Marching with the NUJ on the TUC anti-austerity march

On Saturday 20 October, Brighton Trades Council chartered a train up to London for the TUC's 'A future that works' demo and the NUJ Brighton Branch reserved a part of a carriage. We were meeting up at 9am, which is early for me, but I made the rendezvous, with my folding bike, and we marched through the gates of Brighton station onto the platform where a former Gatwick Express was awaiting. Bum, I thought, no bike provision! So we piled in a first-class carriage and I folded the bike up. There was a jolly atmosphere on the train, with people handing out leaflets, whistles and newspapers. When we arrived at Victoria, it was a longish walk to the Embankment where the march was to start. We'd been advised to join from the back (the NUJ was with the 'entertainment unions' nearly at the end) and it was a shame the train hadn't dropped us off at Blackfriars.



Ah well, the roads were deserted and I was able to cycle. Victoria Street, Parliament Square and Whitehall were all devoid of traffic in readiness for the march. Soon all the other Brightonians had disappeared (down the Strand?), and I was left with Nick - we made the mistake of heading down to the Embankment! There was the head of the march taking up both lanes of the road and the pavements! Nick headed up onto the bridge to take some snaps and I tried to push my way to the back of the march to join our group. To no avail. I had to settle for hiding behind a tree and watching the march go by - but I was able to see it all and take some photos. The noise was unbearable - horrid plastic vuvuzelas and whistles mainly, with the odd brass band, samba drummers and jazz combos thrown in.



I'd filled my flask with miso soup, so took the opportunity to take lunch as the march unfolded: the red of Unite, the purple of Unison, the great banners of the railway unions, and spotted some great placards and slogans, 'pleb' being the word of the day. I was also intrigued to see an artwork by Bob and Roberta Smith being carried along. There's some more info about it here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/oct/19/bob-roberta-smith-art-michael-gove. There is also a competition for the best banner or slogan here: http://makethemarch.org.uk.



Over an hour after the start time of 12 noon, I saw some green NUJ flags and joined in, on up to Parliament Square, right into Whitehall, past Downing Street and Horseguard's Parade, past Trafalgar Square, left up to Piccadilly Circus and along Piccadilly to Hyde Park.



The speeches had been going for a while, I'd missed Ed Miliband being booed, the ground was soggy, so after a couple of text messages I met up with Nick and headed to the Serpentine Cafe to join some Clarionettes who'd been marching behind a brass band. After a strange cup of tea with extra large teabag (I decanted half of it into my flask for later), I got on my bike and cycled to Victoria through London traffic with my rescued Unison flag, to catch the 17.08 back to Brighton. This time I found a disabled space for my bike and didn't see any of my chums until we got to Brighton station, where it was raining on the way home. More photos on Flickr.

 

“Mr. Blake is the actual bloke at the Royal College of Useful Knowledge” - Ian Dury - Blog - Brighton Illustrators Group

“Mr. Blake is the actual bloke at the Royal College of Useful Knowledge” - Ian Dury - Blog - Brighton Illustrators Group - David O'Connor's photo of me to illustrate the review of the Pallant House, Chichester Peter Blake exhibition.

Great Central Railway

They all laughed when I said I was going on a city break to Loughborough, but it was true. I've mopped up most of the attractive coastal heritage railways, so it was time to go inland and the Great Central Railway boasts the only mainline double track stretch of rail in the UK. The journey there was quite spectacular too, from upstairs at St Pancras on the East Midlands line. I was going to be a delegate at the NUJ conference in Newcastle so took the opportunity to spend a day at their Autumn Steam Gala, on the Thursday. I wouldn't see all the locos in steam, but there again it wouldn't be as crowded as the weekend.



I spent the Wednesday night at the Premier Inn on a £29 deal (no breakfast), which was fine, with a meal and a couple of pints at the Moon & Bell, a Wetherspoons pub, then on Thursday morning set off for Loughborough GCR station (the mainline station is a way out of town and had to take a bus to the town centre). A kind porter let me leave my case in the porters' room (he also gave me a lift to the main station later) so I had a cup of tea in the buffet while I was waiting for the first train out at 10.30, pulled by GWR pannier tank 9466 in black BR livery. I went all the way to Leicester North then back to Rothley, where I alighted to await the 4-4-0 Schools Class 925 Cheltenham, painted in malachite green, heading back to Leicester.  I travelled on to Quorn and Woodlouse (sorry, Woodhouse) this time and went to look at the cosy NAAFI tea room and the new Butler-Henderson Bistro, but there were no Quorn pies to be had anywhere!



Then an unexpected treat. There was announcement that there'd be a demonstration of the new turntable. And which loco should turn up, but Cheltenham. The demo was not without mishap, with lots of precise movements back and forth to get the balance right, but it was eventually turned round by manpower and chuffed back to Loughborough. By now the timetable was about half an hour behind, so jumped on the pannier-hauled 1.36 and had a cup of tea and a toasted teacake in the buffet car.



Back at Loughborough I had a wander down to the shed, where a diesel was shuffling four steam locos: the fictional crimson 8F 48624, the twins 78019 and 46521 and a jinty 47406. Just outside the shed was 777 Sir Lamiel in steam. Also parked up outside were the blue King Edward II and GNR tank 1744. Now the GCR let you wander into the shed, subject to a small donation, and there I could see various locos in various states of restoration, but didn't want to delve too deep as there were lots of scary oily pits around. I went back to the station to watch Cheltenham run around the train and eventually take it out heading for Leicester. Strange to see so many Southern locos in the midlands. Coincidentally, on the way back from Newcastle I spotted the GCR black 5 45305 outside York railway museum.



And what of Loughborough itself? Well, it has some fine Art Deco buildings and two Wetherspoon pubs, so what more could you ask, and the weather was too good, the sun getting in the way of better photographs! More on Flickr.