For a moment, I thought I’d stumbled into a vast camping expedition – a slow-moving tide of fleeces, anoraks, walking boots and sandwiches.
Yesterday’s People’s Vote march was a resolutely middle-class affair.
From Hampstead to Hampshire, they came to demand we overturn the largest democratic vote in the history of our nation.
Demonstrator with a sign reading 'less Farage more fromage' at the People's Vote march
Exceedingly politely, of course. But hell-bent, all the same, on a second referendum.
Many on the packed pavements of Central London were decidedly mature in years, flasks of tea and Waitrose quiche at the ready.
One sported a blue beret decorated with yellow stars, armed with a banner reading: ‘Listen to the young!’ Irony alert: she was about 80. Even the dogs were decked out in EU flags.
There was a younger, Instagram-friendly crowd, too, dressed in hipster tracksuits. And a proliferation of young children draped in EU propaganda and waving placards about safeguarding their future, hastily put together at the family craft table.
Three demonstrators wear felt berets in EU colours and flags draped around their shoulders
Joining proceedings were comedians Steve Coogan and Sandi Toksvig, while a predictable entourage of Remain politicians, including Sadiq Khan, Anna Soubry and Caroline Lucas, were also there.
We were told, breathlessly, that the initial count showed more than a million people were marching. The biggest protest march in UK history!
More from Charlotte Gill for the Daily Mail...
But, well, it wouldn’t be the first time such figures have been inflated. Let’s not forget the second Brexit referendum march in October 2018, which organisers claimed had more than 700,000 marchers, when the Greater London Authority put the number at a far more realistic 250,000.
Sophisticated analysis by the website countingcrowds.co.uk, using images of October’s march, suggested the true number was closer to 82,000. Should the same apply to yesterday’s rally, there might have been as few as 120,000 on the streets.
What I will concede, however, is that – for a political protest – the People’s Vote was by far one of the politest events I’ve ever been to.
For every rude poster – shouting ‘Brexs**t’, for instance – there were placards that merely fawned over the EU. Even when the crowds chanted ‘b******* to Brexit’ there was no snarl.
They could have been ordering the gnocchi in Carluccio’s.
'Stop this tomfoolery' reads one sign while another reminds the crowd 'we can still change our minds'
To catch my breath amid the well-ordered chaos, I did what any true-blooded Brit would do – I went off in search of a restorative cup of tea. The elegant cafes of Mayfair were thronging with ravenous Remainers and their salads were laced with bulgur wheat.
Inside a particularly posh joint, I listened as all hell broke loose when a revolutionary told a waiter off for getting her latte order wrong. Her hand was decorated in flashy silver rings; on her bosom was a badge reading ‘Cancel Brexit’.
Suitably refreshed, I continued along the protest route, which took Europhiles away from Park Lane towards St James’s Street and Pall Mall.
A joke slogan shared on several other placards read 'IKEA has better cabinets'
If I were more of a conspiracy theorist, I might be inclined to suggest the march was designed to promote London’s most elite retail establishments.
It was a veritable tour of the best in bespoke men’s tailoring, cigar finery and the most expensive shaving sets I’ve ever seen. And no one even tried to loot them!
Music kept everyone’s spirits up, even if it was sometimes the theme tune from EastEnders, being blasted from a megaphone by two teenage girls.
A dog wears a banner on its coat with the words 'Brexit is ... the wurst' during the People's Vote anti-Brexit march in London today
‘Why are you playing that?’ I asked one of them. ‘Why not?’ she replied, nonchalant, her revolutionary spirit spilling over into outright confrontation.
Otherwise, it was classical music with all its pomp and circumstance that kept the crowds marching.
A man boldly played the 9th Symphony by Beethoven, the EU’s anthem, albeit without the support of an orchestra. In fact, his musical device looked a bit like a kazoo. He messed it up, much to the amusement of the hundreds within earshot.
Of course, many Remainers came across as rational in their protests – they adore the EU and don’t want to leave. But a lot appeared to have completely lost the plot. There was, for instance, the man whose placard read: ‘If Brexit is the will of the people, then I’m a giraffe’. He wore a plastic giraffe mask.
A demonstrator wears a sticker on her forehead during a Peoples Vote anti-Brexit march
Others seemed to be using the occasion as an excuse for fancy dress; there was a little boy dressed as an astronaut and someone with a pineapple on their head. An Elvis impersonator weaved through the crowds on a bicycle, a Welsh flag protruding from his panier.
For a moment, I could almost forget the real revolution happening just down the road in Westminster – where hard choices and intransigence could soon cost us a Prime Minister and leave the fate of Britain on a knife edge. For some, yesterday seemed to be a jolly excuse for a day trip to London.
At another popular refuge point – the Hard Rock Cafe – I talked to Emma Fry, 44, who told me she had come in from Bristol, with an army of friends from other parts of the country.
A demonstrator leads a greyhound wearing a suit in the EU colors during a Peoples Vote anti-Brexit march in London
A young couple said they’d come from Hampshire, and Marrion Welham, from the Norfolk-Suffolk border, warned ominously that ‘this whole saga had been dictated by hard Right-wing Research Group MPs...’ and that Remainers had been ‘not really been given a voice’.
Clearly she hasn’t been watching too many shows on the BBC.
I worried, as a woman who – at 5ft 2in – is far from imposing, that I’d feel intimidated in these crowds. On the contrary, I was rather embraced. I even made the ultimate faux pas: I told people I’d voted for Brexit.
It could easily have got ugly. Expecting looks of horror – and perhaps a thrown quiche – I received only sympathetic glances and civility.
This was strangely reassuring – the country may be divided, but at least we’re not thumping each other. Yet.
Additional reporting by Holly Bancroft
Link hienalouca.com
https://hienalouca.com/2019/03/24/charlotte-gill-attends-peoples-vote-march-along-with-eu-sual-suspects-armed-with-waitrose-picnics/
Main photo article For a moment, I thought I’d stumbled into a vast camping expedition – a slow-moving tide of fleeces, anoraks, walking boots and sandwiches.
Yesterday’s People’s Vote march was a resolutely middle-class affair.
From Hampstead to Hampshire, they came to demand we overturn the largest democratic vot...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves Online news HienaLouca
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/03/23/23/11373932-6843347-Demonstrator_with_a_sign_reading_less_Farage_more_fromage_at_the-a-9_1553382592882.jpg
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