According to the BBC, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) was expecting 100,000 marchers. The BBC is now reporting four-and-a-half times as many showed up, according to the tweetosphere.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said those taking part in the March for the Alternative will include community groups, pensioners and public sector workers.
He said they were urging the government to spend more public money - not less - on projects to create jobs and boost the economy, and to crack down on tax evasion and avoidance in order to claw back more for the Treasury.
The largest union involved, Unite, said so many of its members wanted to take part that it could not find enough coaches or trains to ferry them to London.And does this sound familiar? Len McCluskey, the TUC's general secretary, says the government has exaggerated the budget deficit. (Remember that
Here's McCluskey:
Our alternative is to concentrate on economic growth through tax fairness so, for example, if the government was brave enough, it would tackle the tax avoidance that robs the British taxpayer of a minimum of £25bn a year.
If the government was brave enough, it would introduce a Robin Hood tax, a small percentage on financial transactions that would raise another £20bn a year.
Then we would have enough money to start to invest in our manufacturing base, invest in construction, invest in the infrastructure, invest in people, invest in jobs, because that's the way for a civilised nation to deal with national debt.
