Onward TUC Soldiers

A few observations about yesterday's massive march in London.

I think there were more than 250,000 people there. We only managed to cover two thirds of the route before we had to turn around and head back to the coach. There might not have been the million I was hoping for, but there had to be half a million bodies there.

Some people are as witty as hell!

Whistles should be banned.

The arseholes who acted illegally were nothing to do with my union and nothing to do with your one either. The conspiracy theorist in me would like to say that the idiots that cause trouble at these events are actually paid by the incumbent government to ensure that the outbreaks of violence overshadow the big picture. I accept how tenuous that theory is, so therefore I'd like to suggest to UKUncut and the number of so-called anarchists who fell on the capital yesterday to fuck off and do what they want to do without using 250,000+ innocent protesters as cover!

Physically I was a complete wreck by the time I hobbled back onto the coach at 5.10. I had taken my walking stick and wore my walking boots, but I neglected to take any painkillers and then embarked on the longest walk/standing up session I have undertaken since September 2010. It was all worthwhile though because I contributed to my first ever march and felt solidarity with my fellow campaigners.

Is there an alternative to all the cuts? Well, of course there is, the problem is that Osborne seems intent on making his plan work and won't accept that it won't. The real worry for me, who might be redundant by Tuesday evening, is that if it does go wrong - and let's face it at the moment it looks highly likely, how do we salvage anything from it. The cabinet will be okay, they already have bucketloads of money. A large majority of us don't.

Walking over Westminster Bridge with my good friend Martin Shipp, who I just don't see enough of, we were talking about what an incredible city London is and how, as much as he likes coming up here to Northampton, the city is in his blood and it is architecturally splendid and socially invigorating. It's a long time since I ventured into London of an evening; when I did it the place still shut at midnight, even in the real sordid parts. But on a passable spring day in March yesterday it really did look like a rose. My biggest complaint about London is that there's not enough good pubs with excellent real ales.

My legs ache...