How big was the rally?
According to Scotland Yard, about 70,000 people showed up for the “we love butchers” rally. But it is fascinating how some of the British press covered it. Sky News covered it breathlessly. When the effigy of Bush was pulled down, Sky had its cameras just sitting there for several minutes, waiting for the countdown as if it were New Years Eve, with excited commentary about the “tens of thousands” of protesters.
The Guardian does not even mention the numbers until the eleventh paragraph.
Yesterday the organisations claimed that more than 200,000 took part, and it was difficult to argue that they were wrong. Scotland Yard, however, gave an estimate of 70,000.
Apparently, Scotland Yard did not have difficulty saying they were wrong. Only the Saddamites at the Guardian have that difficulty.
But the prose was the big give-away, written as if a twelve year girl was writing in a diary about her crush on her teacher, and as divorced from reality.
Yesterday was by far the biggest turnout since the million-plus march in February; along with the crowds, the anger and conviction were back with a vengeance.
. . .
By mid-morning people were coming together in Bloomsbury for the start of the march, everyone from schoolchildren playing truant to pensioners carrying placards reading “Go Home” and “World’s Number 1 Terrorist”.
Young and old, doctors, and teachers, students and the unemployed, representing every religion and every colour. They had come on foot and on bikes, by train and in cars.
Twenty coaches made their way down the M6 from Manchester, while at least four more came from Exeter. All were assembling to make up the diverse mix that in two years has seen the Stop the War Coalition become the fastest growing political movement in Britain.
Do you notice something about the arithmetic? 70,000 show up, but the last march they say was over a million. This is a growing political movement? It looks more like a shrinking movement. But the Guardian is not one to let facts get in the way of a lefty parable.
I also liked this cute line:
By 2.45pm, with Bloomsbury a seething mass of whistles and chanting, the march was led off by a disabled Vietnam veteran-turned peace protester, Ron Kovic, behind the banner “Proud of My Country, Ashamed of my President”.
As if anyone seriously believes that.
The rally was not anti-war, it was pro-Saddam. And it seems the Guardian is as well.