Soccer Moms and Weirdos - Britain protests against President Bush.
Last week, Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland declared:
So long as the protesters look like the usual suspects?multiply pierced, Genoa-style activists in torn clothes and mohican [Mohawk] haircuts?then, I'm told, the White House will not worry. They will be able to say Bush enjoys the global support of all but a few anarchist weirdos. If the demonstrators look like the U.K. equivalent of America's "soccer moms", regular people of all ages, including plenty of women?tricky to bring out on a weekday?then Washington may have to rethink.
So?did the demonstration pass the soccer mom test?
The crowd looked like Londoners: multicultural, all ages and types, like the people you'd get at any other event. There wasn't the same bring-the-family, kids-in-strollers feel of the huge anti-war protest I attended on a Saturday in February, though there were plenty of schoolchildren on hand today. (How glad one is to see this evidence of the much-longed-for political engagement in the young, and how one pushes to the back of one's mind the question of how much an unauthorized afternoon off school has to do with it.) But, yes, there were a huge number of women, many of whom you might describe as soccer moms.
The event was safe and non-threatening, and presumably both sides can claim victory. The organizers got the predicted huge turnout, and the U.S and British leaders got on with their day undisturbed; they can claim the demonstration as another victory for democracy and free speech.
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