‘Why I joined Westminster protest against ‘spoiled child’ Boris - Falkirk councillor

Carse, Kinnaird and Tryst Labour councillor Joan Coombes arrived back in Falkirk today after a whirlwind trip to Westminster - doubly determined to ‘stop Boris Johnson’.
Joan Coombes (back) with Carol Lennie, also from Falkirk, and high profile Labour activist Owen Jones - during Saturday's massive protest demonstration march at Westminster in the run-up to Prime Minister Boris Johnson's latest Commons defeat.Joan Coombes (back) with Carol Lennie, also from Falkirk, and high profile Labour activist Owen Jones - during Saturday's massive protest demonstration march at Westminster in the run-up to Prime Minister Boris Johnson's latest Commons defeat.
Joan Coombes (back) with Carol Lennie, also from Falkirk, and high profile Labour activist Owen Jones - during Saturday's massive protest demonstration march at Westminster in the run-up to Prime Minister Boris Johnson's latest Commons defeat.

She joined tens of thousands of protesters of all political hues and none, meeting up with high profile Labour activist Owen Jones (who has strong ties to Falkirk), and witnessed the British Prime Minister suffering yet another historic Commons defeat.

And she says the experience has made her more determined than ever to persuade people to join the Labour Party fight to “stop this rich, spoiled, egotistical child” from securing a deal she says will benefit only his big business friends while consigning millions to poverty.

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Councillor Coombes stresses she was protesting solely in a personal capacity, not in her elected role as a Falkirk councillor, but equally has no doubt the party’s local supporters share her views.

“Whether me being there was worthwhile, or could ever have made any difference, is one thing”, she said, “but it was one of those things - I just had to be there.

“I am not of an age where I have to be worried about getting a job or an education - but what about our children, and their children?

“One in four children are living in poverty, and we are institutionalising food banks - which in one way are great, but why do we have starving children? We should be hanging our heads in shame.”

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She says only the Labour Party can defeat what she sees as an overprivileged elite caste of big business tycoons and their political backers intent on a Brexit from which only they will benefit.

In her view Boris Johnson is the front man for a movement which wants to take Britain on a path towards the erosion of workers’ rights, and of environmental restraints.

“I backed remain, but I respect democracy and the decision to leave the EU,” she said, “but not on this deal”.