15 feb - me, family, friends and a million others

I went on the march on Saturday, like thousands of others. The experience was best described as quietly joyful. Over a million people and not a cross word all day, must be some kind of achievement for London.
The banners told all sorts of messages, from the mass produced CND Stop the war and palestine ones to the hand made. One of my favourites I think was "Blair Bush Project ... be very afraid". Photos of the day on tuesday, when I get them back from developing.
something you'll have missed from Saturday, if you didn't go, was the noise of the cheers and whistles as they came like a mexican wave along the march, especially around by Trafalgar Sq, echoing off the buildings. Felt like an alive thing, like the march decided to voice its feelings.
At hyde park, there were so many people, the whole of the field from speakers corner to beyond the trees, probably out the gates and onwards was full of people, most of the green on the map linked above was full of people. most of the speakers were interesting some a little tub thumping, but clearly stating that a war on Iraq is unacceptable without at minimum UN approval.
I do think it is a difficult issue, Saddam would not be disarming if an army weren't camped out on his back garden, but does an intention to follow through with violence in order to support the deterrent automatically follow ? I think that Tony Blair is actually muddying the water by now claiming that this is a moral campaign for humanitarian reasons, otherwise we'd be in Tibet and other places around the world.
An interesting experience to be involved with, whether it will make any difference remains to be seen.