It's here! - the day we march against the chaos that is Brexit.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

A thread for those of us on the march today :)

Weather still looking good, (perhaps, possibly, even some sunshine?) temps around 12-14, a little gusty at times, cooling off in the evening, so bring an extra jumper if you haven't set off.

Travel safely and see you at the march!

They don't like it up 'em!

I’m not an unkind person but it’s hard not to take the piss, given Leave protestors’ antics.

I always feel a bit comforted when shills turn up having watched this for 3 years, it usually means people I would like to be rattled are rattled. Really pleased so many from our bus made it despite the bus . Found that one of the people we were asking with is a friend of a friend.

It’s hard to explain how comforting it was to be amongst people who you know have the same strength of feeling about Brexit and after all this time of being called a citizen of nowhere and a traitor to be able to stand up and have the chance to show how pissed of we are about it all, especially the fact that DH who has had Tyoe 1 Diabetes since childhood after contracting a virus has had to worry about what might happen to his insulin supply.

The simple fact is any interruption to his insulin and he dies. Whatever happens and however unlikely it is I will never forget that we’ve had to take precautions against this happening. Absolutely disgusting and I am so grateful to everyone who matched on Saturday.

I think the petition and the march have worried all the right people. I was proud to spend quite a lot of money and two days of my time to march to try to save my country from the incompetent, corrupt and money-grubbing people who are pushing for the most damaging form of Brexit.

A question for leavers posting on this thread: there was a leave protest in Trafalgar Square on Saturday. Nigel held a rally too. Why weren't you there swelling the ranks? What have YOU done for your cause?

It's odd how angry we can make others just by simply going to one place for a day to peacefully stand up for what we believe in.

There were too many of us badkitten. It's just not fair.

When all the leavers on here could have voted with their own feet, and got on a train or plane to go to Nigel's march, or even the tiny leave protest in Trafalgar Square. They could have done with a few more bodies! If you're a leaver, what were YOU doing on Saturday that was more important than supporting your cause?

There is a worldwide mass migration from the middle east.

What an absolutely disgusting thing to say. There is not "mass migration" from the Middle East, there has been a bloody horrific civil war in which millions of families have been forced to leave their homes and become refugees. Refugees are NOT migrants.

This foul dehumanising of refugees is exactly why so many leavers are labelled as racists.

Totally agree with others. The best thing about the marches is to be surrounded by so many other peaceful, like-minded people.

I think what possibly worries some of them is that this time on the March there were people who had voted Leave but now wish to remain, bit of a turning point. There were some on our Bus and I thought fair play, takes a lot to admit you've changed your mind then feel strongly enough to go and March, despite physical problems in some cases which made walking harder.

We marched for our family but also for our 85 yeast old neighbour who is much to frail to go . She voted Leave but is incredibly upset about it and says she didn’t know what she was voting for. Her husband died last year so she is dealing with bereavement, the s too frail to go far and spends a lot of time watching Brexit coverage which I think sadly is ramp8mg up her anxiety.

I agree, PostNotInHaste. I'm angry that, for the last three years, they have demanded respect and given none. Aside from the vile "enemies of the people" and "citizens of nowhere" stuff, I've come to expect, as a matter of course, that I'll be called a "Remoaner" and "hysterical", possibly even a "traitor", if I post about Brexit online. Genuine fears over medical supplies and the Irish border have been scoffed at and ridiculed. The very deliberate shift from "majority vote" to "will of the People" has effectively erased the majority of the people in this country, who didn't cast a vote for Leave. Yet they always demand the utmost respect for their vote, and the reasons for it must not be questioned, no matter how little basis in fact they have. I'm tired of being told that I'm a stupid Remoaner ten times in a conversation, only for the other person to puff themselves up and demand that I bow down to their misconceptions about EU law, or their daft conspiracy theories, because the voice of the People has spoken.

I should add that I know some highly intelligent Leave supporters in real life, but on the whole they fall into two camps: (1) the ones who stand to make a shitload of money out of Brexit and don't really care about other people, and (2) the ones who were expecting a "soft" Brexit on a sensible timetable once we knew what we were doing. The people in group (2) are horrified by how badly the whole things has been handled and that anyone is talking about "no deal" as though it were an option.

Well, we had an amazing weekend going down to London from east Yorkshire for the march. We were very lucky that a London based friend was away and lent us her flat, so we were able to stay over a couple of nights and only got home yesterday evening.

I had to take quite a few meds to cope (was having an interstitial cystitis flare up; though that actually improved over the w/end) and we only walked from Trafalgar Square, though I'm quite thankful about that having read upthread about locked loos!

We were in Parliament Square for the speeches and all felt really inspired and just happy to be with so many like-minded people. Teen sons loved it. We're in a Leave -voting area here, and though there were plenty of Remain posters up around our town in the run up to the referendum, I generally don't try and talk to many people IRL about Brexit. After Michael Heseltine's speech I'm thinking I may need to try and be a bit more open, not in a confrontational way, but sharing my views if the topic comes up. I know it's too late for all this really, but the march has still left us feeling more hopeful - about human nature, if not about the outcome of Brexit.

It was still a bit depressing the next day to see some of the crap newspaper coverage. PIL (remainers, but still read the Torygraph) had had no idea how big the March had been and were really surprised when DH told them. The Observer had good coverage and some lovely articles - they'd interviewed a 97 year old from the Veterans group who was there with 4 generations of his family.

We set off for London late on Fri evening because of reports of the traffic go-slow on the M1, but it turned out to be literally nothing at all. Just before we left I checked a local Derby paper online (go-slow was meant to be Derby / Notts) which had been talking about 'traffic chaos'. About an hour before the protestors were due to set off, it updated to say they were now planning to go at 40mph instead of 30. Then it updated again, less than an hour after the start time, to say hardly anyone had turned up, they'd now gone, and there was apparently some recrimination on a Facebook page about 'lack of patriotism'. Haven't seen anything to suggest the Sat morning go-slows materialized either.

Will try to upload a couple of photos that I took from Parliament Square though they're not great.

Nowhere near 1 million.

www.wired.co.uk/article/brexit-march-peoples-vote-crowd-size

Why so keen to shout down the numbers?

Whatever the actual number, it was massively impressive.

According to a report in the paper today, the march is being discussed in media all over the world, and way beyond Europe. Even the Venezuelan media apparently.

I won't let it rain on my parade I was there it was huge and don't care about numbers, we got up off our arses and tried to do something and I'm proud of everybody who marched it was a day to remember for sure.
Impossible to count that many people anyway!

Bullshit Chan. It was huge.

@ByDonkeys
BRAIN TEASER: Our banner was 40m x 20m. In a crowd the average person takes up 0.42sqm. The attendance on the #MarchToLeave has been 68, 70, 57, 72, 60, 71, 65 and 137. By a factor of what were there more ppl under our banner than the average attendance on Farage's #MarchToLeave?

I have no expertise at counting numbers. I also have no recent experience of going on marches. Having said that, it was huge. I got the train with a friend from our inner London suburb. Both the Overground and the Jubilee Line were packed, which is not usual for a Saturday morning. It was more like the rush hour. I noticed all along the route that people were leaving and joining the march from side streets, as there were no barriers out. Quite a few people had stopped where they found a place to stand or sit and watch, e.g. steps leading up to offices. There were lots and lots of people in Hyde Park and although I couldn't see them I imagine that would hold good for Green Park and St James's Park as well, given they were adjacent to the route. So counting numbers would be tricky.

We bailed out in Trafalgar Square. We'd been in Park Lane from about noon and weren't able to start walking until some time between 2 and 3. If we'd stayed we might or might not have got to Parliament Square - there were so many people I wasn't sure we would, and all the speeches were over. I'm so, so glad I went. I don't know if it will make a difference but I wanted to register my disgust at how this is being handled.

It's an immense achievement to have got such vast numbers of people together and for there to have been no violence, no reported trouble at all that I've heard of. There would have been a bit of litter to clear afterwards, but I've no doubt the organisers had thought of that. It was extremely well organised.

Yes, the complete and utter absence of trouble among so many people is remarkable.

BRAIN TEASER: Our banner was 40m x 20m. In a crowd the average person takes up 0.42sqm. The attendance on the #MarchToLeave has been 68, 70, 57, 72, 60, 71, 65 and 137. By a factor of what were there more ppl under our banner than the average attendance on Farage's #MarchToLeave?

One for schoolteachers to use in class

Whatever the number, is was multiples of multiples greater than any pro Brexit effort, and without any violence or arrests. It was a lovely day and I'm proud to have been there with my kids. Whatever happens, if, God forbid, people die as a result of the actions of this govt blindly following 'the will of the people' from 3 years ago at least I know I tried to do something about it.
P.S that's not Project Fear, it's a likely consequence of shortages of medicine in the event of No deal.

Whatever the number, is was multiples of multiples

It was also multiples of generations - much more so than Leaver parades.

littlespaces

Someones gonna have to tell me the answer to that one

Though i can probably get dh or my sons to answer it (dd is great at maths but has now decided that now her gcses are over she is never counting anything again)

Pmswould be appreciated

I enjoyed where the article told us you could only fit so many people per square metre because any more than that 'and it becomes uncomfortable to move'

Anyone who was there will tell you it WAS uncomfortable to move, we never got above a shuffle - and that for vast swathes of time we were stood standing still as we got trapped in bottlenecks.

I was at the October one which had 700 000 people. This one had much much more. I was there. I experienced both. I know how much more crowded I was this time, how much slower I walked and how much less distance I managed to travel before it was time to go for my train (and we were nearer the front this time!) And frankly, the idea that there were only an extra 300 000 seems laughable. It was way way bigger than that.

First hand lived experience is worth moire than one sad, panicked man using heat maps on a computer and working under the assumption people weren't so crammed in they were uncomfortable.

Between 1.5 and 2 million people were there and we know the truth because we saw it with our own eyes. So don't try and fucking gaslight us.

Even if ‘only’ 600,000 people marched, that is still 1% of the population of the U.K. Meaning that 1 person in every 100 felt so strongly about this issue that they gave up a chunk of their weekend and made the effort to travel to London and march.

one sad, panicked man using heat maps on a computer

That is so Brexit.

Sad blokes who can't be bothered to march peacefully for something they believe in, gaslighting women who marched with their children, their partners, their parents and over a million others.