'We are the 48%': tens of thousands march in London for Europe
'We've been disenfranchised and hoodwinked,' say protesters as hotel chambermaids come to the windows to cheer.

Ed Vulliamy

Saturday 2 July 2016

The hollow, bitter wit of the banners and placards was a fair indication of who took to the streets of London, in their tens of thousands, on the March for Europe on Saturday, hastily scrambled on Facebook. "And if this isn't big enough," said Jonathan Shakhovskoy, who is with a marketing firm in the music industry, "we'll do it again next week, and the week after. Normalise the mood, make it less ugly."

"Un-Fuck My Future", "No Brex Please, We're British", they read. Pictures of Whitney Houston with "I Will Always Love EU", "Europe Innit" and "I wanna be deep inside EU". "All EU Need is Love", "Fromage not Farage", "Eton Mess" and, more seriously, "Science Needs EU". "Hell no, we won't go!" they shouted, rounding Piccadilly Circus.

No one was fooling themselves that these were the penitent huddled masses from Ebbw Vale or Sunderland come to beg after all for EU funding; this was a vocal segment of the 48% for whom departure from the EU is a disgrace, a catastrophe or both.

"I'm here because I feel totally disenfranchised, hoodwinked and browbeaten into this political, financial and social suicide," said Mark Riminton, a business consultant from Sussex.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/02/march-for-europe-eu-referendum-london-protest