Monday 16 October 2008: 100 years ago to the day Emmeline Pankhurst and the Suffragettes stormed the Houses of Parliament to demand the women’s vote. In 2008 it was the turn of the environmentalists.
Inside the house Prime Minister Gordon Brown was still trying to defend the failed act to enforce 42-day detention without charge for terror suspects. This does not take into account the foreign nationals still locked down, some for seven years or more without charge, in our own Guatanamo Human Rights void Belmarsh prison.
Outside police, who seemed to be caught unawares, despite the action to storm parliament being announced several days earlier across the Internet, battled to hold back the huge crowds of peaceful demonstrators.
Yet again we see little to no news coverage of the dissent on the streets, on the television or in the newspapers. It would seem to this journalist, considering the historical link to the day, the image of UK citizens storming their own parliament, this should have made it out there.
But as the stock market dropped yet again, the short-term confidence holding for about 24-hours, this, as with last Friday’s March On The City, will drift off into the history books, with most outside the activist or environmentalist world not even knowing it happened. As someone said to me today, history does not always make the six O’clock news.
All stills taken from video. All material on this blog – stills, video and print – is (c) Jason N. Parkinson 2008. All Rights Reserved.
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