Reflections of a reluctant protestor: I loathe marches but even I couldn’t sit this one out

I have never been on a political march in my life. That was until this Saturday, when I took to the streets to protest Boris Johnson’s attempt to undermine parliament. I’m glad I did but the experience also confirmed all the reasons for my lack of placard-waving to date—and made me worry about the consequences of this wave of protests.

My march scepticism was confirmed in my first week at university, when we were being encouraged by the student union to go on a “housing demo.” No one could explain to me what exactly the issue was or what we were asking who to do about it. Yet everyone along my corridor in the hall of residence dutifully attended, except me. They returned as vague as they went.

Here were some of the key vices of demos in one neat incident. It was a crude tool to address a complex issue, undertaken mostly by people who didn’t understand it but who did get a warm glow of righteousness and a sense of belonging from taking part.

Over the years I added more reasons to avoid marches. One is that parliamentary democracy works by elected representatives taking time to come to balanced conclusions and not simply responding to the loudest voices of the day. Protests are in contrast attempts to exert “people power” more directly, by literally making yours the loudest voice. They assume that politicians must do what “the people” tell them, to act as delegates rather than representatives.

Burke was right when he said MPs should listen to their constituents, not obey them. “Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.”

That’s why people were wrong to conclude that the Blair government was being undemocratic when it refused to heed the calls of the Iraq marches. On the contrary, democracy requires that politicians do not simply follow the often fickle winds of public opinion. To demonstrate on any single policy issue is to pit popular sovereignty against parliamentary sovereignty.

It might therefore seem ironic that I broke my self-imposed demo boycott to defend parliamentary sovereignty. So why did I attend?

Because this is not a single issue protest in the usual sense. In this case it is parliamentary sovereignty itself that is under assault. My protesting was not a call for the government to listen to me but to respect the constitution. This was a unique case.

The paradox of marshalling people power to defend a parliament that acts as check on that power does make the marching tricky. The assault on parliament hasn’t come from nowhere. It began with the referendum itself, which gave respectability to the populist idea that democracy is in its true form a matter of the people directly expressing their view and the government implementing it. Johnson is gearing up for an election which he will present as the people versus parliament. When we take to the streets and demand that Johnson listens to us, we are unwittingly giving credence to the idea that “the will of the people” is indeed the final word. If the first rule of conflict is never fight on the your opponents’ terms, our marches have broken it.

That’s not the only way in which the protests play into Johnson’s hands. The hyperbolic chant of #StopTheCoup, the banner under which protestors marched, allows Johnson to present us as alarmist exaggerators, since appalling though his actions are, it isn’t (yet) a coup.  

Like all protests, this one was also vulnerable to hijacking by people with a different agenda. In this case it wasn’t Socialist Worker or Stop the War but the Remainers with their EU flags and “bollocks to Brexit” stickers. Prorogation is not a Leave/Remain issue. It is about the integrity of our democratic system which should concern both sides equally. However, the dominance of Remain protestors totally transformed perceptions of the march. Sure enough, the Bristol Post was reporting it as an “anti-Brexit rally” before it had even finished. It was perhaps predictable the Express would report “Remoaner anti-prorogation protests to cause travel CHAOS” but seeing the Mirror headline “Brexit protesters flood streets” was depressing.

My lifelong scepticism found much to confirm it. I fear that these protests could be counter-productive, used to harden the Remain/Leave division, and reinforce the populist sentiment that sees the government as the puppet of the “will of the people.”

But what choice do we have? Street protests are the last resort when the usual democratic channels have been blocked. Parliament is being neutered. Do we just sit at home and watch? These are grave times and there may be much more taking to the streets needed. 

But unless everyone is willing to keep the focus on the constitutional crisis, it will be dismissed a Remoaner cause. This campaign really should be an opportunity to appeal to both sides.

The message from the people needs to be that they are fed up of being pitted against each other in a winner-takes-all battle. This should be a popular protest against populism. We’re not demanding that Johnson respects the will of the people. It’s much more serious than that. We want him to respect democracy in its proper, representative form.