12.00 Noon Saturday 26 May 2012. Listergate, Nottingham

It was a very hot and sunny day.  People gathered under the shade of the trees opposite Topshop in Listergate, Nottingham

Leaflets handed out, speeches were made, childrens faces got painted, ballons blown up, [but kept exploding]. Cakes and samosas got eaten. Party games were played including musical statues and pass the parcel. A policeman drove past, but didn't join in. Aside from the booked sound system, were were also entertained by a passing Mariachi Band ........ splendid.  Security guards at stand-too in nearby shop doorways looked on and appeared concerned.

Uncut Leaflet Words

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Let’s go on a journey back in time to the year 1948…

Britain was emerging from a World War and had a huge national debt. Much bigger than the one we face today. Did we see painful cut backs and austerity measures?

No, quite the opposite. We saw the birth of our National Health Service and the Welfare State. The UK was the first country to make health care, social care and financial security accessible to all.

1948 saw the launch of ground-breaking new laws designed to protect and care for everybody in our society, including universal unemployment benefits, universal child benefits, disability benefits, rights to housing and the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

1948 – a year when the Olympics were last in town and – at last – the people of Britain were looking forward to the future.

Britain back then really was ‘all in this together’. The future looked better than the past. So, we partied in the streets and dreamt of what we could achieve as people and as a country.

Fast forward to 2012 and things feel rather different. The government is not playing fair: its spending cuts are the deepest for decades and it's cheating ordinary people by forcing them to suffer for an economic crisis they didn’t cause.

The government is also lying: it actively enables big business to dodge tax and slashes tax rates for the wealthy. Right now, for us, for ordinary people in this country, the future’s not what it used to be.

So now is the time to party like it was 1948. Street parties are going to be all the rage for the Queen’s Jubilee. But let’s make ours have a twist.

On Saturday 26th May join UK Uncut’s Great British Street Party to demand that we keep our public services, our rights and our welfare system and to celebrate a new future that isn’t dictated to us by a handful of millionaires but decided by us all – together.

Join us in Nottingham for our Great British Street Party. We will have music, face painting, food from Veggies, traditional street party games and much, much more. 1940's dress optional, all donations of party food to share are very welcome.

Contact email: nottsuncutaction@gmail.com

Notts-Uncut Part-of UK-Uncut

http://www.facebook.com/NottsUncut

 

Nottingham City Council Budget £20m Cuts Protest

http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/2455

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ALAN LODGE 

Photographer - Media: One Eye on the Road. Nottingham.  UK

Email:                 tash@indymedia.org

Web:                   http://digitaljournalist.eu

Member of the National Union of Journalists [NUJ]

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"It is not enough to curse the darkness.

                                   It is also necessary to light a lamp!!"

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