First published at 10:15 UTC on July 31st, 2019.
Wednesday 24th July 2019, the day Boris Johnson officially took over from Theresa May as PM. The occasion brought out many people in varying states of confusion protesting for different causes, and an almost equal number of journalists and cameramen…
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Wednesday 24th July 2019, the day Boris Johnson officially took over from Theresa May as PM. The occasion brought out many people in varying states of confusion protesting for different causes, and an almost equal number of journalists and cameramen (no sexism intended!) filming everyone doing so. I didn't always understand what people were fighting for, but hopefully practice will improve my questioning technique enough to get to the bottom of things.
There was too much film to put up in one go, so I have had to divide what I took up into three parts. However, even with that it has proved impossible to upload this video clip in the form I originally intended (this is my fifth attempt, and I've had enough!), so I have split it into two, 1a and 1b, which seems to be working.
In part one the atmosphere was generally quite good natured. People were mostly able to accept that others had different views to them, without assuming they must be evil for doing so. Even when leavers and remainers, pro Boris and anti Boris, protestors were together outside the gates of Downing Street, there was no sense of danger, or that physical violence might break out. It was just funny on the whole. The sound of booing from the anti Boris people sounded like a constant background low moan that made it seem like we were in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, and were about to break into No.10 in order to eat the occupants. Actually I could have done with some food at that point....
Part 2 on shows a second, anti-Boris (and presumably anti-Leave) protest, which turned up outside Downing Street later on. The atmosphere took a distinctly darker turn, and was not so relaxed as earlier on in the day. However, even so I was able to have an interesting and mutually respectful conversation with two young men, most of which is in Part 3, so that was a hopeful thing.
Below are some links to websites with the information that I was referring to when I was talking to people outside Parliament.
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