Kmflett's Blog

The Guardian is carrying interviews and details of the Together Alliance march against racism and the far right with journalist Robyn Vynter.

It reflects the scale of support and mobilisation and it is historically unusual. The Guardian’s coverage of demonstrations is patchy and nearly always is a report of the event after it has taken place.

In fact, much as they operate in an anti-democratic way the Met Police’s Twitter account is often the best place to find out what is happening on central London demonstrations because they post time stamped pictures of crowds and locations. Assuming these are saved for posterity they will be a useful source for historians,

Meanwhile, see you on the demo

The Guardian 27th March 2026

Where does this fit historically?

I am old enough to remember Red Wedge back in the 1980s, campaigning to try to boost Neil Kinnock’s hopes of ousting Margaret Thatcher. Indeed, figures like Paul Weller and Billy Bragg, who are backing Saturday’s march, were involved in that back in the day.

Robyn tells me that she has seen the march being relentlessly pushed by the algorithms on Instagram. “Even if it hasn’t had huge traditional media coverage, that kind of reach really matters now. I think it’s going to be big.”

Last year a reported 110,000 people attended a far-right protest in London organised by Tommy Robinson. Billed as a “festival of free speech”, the rally saw the spread of racist conspiracy theories and anti-Muslim rhetoric, and a contribution from Elon Musk. The scale of the crowd exceeded expectations and led to clashes with police, leaving at least 25 people arrested and 26 officers injured, as bottles, flares and other projectiles were thrown.

This time around, Robyn tells me she thinks there is “an element of fear” driving the organisation. “People saw the riots the summer before last, and the big far right demonstrations. It worried people, and I think it made a lot of them feel they needed to do something. A lot of people feel powerless watching politics and the rise of the far right, especially if they’re not party political or already involved in activism. This march gives them an outlet. It’s a way of saying: ‘we’re here too’.”

Whether Saturday’s march marks a moment of consolidation for the progressive left coalition or simply another chapter in a long-running cycle of protest and counter-protest may not be clear immediately. But its expected scale – and the breadth of support behind it – tallies with a sense in British politics right now that people are more easily prepared to come together to act against a possible outcome rather than for a specific cause.