Bank Holiday Monday found myself and The People On My Protest taking another tentative step back into normal life when we zoomed into Central London to take part in the Anti-Hunting March. We both very much wanted to be at this one - it's FLIPPING RIDICULOUS that in 2017 anyone could even THINK about legalising it again, when they should be enforcing the existing ban on this hateful practice - so even though I was still technically A Bit Poorly off we headed.
The march was due to start at noon, but we are OLD HANDS at this sort of thing and rolled up at 12:45pm to find we had plenty of time still to pop to the loo and get some grub before the speeches even began. As ever we had Dominic Dyer ROUSING the ENORMOUS crowd... and then a succession of other people who we couldn't hear properly wittering on. It always ENRAGES me that this happens - if I was going to talk to several thousand people I might THINK about what I was going to say BEFORE going on, and possibly not repeat what others have said before and/or wander off topic WILDLY and not know when to stop. I have said it before, but there really needs to be an Course for Activists Speaking At Public Meetings!
Once the actual MARCH got going though it was GRATE. We'd been warned that the walking would be a bit slow, but a CRACKING pace was set and we fair STOMPED through central London. Usually, when we've done Badger marches, people look a bit puzzled, but this time there was a LOT of people applauding and giving the thumbs up. Full disclosure: we spent most of the march walking behind a lady with a Corgi, who EVERYONE wanted to pat as it passed by, but I did get the impression that Public Feeling was on our side.
After an hour we landed just outside Downing Street where there was shouting, more similar speeches, and general milling about. During the speeches a couple of VERY interesting points were made THUS: 1) the reason Theresa May has put a vote on Hunting in her manifesto is that she needs funding and campaigning teams from The Countryside Alliance and 2) there has been a MASSIVE cover-up to hide the fact that Hunting Hounds are often RIDDLED with TB and it could be that Fox Hunting, no Badgers, actually CAUSES disease in cattle. Apparently there's a LETTER being published about it later this week, which hopefully will get into the election debate.
I'm very hopeful that, even if the Tories DO win and DO allow a vote, even Tory MPs are not stupid/hateful enough en masse to vote for something that approx 85% of the population are vehemently against, but I suppose we will see if/when it happens. For now it was good to be out and about and making our voices heard!
