It was an opportunity for about half a million people from all over the country to publically lodge their disapproval of the coalition government's policy of making draconian cuts to the public sector, incurring vast job losses (we are told), to reduce the national deficit, although to many people it just seems like wilfull bloodletting.

This all seems counterintuitive, because it will of course mean a larger Social Security bill for the government.

The entire length of The Embankment was filled by a sea of humanity (see pictures), with people from all walks of life present, from militant Black Bloc protestors (yes, they definitely DID attend the march, despite what the BBC said), to fed up pensioners and everyone else in between, the common thread being that all present are tired of being lied to by a government that tells us that it is 'necessary' to make the current round of cuts to the public sector, despite our national deficit being about half of what it was at the start of World War Two.

It took several hours for the body of the march to traverse the entire route through London, and at times proved very difficult indeed to actually move more than a few metres at a time, with the whole thing grinding to halt several times during the afternoon, due to the enormous Human bottleneck created on the streets.

Alas, it also meant that by the time I found a break in the march and got to Trafalgar Square, it was time to find my bus home, so I never got to see the action happening around the Piccadilly area. Next time I'm likely to let the train take the strain, although it was simple economics that dictated my travel arrangements for this trip.

From other reports I've seen, it was definitely a demo of two halves, with the fluffy stuff being done by the masses and the 'spikier' stuff done later by a smaller group of people, albeit still numbering in the hundreds.

However, despite what the mainstream press may be saying (no doubt attempting to drive a wedge between us), the targets were chosen carefully, as they comprised the shopping centres of the rich (UKUNCUT's occupation of Fortnum & Mason), and tax dodging corporations (e.g Santander), whom have done nothing to alleviate our problems by their duplicity and as a result get no sympathy from this writer, because by assuming it's business as usual during a period of great hardship for the many, they set themselves up as a target through their own crassness and stupidity.

As you will see in my photos, on the main body of the march, there was plenty of creative thinking on show, with people dressing up variously as the "V" character from the story "V for Vendetta", Robin Hood (to promote this idea:  http://robinhoodtax.org/), along with many musical collectives, comprising several Samba Bands, a brass band, and many solo musicians, including a lone Bagpipe player (see pictures). There were also many portable sound systems, playing out all kinds of music, from The Beastie Boys through to Chaka Khan.

One of my personal favourite moments was hearing P.E.'s "Party for your Right to Fight" blasting out across Trafalgar Square, from a small sound system on the steps of The National Portrait Gallery, while it was guarded by several cops - even more special because they'd been good enough to play it on my request (cheers for that guys)!

I will say this: they must have a very low opinion of us if they think that we would trash great works of art.

The police know us not, as the REAL culture wreckers are currently residing inside the government enclosures they so enthusiastically gaurd.

Other notable moments I witnessed include walking past the heavily gaurded gates of Downing Street and hearing several hundred people booing loudly as they went past!

One bold little boy even blew his horn at the cops in front of the Cabinet War Rooms (irony not lost on me) - something which would be deemed (no doubt), as a potential arrestable offence if an adult did it, in this morally retarded semi police state we find ourselves living in.

Parlaiment Square looked more like a heavily guarded prison compound, with a ring of steel fences, and several layers of police glaring back at us, as if we were the ones doing something wrong.

So much for Freedom of Assembly.

Given the level of arrogance and corruption displayed by successive governments since the Thatcher era, it will take a lot more than a bunch of people walking through Central London to make the Lords of Misrule sit up and listen to their subjects, so we are definitely going to witness a Summer of Discontent this year.


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In case you're wondering, it's taken me this long to sift through the hundreds of photos I took on the day, hence my delayed posting of this story, which will still have to be published in three parts to do justice to them all!