Tim Montgomerie: Why doesn't the Right march?
> More photographs of the event
Sometimes, of course, the Right does take to the streets. I think of the Countryside March at the start of the Blair years or Glenn Beck's recent event in Washington (organised by a questionable individual but attended largely by American patriots). I know many Conservatives who also attended the march against the Iraq war. Generally, however, people on the right of the political spectrum do not join demonstrations.
I raise the topic because yesterday the TaxPayers' Alliance helped organise a rally against debt. Despite weeks of planning, articles in the national press, lots of social media and some prominent, gifted speakers it only attracted 350 people according to police estimates.
I don't say that the rally was a failure. It won some publicity but I can't imagine the organisers will rush to do anything similar again (although James Worron thinks they should). Public opinion largely supports the Coalition's deficit reduction plan but in the words of Thomas Byrne most of us choose to write letters to The Times or express our views at the ballot box rather than mix with libertarians in Guy Fawkes fancy dress who burn the EU flag.
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PS For those wanting to know if I attended the answer is "no". It's unlikely I would have done so if I had been in Britain but, as it happens, I was still in Spain after speaking to the Costa del Sol branch of Conservatives Abroad.
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