Protests: participation in (direct?) action

It's just over a week since hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of London to protest against cuts to public spending. How many hundreds of thousands is a matter for debate - the BBC reported at least 250,000.

With counter protest "Rally against Debt" planned for next month, it seems like a good time to look at the chapter on protest in NCVO's recently released Participation: Trends Facts and Figures publication.

The publication takes a whistlestop tour of participation in the UK and across the globe, and on pages 44 and 45 looks at direct action and protest as an act of participation. I've reproduced some of the facts and figures on this blog - there's lots more in the publication itself.

As I mentioned above, it's often difficult to guage how many people attend these events, and figures vary depending on who's counting. However, as the Guardian datablog shows, it is likely that this protest was one of the three or four biggest ever seen in the UK. What impact it has on the spending plans of government remains to be seen.