I happened to be in Westminster today and as Blogville's token Socialist felt it my duty to show solidarity with the public sector workers (teachers, nurses, et al) whose pension pot the government used to bail out the bankers and pay their unearned multi-million pound bonuses.
Imagine you're a teacher nearing retirement. You've paid into the pension fund your whole working life and now the Tories have told you it's worthless because they've given it all to their friends.
Lovely …
Right … Tool up with some suitable reading material and head to Parliament to exercise my democratic right to moan like fuck about injustice.
The fact that a good demo is always GREAT fun has nothing to do with it … er …
I want to pick the prime spot and join the march at the junction between Whitehall and Parliament Square. I intend to stand in the middle of the road just past that … er … "AVOID AREA" sign.
By the looks of this policewoman I'm going to have to deal with some unbrutality on the way.
Well, here I am in the middle of the road. I've found that strolling casually where you're not supposed to be as if you owned the place usually works pretty well as the police assume you are supposed to be there.
I love the smirk this officer gave me (click the pic for a bigger smirk). It's his "I really can't be arsed climbing over this barrier to arrest you so I'll assume you're supposed to be standing in the middle of a cordoned off Whitehall" smirk.
Damn! I knew I'd forgotten something. I should have brought a megaphone.
Balloons! Yay!
For any Colonials among you, NUT is the unfortunate acronym of the National Union of Teachers.
International support.
The return of the vuvuzela (oh, crap).
You know I'm a sucker for polka dots. She was singing at the top of her voice; a version of the old "Where's Your Mama Gone? (Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep)" from the seventies that started "Woke up this morning and my pension was gone …" Splendid stuff!
Right … the crowds are thinning out, time to join the march. I got chatting with a lovely guy from the British Library who had taken a day off to come down and show solidarity. I think the average IQ of today's marchers was stratospherically greater than that of the government.
Poor old Nick Robinson (the BBC's Political Editor in case you're not a Brit TV watcher) was getting increasingly pissed off, trying to file a live news report in the face of some determined and hilarious megaphone heckling.
I don't think he was too pleased that I was laughing my ass off while I took his photo.
More vicious police unbrutality. If the news reports this evening say there was trouble at the demo they are lying out of their right-wing arses. Look at it! It was bloody lovely!
So off we stroll, singing and chanting as we go. A splendid day out that will do no good at all but it's our right to march and strike and protest so until we can vote these fuckers out of office that's just what we'll do.
