(0401) Administratively, this is an awkward time … I’ve material to go but must grab another sleep while I can, meaning an 0730 restart. None of the material is immediate or any more huge than usual. (0611) Here we go again.

1. Phillip Patrick at TDS on Saturday’s rally

“I was there for much of it. So packed did it become that I had to almost fight my way out. (I had a train to catch.) This was a bit of a problem as the police had sealed off most of Whitehall making it very hard to leave. The idea seemed to be to create empty buffer zones to prevent confrontations with rival protestors.

Fair enough perhaps, but the cordoned-off area was simply too small, leading to gridlock and a certain amount of panic. I only got out after feigning a heart problem and claiming my wife was on the other side of the thin blue line with my medication. My Oscar-worthy performance worked, testament to what I found was the overall reasonableness of the police. 

But they were close to being overwhelmed at times and one take-away message from the day is that the authorities underestimated the breadth and depth of feeling of people in UK who oppose the direction the country seems to be taking.”

Trying to be accurate with all up “numbers” … not sure it was “millions” … depends where you mean, inc. in all bars on the outskirts if you’ll buy 150k in that central area, plus all feeder roads, plus surrounds, let’s say somewhere 700k to 1mn … well you then have to look at us here, plus those reading us, viewing, plus the effect of Elon and X … it was in the region of but certainly not quite up to CK. It was a lot.

And not the direction the country is taking but the west in general. I’d be interested in how many adults and kids were oblivious. Also on CK.