Yesterday I was fortunate to be invited to a small protest march in Westminster in aid of furthering the cause of the 3 million #ExcludedUK group of people who have had no income or government support since the virus started.
I may well do a full post tomorrow but I thought I would share a few of the photos and tweets from prominent figures that day.
This is myself with Jamie Stone MP just outside Downing Street. Jamie has been a very prominent supporter of ours in Parliament and it was great to get to meet him and hopefully everyone I chatted with helps them understand the situation more.
A little later on I met Caroline Lucas who is an MP and Co-Leader for the Green Party. She always speaks very well in support of many oppressed groups and when she popped over, I took the opportunity to tell her briefly about my plight and make a joke of no-one recognising us with the masks on.
It’s particularly fitting as Chancellor Rishi Sunak has labelled us 3 million as unviable and not worthy of help and yet when I got home I received by certificate for Ye Olde England Tours which has been found by an independent organisation to be an extremely sustainable and ethical business and there aren’t many of those around are there? It’s nice to see a congratulations from Caroline, you’d think she would be something of an expert wouldn’t you!
Towards the end when many had dispersed I had the opportunity to listen and talk to Paul Scully who is a Conservative MP and Minister for London which amongst other things is obviously a hot bed of tourism and related industries.
As with my meeting with Oliver Dowden a few weeks ago, I think it helped him assess the situation and much credit should be given as he obviously didn’t have to come out and discuss anything with anyone.
From what I can tell, all the government ministers would like to help except for the one who is charge of financial issues, Rishi Sunak and it is interesting that they do read and reply to their social media whilst I have tweeted and written to Rishi and Boris hundreds of times but heard back nothing… I’m sure it must go noticed by someone though.
I know from my tours how we in the U.K. are almost unique in our ease of being able to meet, speak to and access our representatives and even government ministers and that is still a good and very special thing.
Pingback: The Excluded UK March – Westminster 30th September 2020 | Stephen Liddell