I HAVE just experienced a day which I will never forget. I was invited to take part by Christian Aid to help tell people just what is really happening in Africa as they waited for their part of the march to begin.
I was there from 9am and watched as the Meadows filled up with thousands of people - they never seemed to stop coming. And the fact that they took the dress in white message to heart was amazing.
The atmosphere, right from the start, was electric
. People knew they were part of something historic, which would probably never happen in their lifetimes again.
I felt excited, but focused. I really wanted to get out on stage and tell people about the work Christian Aid is doing in Africa and I couldn’t wait for the march to start and to be involved in this huge movement.
When I went on stage the mic was too high - not made for Hobbits, I joked. But I was there to let people hear about making trade for Africa fair and how restrictions affect farmers. I wasn’t there to preach to people, just to tell people about the plight of Mamadou Niang from Senegal.
He’s 38 and has a family of four children. He’s worked as a farmer, growing rice for 16 years. Life has become extremely difficult, though, as there are no subsidies for rice farmers in Senegal. He has to pay for imported fertiliser - the price of which keeps rising - while the price paid to him for his rice keeps falling.
He grew enough for 75 sacks last year and got £7 for each - he made a profit of just £100. He also grew onions and made just £150 for them to last his family five months. He had to sell his goats so his children could eat. He doesn’t want hand-outs, just a chance to sell his rice first before that grown by subsidised countries floods the market at cheaper prices.
His is just one story among thousands, but the response from people was brilliant.
Afterwards I joined those queuing to get on the march, I was desperate to get going. But I ended up standing still for almost two hours because there were so many people that it took forever to get people out of the Meadows and on to the streets.
As I was a guest of Christian Aid it had asked me to do a number of other things on the day, so I had to leave my place in the queue. It’s fair to say I was really gutted. But it just wasn’t going to happen in the end.
I really wanted to do the whole march but I was scheduled to compere on one of the smaller stages and had to leave it.
It was unbelievable. We must have been queuing for an hour and a half at least and we didn’t get any further down the line. There were just so many people who wanted to take part and show their support for the cause.
Everyone was just so focused on what it was all about. You had people with all kinds of signs and placards demanding an end to world debt and so much noise coming from everywhere. It was incredible - almost like a carnival at the start. I just felt so privileged to have taken part in something like that.
I was queuing with Eddie Izzard and Elaine C Smith and we all had to be on stage or do interviews, so none of us got to do the proper march. We didn’t even make it to the end of Forrest Road.
We ended up doing our own parade around the Meadows instead and had quite a few people following us around on that.
Part of me is still disappointed that I never got the chance to march round Edinburgh, but I realise that it was because so many other people had turned out to make their voices heard - and each voice is as important as the other.
I had been out and about in Edinburgh last week to try and encourage as many people as possible to attend the march. But the scenes I witnessed at the weekend were far more spectacular than I had ever imagined.
It was unreal. I don’t think anyone expected so many people to turn up to it. I heard someone tell me that there were over 200,000 people, which is an astonishing number. We knew that it would be big - but I’m not sure anyone thought quite so many would actually come out on the day. It goes to show you should never underestimate the public.
It was a real melting pot of different people from across the globe, too. There were kids in prams as well as families and elderly couples. And it was so good to see so many different people from all kinds of races, colours and nationalities.
There were times when I’d look out over the crowds and I’d just see this huge sea of people in white everywhere. It just shows the force of people who want a change and were willing to come here and protest peacefully.
I didn’t see a single person being violent or disruptive all day. They just came to have a democratic voice against the travesty of horrific poverty in some of the most vulnerable countries across the globe.
Of course there may have been a few who came to see some of the names who were there, like Daniel Bedingfield, Billy Bragg and African singer Baba Maal, but I do think it was the message rather than the celebrities that encouraged people to join in. And all of those big names had a genuine reason to be there.
I was asked a long time ago by Christian Aid whether I would do something for them about the situation in Africa, and because the G8 is being held in Scotland this year, we decided that this would be the perfect time to do it.
Anyone who knows the facts about Africa would have wanted to get involved.
When more money is spent in a month on weapons than is spent in 18 months on foreign aid, we have to try and do something about it.
When some countries are having to repay billions of pounds of debt whilst 30,000 children are dying every day, there is something seriously wrong.
With this G8 summit, I think we have shown to the world that it is time for change.
We all got together in this beautiful city and saw hundreds of thousands of people marching for the same goal.
It’s been a great day - probably one of the best and most special days of my whole life - and hopefully that atmosphere will continue in the future. It’s just been a real honour to have taken a small part in it.
