Late last night and sat resting our plates watching the BBC news channel. The scenes on a loop playing out before us didn’t look like the march we went on: leery lads egging on the Met , black clad anarchists filming the police, the TV cameras and themselves, in the background there were smouldering rubbish bins. The March I and 500,000 other people where on was a gentle stroll down the Victoria Embankment waving a host of banners, dancing to samba bands, lots of whistles, cheers and the odd chant of “Lansley is a Tosser”.
It took 4 plus hours to walk to the Ritz via Whitehall chatting with friends and new friends, eating cake and very very little rioting. The violence e was understandably if annoyingly the main news item but had very little to do with the main march. “King mob” has been a part of British politics for centuries in fact it’s none appearance is more surprisingly than whenever it raises its angry masked faces. Are me and the other marchers tarred with the same brush as the rioters? In my opinion no but in many the mines people’s yes sadly. Many of the people who’d dismiss the March would have dismissed it anyway regardless of whether it had kicked off or not. I hope the rest will see through the shock horror of rolling news and newspaper headlines and decide for their selves whether what we were Marching is of value.
So why did you march?
Well basically because the Tories and their placid help mates the Lib-Dems are determined to destroy fundamental parts of our civilisation. Their main goal is to reinstall their century’s long policy of “communism for the rich and capitalism for the poor”. Cameron for all his soft soap wants to get rid of most of local and national services apart from a bare minimum to cover his modesty and get back to doing what the Tory part was founded for maintaining and preserving the wealth and power of the super rich. Be in no doubt that the Tories a grim cabal of old moneys and slimy new in the form of Tories main backers the hedge fund managers and their clients have your best interests at heart.
Cameron and Osborne et al don’t give a stuff for the NHS, for state schools, libraries, local council staff etc for all their weasel words they don’t have much interest in most British industry either. The cuts that Tories have imposed will start to hurt very soon, real people will put on the dole, and real services will be lost FOREVER. All this while the Tories impose wasteful, pointless and politically driven reforms of the NHS and Education. These reforms are designed to destroy FOREVER local democracy and accountability and entrench Tory rule while enriching multinational and Tory funding healthcare and public service providers.
I marched because the progressive socialist trade union non conformist movements in the UK have been the only movement that have cared and stood for my community. Who stand up for those who can’t stand up for themselves, who have striven for most of the rights and freedoms we enjoy. If these cuts and cultural vandalism is allowed to stand Britain will be horribly more divided, diminished and darker place.
1 comment:
I reached victoria embankment at about 12noon, and didn't arrive at Parliament until nigh on 3pm, at which point we made an executive decision to rush down birdcage walk and then on past the palace to hyde park to at least see a bit of the rally too - although it was all over, it was all over whilst we were opposite the festival hall, from what I could make out. But it was lovely, and fun, and friendly, and massively diverse, with the jazz band and the drums and the pensioners and the hippies and the nurses and the firefighters..... and in a crowd of half a million people I managed to bump into my sister, and we all made it back to wembley in time for the coach to leave when we expected, which was a nice surprise too. The press' emphasis on the other people who turned up to cause trouble is ludicrous, pathetic and exactly what I'd expect from them.
Post a Comment