People’s Vote March 19th October. Another large march, but the composition was more interesting than the size
Saturday saw what I think was the third in the series of People’s Votes marches in central London. I wasn’t in London but when it comes to estimating the size and sentiments of crowds that is not necessarily a huge problem in the age of social media.
There is ample reportage, commentary, photos and video footage to get a sense of matters.
Its worth noting the following statement from the Metropolitan Police who at least didn’t decide to Section 14 this protest:
We don’t provide estimates of numbers as it’s such a inexact science. We aren’t planning on any live streaming of the march to my knowledge, apologies’
The march moved off at 12.20pm and almost an hour later they tweeted:
Parliament Square is relatively busy, and the main body of the march is not yet there. There also remains a large number of marchers not yet started in Park Lane. It is unlikely all those on the march will be able to reach Parliament Square or Whitehall. 1.12pm
I’m not sure the march was quite as big as the two earlier ones but it was still very sizeable, several hundred thousand at the very least one might venture. The organisers claimed ‘up to a million’ but unless they were actually counting the crowd(not likely to be hugely accurate but it can give an idea) this is at best a guesstimate. There is a way of making it easier to check this which is to march the other way from Parliament to Hyde Park, a space which can contain very large numbers and can be seen to do so.
Someone on twitter claimed that according to a ‘German methodology’ the march was attended by 2.2 million people. They did however decline to share what that ‘methodology’ was so we may assume they were a prankster.
It looks like there was however a change in the character of the march. There was far more Labour Party involvement with CLP banners and Sadiq Khan was amongst those at the head of the march. Of course this is one only part of Labour sentiment on the EU, primarily around the People’s Vote campaign which is far from unified in its intent but has a substantial presence. It also signified the Party far more centrally involved than before with Shadow Cabinet Ministers speaking in Parliament Square. That is a reflection I suspect of a realisation that with no Commons majority for a People’s Vote and Johnson unlikely to hold one Labour remains the best chance of getting one, after a General Election.
The majority of those attending clearly want to remain in the EU, either as it is (I’d hazard a guess that this could be today’s LibDem position) or reformed (assuming this can be done).
There were also those who gave the impression of wanting to stay in the EU come what may, I’m not sure a people’s vote is required for that, but it is for those who hold that view to explain the logic of what they were doing on the march.
The character of those attending was rather different to the Extinction Rebellion protests in central London of the previous 2 weeks. Rather older and less obviously militant although of course overwhelming peaceful in both cases.
Its difficult to see it as being unequivocally of the left, although there was, at least by their own definitions, a left presence, but my aim here is to try and understand what the march was about and put it in some quite general historical context, not pass judgement on it.
The point was made. There are still large numbers prepared to come out on the streets and say they want a, from a variety of perspectives a further say on Brexit. Whether the march did anything to achieve that is another matter but it keeps it on the agenda, and depending on the outcome of a General Election could happen.
My posts on the earlier marches & some points on the size of crowds
Leave a Reply