The Wave

The Copenhagen talks start tomorrow and yesterday The Wave March took over central London to demonstrate in favour of bold moves at the talks.

I went down with some friends and their children. I'm not a habitual "Marcher" in fact this is the first time I've marched for anything in this country so the whole experience was a new one to me. It was fantastic to see so many people out making their voices heard and to see the passion that this issue raises. Particularly striking was the message given by children and I couldn't help but feel that an opportunity was missed to make their message one of the main ones of the march - after all they are the people who will be more effected by our actions than any of us older bods. Many people along the route seemed supportive of the march which was encouraging, but there were also many intent on shopping 'til they dropped - which was less so!!

Towards the end I had a brief view of the heavy hand of the police which was pretty shocking. The march was totally peaceful and yet the attitude of this one policeman was incredibly violent. It was easy to see how, had there been anyone in the vicinity who was easily riled, things could have got out of hand - and with lots of children around too. The policeman in question was intent on closing up a barrier when there were families split on either side of it and a massive crowd moving in one direction. Madness. The incident resolved itself when he moved on, but was fascinating to me since up 'til then I have largely thought that the police were probably doing their best to do a decent job..... seeming though, violence can easily come into play.

The Huddersfield Marchers all had a great day and Gordon Brown's response to the march was better than we could have hoped for. The mood currently seems to be one of pessimism with regards to whether an agreement can be reached at Copenhagen. I would like to urge anyone who reads this to keep up pressure on their MPs and put out positive vibes in the general direction of Copenhagen.

The report from Stop Climate Chaos's website is here.