This was a photo that I felt more or less summed up the march by doctors and teachers on the first day of the two-day strike by Junior Doctors’ last April.
From the banner at top left with its message ‘stand together‘, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, the poster ‘NUT says Teachers Support Junior Doctors’, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and supporters including a ‘Save Our Hospitals’ camapaigner carrying a large teddy dressed in surgical gear.
It perhaps could have been clearer in showing that the NUT poster was on the back of a wheelchair – and my framing at left has cut off the face of a well-known disabled activist and speaker, World of Inclusion and Coordinator UK Disability History Month Richard Rieser – but his presence would have drawn attention away from the rest of the image. You can see him in a lower image on this page.
Missing from it were NUT deputy general secretary Kevin Courtney and Johann Malawana chair of the Junior Doctors Committee, shown in the second image, but you can’t have everything.
What isn’t clear in these pictures is the pushing and shoving from a few misguided stewards and other photographers that made getting some of these pictures at the front of the march difficult.
But there was one photographer who didn’t get hassled by stewards – John McDonnell taking a picture of one the marchers with Jeremy Corbyn.
The pavement opposite Downing St where there was a rally was also very crowded, and it was difficult to move around. There were plenty of good speeches and I was able to get some reasonable pictures of most of the speakers, but photographing people in the crowd was more difficult.
It was quite an interesting list of speakers, including both Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell as well as Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka, Vivienne Westwood, Vanessa Redgrave, several junior doctors and others, as well as NUT Deputy General Secretary Kevin Courtney (above) who later used one of my pictures of him in his election campaign to become NUT General Secretary. I was pleased that he won, though I can’t really take much credit for the victory.
More at:
Downing St rally for Junior Doctors
Doctors & Teachers march together
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