Green perspectives on Stockwood and Bristol. Mostly.

Saturday 26 March 2011

Marching for the Alternative



On the massive anti-cuts "March for the Alternative" today, I never made it to the Hyde Park speeches; the numbers were too great and the shuffle from the Embankment far too slow. And this is before the cuts really start biting.

The sheer scale of today's demonstration was enough to raise the spirits; looking across the river and seeing the packed crowds and their banners stretching along the Embankment was like the big antinuclear protests at the height of the Cold War.

And, like them, the life threatening issues that brought us together had inspired creativity and good humour too...






[Added] and one more, not-so-original, for Paul BemmyDown....

5 comments:

Paul Bemmy Down said...

I notice you have shown no posters stating "NO CUTS". What is Green Party policy?

Stockwood Pete said...

Hi Paul

I've added a photo as evidence!

There's a nice summary of Green Party policy in this letter from Caroline Lucas. I don't think it made it into the Indie, though.

Maybe we should have tried the Evening Post.

On second thoughts...

Paul Bemmy Down said...

Hi Pete. Far too big a subject to discuss here but basically, if you run your economy based on people buying what they don't need with money they don't have and you encourage them to borrow because you have abolished "boom and bust" and the good times are here forever, you will eventually reach a place called Stop which will not be pleasant. This is now post Stop and I can't see a painless way out!

The Bristol Blogger said...

No matter how much you would like it to be so, the fundamental problem is not consumerism or personal debt but banking and corporate debt, which our gormless politicians have turned into sovereign debt, which is now in crisis.

Paul said...

"No matter how much you would like it to be so". How do you know what I would like? Nothing to do with personel debt with over a trilliun owed on credit cards alone and people unable to pay their mortgages. I think that does play a part. The banks gambled with our money, and like all gamblers when winning, thought themselves very clever. Our politicians had no idea what their winning formula was but were not interested. Like all winning runs, they come to an end but the difference in these gamblers was it was not their money and it is so less painful to lose other peoples money than your own. They gambled our money whilst the Gov sat on it's hands. Thats two crimes in one. There is a saying "When boys have money they think they are men, when they are skint there boys again." These "boys" made us all skint.