'It's For Democracy': Here's What We Learned When Joining The Pro-Brexit 'March To Leave'

The march, which started in Sunderland two weeks ago, ends with a rally in Westminster on Friday.
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It’s a Thursday morning, and a sea of blue vests and Union Jack flags dominates one end of the Aylesbury tennis and cricket ground car park.

As they warm up to shouts of “WHAT DO WE WANT? BREXIT! WHEN DO WE WANT IT? NOW!”, around 100 ‘March To Leave’ demonstrators reflect on the high hopes they had for their grand finale.

For them, this penultimate leg of the march should have been jubilant. It should have been Brexit eve.

Except it’s not. March 29 will come and go, and one of the only things to show that it should have been Brexit day will be the Parliament Square rally they have marched from Sunderland over the past two weeks to hold.

Despite this, spirits were high among attendees and the long walk to Westminster was nothing short of insightful.

HuffPost UK spent a few hours marching along with them. Here’s some of what we learned.

It’s Not Just About Leaving The EU

Isabel Togoh/HuffPost UK

It’s about democracy, marchers claimed.

“Brexit, for me, has become a side issue. It’s an issue of… it’s an existential threat to our democracy,” retired businessman Gary Vallier said.

“Bearing in mind many other countries have modelled their democracy on ours, this is a really pivotal moment in European history, not just British history.”

Meanwhile Elaine, who was keeping a low profile because of her job at the local council, said: “The whole emphasis of the argument is slowly changing to one of democracy. And where would that leave our democratic system if the largest exercise in democracy, ever, was ignored? Where would that leave us?”

Ex-military serviceman Roger Gambrelle, 67, said: “Parliament said we would leave on the 29th with no deal, all in their manifestos, everything. What have they done? Reneged on all of them. So this is a walk for democracy.”

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Emmeline Pankhurst ‘would be proud’

“My grandmother’s cousin was Emmeline Pankhurst, the suffragette. She would be very proud,” claimed Roger Gambrelle, a 67-year-old retired military man from Banbury in Oxfordshire.

It’s always tricky claiming things on behalf of the long-deceased, but this wouldn’t be the first time Brexit and Pankhurst have been used in the same context.

In 2016, Helen Pankhurst, the suffragette’s great-granddaughter, criticised then-cabinet minister Priti Patel for comparing Brexit campaigners to the suffragettes.

Pankhurst claimed that her relative would have backed the EU.

The marchers are *dedicated*

Isabel Togoh/HuffPost UK

The demonstration is symbolic and was “never about the numbers”, says Vallier.

Logistics always meant the ‘March To Leave’ was never going to attract the hundreds of thousands who took part in last weekend’s ‘Put It To The People’ rally in central London. But it is no mean feat “risking ones’ life” to march along a major road in single file in a bid to “wake the government up”, as one protester put it.

Steve Coward, a retired member of the police service who joined on his own, detailed the effort that went into simply getting to the starting point: “I left home at a quarter to two in the morning on the 15th of March (the day before the start), I got a coach to London, I missed my connection to come to Sunderland, I waited four hours in London, I caught the coach to Sunderland, we were delayed, I eventually got to Sunderland at about 6:30 in the evening.

“I met the team, I met the rest of the core marchers, had a pretty unsettled nights’ sleep and then we walked 20 miles. The rest of the walk I’ve been trying to catch up on sleep.”

Fifty ‘core marchers’ took part in the march from its very first step on March 16th.

An Auld Lang Syne ‘remix’ lifted the spirits

A toilet break at the three-mile mark led to an impromptu breakout of the lyrics “Bye Bye EU, Bye Bye EU” to the tune of the folk song.

There was plenty of support on the route

Many conversations along the walk were interrupted by car horns tooting in support. Scenes were reminiscent of a marathon (the nearly 13-mile stretch equated to a half marathon) as residents stood at the top of their driveways clapping, or simply observing with a smile.

Gary Vallier
Gary Vallier
Isabel Togoh/HuffPost UK

Vallier said: “The support’s been pretty consistent all the way down but particularly strong in the north east, as you would expect.

“I’ve never been a political activist but this has put a fire in my belly.”

It was a challenge to spot anyone not in support of the marchers.

Except for Heather McKenna...

...who stood resolutely at a roundabout near Wendover, brandishing an EU flag which spanned the length of her arms and faced the oncoming marchers.

McKenna attended the ‘Put It To The People’ march, and her and her family have all signed the revoke Article 50 petition.

Heather McKenna
Heather McKenna
Isabel Togoh/HuffPost UK

She said of the protesters, a few of whom she knew: “To be fair to them, they’re all very peaceful, a couple are slightly rude, but nothing really horrendous, and that’s fine.

“Peaceful protests by anybody is fine, we’re always entitled to our opinion and our view. I just happen to think they’re wrong.

“Partly I think they’re wrong because some of them don’t understand it well enough. If I’m being honest, I don’t think we should have had the referendum anyway but hey ho. The Tory party trying to save their own skins here so, that’s what it’s all about.”

There were many men

There were a few women on the leg, however it was hard not to notice that the majority of demonstrators were male, and older. There was a sprinkling of younger people, notably 28-year-old Reece, whose faith in a post-Brexit Britain is unshakeable.

Isabel Togoh/HuffPost UK

“We’ve can provide for our own country, within our own country. We don’t need trade, it’s all delusion,” he told HuffPost UK.

“We’ve got enough land to grow on, we’ve got enough land to live on, we don’t need no other country.

“We just won’t be able to get some luxuries, but we’ll have to build the country up and the companies, to make the luxuries.

“It will obviously take a while, but, like winning the first and second world war, that took time and effort.”

Revocation would lead to a backlash

Some six million people may have signed the record-breaking revoke Article 50 petition on the government website, but marchers predict a riot if Brexit is halted.

“The nuclear option is the revocation of Article 50,” said Vallier.

“People will not stop fighting for this decision to be delivered to us.

“And I want us to be a normal sovereign state again – what’s wrong with the nation state?”

Retired support worker Martin Judge later added: “You know (George Orwell’s) 1984? It’s scary because, I thought ‘nah, this would never happen, never happen in here, it could never happen here!’ It’s happening here. It’s happened.”

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