Mad Pride and the protest at speakers corner, London

Today in Hyde Park Speakers Corner, a bunch of sanity challenged people like myself who were like myself despite the odd emotional outbursts surprisingly sensible and sane at least some of the time depending on the environment anyway. Well we braved the cold wind and the rain to join together to protest against and articulate our disgust at the Condem government.

It would have been good to have brought my camera along as on arrival at about 1pm there was a life size effigy of David Cameron hanging from a tree by his neck and a young man with bad shaky hands holding a megaphone and reading from hand written notes giving a very sound political speech. He said the plans for the day were that they were going to leave David Cameron up there suspended until ... he was going to say and did proceed to say it after someone in the crowd said "he's dead" ... until he gets really uncomfortable.

Many people took willingly to the megaphone to read their poetry and make speeches, all of it was good and some of it extremely emotional and angry. One young lady stood by me crying and I must admit there were times I felt like that too. People saying how much they had believed in the hype about us all being the same and we would be okay if we would only get a good nine to five, and how hard they had tried to do this, only to dramatically and spectacularly fail with all the drastic consequences on everything from housing to work to relationships and family.

I could so relate to all of that and I am glad I didn't think about it today at the protest because I would have been in fits of uncontrollable sobbing. The last time I was admitted to a psychiatric hospital I lost my dear cat; she lost her life due to the severe disruption that these things cause, mental instability is a very serious and debilitating condition.

People today spoke brilliantly about how we are being demonized because we are on benefits, how we are being used by this government as examples of the undeserving, when the truth of the matter is that it could happen to anyone and the people who pay into the tax system, by far the majority are people who are happy for there to be provision for us because they are our brothers and sisters, cousins, uncles and aunts, children, Mums and Dads.

The speeches today were brilliant, my favorite by far was a speech / performance by Clare from Bath (we go back a long way), she said many things that were so true and had me in stitches, but the one thing that really stuck out was when she said that she strongly believes that us mad people should embrace our madness and show it !!! Because she said that not only being ourselves defies the likes of Cameron and also perhaps scares them, Clare said that the normals out there, when they see us acting up and being outrageous ( something I can't always help and have little or no control over anyway); the truth is she said slowly and looking down to ground, is that they the normals want some too!

Then the Cameron effigy was attacked and disemboweled by three women to a cheering audience followed by a two minute yes two minute! scream, which I didn't participate in, I walked back towards Buckingham Palace through the trees of Hyde Park all full of emotion and wondering if I looked like the Munch painting to passes by (and with such apt background acoustics).

Respect to Mad Pride for organising the event, hope there will be many more of them, until we get what we want and need, which is dignity and respect and the back of this small, weak, despising and vicious government.