I just realised !
Today is the anniversary of the biggest political demonstration ever seen in the UK.
It was a Saturday.
And Arsenal were playing an FA Cup tie at Old Trafford.
Five years ago today? It seems longer than that.I wrote about that day on the old ANR website, which is still running.
We didn’t stop the invasion of Iraq. I never thought we would but that march had to be done, regardless of football. That epic Saturday was a one-off and Another double now looks possible as United admit inferiority was a one-off piece as well.
These few words, typed quickly, do not do justice to an event which is unprecedented, an event which cost Tony Blair his job, an event which is the most catastrophic foreign policy blunder since Suez in 1956, an event which branded a four-letter word across Blair’s forehead till the day he dies. It’s just an impressionistic sketch of the only day I’ve missed a football match to go on a demo.
I’ll never forget spending that day with a jolly bunch of big-hearted seventeen year old schoolgirls. I still see some of them, but less often. They’re 22 now and all growed up.