Attendance reported 150,000 - 500,000

As I emerged from Parliament Square, the crowd chanting & cheering thickened the air. The force almost pushed you back into the station. Enclaves of protestors were strewn across the grassy square and surrounding streets. Areas of the square had become muddy bogs, leaving the odd clearing among the crowd. The Palace of Westminster stood watch to the events, obscured by the masses of flags & placards carried by thousands upon thousands of people. The first group I came across centred around a man with a speaker blaring Middle Eastern music, the surrounding crowd singing & chanting in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Youths scaled anything that could be climbed, in Parliament Square the options are sparse, but traffic lights & lamp posts soon became ladders for flag wavers & banner raisers. The police presence was similar to the last, however. The officers stood on watch &, for the most part, appeared young & underequipped. I joked around with some of them, which is always good fun, as you never know what shade of cross you’ll get. Their loss.

The square itself was lined on all sides by road, then a stone wall on top of which many people sat in wait for the upcoming talks. Piers Corbyn was in attendance with a self-contained PA system & a band of followers in aid of the Palestinian cause, clearly had nothing to do with the main events but nonetheless was undeterred. A woman kept showing people an admittedly impressive tapestry of a map of Palestine, others seemed to be impressed too. similar to the previous march, there was a large number of families including young children present. In contrast, there were a number of protestors setting off fireworks, including one that burnt the holder upon lighting, & was promptly dropped into the crowd, exploding on the ground. People seemed temporarily shocked & the organisers called for people to cease & desist with fireworks & smoke grenades. They had done this many times already. This request was, of course, met with a flurry of fireworks. The speakers delivered a range of powerful speeches, with the crowd cheering in agreement. The stage had a small fenced-off area to the rear, from this vantage point it was clear to see the volume of attendees, & the barriers appeared to be almost at bursting point. Having listened to many of the speeches, I decided to continue on towards Downing Street.

Upon arrival, it was clear that this was a different tone again, with the children seemingly having disappeared to give way to a more mature group of protestors. A man who I assumed was a religious leader of sorts spoke Arabic dialect into a loudspeaker, with many of the crown chanting back, seemingly understanding what was going on. Then a younger group of men took to the microphone to initiate the crowd’s favourite chant: “Rishi Sunak’s a wasteman”. This was chanted for a considerable time in comparison to the plethora of other chants heard throughout the day. The crowd seemed to need the healing respite of voicing their dislike towards the country’s premiere. The Conservatives have now actively rejected proposals to consider a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, so their frustration is understandable. I also noticed that a few people were serving rice & curry out of large cool boxes on wheels for donations. Many people sat & ate around the pop-up vendors. Although this detail seems unnoteworthy, I have always been interested in communal cooking, as it has simply been absent in my upbringing & adult life. In this case, people from all walks of life gathered & ate. Sadly, a very undervalued moment in modern culture. The light of the day began to fade, & the main crowd had, for the most part, dissipated. I decided to make my way home. On the radio in the car, I heard about a small number of arrests as the police dispersed the crowd after the official march had finished. Other than that the march was widely reported as peaceful & without major incident. The organisers of the march had announced that the next official protest would be held on Armistice Day, on Saturday, November 11th.