I walked that day with my family including my three young children aged 2, 5 and 8 and with my parents aged 65 and 84. The fact that all these generations were represented demonstrated to me how widespread the opposition to the war was and how peace was important to our future on this planet and the avoidance of war was a hard learned lesson from our past . My father (84 at the time ) had lived through the second world war as a conscientious objector, and despite his age and growing infirmity walked every step of the way . He was overcome with emotion at the outpouring of protest to this illegal and immoral war and even at his age and given all he had seen in his life it gave him inspiration and reignited his passion for the cause of peace and a belief in the essential goodness of humanity . Whilst the march unfortunately didn’t change policy that day, I think it did ignite a belief in a new type of politics and has caused governments since to be wary of taking their countries into war without the consent and support of their peoples .
My father