When did you first attend the SODEM protest outside Parliament and why did you come? 

I can’t remember the date, but it was fairly early on – I came down for N°10 vigil and it followed on from that. Why did I come? To be able to tell my grandchildren I tried as hard as I could to stop us leaving the EU and because peaceful protest isn’t just a right it’s a duty. 

Roughly how old are you?

68

How frequently did you come and when was the last time you attended?

2-3 times a month, sometimes more often. December 2019.

How far from Westminster do you live and what was your travelling time?

150 miles. 4 hours from home to Westminster. 

What’s your favourite memory?

So many! Probably watching the Yorkshire contingent arrive in the nick of time after a bad few hours of heckling by hired nasties. I had crossed over the road to take some photos and round the corner came a line of proud Yorkshire folk carrying their white rose flags and singing On Ilkley Moor bar tat. It was the cavalry arriving and gave me such a lift. It still makes me feel emotional thinking about it.

Tell me your story

I’m a retired health professional furious at the manipulation of the electorate during the EU referendum – that was not democracy – and determined to protest all the way. Took part in as many protests as I could, local and London based. Hung flags in the dead of night at railway stations and on motorway bridges, rode up and down the escalator at Euston station with my EU umbrella, flag bombing the 6o’clock news, slept on the pavement outside the courts of justice when a case was being heard, held up the traffic on Lambert Bridge, leafleted, marched, sang, got interviewed by several tv crews, made it onto the news in Manchester, Austria, Germany, and into the papers in Belgium and Spain. Met so many amazing people. Read books about how to protest successfully, wrote over 1000 postcards – set up a FB page ‘Postcards to Theresa May’. Organised postcard writing evening in local pubs – another 1000 postcards got sent from those. Wrote to my MP, went to meetings, signed petitions, wore EU themed clothing. Spent several thousand pounds on all this. And all for what? We failed to stop the UK leaving the EU. Do I regret trying? No. Would I do it all again? Yes. Am I proud of what was achieved? Yes. We built a movement and the time will come when we can galvanise that movement again and get this whole stupidity reversed. 

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