A very British jamboree - the cuts march today.

I didn't mean to be part of this, really I didn't.  I'm not the union type.  I just wanted to go for a walk before coming here to the south bank, but I couldn't help joining in when I saw it.  A snake of coloured flags down Whitehall.  Mum's with pink hats with children holding mini placards.  Women wearing hot pants and black tights, with orange hair and shouting 'the women are here!'.  Old men with beards and kagools smiling like they'd seen it all before.  And of course all the whistles, the drums, rock music, a few mini eggs offered to me in the shade of the socialist workers party marquee.  All washed down with a few beers and a cheese roll.

This was the huge anti cuts march in town today.  Organised by the TUC.  In fact,  as I sit here in the royal festival hall, I can see a couple of Unison placards on the ballroom floor, and a few families with prams, and a pensioner in a wheelchair wearing a unison hat being taken for a stroll along the promenade. Was it like this in Bahrain? Egypt? France last year?
Perhaps it was, but I just can't believe it.  We Brits have this way of making the revolutionary seem, well, really quite Nice.  It seemed so good natured.  It was a lovely atmosphere, but it felt more like we were all at a great big folksy rock festival, with a lot of vegetarians.  Perhaps that's what rallies bring out in people.  In fact the only people that were really angry were the group of Libyans sitting astride the statue of King Charles 1.  Yes, that's King Charles the despot who refused to allow a democratic parliament.  They were waving green flags that said keep your hands off Libya.  A bunch of women on the ground arrived soon after holding the same green placards, screaming into loudspeakers. The supporters of the Bahraini revolution stood in the background, at the bottom of Nelson's column a few yards away, their large red and white flags billowing against a frieze of the battle of Cape Vincent.  The same battle where 1000 poor Spanish buggers were killed as compared to 73 British.  But still, they were jolly enough, although you could see their voices had a hint more anger in them than the teachers from Birmingham or the Woodcraft Folk from Barnet.

Still, I loved it.  I was energised and impressed.  There is something I will always respect in people coming out for what they believe in.  Sticking their heads above the parapet when the rest of us would rather be watching the xfactor.  Where on earth would we be without the people who fought the battle of Cable Street, or those women who chained themselves to railings or who those who just stood on a square holding their lighters up saying 'I believe in you. I'm with you'.

It doesn't matter if I agree with everything they're marching for.  But my god do I respect them for doing it.   Jamboree and sandwiches or not.