Best day ever yesterday. I went to a protest. I love a protest and have an app which tells me all the protests going on, any given day, so I can pick one. And yesterday was a bumper day. There was a protest against school dinner funding in Bolton, garbage disposal in Birmingham, social services in Streatham and one for Iraq war veterans in Esher. But I picked the one in Westminster for a number of ideological and political reasons.

Firstly, the protest against the proscribing of Palestine Action was easily accessible on the tube. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, I bought a keffiyeh in a car boot sale in Chelmsford and I’ve been looking for the right moment to wear it. And I wanted to make my statement about all those children being killed in Palestine. Or Gaza. Possibly in Israel, I’m not really sure, but if children are dying ANYWHERE!!!, it’s just not acceptable. Someone at my book club meeting in the church hall in Crouch End the other day said that the information coming out of Gaza is all lies and exaggerations from Hamas. But does it matter where the info is coming from??? Hamas are also ‘proscribed’ and how DARE this government keep on proscribing groups?? Calling them ‘terrorists’ when all they’re doing is fighting for their rights?? Its awful. Mabel told me at bridge on Tuesday.

So I pitched up along Pall Mall and it was wonderful, even in the rain. I coupled my keffiyeh with a lovely Laura Ashley shirt-dress and a black leather jacket, so I looked suitably ‘cool’ and less like the captain on the Borehamwood Golf Club (women’s section), which I am. I took a selfie and sent it to my children so they could show it to my grandkids to see how fab ‘Nanny’ can be.

My kids immediately questioned what (the fuck!!!) I was doing??? So I told them: I’m protecting innocent children from dying!!! That’s what I’m doing!! But my son told me that it wasn’t a protest for Gaza in any way. It was a protest against banning a protest group who had attacked a military installation, basically committed treason and therefore became a threat to our nation. It wasn’t about the ‘cause’ but about the manner of protest. Nothing to do with Palestinian children, everything to do with the acceptable limits of any ‘protest’.

Oh.

I went anyway. Marched with a whole load of other women from my golf club, the vicar’s wife from church was there, though she wasn’t wearing a keffiyeh, and I saw Nadine Hapthorpe’s chauffeur milling around, so she must have been there too. And we all sang: “from the river to the sea…” and “save the children!!!…” and the atmosphere was wonderful. It was like Glyndebourne with lots of Palestine flags.

Then we all got arrested. I called my husband. He was out sailing. The way I was treated was quite appalling. Like I was a criminal, for God’s sake!!!

But it was worth it.

For the children.

Happy Sunday

Tricia xxxx