After last week’s march in London [1], I stayed closer to home this time around. The situation in Gaza is beyond imagination. I hope these protests grow and grow, week by week, until we can no longer be ignored.

The strength of feeling in Britain for an immediate ceasefire, revealed both in polling and the sheer numbers taking to the streets, is entirely out of step with the political and media establishment, who are tacitly or, in some cases, explicitly in favour of genocide.

At today’s march, we were reminded of the Home Secretary’s assorted extremist statements about protesters; the sheer numbers of police on display backed up her awful words.

Protest is not (quite) illegal yet, and it gave me a lot of hope in a desperate time to see so many people out on the march, from all backgrounds and walks of life.

There were huge numbers of children, also – which the organisers encouraged to lead the march, an excellent idea that should happen more often.

The anger here was palpable, especially for Labour, whose local group were, obviously, absent. They are a serious party of government now, led by a human rights lawyer who doesn’t believe in human rights.

Starmer, indeed, attracted a great deal of the opprobrium on display here.

There were lots of excellent groups, some of which have sprung up in the past few weeks, and some who have been around a while longer.

Shout out to Parents for Palestine, with their excellent bubbles, and to Acorn, the renter’s union, Sussex students, The Green Party, Extinction Rebellion, Stop the War, and many others for their support and their solidarity.

The march started at Palmeira Square [2], and made its way along Western Road then down West Street to the seafront, before heading back west for speeches and tea by the Peace Statue.

Note to drivers caught up by a protest: switch your engines off, you’re not going anywhere, and there are a lot of owners of young lungs walking past trying to build a better future.

[1] The press and the met estimated it at 100,000; organisers and peace campaigners now put the figure closer to half a million, making it the biggest protest since the Iraq War.

[2] Pointedly, across the road from our starting point was a person-free counter-demonstration: balloons and photos, each one representing an Israeli child taken hostage by Hamas. The Hamas attack was horrific; and all civilian deaths are beyond the pale. That I even feel that this needs saying says something and the debate right now.