Together Alliance March

Meeting Up

I was attending with my friend and protesting buddy Lisa. We arranged to meet at Bond Street.

Before heading out I did the usual Saturday chores and then jumped on the bus, the bus got all the way to Romford Road before I remembered that there were engineering works on the Elizabeth Line, this weekend, between Stratford and Shenfield. Which meant that I could not go that way. I quickly jumped off the bus, crossed the road and caught a new bus back to East Ham station and went via the District and Jubilee Lines to Bond Street.

We met each other and went to get a coffee, before walking to Park Lane where the March was starting. When we got there there were very few people and both of us were a tad confused. We walked the full length of Park Lane to the Hilton Hotel where the front of the March would be forming.

There was a Fire Engine, own by the Fire Brigade Union that was driven onto Park Lane to block the road and it would also be used as a platform for the speeches before the march proceeded.

Famous People

As we were right at the front and near where the speeches were happening we got to see quite a lot of famous people, mostly politicians.

• Hannah Spencer - newly elected Green MP for Gorton & Denton
• Dawn Butler - Labour MP for Brent East
• Jeremy Corbyn - Former Labour Leader, now Joint Leader of Your Party and MP for Islington North
• John McDonnell - Former Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer and Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington
• Daniel Kebede - General Secretary of the National Education Union (NEU)
• Zack Polanski - Leader of the Green Party

Marching

Once the speeches had finished the the march began at approximately 13:00. There were some fantastic home made protest banners.

Everyone we met on the March was kind and hopeful. Which is very different from when we went on an anti-Tommy Robinson protest march in September where people were drunk , angry, sweary, and lots of them were urinating in public and climbing building and statues. It was a much happier day.

After about 90 minutes were arrived at the top of Whitehall, my friend Lucy was still on Park lane and hadn't even started moving. Lisa and I found a pub, Walkers of Whitehall in a side street off Whitehall. Where we could have a rest, drink and use the bathroom. It was pretty quiet when we arrived and as the afternoon rolled on got busier & busier.

Rave

About 16:00 we decided to go and get into Trafalgar Square where there was a sister protest House Against Hate was taking place.

As we got out back on to Whitehall there was a Drum n Bass Soundsyatem at the top of the street and about 1000 people raving.

It took us a little time to get round to the back entrance from Trafalgar Square where they had a queueing system and bag check. Once in the square we descended the steps and pushed through the crowd to get to the back left corner where there was plenty of room for us to dance.

London need more free outdoor raves! IOt was great fun, the music was great and everyone was nice and having a great time.

Dinner

The event in Trafalgar Square was planned to end at 18:00 so we left to meet Lucy outside St Martins. We had arranged to meet Ian for dinner at 18:30. As we were early we went for a quick drink in The Imperial.

We then walked round, after going the wrong way, to C & R Cafe Malaysian Restaurant. The food here is amazing, check it out if you are in Soho.