My wife and I are travelling to London today, to join the Patients at Parliament protest for legal access to medicinal cannabis, so we’re out of the house before 8.30am to catch the 8.45 train from Gunton.
Our journey is a smooth one and we arrive at London Liverpool Street station on time. We have a bit of a kerfuffle on the underground because the London underground app tells us to go in the wrong direction! Even with this minor error, we arrive at Westminster just before our ETA of 12.30. We are greeted by Jonathon Liebling of the United Patients Alliance (UPA) and before we know it I’m being introduced to some supportive members of parliament (Tonia Antoniazzi and Layla Moran) and then I’m being interviewed by a reporter from the Daily Mirror, and then by a reporter from Volteface…
The protest is peaceful and good humoured, and there are medicated edibles available for those that wish to practice civil disobedience (which I do).
The protest is timed to coincide with Paul Flynn MP’s 10 Minute Rule Bill for legal access to medicinal cannabis. Originally this was scheduled to be at 2pm, but some sort of delay put it back until around 4pm – I think that everyone was half expecting it to sink without a trace. Amazingly, news came through that the Bill passed, and there will now be a second reading on 23rd of February 2018, so I expect we will be doing this all over again next year. Fantastic news, though, and everyone was very encouraged by it.
My wife and I left the protest around 4.30pm, grabbed a bite to eat in McDonald’s and then went to the Blues Bar for a beer or two before catching our train home. I think I’m going to be taking it very easy for the next day or two!