[thechat] Anyone marching tomorrow?

Martin Burns martin at easyweb.co.uk
Sun Feb 16 07:33:01 CST 2003


On Sun, 16 Feb 2003, William Anderson wrote:

> I was gonna go, but had family commitments :(
>
> Martin Burns wrote:
> > [snip]
> >
> > I'm going to the Glasgow one:
> > http://www.banthebomb.org/news/2002/Sep/15feb.shtml
>
> Glaswegians march on the Armadillo, who'd have thunk it?  Did you take any
> photies, Martin?

Hands full wrangling a wee boy plus pushchair & rucksack, sorry. Gorgeous
sunshine, 100k people (the polis cannae count: they claimed 27k. Hah)

Best placard I saw: "The only Bush I trust is my own"

Also a wee girl aged maybe 6 in full Harry Potter gear, carrying a placard
"We'll magic it all away"

It was good to hear the (Labour) leader of Glasgow council welcoming not
the Scottish Labour conference to Glasgow, but the protest.

> oh, and i love the way tony gave his speech to the labour conference 3 and
> three quarter hours early and then fucked off while everyone was still
> gathering in George Square ... cunt!

Yes, but it let the Glasgow speakers think out reactions and put them in
their speeches. Best one: Tommy Sheridan responding to Blair's claim that
the protesters supported Saddam (quoting from memory): "I agree with him.
Saddam Hussein *is* a bloody brutal tyrant who has butchered his people
for the last 30 years.
But *we* [the organisations represented on the protest] who were opposing
him 30 years ago while Britain and the US sold him the weapons that did
the butchering"

And it doesn't matter anyway. The original purpose of Blair's visit was to
launch the campaign for the Scottish general election in May. Not only has
he made very sure that about 100k people will be voting tactically on May
1st, but any campaign launching he did got totally lost in the protest
coverage.

Cheers
Martin
--
"Names, once they are in common use, quickly
 become mere sounds, their etymology being
 buried, like so many of the earth's marvels,
 beneath the dust of habit." - Salman Rushdie




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