Why We Did It

Why did you march? Salient reporter Geoff Rashbrooke wandered through the last ranks of the march to ask this question. Even at this end, students seemed to have a clear idea of why they were there, he reported.

"I need money," one student claimed. "I worked all last year so I could get here and now I can only stay one year."

"There is a definite need for something to be done," said another student. "Especially in accommodation. This might do something, and if not it's better than just sitting around."

"It's time that people saw students were serious," said a third student.

Some were there because, as one student put it, "although the aims don't affect me personally, I believe in all of them and I sympathise with those who are affected."

A lone figure in a lab coat admitted he was there "because all my class walked out on me."

Even the two police who brought up the rear seemed sympathetic. But when they were asked why they marched all they would say was "because we were told to."

No comment, however, betters that of a middle-aged woman who, as the last of the marchers passed in front of her car, wound down her window and shouted "Ya haven't even washed ya filthy lot."