Yesterday's demonstration

Bit of an argument (or should that be "blogument"?) about yesterday's march in London. William claims yesterday's demonstration in London was "pro-Saddam". Dick disagrees, but his logic escapes me. Frank is backing William up.

I think the march was essentially anti-Bush, not pro-Saddam, but it definitely aided and abetted Saddam and the Ba'athist cause. I don't think you can call the march pro-Saddam.

There were many motivations for those who marched, but what united them yesterday was their hatred of George Bush and what he stands for. There were

• pacifists - those who believe life as a slave is better than risking death
• anti-Americans - those who believe all the world's ills are due to Hollywood, Coca cola and the CIA
• environmentalists - those who would rather live as 7th century African bushmen rather than as we do now
• Islamists - those who would prefer we live as 7th century Arabs rather than as we do now
• other assorted malcontents

I don't think there were too many Ba'athists, although I suspect that some of the organizers were funded, even if indirectly, from Saddam's coffers.

Most of these people are not pro-Saddam — they are not really that interested in the people of Iraq. All that matters is that they assert their distaste for George Bush. I presume that most of the 70,000 would like to see Dominique de Villepin take control of Iraq and remould the country in France's image.