Brighton’s angry mothers are further proof: we’re in the golden age of dissent | Alice O’Keeffe

The Save Our Schools campaign is just one example, but all across the UK an ever-increasing range of people are being driven to protest

" Alice O'Keeffe is a book reviewer and SOS campaigner

It's a surreal to see an idea dreamed up in the pub by a bunch of your mates make national news. So I discovered yesterday, when the leaders of the Save Our Schools (SOS) campaign, accompanied by the actor Steve Coogan, delivered their "message in a bottle" to Downing Street in protest at the Tories' proposed cuts to education. Anna Cole and Alison Ali, two of the women who founded the campaign in Brighton only a few months ago, handed in thousands of messages of love for their schools written by children from across the country, including contributions from Birmingham, Manchester and the Isle of Wight.

As the parent of a child at a Brighton primary school, I have watched in admiration as a group of mums whom I bump into on the school run transformed their outrage about the planned 3bn education cuts into a nimble, creative and highly effective political campaign.

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The SOS-ers have used WhatsApp and video conferencing to organise around work and family commitments

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