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Post by nickd on Mar 26, 2011 10:04:18 GMT 1
BIGGEST MARCH IN A GENERATION - Justice for All!Today thousands of people take to the streets of London to join in what is expected to be one of the biggest march events ever. Hundreds of coaches and trains will bring people together in what the TUC describe as a peaceful march. Justice for All campaigners will meet up at the Royal Courts of Justice; - even prominent QC Mike Mansfield will be there. The march is against the cuts government are making - those engaging in peaceful protest are standing firm against the speed and brutality of the cuts; - these are not troublesome protesters who can be called deficit deniers. What people are speaking out against is the savage effects these ruthless cuts are having upon people's lives. It's a shame some of us can't be there - let's hope it goes well and gets the message across. There's bound to be a lot of coverage of the event throughout the day - please post anything you find on here. Esper - do you have any video footage? LET'S HOPE THE MESSAGE GETS THROUGH!!Links.... JUSTICE FOR ALL....www.justice-for-all.org.uk/www.citizensadvice.org.uk/index/campaigns/current_campaigns/justiceforall.htmwww.guardian.co.uk/law/2011/mar/25/tuc-cuts-march-legal-aidwww.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbouch/F2322273?thread=8131572March against savage cuts in welfare benefit cuts for the disabled and vulnerable!
March against the removal of access to justice for those who need it most!
March against cuts which will hit pensioners hard!
March against cuts which will damage our National Health Service!
March against cuts which will ruin your children's schooling!
March against cuts which will take away the rights of employees!
March against cuts which will make thousands unemployed!
March against cuts which will make thousands homeless!
This isn't a march of pointless protest - it is a march against the destruction of our welfare state!
If you are in London and fancy lending your support, then why not make your way and join in!!
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Post by nickd on Mar 26, 2011 11:16:44 GMT 1
First pictures coming in as Justice for All assemble at Royal Courts of Justice... twitpic.com/4dfubyLooks very like Hariet Harman who joins the march saying women will be hit the hardest.... Follow it on Twitter!! |
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Post by nickd on Mar 26, 2011 11:52:50 GMT 1
Two years on and the Ghukas are back again...Here's how they got justice on the 26th March 2009 NEW GURKHAS POLICY 'IN THREE WEEKS' Gurkhas outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London Thursday March 26,2009 The Home Secretary has agreed to announce a new policy on the right of Gurkhas to settle in Britain within three weeks, the High Court was told. The news came as the Gurkhas returned to court to enforce a legal victory they won at the Royal Courts of Justice in London last September. A High Court judge then ruled the Government's existing immigration policy excluding them was unlawful. Read more: www.express.co.uk/posts/view/91278New-Gurkhas-policy-in-three-weeks-#ixzz1HhYz4sijAnd I'm reliably told they are right now back in London - presumably around the Royal Courts of Justice again!! - seems like the start of a good day!!
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Post by nickd on Mar 26, 2011 12:01:24 GMT 1
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Post by nickd on Mar 26, 2011 12:06:14 GMT 1
Trades Union Congress 'March For The Alternative'
Three key aims....
JOBS
GROWTH
JUSTICE Varying reports of up to 250,000 descending on London. However many turn up - this is worth marching for. A Government poll says the overwhelming majority of people are right behind those who wear out their shoe leather today - fighting for what will really get us back on our feet!!www.tuc.org.uk/
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Post by nickd on Mar 26, 2011 12:40:04 GMT 1
Young Legal Aid Lawyers should be somewhere near the Embankment; - so they say 30 minuntes ago. Here's more about what they do.... www.younglegalaidlawyers.org/ |
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Post by nickd on Mar 26, 2011 12:47:48 GMT 1
Live coverage now on BBC News - 'many more have turned up' - making their way from Embankment to Hyde park. Some estimates say more than 1/4 million - much noise but seems non-disruptive. Police have heard over 400,000 turning up - Police face cuts themselves.
Clear message to government 'peaceful protest - there is an alternative'. All age groups turning up from the very young to pensioners.
Government has to listen to this level of protest!!
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Post by nickd on Mar 26, 2011 12:57:34 GMT 1
Ed Balls now speaking on BBC - there is an alternative - 'don't cut this deep - this fast - this is beyond party politics'. 'Need for growth - get people into jobs'. Ed Milliband will be speaking at Hyde Park.
4,500 police in attendance - will they be in a job this time next year?
Will Cameron and Clegg be watching this - or rather the Oxford & Cambridge boat race?
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Post by nickd on Mar 26, 2011 13:05:00 GMT 1
BBC Presenter- Sophie Long - Says 'Atmosphere of a festival'. Much tooting and noise; - but no sign of any trouble. Government can't say these are troublemakers can they?
Here's the link to Sophie Long (retrieved later on the 27th after the march) talking to some of the protestors outside the Houses of Parliament.....
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12864353
Looks spectacular!!
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Post by nickd on Mar 26, 2011 13:14:19 GMT 1
BBC news.www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/uk-12864353Tax Payers Alliance seem to be saying the 'cuts are necessary' - 'politicians shouldn't be encouraging this rally'.
- which is all very well if you are a tax payer - problem is by the time these cuts have taken their toll - many won't be!!I wonder how much Matthew Sinclair from Tax Payer's Alliance is on a year? Distinct lack of comment from Cameron & Clegg today - Mr Sinclair seems to be their proxy spokeman!
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Post by nickd on Mar 26, 2011 13:21:51 GMT 1
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Post by nickd on Mar 26, 2011 13:32:50 GMT 1
Follow an on-line blog - one of which says the Tax Payer's Alliance Spokesman who appeared on BBC is an 'idiot'. Link.... twitter.com/#!/SZeitblom |
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Post by nickd on Mar 26, 2011 13:36:44 GMT 1
Ed Balls being consistently saying it's not that cuts are opposed - it's the scale and speed - 'too deep and too fast' - need to create jobs to promote growth.
Long steady 'River of People' making their way - including firemen, civilian police staff, ambulance crews, teachers; - a whole sea of frontline workers.
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Post by nickd on Mar 26, 2011 13:47:05 GMT 1
Ilegal/Mylegal's founder Patrick Torsney is making his way along the march. Just had message to say it's 'massive' - drowned out by helicopters overhead. Marching along with with many law centres - now with Phil Jew from Advice UK & Solictors from Mary Ward Law Centre and traininee lawyers worried about their futures. Andy Slaughter's aide - Iman is there too.
Looks huge on TV.
Member of public just says ' slow the cuts down'. This is the voice of common sense.
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Post by nickd on Mar 26, 2011 14:04:26 GMT 1
Why New Statesman's Laurie Penny journalist is joining the march....
"Why I'm marching today"Posted by Laurie Penny - 26 March 2011 09:36 "Like thousands of others, I'll be demonstrating in London because we need to fight for our principles. The backlash is on. With counter-propaganda pouring in about today's demonstration, I''m crouched on the bed cramming water bottles, wet wipes and a spare hoodie into my backpack, testing my riot boots, getting ready to march. From senior police officers to stuffed-shirt commentators to single mothers on the protest coach from Aberdeen to the anarchists currently putting the finishing touches to their trojan horse in Kennington, pretty much everyone seems to be convinced there's going to be an epic kick-off. There is trepidation and excitement on both sides. Many tens of thousands of protesters and police would rather we all went on a nice civilised saunter to Hyde Park to hear some speeches, but many others are getting their armour ready, digging out their face masks, shining up their riot shields for a rumble in London. Whatever happens, the eyes of the world will be on this city today. The ancient streets are going to shake with the stoppered rage of the public, as they have done so many times before. Seven hundred years ago, Wat Tyler led thousands in a march against feudalism and entitlement, against wealth and power being concentrated in the hands of a few rich families who owned everything and were answerable to noone. Seven hundred years later, we're still marching, because it's still happening. The business elites have been allowed to vampirise the future, and instead of being made to pay for their mistakes, they brazenly demand more tribute. Our barely-elected representatives cheerfully force us into lines to pay the tithe, breaking the heads of children in parliament square if they refuse to comply. As we get ready to march, a government with little mandate is turning our country into a smooth-running cartel to serve the petulant demands of global finance. In his budget speech, George Osborne declared that the world should take note of the fact that "Britain is open for business". Having previously announced the decimation of welfare, education, culture, healthcare, public services and the arts, the City of London-financed Conservative party has ensured that Britain is open for little else, and is swinging shut in the faces of the unprofitable. Present political expediency offers no way out, and a thousand reasons to march. This week, many people have told me their reasons. Elderly, disabled and mentally ill people and carers who cannot do without the welfare benefits that the government is about to sell off to finance a cut to corporation tax. School pupils who want to be able to afford university without taking on a lifetime's worth of debt; students at glasgow and UCL universities who have been assaulted by police and victimised by management for daring to speak out against that encroaching debt, and for standing in solidarity with striking staff and lecturers. Career anarchists and concerned liberals on their first protest in three decades. Trades unionists unfurling the banners and getting ready to demand the sort of basic human dignity that became unfashionable in the mid-1980s. Mothers, fathers, grandparents, children, people already too sick or exhausted or impoverished to come to the protests in person, and the strangers who offered to show solidarity by marching in their stead. A man with terminal cancer and five weeks to live, whose incapacity benefits had been delayed by the latest welfare reforms. A woman set to lose her NHS job who can no longer afford childcare. So many reasons, so many voices, so much anger that one simple political alternative could never be broad enough to satisfy them all. So many voices, and if I had twenty years I could sit and write down every one and make them loud enough for all London to hear. At times like this, words on a screen aren't enough. At times like this, we have to go to the streets. There will be enough time for stories today; stories of indignation and suffering and small triumphs bitten back from the jaws of spiteful austerity. But right now I'm going to do something I do very seldom. I'm going to tell you why I'm marching. I'm marching because I'm afraid. I'm afraid that everything precious about modernity might be destroyed by a cabal of financiers and aristocrats who own everything and answer to noone. I'm afraid that the civil humanity of welfare, healthcare, public education, art, science and protection for minorities and the dispossessed that so many hundreds of people fought and died for over three long centuries of struggle, I'm afraid that that might all be taken away because some millionaires have decided they're not being paid enough. I'm afraid that the governments of Europe and America and the Middle East will continue to listen to those millionaires and only to those millionaires whilst their people cry out for relief. I'm afraid that they'll carry on taking the best ideals of human decency and twisting them into tortured pastiches of principle. I'm afraid that in thirty years the word "freedom" will mean only only military imperialism, the word "democracy" only the bloody enforcement of western corporate hegemony, the word "liberty" only the blithe self-interest of the few, the word "fairness" only the moral imposition of austerity by governments soaked in oil-money, in blood-money, in money summarily appropriated from struggling taxpayers to fund the debts of the rich. I'm afraid that if we don't turn and fight for those principles, they will cease to exist, at least in the way we understand them. This is not about party politics. I care not one jot about whether the current Conservative-led administration is openly continuing New Labour's project of decimating welfare, privatising education, holding down wages and sucking the shrivelled morals of the City. I'm just afraid that the [auto mod] are going to get away with it. I'm marching today with hundreds of thousands of others because I don't want to be afraid anymore. This is just the beginning." Follow the New Statesman on-line blog.... www.newstatesman.com/blogs/laurie-penny/2011/03/afraid-marching-london#reader-comments
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Post by nickd on Mar 26, 2011 14:17:29 GMT 1
People now in Parliament Square. Just heard from a Connexions employee who faces redundancy, BBC presenter talks to many who all say the same thing; - slow down the speed and scale of these cuts!! The message couldn't be clearer - these aren't activists - they're not trouble makers - they are decent people who enjoy the work they do and want to carry on doing their bit for society.
Francis Maude - Conservative MP now on BBC blames it all on Gordon Brown - but seems oblivious to how it's thousands of decent people; - many of whom are public service workers - who will pay the price!!
He refers to the protests over Labour and Iraq - but forgets the Poll Tax revolts where people made burning effigies of Margaret Thatcher. Oh how history repeats itself.
Maude just denies they cut the Winter Fuel payments!! He says they've not been cut - is he unaware of how they've gone down from £400 to £300 for the over 80's?
Many people now assembling in Hyde Park.
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Post by nickd on Mar 26, 2011 14:30:52 GMT 1
One arrest just announced - good job there's a copper around to slap the cuffs on! - probably a Tory throwing things out of his apartment window at those down below making a noise: - sorry, let's not get political! 
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Post by nickd on Mar 26, 2011 14:42:31 GMT 1
Pictures from helicopter show streets by Houses of Parliament jam packed. Portcullis House has a moat of peaceful protesters around it. Apparently people at the 'start' of the march are still at Victoria - that's some queue. Teacher's now on who have come up from Cornwall; - they left at 3.00 this morning and said it was well worth it. Steel bands playing but all looks well.
Oh no - Looks like trouble at mill.......
Can see one flare going off now near Regent street - they look like trouble; - all in black - broke through Police cordon - described as a 'breakaway' group - let's hope they don't ruin it for the real protestors. Police not intervening yet - no damage or violence yet. Described as 'black block' - a minority - only 1% of turnout.
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Post by nickd on Mar 26, 2011 14:48:28 GMT 1
Matthew Sinclair from Tax Payer's Alliance says it's a 'small minority' who can't see the need for these cuts. From where I'm seeing this unfold Mr Sinclar - you'd find your minority by looking in the mirror.
Now in Hyde Park - Brendan Barber (TUC) speaking out for Social Justice & voluntary groups - NHS is in 'intensive Care' - facing greatest threat in its history.
He also says to Mr Cameron that if he wants to meet the Big Society - he should come down to Hyde Park!!
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Post by nickd on Mar 26, 2011 15:00:34 GMT 1
Ed Miliband now talking in Hyde Park - but distracted by unfolding events in Oxford Street where scuffles are breaking out near Top Shop - coloured paint all over the pavement but relatively contained. Described as 'contained rather than violent'.
It's a separate group described as 'Black Block' - shame they are destracting from what's more importantly going on in the rest of the capital.
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Post by nickd on Mar 26, 2011 15:04:36 GMT 1
Unions currently claiming 100,000 people are taking part. 'All sorts of people from all around the country'.
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Post by nickd on Mar 26, 2011 15:12:08 GMT 1
SoundofJustice thank Sadiq Khan on Twitter - choir went well.
Pensioner now on says she feels rotten about the way government is treating people and thinks it's wrong how the disabled and young are being treated. She thinks welfare state should be protected.
Fireman speaks out at banker's and George Osborne - he says many Liberals in the crowd. He doesn't think government can go on until 2015.
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Post by nickd on Mar 26, 2011 15:55:41 GMT 1
Catch up with posting some of the Hyde Park speeches later - if anyone has any material or video.....please feel free to post it here.
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Post by nickd on Mar 26, 2011 17:19:20 GMT 1
Latest news is that the TUC say over 250,000 people turned up - that's a good turn out by any standard. No - one should be duped into believing that the disruptive events in Oxford Street were in any way part of the proper 'real' march going on by decent people who marched against these savage cuts.
It's interesting to note hope little Government had to say on the day, no doubt they'll dismiss it as a bunch of anarchists on a day out!!
Now come on all those who went on the march - write a few lines and tells us how it went? It would be great to hear from those that were actually there.
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Post by nickd on Mar 26, 2011 18:24:54 GMT 1
Milliband's address to the rally.
Citizens Advice Bureau and community centres get a mention....
Miliband addresses anti-cuts rally
By Alan Jones, PA
Saturday, 26 March 2011
Labour party leader Ed Miliband addresses the rally in Hyde Park
Labour leader Ed Miliband told protesters at a mass rally today that he was proud to stand with them as huge numbers of people demonstrated against spending cuts.
Mr Miliband told the TUC rally in London's Hyde Park that the Government was wrong to make such deep cuts in public services.
The Labour leader did not join a march through central London but did address the rally.
"The Tories said I shouldn't come to speak here today but I am proud to stand with you.
"People are here from all walks of life and different backgrounds, speaking for mainstream Britain"
Mr Miliband said: "Our struggle is to fight to preserve, protect and defend the best of the services we cherish because they represent the best of the country we love.
"We know what the government will say: that this is a march of the minority. They are so wrong. David Cameron: you wanted to create the big society - this is the big society.
"The big society united against what your government is doing to our country. We stand today not as the minority, but as the voice of the mainstream majority in this country.
"The midwives from Kingston here to speak up for maternity services.
"The sure start workers from Hampshire here to speak up for children's centres. The small business owners from Liverpool here to speak up for jobs. The teachers and students here to speak up for the next generation.
"Every one of us knows that today the country faces difficult times. But we know too there is a different way. We hold to some simple truths: We need jobs to cut the deficit. Unemployment is never a price worth paying. The next generation should never have their hopes sacrificed on the altar of dogmatic deficit reduction.
"There is a need for difficult choices, and some cuts. But, this government is going too far and too fast and destroying the fabric of our communities."
Mr Miliband said the hundreds of thousands of people on the march rejected the Government's "politics of division", adding: "It falls to us to be the unifiers of our country.
"That is why it is so important that this is a peaceful protest that wins public support. A protest remembered for its cause and for its purpose.
"And it falls to us to be the optimists too. We do need to cut the deficit. But we must also protect families struggling to get by. We must also protect the promise of Britain that the next generation does better than the last.
"We must also preserve the things we value in our communities: the library, the citizen's advice bureaux, the community centre. We know, from generations before us, that it is not just politicians who make change happen, it is people."
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Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite, told the protesters they were bearing witness to services closing, old people going without care, libraries, swimming pools and parks going to "ruin" and young people heading for a life on the dole.
"But you represent a spirit of resistance in every workplace and community that says we are not going to have our way of life killed so that the rich and greedy can live as they please."
Mr McCluskey said that every time Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg stepped out of doors it cost police £2 million to protect him, adding: "We cannot afford that any more - if you were to go on a national tour we'd be bankrupt."
The unite leader attacked the Government's "assault" on the NHS, warning ministers that privatising the health service would spark the same protests as those against the poll tax when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister.
He also urged Labour MPs to hold the Government to account rather than simply waiting for the next general election.
Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC, told the rally that today was just the beginning of the campaign.
"We will fight the Government's brutal cuts in our workplaces and our communities.
"Today we are speaking for the people of Britain, and David Cameron, if you want to meet the Big Society - we're here in Hyde Park. It's time you started listening."
Michael Leahy, general secretary of Community Union and TUC president, said: "Today is a great day of unity and solidarity. People have come from all over the UK with one simple message for Osborne, Clegg and Cameron: There is an alternative.
"Today has also brought back many painful memories for me - it reminds me of the eighties. The Tories have resurrected TINA - there is no alternative.
"But I fear it's not just TINA that is back from the 80s. It's the same old Tories - who still think unemployment is a price worth paying. That price was 18 years of misery and hardship wreaked on working people."
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Post by nickd on Mar 26, 2011 18:52:04 GMT 1
Varying reports of how many turned up; these ranged from an expected 100,000 to 250,000 but more recent announcements put it at around 450,000. With the best will in the world; - there's no way I was going to count the amount of people I could see on television!! Let's just say - there was a lot of them!!
And let's not say they were all trouble maker's - it's just come up as a 'small group attacking HSBC & Top Shop' - there are other reports of Santander and Fortnum & Mason's suffering some damage. Main thing is no-one seems to have suffered any harm - Police describe it as peaceful with 4 injured and 13 arrests.
We'll wait and see what a different gloss the Daily Mail et all put on it tomorrow!
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Post by nickd on Mar 26, 2011 19:53:02 GMT 1
Ed Milliband's speech at Hyde Park....
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Post by worldofsab on Mar 26, 2011 22:44:53 GMT 1
Thank you for putting all these updates up nickd good to hear what's actually happening on the ground today!
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Post by nickd on Mar 27, 2011 10:34:08 GMT 1
Welcome to Mylegal worldofsab; - and thanks for your words of appreciation. It was great to see such a good turn out on the television, I couldn't make it myself as it involves a 350 round trip from Devon each time; - budget and time wouldn't stretch to another vist after the H o C and Pro-Bono event last week. Despite not being there, it was amazing to follow it all and to keep track on how all the networks were buzzing with news yesterday.
It would be great to hear some accounts of those who were there?
What about a few names of the the people/organisations representing our cause who attended the event?
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Post by nickd on Mar 27, 2011 12:27:20 GMT 1
How very predictable......
Today's headlines in the Mail are 'RITZRIEG' and in the Telegraph 'Britain's face of hatred' along with the expected pictures of violent anarchists wreaking havoc in London. It's shameful that our current government has to rely on the support of media propoganda like this. It should have given the real picture.
From what I could see - after following the event closely - this was a completely peaceful protest march which had nothing to do with the events which un-folded later on in the day.
I suppose they will be saying the SoundofJustice choir were really anarchists and terrorists in disguise next!!
This speaks volumes of how government doesn't want to engage with society, there was nothing stopping Cameron and Clegg taking a stroll in Hyde Park yesterday; - but no, they knew what they would have been in for. Instead they hope the tabloid headlines will dismiss the event by putting out this kind of misrepresentation - it's a shame they can't argue their own case before the people who think they've got it all wrong!
Let's see some pictures of the real event......
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