The People's Assembly March against Austerity in London

Photos by Stefan Rousseau

The anti-austerity march in London to-day has attracted tens of thousands of people wielding banners with slogans, expletive-filled placards and pig effigies.

Protesters descended on central London in hundreds of coaches on Saturday to voice their outrage at the cuts imposed on public services by David Cameron and his government.

Anti-austerity protesters: 'why we want David Cameron to resign'

“No ifs, not buts, no public sector cuts” and “Dodgy Dave get out, we know what you’re all about” were among the chants demonstrators bellowed as they marched from the University of Central London to Trafalgar Square.

Beneath Nelson’s Column, the swelling crowd, estimated by some as being over 50,000-strong, carried banners reading: “Get the Tory Twats Out” and “Cut War Not Welfare”.

Diane Abbott the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington said: “Fighting austerity is the political struggle of our time. It is austerity that is the real threat to the NHS. It is austerity which is stopping local authorities building homes. It is austerity that is forcing people out of work and into zero hours contracts.”

Chris Nineham of Stop the War Coalition said: “Austerity is not about economic necessity, it is a political choice.”

Statues celebrating the acheivements of women in the UK are rare.

A new campaign by Labour and Education secretary Nicky Morgan wants to change that - and are starting to address the imbalance by lobbying for a statue of Mary Wollstonecraft.
Her work, included the 1792  A Vindication of the Rights of Women,  had a revolutionary effect on feminism and political thought.

Engineering Fear, Anger and Hate !

Photo - Meike van Schijndel

Trump meets Jagger meets Duchamp at Belushi's sports bar in Paris

Banksy's latest art work reveals the use of teargas in Calais - the largest refugee camp in Western Europe

Photo Carl Court Getty Images
Banksy - The artwork, painted opposite the French Embassy in Knightsbridge, depicts a young girl from the film and musical Les Misérables with tears in her eyes as CS gas billows towards her, appeared overnight on Saturday 23January 2016
In a first for the elusive graffiti artist, the artwork is interactive and includes a stencilled QR code beneath. If viewers hold their phone over the code, it links them to an online video of a police raid on the camps on 5 January.

The work is the latest in a series of pieces by the graffiti artist criticising Europe’s handling of the refugee crisis It is a direct comment on the recent attempts by French authorities to bulldoze part of the camp in Calais – which has now been deemed unsafe – and evict about 1,500 refugees.

Banksy - on wall of 'the Jungle' refugee camp in Calais depicts the late Steve Jobs (the founder of Apple) with a black bin bag thrown over one shoulder and an old Macintosh computer in his hand.

Banksy commented on this work “We’re often led to believe migration is a drain on the country’s resources but Steve Jobs was the son of a Syrian migrant. Apple is the world’s most profitable company, it pays over $7bn (£4.6bn) a year in taxes – and it only exists because they allowed in a young man from Homs.”

Banksy - refugee girl looking through telescope from Calais toward Britain.

Winter in Somerset - UK

  

Sheep grazing on the ancient Somerset site of Burrow

The Festive Season in Britain

Jeremy Corbyn's first Christmas card as Labour leader, which features a photo of a snow-covered bicycle  - PA
Jeremy Corbyn’s Christmas card has provoked more interest than the self-serving images many politicians inflict on recipients. David Cameron’s card features a photograph of himself, looking very important, with Samantha, outside No 10 in weather that suggests the photograph was taken in spring or summer.

Tim Peake: First UK astronaut now on The International Space Station.

“What an incredible ride to space yesterday — Soyuz felt so smooth & powerful. Yuri did outstanding job getting us safely docked.”
The Soyuz is the Russian spacecraft that carried Major Peake and his colleagues up to the International Space Station during a six-hour flight. Yuri is Major Peake’s colleague, Yuri Malenchenko, who was also on board the Soyuz.

Miami Five victory: Court of Appeal rules that Rene Gonzalez can come to Britain.

Photo from The Morning Star - Rene Gonzalez and Gerardo Hernandez

JUDGES overruled the Home Office yesterday after it tried to block a member of the Miami Five from visiting Britain to engage in talks about Cuba-US relations in the Commons.
US-born Rene Gonzalez was refused a visitor’s visa twice last year after he was invited by MPs to speak at the International Commission of Inquiry into the Five as a key witness.

Now, Court of Appeal judges decided that the refusals breach the freedom to receive and impart information under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
The judges also refused to let the Home Office appeal against their decision at the Supreme Court.

Cuba Solidarity Campaign director Rob Miller told the Star: “This is fantastic news and it’s about time that common sense prevails.
“We look forward to welcoming Mr Gonzalez, the other four heroes — Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino, Fernando Gonzalez and Antonio Guerrero — and their families in Britain as soon as possible.”
Mr Miller spoke from Cuba, where he is with Mr Gonzalez to discuss how and when he will travel to Britain to meet MPs.

A group of 28 MPs — including Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and shadow chancellor John McDonnell — intervened in the legal battle last year by writing to judges to state that the Home Office was violating the ECHR.
Also, 126 MPs signed a parliamentary motion in 2012 calling for Mr Gonzalez’s visitation rights.

‘We are all in this together’ Conservative Party – UK

Photo from The Canary - The cabinet elite.

We’re all in this together is a common phrase Conservative party MPs like to use. But we are not all in this together. Here are the reasons why:
1. 53% of the cabinet was was privately educated. Yet only 7% of the UK population goes to private school.
The cuts the Tories want to make in education will impact upon the huge majority, students in state schools. With less than half of the cabinet attending state schools, it is easy to see why they are so out of touch.
2. 50% of the UK cabinet attended the Oxbridge universities.
Also, the prime minister and the chancellor were both members of the Bullingdon Club – a drinking club for the wealthiest students at Oxford University. It is claimed that one of the “pranks” members of the Bullingdon Club partake in is burning £50 notes in front of homeless people.
Considering their privileged upbringing, it is hard to fathom how the government can have sympathy with ordinary students. They’ve already lumbered students with fees of £9,000 and may yet increase them.
3. The UK has a cabinet that is two thirds male.
Cameron’s cabinet is not reflective of the British public. Maybe if there was a higher representation of women, the government would have had the guts to change the “tampon tax’  from luxury to essential.  Instead, women will continue to pay tax on an item they have no choice in buying.
4. 96% of the government is white, compared to 86% of the general population. These figures may go some way to explaining why the Conservative statement from the home secretary, Theresa May, who said it was “impossible to build a cohesive society” with high immigration.
In 2013, an84 year old man died after being held in shackles for five hours by UK immigration officials. A recent inquest said May’s “home office rules” were to blame.
5. Cameron is unable to answer Jeremy Corbyn’s questions, sent in by ordinary people who them answered, at Prime Minister’s Questions.
Cameron would not confirm that his planned tax credit cuts would not make people worse off from April 2016, even though he knows ordinary people will suffer.
6. It appears the Conservative party is so out of touch with Scottish people that it may well end the union. The English votes for English laws (Evel) legislation will fundamentally change the nature of “one member one vote’, with Scottish MPs claiming they will be second-class MPs.
7.  Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, also promised that junior doctors would not get a pay cut. He was forced to back track on this promise, because junior doctors working longer hours will receive a pay cut.
Since then he has claimed junior doctors will get an 11% pay rise. Once again he has been proven wrong, being accused of “manipulating the figures’  because most junior doctors will get a real terms cut of 26%.
Yet Cameron backed the MPs’ pay rise of 10% by saying: you’re paid a rate for the job and you should take the rate for the job. This is despite the fact Cameron has enforced public sector pay being capped at 1% for the next four years.

The platitude “we’re all in this together” is simply not true. If we were in this together, equality would be entrenched in society. Instead, the rich are getting richer, while the poor are getting even poorer.

Millbrook walk to Maker Heights 31-10-2015

Cemetery Chapel

Shortcut through Millbrook Cemetery


Minnadhu – Kingsand

Plymouth Sound viewed from Kingsand


A glorious day!






Beehives hidden within old gunnery – Maker Heights

Devonian strata - red soil – Maker Heights


L-R  Millbrook Lake(old Millpond) Dam and Estuary

St Germans to Penryn by train - Cornwall

Nut Tree Hill St Germans

St Germans Station


St Germans Station - old Railway Carriage as holiday let.

Estuary to Falmouth Harbour.


Cottage near Penryn

Micheal Meacher Labour MP – 4 November 1939 – 20 October 2015

VETERAN Labour left MP Michael Meacher died yesterday aged 75, following a short illness.

An ally of the late Tony Benn, Mr Meacher was a member of the Socialist Campaign Group of left-wing Labour MPs.
  His green campaigning, including attacks on genetically modified (GM) food, were an increasing thorn in the side of former Labour PM Tony Blair.
  One of Mr Meacher’s proudest achievements as environment minister was the extension of the right to roam, which opened vast swathes of land in England and Wales to walkers.

  Micheal Meacher was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominate Jeremy Corbyn as a candidate for the Labour leadership after Ed Miliband stepped down in May.
  In support of the Jeremy Corbyn,  Meacher hailed his victory as giving the Labour right wing “a very real threat that they’ve not encountered for the last 30 years.”
  He also called for Lord Mandelson to be thrown out of the party for urging Mr Corbyn’s overthrow.

   Paying his respects, shadow chancellor John McDonnell said: “Michael Meacher dedicated his life to the Labour Party and all that we stand for.
  Jeremy Corbyn said “Had Michael’s calls for banking regulation been properly heeded, we might have been in a very different place”
  Unite general secretary Len McCluskey described Mr Meacher as “a tremendous figure in the labour movement” and “a true friend of the trade union movement.”
  Friends of the Earth head Craig Bennett said: “As environment minister, he really understood the issues and fought hard for them, often in challenging political circumstances.”
  Micheal Meacher increased his majority in May’s general election to 14,738.

Whitsands cliff path via Rame Head to Cawsand – 13-10-2015

Wiggle Farm

Whitsands Bay


Ivy flower and Honey suckle berries.                        Honey suckle, second flowering.

Polawn Beach

Polawn Cottages

Rame Head

Rame Church – circa 1256
      
Unusual slate constructed spire.  
Rame Church Cemetery.

Kingsand view from Cawsand.