Protesters aim to show our neighbours we love them
The hollow, bitter wit of the banners and placards was a fair indication of who took to the streets of London, in their tens of thousands, on the March for Europe on Saturday, hastily scrambled on Facebook. And if this isnt big enough, said Jonathan Shakhovskoy, who is with a marketing firm in the music industry, well do it again next week, and the week after. Normalise the mood, make it less ugly.
Un-Fuck My Future, No Brex Please, Were British, they read. Pictures of Whitney Houston with I Will Always Love EU, Europe Innit and I wanna be deep inside EU. All EU Need Is Love, Fromage not Farage, Eton Mess and, more seriously, Science Needs EU. Hell no, we wont go! they shouted, rounding Piccadilly Circus.
At the end of the march, in Parliament Square, protesters listened to speakers including Bob Geldof and Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker as well as politicians such as the Labour MP David Lammy, and Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron.
Geldof urged Remain campaigners to take to the streets, speak to their neighbours and work to stop the UKs exit from the EU. Lets get real, he said. Going online and tweeting your indignation is only venting into the ether. It achieves nothing. Come out. Take action among your friends, work colleagues and in your neighbourhoods. We need to individually organise ourselves. Organise those around us and do everything possible within our individual power to stop this country being totally destroyed. .
Cocker, in a recorded a video message for the rally, held up a world map saying: You cannot deny geography. The UK is in Europe.
The comedian and co-organiser Mark Thomas said the march was to address the anger, frustration and need to do something. We would accept the result of the referendum if it was fought on a level playing field. But it was full of misinformation and people need to do something with their frustration.
No one was fooling themselves that these were the penitent huddled masses from Ebbw Vale or Sunderland come to beg after all for EU funding; this was a vocal segment of the 48% for whom departure from the EU is a disgrace, a catastrophe or both.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/02/march-for-europe-eu-referendum-london-protest
