Wow, what a totally wicked day. London 28th. September, 2002: the march against attacking Iraq and the promotion of freedom for Palestine. I must admit to the former gaining the majority of my interest but to the thousands of Muslims who turned out the Palestine issue was just as, if not more, important with numerous Palestinian flags being waved and draped over protestor’s shoulders. It wasn’t off to a good start, I lost the people I’d travelled with down to the Big Smoke but never mind. We also just didn’t get moving for about the first hour and half before a section of the crowd broke away from our official starting point of the embankment and headed up towards the Strand. So I jumped over a fence and followed them. On the Strand itself a steward with megaphone announced that more people had turned up than the organisers expected leading to the congestion and correspondingly slow start. This got a hugely popular reception ! So we all turned then headed down the middle of the road on our unofficial march. Banners galore, chants aplenty and several bemused onlookers. It wasn’t long before we rejoined the official march roundabout Trafalgar Square. The atmosphere was electric, so many people seemingly from all walks of life. According to the placards and banners, all sorts of Unions, religious, political and pressure groups and all ages plus a fair selection of races. We continued down Piccadilly, slowly making our way to the rallying point of Hyde Park. The chants continued, the horn blowing grew louder and people burst into spontaneous dance as bands of drummers passed by. The surprising thing for me was the amount of support lent by the onlookers. People in cars were taking placards and poking them through their sunroof, so many ‘peace signs’ were thrust out of windows and lots of people were honking their horns in time to the chants and horn blowing. Like I said, just wicked. The official march section seemed to continue for over an hour although we covered little ground at a snail’s pace. I don’t think anyone was in a hurry though. I was really feeling the peace, I didn’t witness one act of violence. The whole event was good natured and compliant with the Police’s wishes – I even saw some people chatting with the Police, asking permission to jump over fences, etc ! The Police actually seemed pretty cool, a far cry from my experiences in the 80s at the height of Maggie Thatcher’s powers. I was glad it was peaceful, after all that was the whole point. Hyde Park was soon reached without any incidents. The people massed onto the park then headed down to the stage area where the speeches were taking place or headed back to their waiting coach or the tube. Some of the Muslim men spread out their coats on the grass and publicly prayed towards Mecca. I found a quiet spot (except for overhead hovering police helicopters and distant whistle blowing) then chilled for a short while before finding our coach ready for the journey home. Back on the bus everyone was well chuffed. I sat next to a World War II veteran who was approaching 80 but really didn’t want to see another war due to his own terrible experiences and so felt compelled to attend the march. He had even succumbed to dehydration en route but was still willing to enthusiastically denounce an Iraqi war. A rumour then circulated that the turnout was “four and a half hundred thousand”, “almost half a million” I observed ! Looking on the BBC News web-site the police put it at 150k. Whatever. Hopefully we’ve given Tony Blair something to think about, particularly at the upcoming Labour Party Conference. Good luck Tony ! I think you may need it.