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The Make Poverty History march on Saturday was a great success. Estimates of 225,000 people made it the largest protest in Scotland’s history, and it was great fun to participate in. I had my camera with me, and took lots of pictures. They’re all available in my Make Poverty History set at flickr, and interspersed with my account of the day which follows here.

We had no trouble getting on the train from Glasgow Queen’s Street, it was much quieter than we thought it’d be, and a queuing system was in operation, plus plenty of prompt trains. We disembarked at Haymarket, rather than going into the busy centre of Edinburgh, with people arriving from elsewhere in the UK. There were plenty of people winding their way through the streets.

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Arriving at The Meadows, we were encouraged by the sight of thousands of people already there. The show was just kicking off on the main stage, and after having briefly hooked up (by sheer coincidence) with my friend Keith, we tackled our sandwiches and enjoyed a bit of the motivational show. I picked up a placard to carry, not of course realising I’d need both hands to use my camera too. The Mirror placards were plentiful, but I like many others didn’t really think the large red advert was such a good idea (and I didn’t want to advertise the paper either, for what its worth), so along with many others we ripped off the banner.

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After an hour or two, we were uncertain as to what was happening regarding the march, so headed over to where we guessed the start was – to be confronted by thousands of other people queuing up to do the same! Given the huge numbers of people trying to go on the march, the staggered march idea was scrapped, so small groups of people were let through barriers into holding areas a little at a time. It took over an hour for us to get through, and we were lucky it was so quick – we managed to stumble on an open gate near where we were quite early on. It was hot work waiting for things to get going.

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Once we were on the march, our spirits soon lifted, and they were lifted further by the groups of people we were marching with. Most impressive costume of the march had to go to “Action Aid Man”, a large inflatable costume figure. Close by were a group of Kenyan lads who were singing some fun Kenyan songs to lift everybody. People from all over the country were on the march, and it was fun talking to people and enjoying the occasion. One couple, who had been close by us in the holding pen, had come from Kings Langley in Hertfordshire. They’d created a banner, and taken it along to a fete to get signed by supporters. The result was impressive, as it demonstrated at a stroke the support from many more people who couldn’t be there in person.

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There was lots of support from people and organisations in Edinburgh too, not least Edinburgh Castle – bedecked in a Make Poverty History White band, as well as St John’s church, off of Princes Street.

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We were stopped just before 3pm for the minute silence. A child dies every three seconds, because of preventable diseases brought about through extreme poverty. One minutes silence for the 30,000 children who die needlessly every day.

The silence in our part of the march – just to the end of Princes street – had started early, and there was a lot of cheering when the flare went off when that actually indicated the start. However, organising 225,000 people isn’t easy, especially given the spread out nature of the marchers. So in the end a lot longer than a minutes silence occurred on our part of the march, not helped either by the lack of bells at the end too. Still, it quickly picked up momentum and volume again when it was clear the minute was over.

We reached the end of the march, having helped form a small part of the huge human white band around Edinburgh city centre. The band went on as the marching went on, for a good five or six hours at the very least. It was incredibly good fun, very much a carnival atmosphere and very friendly all over. Any fears of violence were clearly misplaced, even a group of idiots who did try and cause some trouble later in the day were quickly dispersed.

One thing: We’re a little curious if the person in this photograph is actually Frances. Answers on a post card please! (Ok, so it probably isn’t: Her glasses are reactive to light, but even Frances can’t be entirely sure herself…)

My only gripe of the day was that the Live8 event seems to have dominated media coverage somewhat, and the BBC – for some inexplicable reason – controversially cut away from the political messages that were broadcast during the event. In doing so, they managed to demean the nature of the event quite substantially. They claim for “impartiality”, but they were reporting what was – at the core – a political event. They report, often unedited, political conferences and speeches, so it seems hypocritical they didn’t do similar here. As it is, the broadcast – apart from where interviewees made the point – was almost apolitical.

So the 225,000 people in Edinburgh were somewhat overshadowed. Sure we had a bit of free entertainment from a few big names, but most people were there to make a point not be entertained by ageing rock stars. We did kick back and watch the concert, flicking between channels to catch bits we’d missed. Highlight, of course, had to be Pink Floyd’s performance. I’d been terrified they’d be a let down, especially after The Who’s excellent performance, but they pulled off the highlight of the concert for me. Not sure there’s much love lost between Waters and Gilmour – it was positively chilly judging by the body language during and after their performance. But I’ll keep a probably overly optimistic finger crossed they’ll put aside their differences sometime for a tour or another album.

At the end of the day, gripes at the BBC aside, a significant statement was made by the 225,000 people in Edinburgh that must have been heard by the G8 leaders. I fervently hope they’ll heed our demand and really put extra effort into reaching an agreement to end the needless suffering by millions of the less fortunate people of the world. Let’s hope they will Make Poverty History

See also

• My complete flickr set for the day
• Make Poverty History Blog
• BBC overview of the Edinburgh march
• previous posts.
• Tags: Live8 Make Poverty History

This entry was posted on Monday, July 4th, 2005 at 3:27 pm and is filed under BBC, Politics, Poverty, Scotland, UK. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.