Thousands of people marched today against war and scrapping that useless but expensive pile of metal called Trident. I marched behind a CND banner there were lots of other banners from the peace movement, Greens, anti-war, trade unions, and shock! horror! even Labour Party ones.
By the middle of the demo I seemed to be marching with singin' and dancin' hippies (one teenager I heard mutter, "I can't stand hippies"!). Hurrying along, I ended up in the spliff and trance section with lots of young hip gunslingers. Unfortunately the spliff didn't end up in my direction (maybe 'cos I looked like someone who remembered the 1980s..). I ended up going off to the pub (cheers, mine is a double vodka) as opposed to going to the rally (sorry... it was an abdication of comradely duty!)....
I am sure there are plenty of committed politicos who are made of sterner stuff than me who did listen to the speakers in Trafalgar Square. Oh and the weather was rainy and muddy indeed.
7 comments:
Well done that teenager!
Yeah, I kinda laughed when I heard him as he was well.... correct in his analysis..
I was at the edge of a whole bunch of people chanting "Labour Out" (I didn't join in!!).
The chant was started by the CPGB(ML) -Brarites, but ws being picked up enthusiasticaly byu a lot of ordinary punters.
I did wonder about the wisdom of it as the actuallye xisting alternatove is cameron with his 11% lead in the polls.
I noted only one Llabour party banner, and very few union banners, - and they nearly all white collar unions.
Also nwas given a totally apolitical leaflet from the j4L campaign that didn't even say what he wanted to be leader of, and was just advertising a rally. It had a putcure of a fist and a rose, but not the actual labour Party one!(This was the only sign of the campoign on eht demo that i saw)
"I did wonder about the wisdom of it as the actuallye xisting alternatove is cameron with his 11% lead in the polls."
Yeah, I think there is so much anger and loathing about Blair that people forget that David "call me Dave" Cameron is a very very scary prospect indeed and the fact he is riding high in the polls is depressing as well.
I saw a couple of LP banners (suppose it depends where you were on the demo as you missed the hippies... oh my, whatta experience..)and I take your point about predominantly white-collar union banners but even so it was good they were there.
Re: J4Leader campaign. There was a mixture of leaflets being handed out including what he stands for etc.
That teenager, what a bastard. Had I heard him, I would have been forced to stick a flower in his mouth. Ahh, heady days, 2002-2004, all those times marching to Hyde Park or Trafalgar Square with the hippy brigade...
A Cameron victory would not be something to celebrate at all, but I've yet to see much policy wise that would lead me to believe he would be noticably worse than Blair. In some ways, it's a new age of consensus, both in terms of pro-US foreign policy and domestic policy. I can't see Cameron representing a radical break from the Blairite consensus. For one, Cameron has sought to re-orientate the Tory party away from the self defeating Thatcherite ideology and back to the romanticised notion of a paternalistic, one nation conservatism. Indeed aside from some minor tinkering, Cameron's opposition to ID cards and tokenistic environmentalist rhetoric, Cameron seems to me to represent Blairism without Blair. I won't be voting for Cameron, but neither will I be voting for Brown just to keep the Tories out. Tactical voting here, I feel, plays into the hands of consensus and offers little opportunity to remove what Tony Benn called the New Labour 'hijackers' of the party. McDonnel as leader would probably convince me to put a tick next to the rose, but since that remains a prospect about as likely as Thatcher's conversion to socialism, I expect my vote will go to either Respect, the Greens, or the most credible left wing alternative in my constituency.
Probably the New Tories wouldn't be much worse than new labour,
but it would give us a much worse political context to work in, as we might be back to the days of union leaders saying "wait for labour" as thier answer to every problem.
But then again nothing could induce me to vote for Snne Snellgrove, even if mcD was the leader!!
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