A Tale of Two Cities

A day at the seaside...

For many people Brighton means festivals and events, including the major political parties’ annual conferences (yawn).

Today, ‘celebrating’ its fourth or fifth annual march in Brighton is an organisation called March for England (MFE). Many believe that the MFE is an umbrella organisation of groups and individuals that includes racists, fascists and other folk of that ilk, although no doubt they would prefer to be described as patriots. About 200 of them came to Brighton today.

There was also a counter-demonstration, about 400 to 500 strong, mostly Brighton folk, who assembled to protest against the march. The Green Party was well represented, including MP Caroline Lucas, and there were trade unionists, Labour supporters, at least one councillor, charity workers and what looked like some European anti-fascists.  

outside The Bright Helm pub

As I came out of Waterstone’s Bookshop, the police had corralled the main party of MFE marchers at the entrance to the Bright Helm pub in West Street where I understand they had been ‘preparing’ for their march. Their white and red St George’s flags fluttered above the wall of yellow hi-vis police jackets.

I saw about 50 police officers in West Street – some carrying batons and helmets, as well as several police horses (wearing eye protection and knee pads) and, above, a police helicopter was circling.

reinforcements

As I watched, a dozen reinforcements came running down the street. Police vans parked nearby showed that the police had been drawn in from several forces including London Metropolitan, Hampshire, Surrey and Devon & Dorset.

Clumps of local protesters stood around in West Street occasionally shouting insults. The atmosphere was tense but the police seemed to have it well under control. Several times the weather intervened and sudden heavy downpours helped dampened any enthusiasm for trouble; the police would later report that it 'passed relatively peacefully' with ‘a few minor injuries...27 arrests were made.’

At the same time, there were also grey skies in Rome, some 860 miles south-east of Brighton. There, Pope Francis, in front of a crowd of hundreds of thousands of pilgrims, declared and defined Blessed Pope John Paul II and Blessed Pope John XXIII as Saints; in Heaven for evermore, they are available to intercede for us.    

Two events, hundreds of miles apart, one has written a new page in the history of the Church, the other...well, who will remember the MFE march?

 

...apart from the grateful rose-gardeners of Brighton? Thank you, police horses (- and officers)!