More than 100,000 people marched peacefully through London on Saturday

• ON Saturday March 20, as far as the eye could see, more than 100,000 people marched peacefully through London, smiling, with lines of buses honking their horns in unison, in support of the protest against continuing lockdown and the imminent renewal of the Coronavirus legislation.

Why was this not reported by mainstream media? Only the few arrests made by the police at the end, when a few stragglers remained, reached the news. By contrast the Bristol riots the following day made the headlines.

Andy Marsh, the chief constable of Avon and Somerset police, said Sunday’s protest had been “hijacked by extremists”, and the mayor of Bristol said the rioters were “serial demo attenders” intent on “violence”.

Was this “extremist” element introduced to add fuel to justify the new Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill that proposes removing people’s inalienable right to protest for ever?

To allay fears of unmasked crowds, epidemiologist Professor Mark Woolhouse, who advises Downing Street through SPI-M, the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, told MPs there was “very little evidence of outdoor transmission” and “no outbreaks linked to crowded beaches” from Covid.

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