After having spent all my adult life quietly at my hearth, I marched in protest for a first and second time and not again since. Those protests were the two largest protests that London has ever seen - the Countryside Alliance march, and the Anti Blair Iraq march. The first was not about fox hunting, but a cry of anger against the central state nannying that treated resilient, self-sufficient Britons like children. The second was against a deaf and corrupt government launching the nation on an unlawful adventure that would leave Blair with the blood of a quarter of a million innocents on his hands.
With speculation now intense over a Brexit betrayal in the autumn, with an outcome even more egregious than the Robbins Plan that the mandarins have sent the Cabinet to sell across Europe this summer, it seems I may have to march for a third time. Michael Gove has in the past visited the Mayr clinic in Klagenfurt for the annual hosing-out of his rectum, but no reports have reached me this year that the Gove bowel-flushings have hit the Wörthersee kanal, so he may have been sent elsewhere in Europe to deposit his stale excreta.
A suspension of Article 50 or worse this autumn would have the potential to bring three million of us out on the street in protest. There is a feeling one has in one's bones, which I had twice in the past and now have again but in spades. A Brexit betrayal will give London, the remainer capital, the most massive street protest ever seen in this country.
It's possible but not probable that the government will seek to ban the march in advance as (a) too large and disruptive, even on a Saturday (b) for health and safety concerns (c) potential for violent conflict with remoaner zealots. But I don't think any government would actually dare to try to cork such anger. Realistically, the government will be planning even now to make such a march as difficult as possible, if not impossible. Central London Crossrail road closures will be arranged, Network Rail major engineering works planned, resurfacing of the M4 scheduled. The logistics of getting 3m people into London, marching us to Hyde Park and getting us home again are not inconsiderable. Transport. Routes. Water. Toilets. First Aid. Stewarding. Emergency Services. Sound stages and speeches. Local co-ordination.
However, I have great faith that the Leave side has so many thousands of years of accumulated senior management, HM armed forces and skilled professional expertise at its command that such an event can be planned and arranged for a Saturday in September, October or November if required. Perhaps readers could make tentative enquiries of local coach companies now.
I also have great faith that we can be peaceful. On the CA march, police were not even needed and the only time I saw the Stewards was as we processed up Whitehall, calling "Caps off, gentlemen please, as you pass the Cenotaph". Sure, the march will attract the race-hate morons who, like ill-disciplined dogs, will want to fight any folk with brown faces, but we can work with the police to isolate and contain them. Every far-right nutter in the land will also seek to hijack the event - but as I guess 2/3rds of the marchers will be ex-Labour supporters - from mining, engineering and steelworking towns and suchlike - this must be prevented from the start.
So C'mon lads and lasses. Get planning.
21 comments:
It is a nice idea to put on a show, but the job in hand is to leave the EU, and neither of the marches that you highlight here Raedwald had any effect on the events that were being protested.
Iraq is in a worse mess that the government wonks told us they were going to sort out, and the threat from revolting Arabs is ever more threatening.
Fox hunting has been exchanged for poisoning or shooting (if anyone can find a gun).
Mind you I am not offering any better ways of assuaging our anger, let's have a party!
Oh by the way Raedwald I really like the idea of renaming "Chequers" as "Robbins", that really brings home the idea that democracy is NO MORE.
and neither of the marches that you highlight here Raedwald had any effect on the events that were being protested.
-Rightwrites
Exactly. More effective might be for all the Leavers in a Constituency to march on the Constituency HQ of their local MP . UK wide on the same day. That would greatly lessen almost all the logistical/travel problems and make it 'personal' to each and every MP.
I think Jack Ketch has a very good point.
But maybe on a surgery day?
Totally peaceful,and important not to disrupt or intimidate the constituents who are there for help and advice.
Perhaps organised by the people who organised the Leave campaign locally in 2016? Or perhaps organised by the UKIP constituency parties?
And press releases locally AND nationally.
I throw these ideas into the pot for discussion; others will have other suggestions to make.
James Strong
Jack Ketch, I think you have the makings of a plan.
I wonder if it is possible for towns and cities that voted to Leave the EU to develop plans for non-cooperation with central government. Isolate and ignore Civil Servants, harass their MPs if they are going against the wishes of their paymasters, we the people. Perhaps stage one day strikes.
Local protests also make it easier for people like me to join in. Also a wave of civil disobedience throughout the country cannot be ignored by the far-left bbc and the rest.
@John Cheshire: Non co-operation does work if done properly, as demonstrated by MLK and Gandhi for example. But you need a charismatic leader for it to work properly.
Many tried in Scotland and later London to not co-operate with such things as the "poll tax" and the congestion zone...
...The authorities just put the protests onto the back burner and eventually they filter through to the bailiffs.
Good ideas - but why not do both? A London protest - the UK's biggest ever public demonstration - would hit the news headlines across the world. If 3m attend, it would still leave 14.4m Leave voters to protest locally on the same day, dominating local news in every town and city in England, Wales and Scotland - and demostrating that in Wales and Scotland, Leave still pulled a substantial vote.
The past two big demos may not have secured their immediate objectives but the CA march cemented an alternative British identity to the Metropolitan liberal model that pissed-off so many people, and launched the core of the anti-Federast opposition. The Iraq march killed Blair's credibility both at home and abroad and helped to lever him from power, putting him permanently on the back foot over Iraq, a defensive stance from which he has never since been able to escape. Neither were, in wider terms, failures.
The importance of establishing a London Brexit march as the UK's biggest ever means the najority vote in 2016 becomes unassailable - Remain could never muster so many people.
Like others have said I doubt that a huge march will be effective... but it might provide a start point for the Leave counter messages to Project Fear (I, II, III...) that we have been missing.
Perhaps we should pay for websites from which 'Leave' images can be downloaded. To be printed off and displayed or left under car windscreen wipers. To be added to emails as a 'signature'. To be used as headers for written correspondence (remember that?). Something like (but not an exact copy of) the EU flag with a red diagonal line across it. Or (an easy one this) merely the number '27'.
And then whenever some EUphile complains or pulls down the anti-EU flag (there will be some) insist on reporting the matter to the Police and getting a crime number which can then be used in articles and interviews with the Press and social media. That will take some time to build momentum (no, not that one) but eventually will gain newsworthy 'legs'.
But above all we must be unfailingly polite,
Or perhaps organised by the UKIP constituency parties? -Anon
Assuming UKIP still has a UK wide national network, then they would be the logical choice to organize it. However that risks alienating all the non-UKIP leavers and automatically means the MSM would slap the 'Far Right' label on the whole thing.
Say your sitting MP is a remainer-Labour, he can safely ignore a few thousand Kippers and Tories marching on his office. To be really effective he needs to see Red Rose placards (or whatever symbol Labour now use)and trade union branch flags among those Union Jacks.
Given that all politics is local Jack Ketch's plan has great merit. Well done Jack.
Rather than use UKIP, it might be better to liaise across all parties - except the Dim Libs who are rabidly EUPhile. I say this, because it's not a party issue, it's a national issue, if we could come together during the Referendum, then why can't we do it now?
Does anyone know of a public footpath/National trail into central London?
I have been pondering, just as a mental exercise, the logistics of getting even a million into Westminster and one thing is clear to me, the march would have to take place on a Weekend or Bank Holiday. The Population of Westminster itself expands by something like 500,000 every weekday morning and that is just Westminster. The thought of getting 6 times the commuting population into Central London ....even on a Bank Holiday or Weekend you'd probably have to move the people at night...which raises a whole host of other issues. And even at 3AM 3 million people travelling to London will gridlock every road artery.
I should imagine even hardened Military planners would advise you to keep taking whichever medication. Not saying it can't be done but hell, it will cost millions ....please don't tell me you were imagining it could all be done with car-sharing.
But perhaps the single most important thing to do would be to make sure Tommy Robinson was in NO WAY involved, and preferably Nigel limit his activity to plugging on radio. The moment Tommy is involved it will be a march of Neo-nazis in the eyes of the EU MSM and a large chunk of the UK MSM. I don't know if Sadiq has the power to ban marches but if TR is involved then you can bet he will.
I don't know an awful lot about "Tommy Robinson", other than he is quite clever to choose that name for campaigning with... Sounds like an English "everyman", but I do know that he isn't particularly a supporter of UKIP, just friends with Gerard, which is not the same thing.
However suffering British injustice is a thing that all of us are beginning to get used to.
On the demo front, I reckon that demo's are not that useful and the oft associated relative, the riot is counterproductive. UKIP is better not spending members money in this way. The only exception being when around 90% of the population just come out onto the streets, without any organising, as in Romania, and that is not going to happen in Britain.
They are right to target the CONservative Party, show it up for its dishonesty.... Christ if Amazon behaved that badly, they wouldn't get away with it, they aren't even allowed to follow the rules without being castigated. The whole of the last two years has not really been a problem with the voters, we put our kisses on our chosen side and went home. Every other objection to an orderly exit has been caused by the internal wrangling of that crooked political party.
It needs to be split up, maybe we can get the monopolies commission to have a look, they have certainly cornered the market for spite.
./end
Jack - we had around a million in 2003, and at the end of the march in Mayfair when I met a friend for lunch and plenty of well chilled wine in a restaurant in Shepherd's Market, there were still tables free. So logistics for 1m clearly not a problem
Agree re 'Tommy Robinson', particularly as stories seem to be breaking about his personal funding by some very unpleasant Americans.
Mayr clinic?
Surely that should be Selmayr? He offers a hosepipe treatment, too. And the victim needs to bend over ...
Raed, I am probably being over pessimistic but the CA march of under half a million required "More than 2,500 coaches and 31 specially chartered trains carried protesters to London." -BBC and I dare say, although I don't know for sure, it took months of planning. 3 Million within a couple of months could be a over big 'ask'.
I suspect that we will end up with Chequers--(minus minus) which places us firmly in Brino territory. That would be unacceptable as would any delay in Article 50. A big demo would be good with other local rallies. Might I suggest that we also collectively refrain from paying the television tax as the BBC seems to think that it has a role to play in pushing the remainer cause.
Getting 3 million into London on the same day will be a logistical nightmare. I prefer the idea of several marches in our regional major cities all on the same day.
If a London march is held, I'll be there. My son lives in central London and I'll travel up a day before.
Compulsive obsessive and sad old man that I am , I have been giving this some more thought.
The thing about the CA and the StwC marches is that they had the time, money and 'staff'. CA had been going for some 5 years and had, no doubt, built up a countrywide network of organizers and financial backing. The Stwc joined up with CND, who have been around since forever and the Muslims -who have been around even longer...just.
I suppose the question for everyone wanting to see this march happen is : would you be prepared to quit your job and remortgage your house to make this happen? That's the level of commitment it would take.
Even if you had 3 million marching in London in support of Brexit, do you think the media would report on it?
Probably only if there was trouble so that the march could be tagged "far right".
They certainly wouldn't report on a countrywide doorstepping of remain MPs unless to report "Far Right intimidation" of local MPs.
The game is loaded against you, so you have to be savvy and understand how it would play out in the media to get the maximum effect. Media image is all politicians understand.
The countrywide alliance march was a load of toffs protesting so could be ignored, the Iraq war protest was a load of yellow-bellied peaceniks, the damaging protests in London against bankers and austerity were just young thugs and anarchists..... the media spin it how they want.
You need to be a victim to kill media dissent: fishermen losing their livelihoods due to foreign plundering of our fish stocks, that sort of thing. That's why Geldof's two fingers up to fishermen on the Thames played to the advantage of the leavers.
A few million proud, loud nationalist patriots demanding a clean Brexit are not victims....
Media image is all politicians understand. Mark
Not quite, almost but not quite. MPs also understand losing their place on the gravy train. Get enough of their own party's voters marching agin them in their constituency they will understand. No MP wants to be in the position of saying the people who voted for him have been duped by the Far Right.
Aside from that I kinda agree with the rest of your points, although since Chequers there has, I feel, been a sea change in parts of the MSM. Not that the BBC has suddenly gone all pro Brexit but they sense May's blood in the water and no self respecting journalist, whatever his views on Brexit, is going to pass up a chance to feed on her political corpse.
The most effective modern protest in my opinion was the set of fuel protests carried out in 2000. It was the only one with measurable legal consequences such as the arrest of the fuel escalator, and the taxing of foreign trucks (not effective until 2004, but still a consequence).
The reality is that it is exceedingly difficult to get ordinary working people out on the streets, either locally or nationally. Yes it's easy to get the Hate not Hope rentamob out, but who takes any notice of them anyway? I suspect that 3 million people writing to their MPs on one day would have more effect than a London rally.
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