I agree,I have been on many Marches mostly in the Manchester area.All of the protests should have a people count.The press continually try to undermine the anti-war movement by playing down our numbers.Thats when they can actually be bothered to report that there are marches.I have read some reports of the London march that claim there were about 400,000.In my opinion the numbers far exceeded this and the 14 family members that came to London with me agree.

I'm against this war but it would be foolish to ask for it to stop now, pulling the troops out would be disasterous for the people of Basra.

The protest shouldn't be called 'stop the war', it just makes the whole movement seem foolish and naive. It should be called 'we don't aprove' or something. A demonstration rather than a protest?

I'm against this war but it would be foolish to ask for it to stop now, pulling the troops out would be disasterous for the people of Basra.

The protest shouldn't be called 'stop the war', it just makes the whole movement seem foolish and naive. It should be called 'we don't aprove' or something. A demonstration rather than a protest?

the point of the demo is to show that despite what the establishment want people to think, there are still millions of people who don't support blair and bush...

as for basra, why not pull uk troops out and send in un peacekeeping troops w/aid agencies?...this would mean much better aid distribution (ngo's have said that the army have been doing an awful job, they're killers not saviours) and less tension in the city

Now is the time for increased opposition to this Christian Fundamentalism world terror driven by Bush and Blair.

Whatever the outcome in Iraq we must push for Blair be put on trial. Politicians must be pressed to agree at every chance we get to encountre them. If Blair and his band of outlaws believe they have international law on thier side then they cannot object to a trial.

There's every reason in the world, Dave! Who cares whether the movement appears naive; naive to whom, exactly? In effect you seem to be saying you're against this war...but that you're for it, too! The prosecution of the war against Iraqi has broken International Law. The forthcoming 'redevelopment' (ie, US neocolonialism) will too. The British government has been

I'm not sure what your definition of foolish is, Dave, but perhaps statements like pulling the troops out would be disastrous for the people of Basra are there to indicate it - putting the troops IN has been disastrous for the people of Basra! Please don't tell me you're naive and foolish enough to believe the edited coverage we're being shown by the media?

To be honest a people counter is unlikely to make any difference to the reporting of numbers.

Countryside Alliance numbers were over-reported, not because they had a people counter, but because most of the rich and powerful people who own the press and TV are sympathetic to their cause.

Anti-war protests are normally under-reported. It's always worth complaining about, of course. But it always happens; part of the 'no-one cares, why bother, stay at home' message the mainstream media push at us all the time.

The last two megga demo's in London were just that, mega. Even if we had had a people counter like the countryside idiots, the right-wingers would still say 2 men a dog turned up - they might even say the counter was rigged.

I think we should all agree that although the demo's didn't stop war, they did restrict Blair's hand and may have stopped them killing as many civilians as they might have done otherwise....I'd like to think so anyway.

Now things have moved on and the nightmare of a more regional dispute is on the horizon. Israel is still building on the West Bank, the so-called "Arab Street" is seething and hawks in the US probably want a war on Iran.

Now is the time to get more people onto the streets but rather than just walking from A to B we should start occupying certain areas for the day, bring the city to a halt and encourage other city's to do the same....

We should be trying to get the school and college students on the demo with school banners--especially in London. In wars, it's the youth of age 18+ who have to fight--not the oldies. We have had a decade of non-stop war and school and college students face a perspective of permanent war in the future. It is they who are most in danger from this and future wars. We need to spell that out them and get them fully mobilised against the war.

Dave, you are being paternalistic in your thinking. What happened to Iraqi self-determination? Only the Iraqi's have the right to manage their affairs.

British and US troops are a MENACE to the Iraqis--the "turkey shoot" has already started. Get them out NOW! Britain and US have no place, no business, being in the Middle East. It is a return to colonialism.

Where is the democracy in Bosnia? Itis run autocratically by a failed, has been, British politician politician, Ashcroft, who couldn't even get elected to power here.

But we're going to let you do it anyway??

lol

OK I don't think I got what I was trying to say across properly. I'm against this war completely, I watch the news with a high degree of sceptisism and feel like I want to be sick and cry at the same time when I see pictures of dead children from our own bombs.
But we've got to be realistic, weather we wanted it to happen or not, British troops are in Basra, and control it. And we also have to admit that SOME of the people are pleased about that. The fact is, if we protest and say 'stop the war', the troops will go home and Basra will.. I dunno God knows what terrible things will happen. I like the idea of the UN taking control but it's not that easy. You can't have half of the country controlled by the UN and the other half by the Baath party. If you're going to do something you might as well do it properly.
My concern is that if we have a 'stop the war' protest, people who are either neutral on the issue or pro-war are going to get the impression that we want the troops out now and to give Iraq back to the Baathists and it's hard enough to win people over with the 24/7 propaganda at the moment, I just feel it's going to make us look naieve and idealistic.
Protest against corporate imperialism and request Bush and Blair be put on trial by all means but 'stop the war' is old news now, unless it gets even worse and is dragged out for further weeks and months. It's not going to stop soon. I also think if you're going to protest, we should burn statuettes of Blair, Bush AND Saddam to show the public we are not supporters of his regime the right-wing Murdoch press make us out to be.