In my inbox the other day - Agreed for SUE DE NIM
Leapfrog the NHS Queues
Choose When, Where & Who Operates
Receive More Comfort & Convenience Drug Treatment
That's Right Private Medical Insurance for £20 a month!!! (My exclamation marks)
Scam of the fucking century isn't it?
I heard, from a reliable source, that with a medical insurance, if you go in for a heart problem,let's say, you can't use your insurance again if you get another heart problem.
Never mind that the average person cannot afford a medical insurance anyway. They're asked to get insurance for everything, dental insurance costs a bomb when you consider your treatment costs too.
It is the beginning of the end of the NHS, started by Labour, an ideological dream to be finished by the Conservatives.
No one should have to pay for care, especially with their lives. There should no queue jumping because you are lucky enough to be a millionaire, money left in trust for you, or perhaps like the Prime Minister, you married into it.
Doc said she'd schedule me for a scan - the pee results aren't back but the pain didn't go away when the antibiotic course finished, just getting worse actually...
Can they call today doc?
I don't want be rushed to A&E screaming in agony, because waiting times are longer for me, because I have no medical insurance, have only debt to pay for one with.
Do people have to wait to die because they cannot afford to live?
(I Don't Know Party Manifeato)
SAVE OUR NHS
(I post my problem under mental health because I don't want to start another label and I dunno, create a story I have no control over.)
FUNDING TO THE NHS NOT PRIVATE HEALTHCARE COMPANIES WHO USE NHS FACILITIES AND STAFF.
Showing posts with label Protest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Protest. Show all posts
Wednesday, 8 February 2012
Thursday, 26 January 2012
If I had a sledgehammer
This is the song from Peter Paul and Mary that I posted on facebook the night before yesterday's Lobby. I'd told my facebook friends that a long long time ago, I'd been booed off the stage singing Janis Joplin at a Canary Island karaoke night much to the embarrassment of my super yacht colleagues but had got up again and sung this and a woman from the audience got up and sang with me and we got a really big round of applause!
It's been a tough couple of days joining the lobby front but I'm glad I have joined them. A tough couple of days fighting the welfare reform bill against government rhetoric dividing the poorest sections of our society. The working poor against the welfare poor and the working poor are falling for it. Hook, line and sinker.
Who knew multi millionaires could be so clever?
Abuses on the Lobby front line...Cheers Dave
The Prime Minister has done a very good job, hasn't he, of pitting the people of this country against one another.
"Divide and Rule!! Divide and Rule!!
There were about a dozen of us who turned up to lobby against the Governnment's Welfare Reform Bill yesterday. Not many, but the Single Mother's Self Defence group and the Global Women's Strike Group and Winvisible, had big banners, and anyway, we were there, standing up for the rights of millions of people.
A man drives past in a van that says "Thrifty" on it. My first assumption is that he's a worker and probably doesn't earn much, then before I can think anything else, he's given us a one fingered salute.
I was so shocked, I walked forward with my own one fingered salute and shouted "Fuck you too!" That's not like me, to be honest, and this morning my anger became clear.
Yes, we were only 12, but one woman in a wheelchair, one woman with a baby in a pram, one young black girl, one young white girl who was also there on Monday and might be one of the organisers, one married mother with a daughter my son's age, one male pensioner, one priest. A pretty wholesome demographic of people. How dare Mr Thrifty stick his finger up at them when they are standing there for his benefit too.
"7 out of 8 housing benefit claimants are in work" shouts one banner.
Anyway, not long after Mr Thrifty's gone, two wealthy looking gentleman walk by and one, the older, balding one, comes up to me and says, in his cut glass accent with venom in it's delivery:
"You should all get a job!"
"Do you have a job?" I ask politely.
"Yes, I've worked all my life. Many years ago I went to Canada when it was freezing cold..."
"Well I'm glad you haven't been made redundant," I interrupt him.
"Wwwwhat?"
"I said I'm glad you haven't been made redundant and are competiting with hundreds of other people for one job."
Bluster bluster then: "I met an Indian lady with two children living in Hampstead! Hampstead! It's disgraceful, these people living in places...."
"Well if there was more social housing, perhaps it wouldn't be such a big problem now would it?" I feel the anger bubbling beneath my surface.
"Where are the father's? Where are the fathers? I have lots of children and I look after them all, where are they!"
After quoting Michael Gove saying pregnancy is a male problem, "a male problem, a MALE PROBLEM Mr Gove the Tory said," I said:
"And how many times have you been unfaithful to your wife?"
He stepped back and smirked, shocked then gaffawed, and I was about to sneer "hypocrite" when the pensioner intervened, saying money shouldn't be taken from the needy but taken away from fuelling wars such as in Afghanistan... and they were off..shouting, I couldn't kkep up...The Jews, more protestants that catholics leaving Ireland back during the potato famine... I could'n't keep up, I don't know enough.
The row was broken up and the odious blue-eyed baldy smiled at me skulking off to rejoin his friend who, as I eyeballed the Fascist, didn't look quite so odious, had not come up to us and joined in, kept his distance and so well he might, if he too had nothing good to say)
Some members of the group came up to me afterwards and asked me if I was alright, which was really kind, because you don't really expect that, when the level of abuse you've just received, is what you receive all the time if you read right wing papers. So nothing out of the ordinary really; I shouldn't have been so shocked myself.
I know I shouldn't be at the lobby. I know that I am the Great British Problem. I know that I am universally hated by greater numbers of British society today than ever before (Thanks Dave).
I'm a single mother. I'm 'unemployed' I 'live in a flat hardworking people can't afford' and what none of my fellow lobbyists know, am in reciept of a sickness benefit, so 'disabled' (I do not see myself as disabled but depression is a disease and it's no higher payment than income support, where I could hide my 'disease')
Perhaps for all these reasons it's my duty to be there, so I can stand on behalf of all the men, women and children who cannot be there.
Hit me baby ONE MORE TIME?
I will defend myself
I will defend you
Our first duty is to ourselves.
Without ourselves what hope for our children?
"Divide and Rule!! Divide and Rule!!
There were about a dozen of us who turned up to lobby against the Governnment's Welfare Reform Bill yesterday. Not many, but the Single Mother's Self Defence group and the Global Women's Strike Group and Winvisible, had big banners, and anyway, we were there, standing up for the rights of millions of people.
A man drives past in a van that says "Thrifty" on it. My first assumption is that he's a worker and probably doesn't earn much, then before I can think anything else, he's given us a one fingered salute.
I was so shocked, I walked forward with my own one fingered salute and shouted "Fuck you too!" That's not like me, to be honest, and this morning my anger became clear.
Yes, we were only 12, but one woman in a wheelchair, one woman with a baby in a pram, one young black girl, one young white girl who was also there on Monday and might be one of the organisers, one married mother with a daughter my son's age, one male pensioner, one priest. A pretty wholesome demographic of people. How dare Mr Thrifty stick his finger up at them when they are standing there for his benefit too.
"7 out of 8 housing benefit claimants are in work" shouts one banner.
Anyway, not long after Mr Thrifty's gone, two wealthy looking gentleman walk by and one, the older, balding one, comes up to me and says, in his cut glass accent with venom in it's delivery:
"You should all get a job!"
"Do you have a job?" I ask politely.
"Yes, I've worked all my life. Many years ago I went to Canada when it was freezing cold..."
"Well I'm glad you haven't been made redundant," I interrupt him.
"Wwwwhat?"
"I said I'm glad you haven't been made redundant and are competiting with hundreds of other people for one job."
Bluster bluster then: "I met an Indian lady with two children living in Hampstead! Hampstead! It's disgraceful, these people living in places...."
"Well if there was more social housing, perhaps it wouldn't be such a big problem now would it?" I feel the anger bubbling beneath my surface.
"Where are the father's? Where are the fathers? I have lots of children and I look after them all, where are they!"
After quoting Michael Gove saying pregnancy is a male problem, "a male problem, a MALE PROBLEM Mr Gove the Tory said," I said:
"And how many times have you been unfaithful to your wife?"
He stepped back and smirked, shocked then gaffawed, and I was about to sneer "hypocrite" when the pensioner intervened, saying money shouldn't be taken from the needy but taken away from fuelling wars such as in Afghanistan... and they were off..shouting, I couldn't kkep up...The Jews, more protestants that catholics leaving Ireland back during the potato famine... I could'n't keep up, I don't know enough.
The row was broken up and the odious blue-eyed baldy smiled at me skulking off to rejoin his friend who, as I eyeballed the Fascist, didn't look quite so odious, had not come up to us and joined in, kept his distance and so well he might, if he too had nothing good to say)
Some members of the group came up to me afterwards and asked me if I was alright, which was really kind, because you don't really expect that, when the level of abuse you've just received, is what you receive all the time if you read right wing papers. So nothing out of the ordinary really; I shouldn't have been so shocked myself.
I know I shouldn't be at the lobby. I know that I am the Great British Problem. I know that I am universally hated by greater numbers of British society today than ever before (Thanks Dave).
I'm a single mother. I'm 'unemployed' I 'live in a flat hardworking people can't afford' and what none of my fellow lobbyists know, am in reciept of a sickness benefit, so 'disabled' (I do not see myself as disabled but depression is a disease and it's no higher payment than income support, where I could hide my 'disease')
Perhaps for all these reasons it's my duty to be there, so I can stand on behalf of all the men, women and children who cannot be there.
Hit me baby ONE MORE TIME?
I will defend myself
I will defend you
Our first duty is to ourselves.
Without ourselves what hope for our children?
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
Wrecking amendments - children's lives first
I managed to get out and lobby yesterday with the Single Mother's Self Defence crew outside Parliament. There I spoke to the priest I've met a few times, a fierce campaigner of people in debt, and a Lord.
The Lord came out to tell us that they were going vote on two issues
1)Homeless households be exempt from the cuts
2) Child benefit be excluded from the caps.
The Lords were defeated on the former (so fabulous news for my child) but the Government are up in arms at being defeated on the second (truly fabulous news for all children)
To be honest,I feel SO SICK. The cap takes no account of rent, never mind living costs as a parent. You read the papers (don't don't!) and Tory ministers, like Dave, going to Asda and asking workers "Is it fair that people earn benefits of £26,000? (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2090750/Welfare-reform-Labour-bishops-Lib-Dem-peers-derail-benefits-cap-plan.html)
They like to chuck around numbers to get ordinary people really riled up.
Lord Freud, the welfare reform minister, said the Labour amendments were a 'wrecking amendment.' Wrecking their wrecking plans you mean. According to Inside Housing he said:
"It is very easy to see that any local authorities could consider people threatened with homelessness or priority need as any household with children.
‘In practical terms this is the same as not having a cap at all." (http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/tenancies/defeat-for-government-on-welfare-reform-bill/6520086.article)
Laid bare for you...The caps are directed at CHILDREN. The caps are directed at families with CHILDREN. Tory wrecking amendments to children's lives as if their lives aren't already hard enough.
My child, evicted again, risks to his education flare up again and for what? Security? No! No, it's for nothing because his mother can't handle it either.
And I really wish they'd stop banging on about "a culture of worklessness" during a fucking recession where thousands are losing their jobs and hundreds are in competition with one another for one position.
This was not what I was going to write about this morning.
I will go out and lobby again tomorrow. I don't care if I'm nervous, I don't care if I'm shy. It's the Year of the Dragon and that must mean something. Roar...
The Lord came out to tell us that they were going vote on two issues
1)Homeless households be exempt from the cuts
2) Child benefit be excluded from the caps.
The Lords were defeated on the former (so fabulous news for my child) but the Government are up in arms at being defeated on the second (truly fabulous news for all children)
To be honest,I feel SO SICK. The cap takes no account of rent, never mind living costs as a parent. You read the papers (don't don't!) and Tory ministers, like Dave, going to Asda and asking workers "Is it fair that people earn benefits of £26,000? (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2090750/Welfare-reform-Labour-bishops-Lib-Dem-peers-derail-benefits-cap-plan.html)
They like to chuck around numbers to get ordinary people really riled up.
Lord Freud, the welfare reform minister, said the Labour amendments were a 'wrecking amendment.' Wrecking their wrecking plans you mean. According to Inside Housing he said:
"It is very easy to see that any local authorities could consider people threatened with homelessness or priority need as any household with children.
‘In practical terms this is the same as not having a cap at all." (http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/tenancies/defeat-for-government-on-welfare-reform-bill/6520086.article)
Laid bare for you...The caps are directed at CHILDREN. The caps are directed at families with CHILDREN. Tory wrecking amendments to children's lives as if their lives aren't already hard enough.
My child, evicted again, risks to his education flare up again and for what? Security? No! No, it's for nothing because his mother can't handle it either.
And I really wish they'd stop banging on about "a culture of worklessness" during a fucking recession where thousands are losing their jobs and hundreds are in competition with one another for one position.
This was not what I was going to write about this morning.
I will go out and lobby again tomorrow. I don't care if I'm nervous, I don't care if I'm shy. It's the Year of the Dragon and that must mean something. Roar...
Thursday, 19 January 2012
London Occupy Camp appeal eviction order
It won't be long before the London Occupy protest camp outside St Paul's Cathedral will be removed by force.Today protesters are appealing against an eviction order from the City of London corporation, the big financiers who have no idea how us, the 99% struggle with our lives. Of course with the full backing of the Tory party, whose interests lie within that square mile. They can't stand the symbolic images of church and country, side by side, making the news and reminding people daily of the unfair inequality, educating people daily, that there is an alternative.
I for one am gutted because the Occupy Village is a kind of utopia. One of the times I went there I wondered why there were no charities being vocal about homelessness (that being my thing) and was about to leave when I saw a sign ontop of some tents...HELP THE FORGOTTEN HOMELESS.
I got chatting to one of the guys who'd said he lived on the streets and he'd arrived the night before and had been given a tent. Another had just arrived and made the poster. I'd seen it, come over, been offered a cup of tea by a neighbour and pretty soon we were all chatting.
Imagine this community, where no-one is excluded, everyone has access to shelter, first aid, food and education.
Silly me, perhaps you live in a community which has shelter, first aid, food and education, but if you do it's because it is exclusive, groups excluded. Westminster is desperately trying to rid itself of homeless people so it can pretend the problem does not exist.
There is no homeless problem in the Occupy London camp; what people want is a better world for everyone so now they are going to be evicted.
This global movement for greater equality will continue; don't lose sight of it even if the media tries hard to blind you.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/18/occupy-london-protesters-appeal-eviction
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/18/occupy-london-court-evict-st-pauls?intcmp=239
Wednesday, 18 January 2012
Unable to lobby when lobbying's needed
I missed it yesterday; the single mothers self defence corp lobbying parliament against welfare reforms
I'm missing it tonight; Defend council housing against the 8% rise in tenants' rents.
I am a single mother
I am not a tenant
I am against rent rises everywhere
and against pay freezes
I am not a tenant.
Between you and me, existing tenants enjoy really good affordable rents. I don't think they know, or maybe they do of course, it's why they're lobbying.
What I mean therefore, is, for example, two bed properties that I bid on are around £120 a week. The cheapest are around £118, not much lower.
Existing tenants, their rent might be £84 a week for the same thing. I know!! Fabulous isn't it?!
I'm not not going to the lobby because I'm not a tenant.
In many ways I'm grateful there are more people to shout out against expensive rents. I'm hoarse after begging and begging for 8 years for affordable rents. Only you, reader, hear me, I could hug my followers for not switching off.
I'm not going to the lobby because
well, the fight's not in me at the moment
all I can do is eat
eat
eat
eat
crisps and chocolate mostly
Iceland are doing good deals on them at the moment
My son didn't even know I'd bought a six pack of cheese and onion crisps for £1 because I'd eaten them all before he got home!
The exclamation mark is because I've realised that's quite an achievement!
Actually that doesn't need an exclamation mark
Achievement would be making it to a lobby
Thank you all of those who go.
I'm missing it tonight; Defend council housing against the 8% rise in tenants' rents.
I am a single mother
I am not a tenant
I am against rent rises everywhere
and against pay freezes
I am not a tenant.
Between you and me, existing tenants enjoy really good affordable rents. I don't think they know, or maybe they do of course, it's why they're lobbying.
What I mean therefore, is, for example, two bed properties that I bid on are around £120 a week. The cheapest are around £118, not much lower.
Existing tenants, their rent might be £84 a week for the same thing. I know!! Fabulous isn't it?!
I'm not not going to the lobby because I'm not a tenant.
In many ways I'm grateful there are more people to shout out against expensive rents. I'm hoarse after begging and begging for 8 years for affordable rents. Only you, reader, hear me, I could hug my followers for not switching off.
I'm not going to the lobby because
well, the fight's not in me at the moment
all I can do is eat
eat
eat
eat
crisps and chocolate mostly
Iceland are doing good deals on them at the moment
My son didn't even know I'd bought a six pack of cheese and onion crisps for £1 because I'd eaten them all before he got home!
The exclamation mark is because I've realised that's quite an achievement!
Actually that doesn't need an exclamation mark
Achievement would be making it to a lobby
Thank you all of those who go.
Friday, 13 January 2012
A message from your GP - R.I.P
I'm going to copy out a flyer that was at my doctor's surgery. I'm going to copy it out after reading in the Mirror on wednesday of an ex X factor contestant who died of bladder cancer. Someone very close to me had bladder cancer but because that person was very fortunate to have private insurance, that person was seen and dealt with very quickly and as a result is still alive.
Meanwhile, the flyer also mentions the rail service. The rail service! What might that have in common with the NHS?!
Rather alot currently with the High Speed rail plan that the posh don't want because it'll ruin the countryside and the poor don't want because they won't be able to afford it, after they've lost their homes in a bulldozing exercise that is.
(http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2086170/High-speed-rail-plans-fly-face-measures-cut-spending-elsewhere.html?ito=feeds-newsxml)
(http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/development/mp-urges-camden-to-fight-high-speed-rail-project/6519909.article)
A MESSAGE FROM YOUR GP
As GPs we are extremely concerned about the negative effects this re-organisation of the NHS would have on our patients.
The NHS currently includes the 'Providers' of care (hospitals and GPs) and the Administrators. Administrators monitor the quality of services. They also "commission" services from the 'Providers' that means they decide what sort of services the Hospitals and GPs should provide so that the whole population is best served within the limits of the NHS budget.
As a proportion of the UK budget the NHS costs about 8% - this is less that the average for most develped countries like France or Spain.
THE LATEST REORGANISATION.
The governments [sic] proposed changes would de-nationalise the NHS so that in the long run all hospitals would essentially become private and the only role of the NHS would be to buy services with a limited pot of money. This is similar to our national rail service which is expensive even though it gets huge government subsidy every year and still leaves many users dissatisfied.
(Then there is a picture of a tombstone with the engraving:)
NHS
R.I.P
1948 - 2011
We don't think the NHS is perfect, but we do think it is very good considering what it costs the taxpayer. Another large reorganisation is the last thing the NHS needs. The NHS was improving in many ways until recently and patient satisfaction has been improving.
Reorganisations cost a lot of money and lead to chaos fro some years. We think that this reorganisation would cost the taxpayer more for a worse service as profits would go to shareholders or large companies.
The End (ok, it doesn't say The End, that's just for you, so you know that it's back me writing)
The government had no mandate for the total destruction of the NHS service
There is no proper consultation on the billion pound highspeed rail service most people don't want but the government is going ahead with it anyway.
It's the new doctor's consortium which has written this flyer.
I think they are actually saying R.I.P to us, the patients.
I've known it for years and now you do too.
Do people have to wait to die because they can't afford to live?
Meanwhile, the flyer also mentions the rail service. The rail service! What might that have in common with the NHS?!
Rather alot currently with the High Speed rail plan that the posh don't want because it'll ruin the countryside and the poor don't want because they won't be able to afford it, after they've lost their homes in a bulldozing exercise that is.
(http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2086170/High-speed-rail-plans-fly-face-measures-cut-spending-elsewhere.html?ito=feeds-newsxml)
(http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/development/mp-urges-camden-to-fight-high-speed-rail-project/6519909.article)
A MESSAGE FROM YOUR GP
As GPs we are extremely concerned about the negative effects this re-organisation of the NHS would have on our patients.
The NHS currently includes the 'Providers' of care (hospitals and GPs) and the Administrators. Administrators monitor the quality of services. They also "commission" services from the 'Providers' that means they decide what sort of services the Hospitals and GPs should provide so that the whole population is best served within the limits of the NHS budget.
As a proportion of the UK budget the NHS costs about 8% - this is less that the average for most develped countries like France or Spain.
THE LATEST REORGANISATION.
The governments [sic] proposed changes would de-nationalise the NHS so that in the long run all hospitals would essentially become private and the only role of the NHS would be to buy services with a limited pot of money. This is similar to our national rail service which is expensive even though it gets huge government subsidy every year and still leaves many users dissatisfied.
(Then there is a picture of a tombstone with the engraving:)
NHS
R.I.P
1948 - 2011
We don't think the NHS is perfect, but we do think it is very good considering what it costs the taxpayer. Another large reorganisation is the last thing the NHS needs. The NHS was improving in many ways until recently and patient satisfaction has been improving.
Reorganisations cost a lot of money and lead to chaos fro some years. We think that this reorganisation would cost the taxpayer more for a worse service as profits would go to shareholders or large companies.
The End (ok, it doesn't say The End, that's just for you, so you know that it's back me writing)
The government had no mandate for the total destruction of the NHS service
There is no proper consultation on the billion pound highspeed rail service most people don't want but the government is going ahead with it anyway.
It's the new doctor's consortium which has written this flyer.
I think they are actually saying R.I.P to us, the patients.
I've known it for years and now you do too.
Do people have to wait to die because they can't afford to live?
Monday, 31 October 2011
Today's young people and protest
The young people are destroying your way of life. The young poeple have always done that. Your job is to encourage it, not discourage it.
It is not your young people who are destroying the rain forests. They are asking you to stop it. It is not your young people who are depleting the ozone layer. They are asking you to stop it. It is not your young people who are exploiting the poor in sweat shops all over the world. They are asking you to stop it. It is not your young people who are taxing you to death, then using the money for war and machines of war. They are asking you to stop it. It is not your young people who are ignoring the problems of the weak and the downtrodden, letting hundreds of people die of starvation every day on a planet with more than enough to feed everybody. They are asking you to stop it.
It is not your young people who are engaging in the politics of deception and manipulation. They are asking you to stop it. It is not your young people who are sexually repressed, ashamed and embarrassed about their own bodies and passing this shame and embarrassment to their offspring. They are asking you to stop it. It is not your young people who have set up a value system which says that "might is right" and a world which solves problems with violence. They are asking you to stop it.
Nay, they are not asking you... they are begging you.
When the cries and pleas of young people to change the world are not heard and never heeded; when they see that their cause is lost - that you will have it your way no matter what - young people, who are not stupid, will do the next best thing. It they can't beat you, they will join you.
Your young people have joined you in your behaviours. If they are violent, is is because you are violent. If they are materialistic, it is because you are materialistic. If they are acting crazy, it is because you are acting crazy. If they are using sex manipulatively, irresponsibly, shamefully, it is because they see you doing the same. The only difference between young people and old people is that young people do what they do out in the open.
Older people hide their behaviours. Older people think that young people cannot see. Yet young people see everything. Nothing is hidden from them. They see the hypocrisy of their elders, and they try desperately to change it. Yet having tried and failed, they see no choice but to imitate it. In this they are wrong, yet they have never been taught differently. They have not been allowed to critically analyze what their elders have been doing. They have only been allowed to memorize it.
What you memorize, you memorialize.
(God, to Neale Donald Walsh in Conversations with God book 2 p.119/120)
Charlie Gilmour lost his appeal against his 16 month jail sentence for swinging against a cenotaph during a student protest and will spend christmas behind bars.
Hefty prison sentences have been doled out to those involved in the August riots.
Expenses claims, tax loopholes, tax dodging, war war war on the tv day after day...
We can change our planet for our children
Don't think you can't.
It is not your young people who are destroying the rain forests. They are asking you to stop it. It is not your young people who are depleting the ozone layer. They are asking you to stop it. It is not your young people who are exploiting the poor in sweat shops all over the world. They are asking you to stop it. It is not your young people who are taxing you to death, then using the money for war and machines of war. They are asking you to stop it. It is not your young people who are ignoring the problems of the weak and the downtrodden, letting hundreds of people die of starvation every day on a planet with more than enough to feed everybody. They are asking you to stop it.
It is not your young people who are engaging in the politics of deception and manipulation. They are asking you to stop it. It is not your young people who are sexually repressed, ashamed and embarrassed about their own bodies and passing this shame and embarrassment to their offspring. They are asking you to stop it. It is not your young people who have set up a value system which says that "might is right" and a world which solves problems with violence. They are asking you to stop it.
Nay, they are not asking you... they are begging you.
When the cries and pleas of young people to change the world are not heard and never heeded; when they see that their cause is lost - that you will have it your way no matter what - young people, who are not stupid, will do the next best thing. It they can't beat you, they will join you.
Your young people have joined you in your behaviours. If they are violent, is is because you are violent. If they are materialistic, it is because you are materialistic. If they are acting crazy, it is because you are acting crazy. If they are using sex manipulatively, irresponsibly, shamefully, it is because they see you doing the same. The only difference between young people and old people is that young people do what they do out in the open.
Older people hide their behaviours. Older people think that young people cannot see. Yet young people see everything. Nothing is hidden from them. They see the hypocrisy of their elders, and they try desperately to change it. Yet having tried and failed, they see no choice but to imitate it. In this they are wrong, yet they have never been taught differently. They have not been allowed to critically analyze what their elders have been doing. They have only been allowed to memorize it.
What you memorize, you memorialize.
(God, to Neale Donald Walsh in Conversations with God book 2 p.119/120)
Charlie Gilmour lost his appeal against his 16 month jail sentence for swinging against a cenotaph during a student protest and will spend christmas behind bars.
Hefty prison sentences have been doled out to those involved in the August riots.
Expenses claims, tax loopholes, tax dodging, war war war on the tv day after day...
We can change our planet for our children
Don't think you can't.
Friday, 21 October 2011
St Pauls closes Cathedral doors
I was literally just on my way to St Paul's Cathedral to support the protesters camp and join them in wanting social justice when I read on Twitter that the Dean has closed the Cathedral doors.
Over the past week there have been rumblings in the press about how St Paul's is losing money because access to the church is limited and well, now,"health and safety and fire" operatives have whispered in the priests' ears and well, it's a hazard isn't it? What if something goes wrong inside the cathedral, parishioners won't be able to get out!
http://www.stpauls.co.uk/News-Press/Latest-News/Statement-from-the-Dean-of-St-Pauls-21-October
I'm disappointed to tell the truth. I liked that the peaceful process was happening outside St Pauls. Protesters were barred from the Stock Exchange because that is England's Holy Place and the powers that be wanted no trouble there. This only made the juxtaposition of the protesters' concerns with this God serving Tourist Destination well, the embodiment of the spirit of the actual event, campout protest against corporate greed (CofE innit, St Pauls?).
Ironically, the book I'm reading at the moment is Conversations With God Book 2, all about producing the society that we want (we being the protesters and possibly you who is perhaps unable to protest)!
Until the next time!
Over the past week there have been rumblings in the press about how St Paul's is losing money because access to the church is limited and well, now,"health and safety and fire" operatives have whispered in the priests' ears and well, it's a hazard isn't it? What if something goes wrong inside the cathedral, parishioners won't be able to get out!
http://www.stpauls.co.uk/News-Press/Latest-News/Statement-from-the-Dean-of-St-Pauls-21-October
I'm disappointed to tell the truth. I liked that the peaceful process was happening outside St Pauls. Protesters were barred from the Stock Exchange because that is England's Holy Place and the powers that be wanted no trouble there. This only made the juxtaposition of the protesters' concerns with this God serving Tourist Destination well, the embodiment of the spirit of the actual event, campout protest against corporate greed (CofE innit, St Pauls?).
Ironically, the book I'm reading at the moment is Conversations With God Book 2, all about producing the society that we want (we being the protesters and possibly you who is perhaps unable to protest)!
Until the next time!
Why rent when you can buy?!!!!
I heard it on the radio, the r r radio..
My housing association advertising 'affordable' housing! Cue jingle...
Why rent when you can buy?! You can own 25% of your home and pay rent on the rest! As time goes on, you can buy more and more! So then if you own 40% you only pay 60% rent! That 40% isn't free of course, it's borrowed money, a mortgage. So you pay a mortage and rent so you've got two things to fall into arrears with!!
That's not my worry.
My worry is that housing association's will use rents to build properties to sell, sell under schemes like this.
So if you are someone like me, who may not want to buy, how secure will you be? Let's pretend I end up earning vast amounts of cash. Is my option to buy 25% or will I be told to look elsewhere for accommodation? Be pushed back into the highly expensive, highly insecure private rental market?
The localism bill is legislating fixed term leases for all council and social properties. Gone is security unless you buy it, part buy it. I don't even think you have to be loaded to 'part-buy' one of these homes but oh the high price you pay.
We are in a massive massive crisis because our properties were sold and not rebuilt.
Now they will be rebuilt to be sold.
The Right to Buy
Buy to Let
All these have fucked your children and destroyed state subsidised housing.
Affordable social housing is on its way out. I saw a new build just near me the other day and it said "Flat's for sale." Who was selling? A housing association!
I'm realising I can't write stuff like this. It's too hard
I cannot bid for one of the few remaining council flats, it makes me want to die, be gone
The best thing is not to think about it, but imagine no-one thought about anything, you would lose everything.
There's a housing emergency meeting near Parliament today at 5.
Updates on the housing crisis and attacks on the tenancies, rents and benefits
Local campaigns.
A national protest on November 15th. Hardly anyone turns up to those. Hardly any of the five million people on waiting lists, hardly any people sleeping on floors in overcrowded homes.
I could bury my head in the sofa
or go and lend my support
Which would you do?
My housing association advertising 'affordable' housing! Cue jingle...
Why rent when you can buy?! You can own 25% of your home and pay rent on the rest! As time goes on, you can buy more and more! So then if you own 40% you only pay 60% rent! That 40% isn't free of course, it's borrowed money, a mortgage. So you pay a mortage and rent so you've got two things to fall into arrears with!!
That's not my worry.
My worry is that housing association's will use rents to build properties to sell, sell under schemes like this.
So if you are someone like me, who may not want to buy, how secure will you be? Let's pretend I end up earning vast amounts of cash. Is my option to buy 25% or will I be told to look elsewhere for accommodation? Be pushed back into the highly expensive, highly insecure private rental market?
The localism bill is legislating fixed term leases for all council and social properties. Gone is security unless you buy it, part buy it. I don't even think you have to be loaded to 'part-buy' one of these homes but oh the high price you pay.
We are in a massive massive crisis because our properties were sold and not rebuilt.
Now they will be rebuilt to be sold.
The Right to Buy
Buy to Let
All these have fucked your children and destroyed state subsidised housing.
Affordable social housing is on its way out. I saw a new build just near me the other day and it said "Flat's for sale." Who was selling? A housing association!
I'm realising I can't write stuff like this. It's too hard
I cannot bid for one of the few remaining council flats, it makes me want to die, be gone
The best thing is not to think about it, but imagine no-one thought about anything, you would lose everything.
There's a housing emergency meeting near Parliament today at 5.
Updates on the housing crisis and attacks on the tenancies, rents and benefits
Local campaigns.
A national protest on November 15th. Hardly anyone turns up to those. Hardly any of the five million people on waiting lists, hardly any people sleeping on floors in overcrowded homes.
I could bury my head in the sofa
or go and lend my support
Which would you do?
Thursday, 20 October 2011
Dale Farm travellers forcibly evicted.
Yesterday was the culmination of a long running legal battle to evict a traveller community from a landsite they hadn't been legally occupying for decades. There's a legal one right next to it and well, I guess the community grew.
Amid violence they were evicted yesterday. Bailiff's were supposed to come at dawn but instead riot police led the 'operation'. Turning up in full riot gear with shields
Intimidate Provoke
No bloody wonder some thought 'fuck you' and started hurling bricks.
Over in Greece it was anti-cuts campaigners being tear gassed. Our police used Taser guns. Is this the future? Taser guns in the side pocket at all peaceful protests. There were no guns at Dale Farm. Just people protecting their homes and livelihoods and children's education and old people's care. Sure, activists were there to lend their support, but people losing their homes need support from somewhere, from someone.
You can never know how awful it is to be evicted until it happens to you, or nearly happens to you as it nearly happened to me and my son. Twice.
In the Standard yesterday, a story about how a £120,000 a year Tory told a single mother being evicted from her London home to 'live in the real world.' She wrote to a member of Boris' team wanting some help and guidance (as I also did to various politicians) and was told:
"There will never be enough council houses available...I am afraid you have to live in the real world where the country has no money and residents will have to deal with their own issues reather than expecting 'the system' to sort their lives out." (19/10/11 p.7)
Dale Farm is the real world. Dale Farm is people losing their homes. Did the council try and find them somewhere alternative to go? No. According to the Guardian, a local priest serving Dale Farm said:
I'm just so sad it came to this. There were other options - Basildon was offered sites from the Homes and Communities Agency, and it is tragic they were not taken up." (20/10/11 p7 from p 1 lead)
No-one is helped anymore and barriers are put before those trying to help themselves.
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH.
There is a protest November 15th at Parliament.
There is still a chance to stop this disastrous localism bill from going through that will see people losing their homes becoming the order of the day.
You never know, you could be next.
Amid violence they were evicted yesterday. Bailiff's were supposed to come at dawn but instead riot police led the 'operation'. Turning up in full riot gear with shields
Intimidate Provoke
No bloody wonder some thought 'fuck you' and started hurling bricks.
Over in Greece it was anti-cuts campaigners being tear gassed. Our police used Taser guns. Is this the future? Taser guns in the side pocket at all peaceful protests. There were no guns at Dale Farm. Just people protecting their homes and livelihoods and children's education and old people's care. Sure, activists were there to lend their support, but people losing their homes need support from somewhere, from someone.
You can never know how awful it is to be evicted until it happens to you, or nearly happens to you as it nearly happened to me and my son. Twice.
In the Standard yesterday, a story about how a £120,000 a year Tory told a single mother being evicted from her London home to 'live in the real world.' She wrote to a member of Boris' team wanting some help and guidance (as I also did to various politicians) and was told:
"There will never be enough council houses available...I am afraid you have to live in the real world where the country has no money and residents will have to deal with their own issues reather than expecting 'the system' to sort their lives out." (19/10/11 p.7)
Dale Farm is the real world. Dale Farm is people losing their homes. Did the council try and find them somewhere alternative to go? No. According to the Guardian, a local priest serving Dale Farm said:
I'm just so sad it came to this. There were other options - Basildon was offered sites from the Homes and Communities Agency, and it is tragic they were not taken up." (20/10/11 p7 from p 1 lead)
No-one is helped anymore and barriers are put before those trying to help themselves.
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH.
There is a protest November 15th at Parliament.
There is still a chance to stop this disastrous localism bill from going through that will see people losing their homes becoming the order of the day.
You never know, you could be next.
Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Just Do It!!
Yesterday, all over the UK on university campus' the film Just Do It - A Tale of the Modern Outlaw was aired so those who missed it at the cinema had a opportunity to see it.
Fortunately for me there was one matinee showing at the Metropolitan Uni so I jumped on Zat bike, sang "It's not my day to die" in scary road moments and settled down in the college amphitheatre.
It's such a good film! Really. It follows a group of climate camp activists as they put their bodies in the way of corporate destruction of our planet.
Marina, the Domestic Extremist, who started putting her body in the path of political policy by making tea at demonstrations.
The intelligence and humour of these activists are the same people you see on the UK uncut protests. If you've not been on one of those, then you should see this film. One cambridge undergraduate jokingly says how easy it is to become an outlaw, but it's no joke, it is easy! That's exactly what I was in that kettle a week and a half ago.
One activist says how she returned from Denmark and the police brutality she experienced there during a UN Climate Change conference in Copenhagen "radicalised". That she'd campaigned about climate change before, but now, she would campaign against capitalism and how that is responsible for our planet's destruction.
It's an intelligent film, informative, and I for one am really relieved that there are people out there campaigning for my future and yours. Hope prevails even when hope is seemingly defeated. Campaigns have been won. People haven't lost their homes because plans for the third runway at Heathrow was cancelled to give one example.
Watch it, join in, www.justdoit.com :)
Just while I'm here, I want to upload this video of the kettling I was caught up in when I went to the Block The (NHS) Bill protest. I witnessed the violence you will see, moments before the kettling, which followed such a fun day. It's as though the police wait until the party's over then pounce. And politicians wonder why kids are angry. Anyway, I'm not the one with the camera, I'm the one in the corner, finding my religion (REM)
Fortunately for me there was one matinee showing at the Metropolitan Uni so I jumped on Zat bike, sang "It's not my day to die" in scary road moments and settled down in the college amphitheatre.
It's such a good film! Really. It follows a group of climate camp activists as they put their bodies in the way of corporate destruction of our planet.
Marina, the Domestic Extremist, who started putting her body in the path of political policy by making tea at demonstrations.
The intelligence and humour of these activists are the same people you see on the UK uncut protests. If you've not been on one of those, then you should see this film. One cambridge undergraduate jokingly says how easy it is to become an outlaw, but it's no joke, it is easy! That's exactly what I was in that kettle a week and a half ago.
One activist says how she returned from Denmark and the police brutality she experienced there during a UN Climate Change conference in Copenhagen "radicalised". That she'd campaigned about climate change before, but now, she would campaign against capitalism and how that is responsible for our planet's destruction.
It's an intelligent film, informative, and I for one am really relieved that there are people out there campaigning for my future and yours. Hope prevails even when hope is seemingly defeated. Campaigns have been won. People haven't lost their homes because plans for the third runway at Heathrow was cancelled to give one example.
Watch it, join in, www.justdoit.com :)
Just while I'm here, I want to upload this video of the kettling I was caught up in when I went to the Block The (NHS) Bill protest. I witnessed the violence you will see, moments before the kettling, which followed such a fun day. It's as though the police wait until the party's over then pounce. And politicians wonder why kids are angry. Anyway, I'm not the one with the camera, I'm the one in the corner, finding my religion (REM)
Thursday, 13 October 2011
Pass the bill...Ouch
You'll be pleased to know that the protest I, doctors and academics and ordinary people went on, the kettling I went through so your parents, mine, your child, mine, you, me could have a free National Health Service as long as we live made no difference at all to the outcome of the "Health and Social Care Bill". See, no mention of the word "National." You're paying now love. Happy?
The bill was voted down by 354 to 220 by the House of Lords so will go back to the House of Commons to the glee of our ruling Tory Party, I mean Coalition.
"Critics of the Bill say it paves the way for profit-making private firms - or "Any Qualified Providers" - to bid for every section of the NHS from the hospital casualty units to physiotherapy. Crucially, it means GPs deciding what gets funded and, in turn, lead to patient care decisions being based on cost the the first time in the history of the NHS." (P.2 Camden New Journal)
There are 1000's of people who are feeling disappointed today. Angry.
Is there any point? Is there any point protesting? Our leaders don't listen to us, our leaders don't care for your point of view if it doesn't match their own. Our leaders will do what they like.
Martyrs to the cause we're becoming aren't we?
Egypt, Libya, Syria, Greece
Did you know the Americans have occupied Wall Street? Yeah! Banners and flags peacefully highlighting the inequality and greed that's so pervasive in our societies. You'd be forgiven for not knowing because it's hardly been reported in the press.
There is a point to protesting. Of course there is a point.
Dave said he'd LEAVE THE NHS ALONE. There is NO MANDATE for this destruction.
Will you only see it when your local hospital is closed?
Will you care then?
http://occupywallst.org/
The bill was voted down by 354 to 220 by the House of Lords so will go back to the House of Commons to the glee of our ruling Tory Party, I mean Coalition.
"Critics of the Bill say it paves the way for profit-making private firms - or "Any Qualified Providers" - to bid for every section of the NHS from the hospital casualty units to physiotherapy. Crucially, it means GPs deciding what gets funded and, in turn, lead to patient care decisions being based on cost the the first time in the history of the NHS." (P.2 Camden New Journal)
There are 1000's of people who are feeling disappointed today. Angry.
Is there any point? Is there any point protesting? Our leaders don't listen to us, our leaders don't care for your point of view if it doesn't match their own. Our leaders will do what they like.
Martyrs to the cause we're becoming aren't we?
Egypt, Libya, Syria, Greece
Did you know the Americans have occupied Wall Street? Yeah! Banners and flags peacefully highlighting the inequality and greed that's so pervasive in our societies. You'd be forgiven for not knowing because it's hardly been reported in the press.
There is a point to protesting. Of course there is a point.
Dave said he'd LEAVE THE NHS ALONE. There is NO MANDATE for this destruction.
Will you only see it when your local hospital is closed?
Will you care then?
http://occupywallst.org/
Wednesday, 12 October 2011
How to deal with bad dreams and nightmares
I shall proceed to tell you about how I have dealt with my rabid dog nightmares because it is a fresh example.
If you have malevolent dreams, or pictures in your mind (like last year during my 'bodyquake' I saw images of women being burnt at the stake and all sorts of nasty things) then the best thing to do, in my opinion, is shine a light on it.
Now JK Rowling, through Harry Potter, describes the Patronus. A white light and positive energy that beamed from Harry's wand into the shape of a stag.
Maybe you haven't read Harry Potter or seen the films so you don't know what I'm talking about, which is fine!
Sunday night I had my nightmare. Monday night it came back. I lifted my palm to the dog and imagined that white light was beaming from it, from me.
Yesterday the creature appeared in my daydreams and I'd blast it again with my light.
This morning, like now I'm writing about it, the dog's turning away from me. It's power has gone. I'm getting better with this Light thing!
I hope the dream stays away!
Light. Imagine light. Always LIGHT to get rid of nightmares and I'm guessing dark spirits as well (not that I want to experience that either)
BUILD YOUR STRENGTH.
Sticks and stones may break your bones
Your soul will never leave you.
USE ITS LIGHT
You know, I might tell my son what I've told you. He gets bad dreams.
"You were in it mummy, you were the bad person, you were the lion wanting to eat me up! I couldn't call you!"
Sleep easy my son my sun, sleep easy all of you;)
If you have malevolent dreams, or pictures in your mind (like last year during my 'bodyquake' I saw images of women being burnt at the stake and all sorts of nasty things) then the best thing to do, in my opinion, is shine a light on it.
Now JK Rowling, through Harry Potter, describes the Patronus. A white light and positive energy that beamed from Harry's wand into the shape of a stag.
Maybe you haven't read Harry Potter or seen the films so you don't know what I'm talking about, which is fine!
Sunday night I had my nightmare. Monday night it came back. I lifted my palm to the dog and imagined that white light was beaming from it, from me.
Yesterday the creature appeared in my daydreams and I'd blast it again with my light.
This morning, like now I'm writing about it, the dog's turning away from me. It's power has gone. I'm getting better with this Light thing!
I hope the dream stays away!
Light. Imagine light. Always LIGHT to get rid of nightmares and I'm guessing dark spirits as well (not that I want to experience that either)
BUILD YOUR STRENGTH.
Sticks and stones may break your bones
Your soul will never leave you.
USE ITS LIGHT
You know, I might tell my son what I've told you. He gets bad dreams.
"You were in it mummy, you were the bad person, you were the lion wanting to eat me up! I couldn't call you!"
Sleep easy my son my sun, sleep easy all of you;)
Dreams of rabid dogs
Sunday night, a whole pack of black, rabid dogs, circling me, snarling, saliva dripping from their fangs. I was very, very frightened and they wouldn't go away.
The following day, I consulted my good pal Google and got this:
Unless it is a pet, a dog usually represents contention, offense,
or an unclean spirit. A rabid dog represents evil, contagious evil,
persecution, great danger. (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080812092801AAQ5q1u)
Monday afternoon I see my friend The Ed and he says "It's the police" and I'm like "Of course it is, doh!"
Monday night there's just one dog and soon after my alarm went off so that was alright.
Yesterday the dog just snarled into my mind at random moments, like when I was washing up.
Today I am eyeballing it and it turns away. Hopefully pretty soon it'll go altogether.
I'm so angry. This morning I was walking back from the school run and a fire engine was out on the street opposite the police station, infront of a cafe. I spoke to a guy in a regular suit and asked which building he'd come from. He pointed to the police station and I thought "Prick." (Heh heh and there was me last week saying I'd say Peace be with you to all my enemies!!!)
It's not funny. Politicians ask themselves why young people are so angry and it's really not difficult to figure out, particularly when bonds of trust have been broken.
The following day, I consulted my good pal Google and got this:
Unless it is a pet, a dog usually represents contention, offense,
or an unclean spirit. A rabid dog represents evil, contagious evil,
persecution, great danger. (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080812092801AAQ5q1u)
Monday afternoon I see my friend The Ed and he says "It's the police" and I'm like "Of course it is, doh!"
Monday night there's just one dog and soon after my alarm went off so that was alright.
Yesterday the dog just snarled into my mind at random moments, like when I was washing up.
Today I am eyeballing it and it turns away. Hopefully pretty soon it'll go altogether.
I'm so angry. This morning I was walking back from the school run and a fire engine was out on the street opposite the police station, infront of a cafe. I spoke to a guy in a regular suit and asked which building he'd come from. He pointed to the police station and I thought "Prick." (Heh heh and there was me last week saying I'd say Peace be with you to all my enemies!!!)
It's not funny. Politicians ask themselves why young people are so angry and it's really not difficult to figure out, particularly when bonds of trust have been broken.
Tuesday, 11 October 2011
Release from detention
We are released one by one through a corridor of police, standing there with their flourescent jackets like air traffic controllers.
"All of them for just one of us!" I say to the good looking anarchist I'd been chatting to about the Holocaust earlier. "Who knew we are so powerful!!!"
We wait. We can just about see the person who went through infront of us, trying to shield their face.
My turn.
I walk zig zag past maybe five policemen and come to a group of about four of them, one of whom is holding a camera. A video camera?
I extend my palm out to its lens. It's symbolic. They can see me, they've got pictures of us all.
"If we're going to trade information can I have your names?"
"Yes. It's all here clearly labelled on our jackets."
Flash thought. I'll have to get my pencil out of my bag. A sharp instrument that.
"What's your name please?" asks the Filth. Because they are the filth at that moment. They aren't the copper. They aren't the bobby. They are the Other. The Oppressor. The Captor.
"Do I have to give it?" I ask, quietly I think.
"We'd prefer it if you did." (or something close to that)
"Do you mind if I don't give it to you... Today?"
"Why not?" I can feel them all looking at me.
"I just don't want to, that's all."
"Where do you live?"
"Why do you want to know that."
"So we can come and see you tomorrow."
"Tomorrow? What for?"
"To ask you for your name."
"I just told you, I don't want to give you my name."
"Don't let them intimidate you!" I look over the heads of my captors and see a young man, with shoulder length curls and a really gentle beautiful looking face.
"Don't let them intimidate you! They've managed to intimidate three people already. Just three, you don't have to tell them anything. Don't let them intimidate you!"
Do I smile? Or is it just my eyes that call out to him my thanks for his being so beautiful?
"Go with them please," says the Filth talking to me about two Others.
"Where am I going?"
"You can go now."
"Oh right, thanks."
Suddenly another one says to me, his notebook in hand. "The government has asked us to take note of who comes to these protests. Can you tell us your ethnicity?"
I scan down this list and see W1
Calender Girls!
Later I asked myself how come I was such a pushover all of a sudden.
"That one, White British. You know.. I was out there, we were out there looking out for your interests today."
"I know, we don't like doing this." At the time I shook my head thinking 'my arse.."
Then, and I just remembered this last night, talking to my friend, the Ed. One of them, blond starts saying something like "If you go on to join a protest or start a protest you will be arrested."
"Today?" I say somewhat confused.
"We are telling you that if you join a protest..."
"Yes, today?"
"Yes, if you join or start a protest today you will be arrested."
"I'm going home. I'm going home for a cup of tea. I was on my way home for a cup of tea when you stopped me."
And with that they let me go, and I quickened my pace up the way I had come and caught up with the Welsh crew ahead because they'd been so kind and so funny and I wanted to say thanks.
Tell you what though, the rabid dogs have not left my dreams yet.
Bastards.
Intimidate Provoke Oppress
Attack Occupy Resist.
They have the power to take everything but they cannot take our spirit. They cannot take our souls.
RIP to all those who die seeking fairness and justice for themselves and their fellow country men and women with special mention to the 26 Christian Greeks who were killed on Sunday whilst on a peaceful protest. (The Independent 11.10.11)
"All of them for just one of us!" I say to the good looking anarchist I'd been chatting to about the Holocaust earlier. "Who knew we are so powerful!!!"
We wait. We can just about see the person who went through infront of us, trying to shield their face.
My turn.
I walk zig zag past maybe five policemen and come to a group of about four of them, one of whom is holding a camera. A video camera?
I extend my palm out to its lens. It's symbolic. They can see me, they've got pictures of us all.
"If we're going to trade information can I have your names?"
"Yes. It's all here clearly labelled on our jackets."
Flash thought. I'll have to get my pencil out of my bag. A sharp instrument that.
"What's your name please?" asks the Filth. Because they are the filth at that moment. They aren't the copper. They aren't the bobby. They are the Other. The Oppressor. The Captor.
"Do I have to give it?" I ask, quietly I think.
"We'd prefer it if you did." (or something close to that)
"Do you mind if I don't give it to you... Today?"
"Why not?" I can feel them all looking at me.
"I just don't want to, that's all."
"Where do you live?"
"Why do you want to know that."
"So we can come and see you tomorrow."
"Tomorrow? What for?"
"To ask you for your name."
"I just told you, I don't want to give you my name."
"Don't let them intimidate you!" I look over the heads of my captors and see a young man, with shoulder length curls and a really gentle beautiful looking face.
"Don't let them intimidate you! They've managed to intimidate three people already. Just three, you don't have to tell them anything. Don't let them intimidate you!"
Do I smile? Or is it just my eyes that call out to him my thanks for his being so beautiful?
"Go with them please," says the Filth talking to me about two Others.
"Where am I going?"
"You can go now."
"Oh right, thanks."
Suddenly another one says to me, his notebook in hand. "The government has asked us to take note of who comes to these protests. Can you tell us your ethnicity?"
I scan down this list and see W1
Calender Girls!
Later I asked myself how come I was such a pushover all of a sudden.
"That one, White British. You know.. I was out there, we were out there looking out for your interests today."
"I know, we don't like doing this." At the time I shook my head thinking 'my arse.."
Then, and I just remembered this last night, talking to my friend, the Ed. One of them, blond starts saying something like "If you go on to join a protest or start a protest you will be arrested."
"Today?" I say somewhat confused.
"We are telling you that if you join a protest..."
"Yes, today?"
"Yes, if you join or start a protest today you will be arrested."
"I'm going home. I'm going home for a cup of tea. I was on my way home for a cup of tea when you stopped me."
And with that they let me go, and I quickened my pace up the way I had come and caught up with the Welsh crew ahead because they'd been so kind and so funny and I wanted to say thanks.
Tell you what though, the rabid dogs have not left my dreams yet.
Bastards.
Intimidate Provoke Oppress
Attack Occupy Resist.
They have the power to take everything but they cannot take our spirit. They cannot take our souls.
RIP to all those who die seeking fairness and justice for themselves and their fellow country men and women with special mention to the 26 Christian Greeks who were killed on Sunday whilst on a peaceful protest. (The Independent 11.10.11)
Stop and Search
"The police might want your name and address."
"Why?"
"To put on their database?"
"Why, I haven't done anything wrong."
"I'm just warning you that's all. It might happen, the terms of release."
"What if I don't give it?"
"They could take you down to the station to give it there."
"But we haven't done anything wrong, it's not fair."
"They might ask to see the contents of your bag"
"Can they do that?" Fuck yes, they can...
"Yeah, under section (16?)"
"They can look at mine if they like!" I say, heh heh, fuck my chest feels tight.
"Don't tell them that."
"No! Of course not!"
It's just I'm thinking.
My bag contains a copy of this month's Spirit and Destiny
and Philip Pullman's The Good Man Jesus and The Scoundrel Christ.
Figuritively epeaking
Search me!
No, I know, not funny.
"Why?"
"To put on their database?"
"Why, I haven't done anything wrong."
"I'm just warning you that's all. It might happen, the terms of release."
"What if I don't give it?"
"They could take you down to the station to give it there."
"But we haven't done anything wrong, it's not fair."
"They might ask to see the contents of your bag"
"Can they do that?" Fuck yes, they can...
"Yeah, under section (16?)"
"They can look at mine if they like!" I say, heh heh, fuck my chest feels tight.
"Don't tell them that."
"No! Of course not!"
It's just I'm thinking.
My bag contains a copy of this month's Spirit and Destiny
and Philip Pullman's The Good Man Jesus and The Scoundrel Christ.
Figuritively epeaking
Search me!
No, I know, not funny.
Hugh Laurie - dressed as a policeman?
I'm being kettled with about two or three dozen fellow protesters on Lambeth Bridge.
Police surround us, containing us in rows of two, three. Coppers everywhere you look.
Hang on, isn't that Hugh Laurie?
That is Hugh Laurie dressed up as a policeman!
What???!!!!
I'm not there with a friend so I tap a man next to me, a new friend, on the arm.
"Hugh Laurie's standing over there with a policeman's uniform on," I say giggling incredulously.
"What?" he says looking at me.
"Hugh Laurie, over there, look!"
"Oh yeah!" he agrees, laughing.
He turns to his friend: "There's a policeman over there, looks like Hugh Laurie!"
She laughs aswell!
Then someone says "Oh, I bet he gets ribbed about that alot at work."
Compassion? Do I hear compassion?
A compassionate anarchist?
Yes think of this next time you want to label a protester, next time you want to judge an anarchist in a scornful way believing us to be..what do you believe us to be actually?
John Lydon, of the Sex Pistols fame, once said an anarchist is someone who bends the rules, not breaks the rules.
No-one broke any rule on Sunday. Everyone was out speaking against cuts to the National Health Service, the Bill which is due to be read today.
Privatising the NHS, now that's against the rules. There is no mandate for what the Tories are trying to do.
Police surround us, containing us in rows of two, three. Coppers everywhere you look.
Hang on, isn't that Hugh Laurie?
That is Hugh Laurie dressed up as a policeman!
What???!!!!
I'm not there with a friend so I tap a man next to me, a new friend, on the arm.
"Hugh Laurie's standing over there with a policeman's uniform on," I say giggling incredulously.
"What?" he says looking at me.
"Hugh Laurie, over there, look!"
"Oh yeah!" he agrees, laughing.
He turns to his friend: "There's a policeman over there, looks like Hugh Laurie!"
She laughs aswell!
Then someone says "Oh, I bet he gets ribbed about that alot at work."
Compassion? Do I hear compassion?
A compassionate anarchist?
Yes think of this next time you want to label a protester, next time you want to judge an anarchist in a scornful way believing us to be..what do you believe us to be actually?
John Lydon, of the Sex Pistols fame, once said an anarchist is someone who bends the rules, not breaks the rules.
No-one broke any rule on Sunday. Everyone was out speaking against cuts to the National Health Service, the Bill which is due to be read today.
Privatising the NHS, now that's against the rules. There is no mandate for what the Tories are trying to do.
Unlawful imprisonment
I don't know how many we were being kettled but I'd say not many. I was never ever far from a policeman whereever I happened to be standing. They could hear every conversation and one was happily snap snap snapping his camera doing his little dance around our group.
I was with people who'd never been kettled before. A girl from America, another from Wales, possibly others, I didn't hear anybody talking of past experiences.
I'd hazard a guess that there were more police surrounding and containing us that there were of us.
Fortunately there were stewards in there who handed us Bust cards. In the event of being arrested to say "No Comment." There was a number for legal help on it too.
If they asked us for our names and addresses we might have to give it, we were told. Refusal to do so might see us arrested.
Under some act they had every right to stop and search us.
I don't know what I was feeling because I was feeling EVERYTHING ALL AT ONCE.
Bewildered, anxious, worried that I might not be back home in time for when my son came back from his dad's.
Thank God, really truly, that the guy with the guitar and harmonica were in there with us.
He bends down, opens his case and removes his instrument.
Some of the crowd start singing Python's "Always look on the bright side of life" and our guitar man joins in and knows all the verses too!
His friends then tell him to play the song we'd all joined in with on the comedy patch.
Strike Occupy Resist!
There was something most surreal and abit scary cheeky defiance singing this while illegally detained so close to the police you could almost hear them breath:
Intimidate Provoke Oppress
Soon after we were told that we would be released. I smiled at the guitar man: "Your playing secured that for us. Thank you!"
Here, have a listen. Imagine you are hearing it live, join in at the chorus!
Picket Line Party by CosmoInnit
Thank you for all of you in there that made the hour (or more?) pass less fearfully that it otherwise could have done.
No thanks, none, to the police.
What they did and what they put us through was totally and utterly unnecessary.
At the same time as we were being kettled 26 civilians were being killed by the military while out on their peaceful protest in Greece.
Intimidate Provoke Oppress
FILTH.
I was with people who'd never been kettled before. A girl from America, another from Wales, possibly others, I didn't hear anybody talking of past experiences.
I'd hazard a guess that there were more police surrounding and containing us that there were of us.
Fortunately there were stewards in there who handed us Bust cards. In the event of being arrested to say "No Comment." There was a number for legal help on it too.
If they asked us for our names and addresses we might have to give it, we were told. Refusal to do so might see us arrested.
Under some act they had every right to stop and search us.
I don't know what I was feeling because I was feeling EVERYTHING ALL AT ONCE.
Bewildered, anxious, worried that I might not be back home in time for when my son came back from his dad's.
Thank God, really truly, that the guy with the guitar and harmonica were in there with us.
He bends down, opens his case and removes his instrument.
Some of the crowd start singing Python's "Always look on the bright side of life" and our guitar man joins in and knows all the verses too!
His friends then tell him to play the song we'd all joined in with on the comedy patch.
Strike Occupy Resist!
There was something most surreal and abit scary cheeky defiance singing this while illegally detained so close to the police you could almost hear them breath:
Intimidate Provoke Oppress
Soon after we were told that we would be released. I smiled at the guitar man: "Your playing secured that for us. Thank you!"
Here, have a listen. Imagine you are hearing it live, join in at the chorus!
Picket Line Party by CosmoInnit
Thank you for all of you in there that made the hour (or more?) pass less fearfully that it otherwise could have done.
No thanks, none, to the police.
What they did and what they put us through was totally and utterly unnecessary.
At the same time as we were being kettled 26 civilians were being killed by the military while out on their peaceful protest in Greece.
Intimidate Provoke Oppress
FILTH.
Heading home after peaceful protest
We were all told to leave Westminster Bridge by the south end and turn right.
I heard that. Clearly.
The north end there was the wall of police I'd seen when I arrived but don't know why we couldn't leave that end. Hardly matters I suppose.
I was walking towards Lambeth Bridge vaguely asking myself where I was going. I fancied stopping at the Riverside Cafe for a cup of tea but figured I'd get a free one when I got home.
I'm walking over Lambeth Bridge and at the end see police vans but also see the guitar and harmonica player who'd done a set of funny protest songs on the comedy patch on Westminster Bridge. I go over to say thanks, he was really good! He thanks me for the compliment!
I ask him what all the police vans are doing there without questioning why he and everyone else aren't actually walking anymore.
I see a line of police in their flourescent yellow jackets walk past us and again think nothing.
Then I hear this kind of shout and the police have grabbed one another and encircled us, the force of which made me wobble a bit on my feet, made my body sway.
"This is unlawful imprisonment," someone shouts.
I feel my chest tighten and tell myself not to panic. It wouldn't do to panic.
I hear a guy say: "Let's play tag, you're it!"
"You're it!"
"It!"
and laugh.
A little later I tell a young guy (really good looking actually!) that I got free tickets through Seefilmfirst to go and see an opera called The Passenger on friday night. It's the story of an German SS officer who is on a cruise ship who sees one of her ex prisoner's from Auschwitz.
"My brother wanted to leave at the interval," I tell this boy. "But I told him we should stay to see the rest because stories like that are still relevant today, people around the world are still being oppressed, perhaps not to the same extent but..."
"It's important to feel it," says the guy.
"Hmmm," I say because if I was anywhere else I might say yes
but in a police kettle I am feeling it.
Maybe I should've stopped for that cup of tea?
Maybe it was right I should experience it?
Somebody told me this morning that kettlingpeople is illegal. If it isn't, it should be.
Here's a friend's experience. She occupied Fortnum and Mason's in a peaceful protest and wasn't allowed home at all:
http://ladieswotlunch.posterous.com/i-am-sparticus
I heard that. Clearly.
The north end there was the wall of police I'd seen when I arrived but don't know why we couldn't leave that end. Hardly matters I suppose.
I was walking towards Lambeth Bridge vaguely asking myself where I was going. I fancied stopping at the Riverside Cafe for a cup of tea but figured I'd get a free one when I got home.
I'm walking over Lambeth Bridge and at the end see police vans but also see the guitar and harmonica player who'd done a set of funny protest songs on the comedy patch on Westminster Bridge. I go over to say thanks, he was really good! He thanks me for the compliment!
I ask him what all the police vans are doing there without questioning why he and everyone else aren't actually walking anymore.
I see a line of police in their flourescent yellow jackets walk past us and again think nothing.
Then I hear this kind of shout and the police have grabbed one another and encircled us, the force of which made me wobble a bit on my feet, made my body sway.
"This is unlawful imprisonment," someone shouts.
I feel my chest tighten and tell myself not to panic. It wouldn't do to panic.
I hear a guy say: "Let's play tag, you're it!"
"You're it!"
"It!"
and laugh.
A little later I tell a young guy (really good looking actually!) that I got free tickets through Seefilmfirst to go and see an opera called The Passenger on friday night. It's the story of an German SS officer who is on a cruise ship who sees one of her ex prisoner's from Auschwitz.
"My brother wanted to leave at the interval," I tell this boy. "But I told him we should stay to see the rest because stories like that are still relevant today, people around the world are still being oppressed, perhaps not to the same extent but..."
"It's important to feel it," says the guy.
"Hmmm," I say because if I was anywhere else I might say yes
but in a police kettle I am feeling it.
Maybe I should've stopped for that cup of tea?
Maybe it was right I should experience it?
Somebody told me this morning that kettlingpeople is illegal. If it isn't, it should be.
Here's a friend's experience. She occupied Fortnum and Mason's in a peaceful protest and wasn't allowed home at all:
http://ladieswotlunch.posterous.com/i-am-sparticus
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