Strike Like An Egyptian..

..was the wording on a banner at Trafalgar Square on Saturday's march against the cuts, made me laugh that did.

Firstly, despite the impression you may have got from the news the main march was entirely peaceful, as even the police have admitted. The lowlife scum who caused all the trouble were less than 0.05 of a percent of the nearly 500000 marchers, and all the trouble caused was away from the official route. I suppose it's inevitable that these wasters tag on to any large scale protest, mistakenly assuming it legitimises their thuggery. (I now reckon I'm wrong on this - See this for a more likely explanation)

Anyways, back to the theme. Boarding a Unison coach organised by the redoubtable Wilkie in Shoesville at 9am, me being probably the only non-union traveller, although I'm sure there were many more of the non-affiliated on the march itself who disagree with the speed and depth of the Tory (forget the Liberals, as they have disappeared without so much as whimper) cuts, we arrive at the coach park in the East End of London at around 10:45.

A while later, emerging above ground at Southwark tube station, on the south side of Blackfriars Bridge, we met up with Martin, a Londoner friend who it is always good to see on rare sojourns to the capital. Now six strong, Phill, his workmates Mandy & Cheryl, Martin and his mate, and yours truly joined the back of the march on the north side of Blackfriars Bridge. We found out later that the march was being added to at a rate of over a thousand an hour, and when you consider that Hyde Park was filling by 2pm, and the entire two and half mile route was still full of marchers, there must have been around 500000 in total. Not bad! In fact in the four and a half hours we were marching we only covered about a mile and half, having to tube it back to Docklands so as not to miss the coach home. Admittedly that included a detour to a pub for sustenance, food as well as beer, I hasten to add!

I'm a veteran of countless demos in my time, and this one had one of the most peaceful atmospheres of any I've been on. The marches that had the feeling they would kick off at any moment were the numerous Anti Nazi League confrontations with various groups of brain dead skinheads waving MY flag as if they had some prior claim, way back in 70s & 80s. Ironically some of the CND marches I've been on also had an air of menace, but yesterday's march was a stroll in the park (or street), not that it detracted from the seriousness of the cause.

Apart from some of the seriously deluded far left, I'm sure that the majority of the marchers do not deny that cuts have to be made, it's simply the speed and depth of Osborne's slash'n'burn that aggravates the man or woman in the street, and again, sometimes news bulletins give the impression that the marchers are against any form of belt tightening. Not so.

I must admit however that I'm glad we never made it as far as Hyde Park as having watched some of Labour leader Ed Millibrand's speech later on TV I despair of Labour's chances at the next election. The man has all the gravitas of a damp cloth. The kind of voter Labour need to win back at the next election are people like my next door neighbour, an ambivalent man where politics are concerned. Steve, who comes from a solid working class background, gives the impression that he would consider voting Labour again, but says that Ed Millibrand is his main stumbling block simply because of his perceived lack of clout. He also told me a tale of how the unions shoot themselves, and by association Labour, in the foot. A friend of his, along with a train load of late commuters coming home to Northampton from London were told at Milton Keynes that as the driver had worked his allotted hours and as the RMT was on a work to rule, the train would not be going any further, leaving most of the passengers stranded 30 miles from home. As if that wasn't bad enough, some passengers standing within earshot of a guard heard the driver tell his colleague on his walkie talkie that once the train was empty, he'd be driving it to the depot in, you've guessed it, Northampton. A mini riot ensued.

It's stupid logic-defying behaviour like this, rooted in bullet headed 1960s & 1970s politics, that wins the unions and Labour no friends at all, and rightly so. Mind you, this is the RMT we're talking about and their leader Bob Crow is a particularly frightening example of dinosaur throwback! Although the likes of Unison may have a reserve of public sympathy, it's only a thin veneer. If strikes happen, particularly over their generous pension rights, that support would evaporate quickly. If we are to get a Labour victory at the next election, the unions have to be very careful how they tread.

That rambled a bit, I know. Here's some pics of the march...

He does!

A load of balloons

As far as the eye can see



A big clock...

And a video....