Back from London protest Labour supporter gets her feet up

16/4/2016

Get set one man ensures he is caught on camera

BBC News took its time acknowledging that a huge protest march was taking place in London Saturday and when they reported they down played the size of the march. For the record around 150,000 protested in London alone. Smaller protests took place in other cities with a decent sized protest held in Leeds. Those taking part were marching for #4Demands - health, homes, jobs and education with #CameronMustGo thrown in for good measure.

Dorothy Badrick went to the protest march and rally in London, as part of the Corbyn over 50s supporters group, and has kindly said we could share her Facebook page post as she arrived home and we are doing so warts and all as they say:

"Ooh er, aaah- just easing the boots off.

Reaches for tea, slurp, oh thats better.

Just back from the march.

It took two and a half hours to meander from Gower Street to Trafalgar Square. I have never been prouder.

Wheelchairs, electric wheelchair, making an overnight stay to get to the march.

Mobility scooter, from Leeds- (no, he drove down then got the scooter out!), dodgy backs, aching knees and suspect hips. A blind person and someone with half their innards missing: “it’s alright really; I just have to manage the pain".

Someone else, out last night taking soup to the protesters against the housing bill. I could cry with pride!

The reason it took so long to walk a mile and a half was the press of people.

Trafalgar Square packed.

Some great banners;
I am not colour blind the world is black and white.
Dumbledore would be very angry.
Austerity is theft.

Great speeches from the steel workers, junior doctors because they are very angry. Nurses, teachers, black pride and highlight of the day speech from Labour shadow Chancellor John McDonnell.

People from just round the corner, from the south coast and all points north. Train, bus, coach and car. God bless you all.

Final quote goes to Rachel: “I don’t post much but I read all the posts. I have never done this before but my son is autistic and they have made his life hell. I just have to do something." Her husband and daughter were with us to.

Note to admin of FB page: get Gill Kennard a stylist.

Not that she needs one, she is gawjus but the camera people just love her. I am not surprised. I want a picture of her in her wheelchair banging a saucepan with a spoon too!!

Thanks to Sue for directing operations.

Darlinks, I love you all!! Flings arms to side and knocks over tea!!"

Wish we were there!

More at:
Independent - Anti-austerity protest brings 150,000 to the streets of London to demand David Cameron's resignation

More images at - News alert protests in London and the UK Saturday

7 Comments

Debbie Smith

16/4/2016 07:36:26 pm

Here is a copy of an email I sent yesterday to my mp, Emma Lewell-Buck, other mps who have an interest in welfare and the disabled, and some national newspapers. We don't need protection from the EU, we need protection from our own government.

"As a disabled and vulnerable person on sickness benefits witnessing the recent budget and ensuing chaos in Parliament, I feel Great Britain does not deserve the prefix, "Great". It is no longer great for anyone lower than the upper classes.

Important questions and petitions are dismissed, leaving unanswered questions and growing dissention and frustration. We no longer feel our voices are heard.
Most of the media spread lies and twist the truth and actually ignore important news in favour of celebrity trivia or biased spins for their own financial gain. Many protests are not reported on, and some reporters are told they aren't allowed to film public displays of dissent, thus depriving us of events in the public's best interests. Politicians known to have broken the law are not reprimanded, arrested or sacked, but are kept in their jobs as though they have done nothing wrong. Our Government have even recently overruled the House of Lords by invoking "financial privilege" to ensure the cuts to ESA were passed without interference. They then announced the cuts were not going to happen, which made far too many people assume this meant the ESA cuts, when in fact they meant the PIP cuts which were discussed. And now we are finding out that when we move over to Universal Credit, not only will it take 6 weeks to be switched over, which will result in no benefits, so no housing benefit/council tax/bill money/food money etc, will also make impatient landlords evict tenants and companies take the people in debt to court, but it will be almost £30 per week less than ESA. So when Stephen Crabbe announced there will be no more benefit cuts except the ones previously agreed on, he was being deliberately vague and misleading the public.

Someone with the facts and in the public eye needs to list how our Tory government are failing our country, who they are harming, laws they surely must be breaking.
They need to stop important organisations and industries from being sold off, jeopardising jobs and commodities such as steel, fuel etc.
They need to ask how they can systematically dismantle the welfare system and put our NHS at risk which were put in place to look after the vulnerable.
They need to address the undeniable fact that all these cuts will result in more crime, illness, drug related hospitalisations, more divorces, suicides, malnutrition, homelessness, debt, mental illness, domestic and child abuse, related deaths, etc. There will be more alcoholism and drug-taking as those who can't afford it will find illegal ways to escape their depression due to not having enough money to live on and subsequent deaths from these too. There will be more burglaries, fraud, shoplifting, street-robberies, and many other types of criminal activities will rise. Reducing benefits is not taking into account the fact that what the government are claiming is enough to live on is not, as most of us have debts and costs that they do not deem as important, yet will put our health and wellbeing at further risk, such as higher energy usage/transport costs/clothes/bedding/equipment/household goods and food costs for the disabled, energy debt, ongoing budgeting loans, rent and council tax arrears, less benefit means more debt, energy companies will cut us off, take us to court, evictions will occur from council and private tenants etc. Many vulnerable people being forced to pay their housing benefit directly to their landlords will find themselves unable to do so through debt problems or temptation due to need or addiction, will be evicted and become homeless, which our government are talking about making illegal, and our prisons will hold even more convicts than they can handle, again costing the taxpayers more money.

The resulting effect of all of this will cost our country MORE money than the government are claiming they will save.

Instead of campaigners and suchlike trying to pinpoint areas, we as a country need to take notice of these issues as a whole...and maybe then this country will realise our government is dangerous and is causing the vulnerable actual harm. What they are doing should be illegal, if it isn't why isn't it, and if it is, who is going to bring them to justice?

These are not the actions of a democracy, these are the actions of a dictatorship, intent on punishing the weak and vulnerable, the poor and the disabled. These are acts of wanton class warfare and social cleansing as the rich/poor divide widens into an ever-growing chasm.

The fit for work assessments are carried out by people who do not know the claimant, and many illnesses are not adequately if at all covered by their vague questions. Many people have intermittent and varying symptoms and simply cannot answe

Debbie Smith

16/4/2016 07:39:09 pm

(followed on from previous comment)

simply cannot answer the questions, thus failing the assessment, only to have their money stopped when they appeal, with an attempt to get them to claim jobseeker's allowance, which is declaring themselves fit for work, setting them up for a failed appeal. It is a fact that most of the media exaggerates how many people fake being ill, so it is obvious that the best people to do these assessments are our doctors, who know us, and will be able to gauge their patient's ability to work or not. There are people who are terminally ill and who have been ill since birth who will not recover being forced to look for work, and as a result many are dying.
The ONLY thing that will result from forcing ill people into work instead of helping them live better lives, which could actually help them to improve their health enough to work, which is what most disabled people would love to be able to do (it is doubtful that more than a small few actually enjoy being unable to provide for themselves and their loved ones, that they are happy feeling like they are failing their children and grandchildren etc) is that they will deteriorate instead of being able to work, it will NOT incentivise the majority of them. Most disabled people feel like they already have a job, just keeping themselves alive from day to day. Even if disabled people begin to look for work, and many long-term sick do not have up to date work skills or the money or health to gain qualifications, many firms will take them on because they legally have to but will sack the employee if they take time off due to sickness or cannot carry out their jobs satisfactorily, which will result in them being sanctioned and refused benefits, beginning a vicious circle of debt, court cases, appeals, evictions, homelessness etc.
After three cancelled fit for work assessments over the last year and a half where the doctor didn't even turn up, I've received another one for the 26th April, and my anxiety levels have rocketed, and I am now on anxiety/depression tablets.
The first time I had pneumonia (around 2000) they told me I have hypogammaglobulinemia [hi-po-gam-ah-glob-u-lin-e´me-ah] which is abnormally low levels of all classes of immunoglobulins, associated with heightened susceptibility to infectious diseases. After many childhood illnesses and three bouts of Pneumonia, I was left with Bronchiectasis/partial deafness and COPD, and other regular symptoms from the medications I need, such as stomach problems, water infections, swollen glands, poor memory, poor concentration, and a dangerously low appetite. My health is at risk in a work place environment and my days are full of joint and chest pain and desperate attempts to improve my appetite. I have appointments coming up with a heart specialist, chest specialist, rheumatism specialist and have ongoing appointments with an ENT specialist as meningitis as a child and an assault a few years ago left me with partial deafness, and tinnitus and pain in one ear, but as nothing new is diagnosed they won't take it into account.
The last time I had a fit for work assessment, I failed it, and two minutes into my appeal they apologised to me, said they didn't know about my hearing, and that I had won my appeal. Although they told me they would strongly recommend I was not called back in, I'm now about to endure the whole ordeal again.
Their questions do not adequately cover anyone with an immune deficiency. I can't tell them categorically what I do and do not have, as the symptoms I have are very unpredictable. I could literally catch anything from anyone. Yet there's nothing on their questions to address this.
I'm terrified I'm going to end up evicted while the appeal goes through because I'm not willing to apply for Jobseeker's Allowance as that will state I am fit for work, regardless of their attempts to assure us that this would not affect our appeal. So I am going to have no income at all while I appeal, which would take months at least. my last appeal took over a year.
Also, last time I was at my wrag place they told me they were sending me back to the jobcentre because my time there was up. I've just received an appointment for the 18th April telling me that I've got to go in and start taking steps to go back to work or I'll lose my money. There's no way they will let me cancel if I'm ill, even though going into the Jobcentre will put my health at further risk if I have an infection, and if my stomach is playing up, they don't let you go to the toilet, and if they won't, I can see I'm going to get really pissed off with them, and I don't want to do that, for fear of sanctions.
There are many other factors, they are becoming too numerous to mention, and these things are only what one very worried disabled person has been able to list in one account. I suffer from hypogammaglobulinaemia (a primary immunodeficiency), copd and bronchiectasis, which means I am susceptible to anything I com

Debbie Smith

16/4/2016 07:41:03 pm

(followed on from previous comment)

I come into contact with, (not to mention the side-effects I suffer from my medication and how I am seriously underweight from so many illnesses including three bouts of pneumonia, one of which killed me and our wonderful NHS had to resuscitate me and induce a coma, from which I woke only 5 stone, with a tracheotomy and unable to move) and in the week of the budget I developed influenza, a severe chest infection and re-started anxiety/depression medication, the latter I fully believe is the fault of our government. This is making us ill because we feel we are the only ones fighting our corner.
Why are they not held accountable by law?
Who is going to stand up against them and bring the democracy back to the people?
Why can't we the people force a new general election?
Who is going to help us before it's too late?
Someone needs to do something to stop the class warfare and social cleansing."
Debbie Smith

Eileen

16/4/2016 07:42:58 pm

Thanks Debbie I will post that as a stand alone report later, probably Sunday morning and get it tweeted etc thanks

Debbie Smith

18/4/2016 09:33:36 am

Thanks Eileen, was a bit disconcerted when it wouldn't all fit.
Would you contact me with the link when you do please and take my comments off ?

Debbie Smith

Eileen

28/4/2016 11:32:55 am

Debbie Smith apologies would you still like me to post the above for you?

Debbie Smith

29/4/2016 02:06:31 pm

Hello Eileen, thank you for your comment. Yes I would appreciate it if you did. I haven't even received a reply from my local mp yet.

Debbie.

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.

Back from London protest Labour supporter gets her feet up

Leave a Reply.

Yourvoice

Archives

Categories