Manchester 'Time to Go' Demo - Reports and Photos *UPDATED*

A few photos from the Time to GO protest in Manchester today, below and on our Flickr stream.

There is usual dispute about numbers - I heard Sky and C4 talking about 10,000, which is obviously bollocks, as even the police estimate puts it at 20,000. Stop the war are reporting 60,000, so applying the Blairwatch rule of thumb [I wasn't out with our maths addict] the real number must be somewhere between what the police and organisers claim...

The police were out in force, apparently over 1000 of them lining the route - but they had little to do, as there was not a single arrest.

The whole event set the scene appropriately for Tony's arrival at Conference, provided a kind of mood music if you like? Delegates might wish to take note that I didn't spot many obvious natural Conservative supporters among the crowd - I have no dout there were some, but I got the impression that more than one or two of the people there were amongst those who spent the 1980s and 90s working their arses off trying to get the Labour Party into power...

Meanwhile on Planet Labour, PowerWhore aspirant deputy leadership candidate Harriet Harman was giving interviews [mp3] outside the conference centre [after we all marched past] suggesting that Labour should take notice of public opinion over Foreign Policy... Remind me again Harriet, how did you vote on Iraq after 2 million people took to the streets in protest back in 2003...

But don't worry, there is no chance of any inconvenient debates on the leadership taking place on the conference floor - the 'arrangements committee' have seen to that....

I haven't had a chance to catch the news coverage of the day, apart from a couple of bulletins, so I can't comment on how much attention the demo received. If others want to add to this via the comments, and any links to coverage from people who were there, photos or video clips etc, then please do and I'll list them here.

Manchester Evening News [Reader Submitted Photos]
BBC
The Guardian
Photos and reports from the Socialist Worker website.
The Respect Supporters weblog have a series of Live reports.
Lenin's Tomb does the video.