Caught in history at London march
A HISTORY making march happened in central London on Saturday, the day I visited the city to see The Phantom of the Opera.
More than 100,000 protesters marched through the city in one of the UK’s biggest right-wing demonstrations of modern times.
Most journalists would agree, we are almost always ‘on the clock’ because when news breaks and we are nearby, it’s impossible to step away and do nothing.
We were at Her Majesty’s Theatre slap bang in the middle of London city.
It was a matinee performance, and we exited the dark theatre to the buzzing of helicopters circling above.
We saw hundreds of people with Union Jack and St George Cross flags draped across their shoulders.
Then came the ‘others’ – wearing anti-racism button badges, holding banners and chanting slogans.
Roads were closed and barricaded with police standing guard.
“Why are you here and what is happening?” I asked.
“There are protest marches happening and we are here to keep the peace,” a London ‘bobby’ said.
“There’s the Unite the Kingdom group and the Stand Up To Racism group who are both trying to get their point across.”
“Who is winning?” I asked.
“The Unite the Kingdom I’d say,” a female copper said, “there are a lot more of them and I think the anti-racism lot are just there to add their bit to the pot.”
We passed a man being held down by three security guards.
He was shouting a tirade that made little sense.
As we walked away, a police van arrived on scene to take him away.
London police said 25 arrests were made and 26 officers were injured.
Reuter’s reported more than 1,600 police officers were deployed across London.
London’s Metropolitan Police said the Unite the Kingdom march was organised by anti-immigrant activist Tommy Robinson and around 110,000 people were there.
They were kept apart from a Stand Up to Racism counter protest that attracted around 5,000 marchers.
Some demonstrators say the number was far bigger than that.
“It was the biggest in British history, more than a million people were there,” a man named Shaun told me on the tube.
Shaun had a large wooden cross with him; it was big and heavy. He said he had it made for the occasion and lugged it with him as he marched.
“No, not a million, there were three million,” the man standing next to him said, interrupting.
Shaun played a video on his phone and showed me footage from above London’s streets packed solid with bodies of marchers.
News crews filming from helicopters streamed the footage back to whatever media organisation they belonged to.
Perhaps the men’s estimates included those watching on screens.
Shaun told me he was a Christian who didn’t want his faith to be drowned out by the many other religions that were gaining headway in the UK.
He runs soup kitchens in Wales and said it was worth the eight hour round trip to take part.
Considering the size of the crowd and highly emotional cause they were championing, less than 30 arrests were an indicator of success.
Regardless of sides, free speech and freedom of religion were the real winners of the day.
