Peter Rhodes on counting crowds, watching Iceland and fearing for our war memorials
According to an ancient journalistic maxim I just made up: consider Korea, ponder Palestine and ruminate on Russia. Just don't take your eyes off Iceland.
In an age of CCTV, drones, GPS and AI, you'd think we'd at least be able to count the number of people on the streets of our capital. Estimates of those attending the Armistice Day march and demos in London ranged from “almost 200,000” (Metro) to “more than 800,000” (Socialist Worker). Creative counting?
Meanwhile, I fear for the safety of the UK's war memorials. There are about 70,000 of them scattered the length and breadth of the country. Mercifully, the rate of vandalism is low but they are unguarded and vulnerable and, as we saw at the Cenotaph and in Rochdale, they can become targets in Britain's culture wars.
