The Hardest Hit

Betrayed

Relax. Impossible to do with The Coalition attack on benefits

I took these photos of Brian in his pomp in November 2004 when Kate interviewed him

All I had with me at the time was a Canon G5 but it did the job

Stop!

Read the mirror in the reception to find out what makes life worth living…

• Being with other people
• Swimming
• Listening to songs
• Dancing to music
• Bingo
• Walking the dog

Simple really. Except the service users will certainly lose some of these things we take for granted. More from Kate soon.

Another faceless service user

Heartbreaking

In order to ‘save’ money Shropshire County Council has earmarked this unique centre for closure with no alternative for the users except, in their own words, to condemn us to staring at the four walls of our own room. Heartbreaking. But how unexpected is that?

Meanwhile, the tory council can find £80,000 for the refurbishment of the Shire Hall in Shrewsbury. WTF?

More details can be found at Hangbitching, including just how difficult the council made it for us to talk to the people in the centre. As if the heavy snowfall didn’t make access hard enough…

This is part of an ongoing project that is taking us round the country looking at the effects the tory/libdem coalition public sector cuts have on service users.

Hanging you out to dry
Tories. Huntin’, shootin’ -> YOU

Get angry

Fair trade starts at home

Today @hangbitch posted Fair trade starts at home:

Last week, 35 deluded business leaders wrote to the Telegraph to praise George Osborne’s cruel spending review.

I’m joining those who have decide to boycott every single company that those business leaders represent.

Rather than paraphrase, read the article & comments and return…

What has this got to do with photography?

For me, two of these companies are relevant to my work. Microsoft UK & Expansys.

Modern photography needs infrastructure, particularly computers and operating systems.

I’ve written before about Microsoft. Personally I’ve tried to be Microsoft free since the late 1980s. I used Linux from when it was only available of 17 floppy disks if you didn’t have a SCSI CDROM (Slackware anyone? Still around. SCSI less so thankfully). OS/2 too, even though at that time, IBM (or ‘Big Blue’) was the de jour personification of evil. Well, we all know what happened to OS/2, but Linux continues to grow. The installation of Ubuntu is arguably easier and quicker that Windows 7.

Currently I’m a bit lazy & use Photoshop & Lightroom inside a virtual machine running Windows 7. From now on I’ll try a little harder to use native Linux tools such as The Gimp and Raw Therapee and dump the vestiges of Microsoft. The (long) list of reasons not to use Microsoft just got a +1 (like it needed any more!)

But Expansys… They sell phones and computers and I have spent money with them in the past. As recently as last month. Most notably phones, but laptops too. Previously I’ve recommended them to clients. I will no longer be doing so. It will be a drop in the ocean, but if more people do so the same at least that droplet will get bigger. That is what this is all about. I will tell my clients why I won’t recommend them too.

I will also email Expansys to tell them that they would have had mine and my clients’ money but for the contempt their CEO is showing for their customer base (me).

On the one hand, publicly supporting the coalition’s CSR via the letter in the Telegraph, while behind the scenes, they are among those 35 companies laying thousands of people off and/or telling grim tales about the realities of lie of the fiscal land.

I’m guessing that Harvey Nichols may be safe from my boycott (I have been known to stroke the clothes), but Boots? Boots is a good target for me. ASDA & M&S I refuse to use anyway.

Vodafone

And let us not forget Vodafone, not on the list, but sliding out of paying £6bn (yes 6 billion) of unpaid taxes by doing a deal with HMRC. Likewise in India too, trying to wriggle out of a $2.5bn tax bill. One thing is for sure, I’ll never use Vodafone. What a bunch of fuckers. How far would that £6bn go? (Clue, the answer is that the CSR identifies ITRO of £7bn saving to be found from the public sector). How dare they?

Take direct action against Vodfone

Double Irish & Dutch Sandwich

While on the subject of tax ‘avoidance’, ok, let us not beat about the bush, tax evasion,  take a look at how Google & others (Microsoft, Facebook, Apple etc) wriggle out of it by moving profits through Ireland and the Netherlands (Bloomberg). $60 billion lost in the US. Eye-watering sums indeed. A simpler version is at The Register.

But lets us all remember: We. Are. In. This. Together. Repeat.

What utter bollocks

Do Your Bit

Join in the boycott. Visit http://boycott35.com. Re-tweet this article, re-tweet @hangbitch‘s article, follow @boycott35 on twitter, blog about it etc etc. Don’t buy from these companies. Get angry.

The brands:

• Next
• ASDA
• Microsoft UK
• Mothercare
• Carphone Warehouse Group
• TalkTalk Telecom Group
• Alliance Boots
• Marks & Spencer
• Ocado
• Dunelm Group
• L.K. Bennett
• Kingfisher
• SSL International
• moneysupermarket.com
• Britvic
• Towergate
• Dhillon Group
• Arup
• ARM Holdings
• GlaxoSmithKline
• Reed Elsevier
• Tullow Oil
• UMECO
• Prestbury Group
• BT Group
• MITIE Group
• Lovefilms.com
• The Betting Group
• Hammerson
• AVEVA
• ASOS
• Inmarsat
• Fuller
• Smith and Turner
• Veetee
• Sage
• Diageo
• Robert Walters
• Harvey Nichols
• Expansys
• Stonehaven Associates
• Yell Group

The names:

• Will Adderley, CEO, Dunelm Group
• Robert Bensoussan, Chairman, L.K. Bennett
• Andy Bond, Chairman, ASDA
• Ian Cheshire, Chief Executive, Kingfisher
• Gerald Corbett, Chairman, SSL International, moneysupermarket.com, Britvic
• Peter Cullum, Executive Chairman, Towergate
• Tej Dhillon, Chairman and CEO, Dhillon Group
• Philip Dilley, Chairman, Arup
• Charles Dunstone, Chairman, Carphone Warehouse Group, Chairman, TalkTalk Telecom Group
• Warren East, CEO, ARM Holdings
• Gordon Frazer, Managing Director, Microsoft UK
• Sir Christopher Gent, Non-Executive Chairman, GlaxoSmithKline
• Ben Gordon, Chief Executive, Mothercare
• Anthony Habgood, Chairman, Whitbread, Chairman, Reed Elsevier
• Aidan Heavey, Chief Executive, Tullow Oil
• Neil Johnson, Chairman, UMECO
• Nick Leslau, Chairman, Prestbury Group
• Ian Livingston, CEO, BT Group
• Ruby McGregor-Smith, CEO, MITIE Group
• Rick Medlock, CFO, Inmarsat; Non-Executive Director lovefilms.com, The Betting Group
• John Nelson, Chairman, Hammerson
• Stefano Pessina, Executive Chairman, Alliance Boots
• Nick Prest, Chairman, AVEVA
• Nick Robertson, CEO, ASOS
• Sir Stuart Rose, Chairman, Marks & Spencer
• Tim Steiner, CEO, Ocado
• Andrew Sukawaty, Chairman and CEO, Inmarsat
• Michael Turner, Executive Chairman, Fuller, Smith and Turner
• Moni Varma, Chairman, Veetee
• Paul Walker, Chief Executive, Sage
• Paul Walsh, Chief Executive, Diageo
• Robert Walters, CEO, Robert Walters
• Joseph Wan, Chief Executive, Harvey Nichols
• Bob Wigley, Chairman, Expansys, Stonehaven Associates, Yell Group
• Simon Wolfson, Chief Executive, Next

Email addresses for the above welcomed

Back in the day (early 1980′s) I spent (quite a lot of) time protesting outside Lambeth Town Hall supporting a Labour council who fought Thatcher’s cuts tooth and nail.

Here we are, nearly thirty years later, outside another Town Hall, outraged that a Labour council is rolling over on its back to implement the Tory cuts as painlessly as possible for the coalition government. Fuckers. This isn’t why Lewisham council got the Labour vote in the recent elections.

Megaphone photos are obligatory…

I turned up with the vintage Nikon F4, which seemed appropriate somehow for such a back-to-the-future protest. And it wasn’t working as it should. The winding mechanism in the old warhorse is obviously feeling its age and slipping. Like me really.

Bemused of Lewisham

Not happy people

For such short notice there was a decent turnout with several unions represented. The NUT organised the rally, and I saw GMB, Unison, Unite, PCS and others represented (and NUJ if I include myself as a [non-]partial observer), plus the Green Party, SWP (quelle surprise) and Labour Party. Goldmiths too.

I knew the winder on the F4 was fucked when I looked at the counter and somehow had only shot 15 frames. I knew I had pressed the shutter release more times than that! However, the results could have been worse. Sometimes double/triple/quadruple/quintuple exposures are lucky accidents:

This my personal take on the protest. It is hard to be objective in your own back yard.

More coverage of the protest, interviews with local people affected by the cuts and videos by Hangbitch

(Usual disclaimer not applicable)

2008

November 2003.  George Bush visits Tony Blair. Many are unhappy with the visit and turned out in force to say NO.

Taken last year at the Gaza protests.

The photo makes me laugh though.