At the Cenotaph in Whitehall for Armistice Day

To Westminster with my husband for the commemoration of Armistice day at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th Month.  A shorter commemoration than the ones tomorrow at both the Cenotaph, attended by the King and Queen, Representatives of the Commonwealth  and the government, and repeated at all local memorials.

As the head of the Metropolitan Police refused to ask the Home Secretary for a ban on the march, the weekly pro-Palestinian apologists for Hamas, Jew-hating march also took place with the concession that the route would not, this week,  go anywhere near Trafalgar Square, or down Whitehall or anywhere near the Cenotaph.

That they do not obey instructions about the route was shown on 21st October when they were scheduled to pass Trafalgar Square at a time when the square was being used by the Joint Morris Organisations day of dance. They were told to have an evacuation plan, ‘just in case’ and I do know it was used. The particular side was just finishing a dance, the stewards called out “Evacuate, evacuate” and they had to leave with alacrity and regroup elsewhere.

And that they are a demographic that does not respect the War Memorials of our culture is shown by this attack on the War Memorial in the memorial gardens in Rochdale Greater Manchester. Two boys have been arrested; they cannot be named because of their ages.

Patriot groups are fed up with seeing this level of disrespect shown on our streets every weekend, and are also dismayed that legislation that exists and was used in 2011 to stop EDL marches is not being used to stop this match, on this weekend. Despite the Home Secretary directing the police to it and strongly inviting them to make the request.

But first we attended Parliament square and the statue of Sir Winston Churchill. Telegraph writer Allison Pearson said, last week

l will be there, meeting friends at 10.30am directly across the road from Mr Churchill. I will be holding a copy of The Telegraph aloft if you care to join us. We maybe won’t be able to put into words exactly what we are doing; I just know that we’ll know.

The friends were the British Friends of Israel, publicising the October Declaration and quietly raising awareness of the hostages.

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Quiet, dignified, very impressive. Far enough away from the Cenotaph not to impede that commemoration; near enough to the site of the weekly Jihadi marches to be pertinent.

The police had a ring of steel round the Cenotaph. The presence of groups they and the media like to designate as ‘far-right’ concentrated their collective mind and suddenly they started policing robustly again. So ticket holders for the ceremony were allowed into the centre of the street; members of the public were confined to a very narrow strip of pavement outside the Ministry of Defence, and an area several hundred yards south of the ceremony.

One of the patriot groups is Football Lads Against Extremism. The Telegraph showed a map of the area with the police intention to kettle them in a area in a corner of Trafalgar Square. I couldn’t see them as we went past and then I heard them insisting on standing with the rest of the public outside the Ministry of Defence.

There were several pipe bands – these were warming up by the Gurkah memorial

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You can see how far back they were keeping us

Note the patriot flags to the right by the traffic lights

I know and could see that groups participating included the Western Front Association of historians and descendants, the War Widow’s Association, lots of young people in the uniform of Army, Sea and Airforce cadets. This was good to see as anecdotal stories are circulating of cadets being warned not to wear their uniforms in public this weekend for fear of attack or insult but to attend in ordinary clothing or school uniform. I have not posted about this because I don’t have an established link.

There were young people who I think had come as school parties and veterans including a unit of Sikhs.

The clock of Big Ben struck 11am and the bugler played the last post. You could have heard a pin drop. Except down our end the police helicopter was drowning out the sound of dropping pins, birdsong and gurgling babies.

Nearer the cenotaph was silent was profound, as this short video with thank to Steve Speakers Corner shows.

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After Reveille there was a round of applause. This is unusual but if a modern idea it showed respect and wasn’t out of place. The attendees of the ceremony marched away and we tried to get closer to see the wreaths. But it wasn’t possible. As fast as we moved down one side street or passage way the police blocked it or locked it and the crush of people made progress difficult. We were all being contained in narrow paths between heras fencing.

So we went sideways to the river and then into Trafalgar Square for a cup of tea. We are English after all, even if I did have a Danish bun to accompany it.

Coming out of the station and walking around we spotted police from the West Country (Dorset, Devon and Cornwall)  the far North East of Durham and Wales. Plus lots of vans of the tough Territorial Support Group. Suddenly these all started driving round with sirens going, followed by motorcycle police so it was obvious that something was happening.

Left, I like the comment from Konstantin Kisin “And just like that, the police are back to policing protests again’

Sky News soon told us.

Leader of the English Defence League Tommy Robinson was spotted among far-right groups at the Cenotaph this morning, after telling followers to go to London to “protect” the war memorial and “honour” the fallen.

We didn’t see him, but he is back on Twitter (X) this week and has been forthright over the recent news.

And of course a ‘far-right’ bogey man is manna from heaven for some news outlets.  The comments are putting Sky news right over his status.

We then decided that making our way home was the better option so what happened next and is still on-going I will be getting from the news and friends on the spot.

But the police have already arrested 92 counter protestors in Pimlico (about a mile and a half away from Whitehall) which is 90 more than they managed during the last pro-Palestinian march, and that was of women they tracked down (for supporting terrorism) well after the event using CCTV and intel.

Anything happening in the vicinity of the Cenotaph would be disrespectful and reprehensible, although we have already established that the 2 minutes silence and the ceremony was impeccable.

The Jihadi march has been told that both the march to the US embassy (or the area nearby), AND speeches, MUST be completed by 5pm. It’s nearly that so I’m going to watch live news and see if the police keep them to it.

Photographs E Weatherwax London November 2023