Don’t you just wish the silent majority would shut up? The violence that rightwing politicians and columnists evidently hoped to help on its way last Saturday (“pro-Palestinian marches… will inevitably turn a solemn anniversary into a day of rage” – Sarah Vine, the Daily Mail, 7 November) could have driven the country towards full-blown fascism. Columnists such as Vine, and the former home secretary Suella Braverman, had spent the previous week blowing their dog whistles so loudly that dogs all over the land sought out the relative quiet of municipal fireworks displays or dreamed of a peaceful night in at one of Boris Johnson’s uneventful lockdown parties.
But the apparently inevitable Cenotaph-smashing, though momentarily threatened by the very Weetabix™ ® boot boys who turned up to prevent it, was avoided by the relative calm of the peace protesters (whose ranks we must always remember included a barrel full of bad apples); and because their march had never intended to go near the Cenotaph anyway; and by the skilful policing of the police, who showed what they can do when not busy arresting teenage climate martyrs, circulating crime scene photos of murder victims, or asking “amazingly hot” women reporting muggings to go on dates with them.
