A Tower Hamlets feeder march set off from Whitechapel about 200-250 strong. The marchers were a pretty good mix of union members and ESOL students with their families. The photos show a section of the 5-600 crowd at Hackney town hall where the Hackney and Tower Hamlets marches converged.

I’ll fess up (as I think they say in Hackney) to not having heard much of the speeches other than Oli Rahman apologising for George Galloway’s absence. He could have mentioned that £15 tickets were available at the Hackney Empire ten yards for anyone wanting to hear the absentee MP in a couple of weeks.

The one moment of drama was when the march passed the Blind Beggar pub. It was surrounded by cops penning in a large flock of Millwall fans. I’m advised that they are supporters of a football club who don’t hold with liberal nonsense like foreigners. Naturally I suggested attacking the racists and the cops who were protecting them but I was stopped by sellout bureaucrats. Honest.

Well done to the UCU members who pulled this off.