” who threatened me with arrest because I was causing an obstruction.
While I was standing by myself watching, from the opposite side of the road, (the not Downing Street side) a coachload of freshly disembarked tourists. Irony? That’s made of metal isn’t it?

By: Katherine

Katherine — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 21:34:20 +0000

It’s interesting what you say about the actions of the police: my recollection of their behaviour at the London march was that they were friendly – jovial even. I was there with my mother-in-law, a veteran marcher of the 70’s and 80’s. She commented on how refreshingly different it was and recalled how on marches protesting Clause 28, the police presence had been so over-the-top that all you could see was miles of black. It sounded like a terrifying experience.

I guess all the b*stards had gone to Brighton.

By: Jim Bliss

Jim Bliss — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 17:16:51 +0000

… only to find that every coach company for miles had been booked up

I was at the 2003 march. I recall arriving at Hyde Park and being almost unable to breathe due to the fumes from hundreds of idling coaches. I recall thinking, “so this is why we’re going to war”. Just then, the doors opened on one of the coaches, and dozens of protesters emerged carrying “No Blood for Oil” banners. I couldn’t help but laugh.

By: stinky

stinky — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 17:05:45 +0000

Before 2003 think possible popular appeal …where are you from ,
Nothing anybody has done/sung/or marched about has made the slightest bit of difference to the death chaos and carnage that bush has rained down upon 100s,000
of innocent people, its not about preventing wankers like bush and his kind looking out of windows its about getting them to stop the killing which they continue to cause,
people can only and will only march so far for no change before desperation forces its hand.

By: Charlie Whitaker

Charlie Whitaker — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 15:38:15 +0000

I went to the 2003 and 2004 marches. The 2004 march was almost funereal. I also went to the November 2003 protest against G. W. Bush’s visit. That seemed to make more of a difference. The noise – drums and whistles mostly – must have set the window panes of Buckingham Palace and Downing Street vibrating at least a tiny bit, and the drums and whistles went on all night long. If the intention of that protest was to make its targets feel fenced in – and desperately unpopular – it succeeded. I think it was personally humiliating for Blair that his honoured guest couldn’t so much as look out the window, let alone tour the streets of London.

Before 2003, I think it was possible for a British Prime Minister to contemplate a foreign military campaign – precision bombing and the rest of it – as something with popular appeal. Victory parades to follow. I think that is off the menu for the time being. Leaders – especially bad leaders – have vanity; one of their vanities is to court popularity. Large scale protests take this possibility away.