Can You Hear Me at the Back?

The British Tea Party still has some way to go. I trundled down through masses of tourists on Saturday morning to witness the rising of the new Right but failed to spot it.

In Old Palace Yard, opposite Parliament, were about 250 Pro-Cut protestors, John Harris in the Guardian described it as, "not so much a crowd, more of a long queue". The sound system was very poor so not a word culd be heard above the buses and taxis. The Counter demo was one crusty and only five coppers stood around looking at their watches.

From small acorns to mighty oaks? No. This is going nowhere if they can't pull in their own supporters. And politically inept - one sign said curiously "Abolish the Bank of England" and another, rather artlessly "Socialism is Rubbish."

I was asked to sign some anti-trade union Early Day Motion (only MPs can do that). When I refused, assertively, the two sweaty guys in bad suits got rather antsy. The crowd were generally like them, all blokes, all white, upper middle class who looked like they had got lost on their way to the Proms.

Fear not, the future does not belong to them.