We take a walk

A colleague and I walked from the office, across Parliament Sq and down Whitehall tonight. To see what all the fuss was about.

There were thousands, though not tens of thousands, of people milling about. Energy levels were pretty low as they'd, presumably, been there some hours at that point. There seemed to be lots of different groups. Most common was the slightly posh, slightly confused looking middle aged* person, some of whom were wearing union jack hats or carrying union flags.

There were handfuls of younger people. I may have been projecting but there seemed to be something slightly ... off ... about many of those. Something unusual in the eyes, perhaps.

There were quite a lot of 50 something men in bomber jackets or Harringtons, with short cropped hair. I wouldn't have felt comfortable walking here while carrying an EU flag but there wasn't any outward display of aggression. Or at least I didn't see any. Some Christadelphians were there. It is prophecy, you see. The Red Hand of Ulster was visible on one flag and there were some other flags I didn't recognise.

Many, though by no means most, were drinking. I imagine there will be some minor unrest later. This did not feel like a riot brewing.

On Whitehall, Tommy Robinson appeared on stage. He has a small, but vociferous group of supporters. He told them he loved them. They cheered, raucously. I don't imagine this shtick will go down particularly well with the broader public, but they seemed to like it. He didn't come across as a master of rhetoric. Perhaps he doesn't need to be.

I took the tube home from Embankment.

Kate asked me what I thought it all means. I paused. I don't know. There was a lot of passion there, but ill focused. As a coherent movement it felt like they could do a lot of damage, because they know what they are against. They didn't, however, seem at all coherent. I saw nothing positive. No sense in what they are for in terms of what the country might look like in future.


* anyone between my age, and my parents age, counts as "middle aged"