Just to make the third march for Rejoin a bit more fun, I managed to contract a bladder infection a couple of days before. In addition to that the direct trains from Sheffield to St.Pancras were not running due to engineering works, so I had to travel down by the East coast making the journey time 4.5 hours each way. So, getting up at 6am to attend a protest march (where it's nigh-on impossible to find any toilets all day) was not exactly what I wanted to spend my weekend doing... But, against my better judgement, having already invested way too much effort into the day (spending days making the costume and planning to film a new music video) and not wanting to disappoint my father who was so excited to see me speaking on the stage in Parliament Square for the first time, I decided to bring a copious quantity of pain killers and persevere regardless of my poor state of health...
After returning from Bavaria, I only had two days to write my speech and prepare my placard and costume, which turned out not to be enough time as I forgot my speech half way through (having not memorised it adequately) and one-side of my placard turning into a total mess.
One side, I decided to match with my costume - with the message "You can't reach the stars if your wings have been clipped!" Which turned out as I planned, however I used a different type of watercolour paint and it kept rubbing off on my hands. The other side I wrote "Rejoin you know you want too" before realising I used the wrong "to". I tried to salvage the placard but ended up smearing the blue paint into the yellow text because it hadn't dried yet - basically it was a mess!
I was going for maximum gold stars and sparkles to go with the wings for this outfit. In the end I had to abandon the gold star headback because the wind kept tangling my hair in the stars and it just looked like a mess. The outfit was totally impractical for the chilly September weather, so I also brought my long coat to wear when I wasn't marching / speaking on stage / posing for photos / filming for a music video.
Dad met me on the train to Retford, where we changed for the Kings X service. He messaged me the day before the march to say he didn't have an EU tshirt to wear (too late to order something on Amazon) so I brought some stickers and badges to attach to his jacket.
I couldn't wear the coat and the wings at the same time, so when we got off the tube at Hyde Park Corner, my Dad and my friend Steve spent a hilariously long time trying to fasten my wings. In the end a random woman passer-by had to assist them, whilst my videographer recorded the moment in these adorably cute photos.
I perhaps shouldn't have attached the gold star Christmas decorations to my skirt as the points were extremely sharp and they caused multiple injuries - yet, still, I refused to take them off... But, then, I was never a sensible person.
Steve assisted my videographer (Jeff Kew) by filming some initial lip sync footage for the music video. I brought my blue guitar (which is not the best sounding instrument) mainly for decorative purposes.
This performance attracted the media's attention and I then had to do several press interviews.
My Dad didn't bring a placard or a flag with him on the march, but the organisers were handing out the EU27 nation state flags - he asked if he could have the Austrian flag since I just flew back from Salzburg. When he came back with the flag, I couldn't stop laughing because they accidentally gave him the Latvian flag - which is very similar but the red is a darker colour and the white band is thinner than the Austrian flag. (According to a local, apparently the confusion over their flags is a running joke in Austria).
My friend Joel was supposed to join me as the "Brexit Devil" to match my EU angel wings. But despite the march not starting until 1pm he turnd up late and had to join us at Green Park. His girlfriend did a great job with the face paint though.
The march was great fun though and I'm glad I went despite the health issues.
Me and my videographer stopped a couple of times during the march to film some more lip sync footage with the crowd moving past us in the background.
My speech went down reasonably well but I "erred" and "ummed" a couple o ftimes when I forgot my words and half way through I lost my thread and garbled one of the best lines that I had written. I hate reading from a phone/notes for these big events, because it comes across with less impact, but maybe I should have relented this time given my lack of preparation.
Speech
There has been a seismic shift in UK politics this year - and with the change in government, we don’t just have the possibility of meaningful change for the future - we finally have hope.
And yet, in the months since the Labour party were elected, we have seen very little meaningful change with regards to their policies and attitude towards the European Union. And the possibility of a better and brighter future is being squandered.
Post Brexit, the EU offered the UK government an olive branch with a proposal for a youth mobility scheme - but Kier Starmer imitated Rishi Sunak by throwing their generosity back in their face. And for what? Youth mobility benefits us all: providing both British and European youth with valuable opportunities to travel, work, live, love and learn abroad. It enriches our culture; it benefits employers, universities and the wider economy; and it is popular with voters. The majority of British voters support rejoining ERASMUS+.
The new government should be working to repair relationships and rebuild the bridges burnt by the last, Conservative government, not imitating them.
As an artist and musician, I don’t just care about mobility for youth, but also for creative workers. Creativity thrives on cultural exchange and restricting the Freedom of Movement of British artists is downgrading the UK’s reputation as a producer of world class talent.
British musicians have been especially hard hit by the impacts of Brexit, with 59% now considering touring to be “financially unviable”. The UK’s music industry is one of our biggest exports – curbing the mobility of British musicians is not just economically stupid, but tantamount to cultural suicide.
The new government are kowtowing to a minority of British voters with nationalistic, isolationist views, with the desperately idiotic priority of protecting the sanctity of a hard-right Brexit which is in nobody’s interest and which nobody voted for. This can only be described as weak leadership – and what the UK needs right now is not timidity – but bold, courageous and positive action.
So, join me in imploring Kier Starmer to see sense: to deliver youth mobility; to protect the UK’s creative industries and to choose a better and brighter future for our country – so that we can once again, be proud to call ourselves British.
We had time for one quick drink in our usual haunt - St. Stephen's Tavern in Westminster before me, Dad and Jeff had to head to Kings Cross as we all had fixed time tickets to catch home. We got a quick photo with the whole gang before we parted ways (until next year!) ... In all honesty, by the time I got to Kings Cross station I could barely walk up the steps from the tube - I was so exhausted. More pain killlers and some M&S G&Ts got me through the ridiculously long journey home - but I spent the following day in bed (turns out those antibiotics didn't work and I had to get some different ones).
Trolls Comments
As per usual the March for Rejoin has triggered the inevitable trolling, although it hasn't been as vicious as previously. Since I have been working on my "hate dress" - I actually feel rather anaesthetised to these comments. It's often the same dull trash comments repeated over and over - and I feel empowered by using their hate to fuel my own creativity. I knew that one chant from the march "Nigel Farage will be crying in his beer" - would especially trigger all the Reform Trolls on Tiktok - and I was not wrong. The video has over 30,000 views and over 1,200 comments which are mostly people writing "Vote Reform" or "Nigel Farage for PM" - with a few users arguing with them in favour of other political parties.
Twitter Trolls
Tiktok Trolls
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