Yesterday afternoon my son and I were caught up in Parliament Square in London.
We took the train to London, first to attend a Traidcraft event being held at Amnesty International near Liverpool Street station, afterwards we decided to tour around London for a bit, like tourists.
My son suggested the Gherkin, Big Ben and Trafalgar Square, “because these are cool British landmarks.”
Once we got to Parliament Square at about 1.30pm, we were surprised to be surrounded by hundreds (soon became thousands) of people. Suddenly helicopters appeared, roads were closed, police were busy, and sophisticated filming equipment was prominent amongst selfie sticks in the crowd.
Someone told us excitedly that “Jeremy Corbyn will be here in a minute.” This activist told me the news that Jeremy Corbyn had just become the new leader of the Labour Party.
When I got back and listened to the BBC news and read the online news, I found the focus was about people marching through the streets of central London in a rally supporting the rights of refugees.
However the rally was not just about the ‘open the borders’ message.
Protesters were waving banners of all sorts. Messages included were: “Tell Cameron refugees welcome here”, “Don’t bomb Syria”, “Campaign for nuclear disarmament”, and some against child abuse.
The rally gave me and my son an opportunity to touch upon war, migration, refugees, compassion, and politics. The current crisis is saddening, but I would try to challenge my son to discuss the topics from different perspectives.
Here are some photographs I took yesterday, to show you a taste of the rally in London.
Did you get to see the Gherkin? Did you get to see the new leader of the Labour Party?
Strange how many different causes are being promoted in one rally.
Yes we walked along Shoreditch High Street and wandered around (following street maps) and managed to see stunning views of the Gherkin, and a few unsightly buildings, such as the Walkie Talkie buiding – London’s Walkie Talkie judged UK’s worst building – BBC News.
We didn’t see the new Labour Leader, as we decided to avoid the crowds and visited the Houses of Parliament instead. We had a 90 minute audio tour of the Houses of Parliament: £18 for me, and free for child under 15. Among other interesting historical things inside the building, we spotted the pigeonholes of Steve Brine MP, and Mims Davies, MP for Eastleigh Constituency. My son asked me why Ed Miliband’s pigeonhole was still there. “I thought he had gone?” “Yes, son, the new Labour leader is now just outside of this building!”
That’s a great picture of the Gherkin. They say it contrasts too much with its surroundings. There are the surroundings in the foreground. Do we want more of those untidy and shabby jumble of old buildings?
I have seen the Walkie-Talkie building from a distance and it does not look too bad. I wondered how the architects had got round the problem of having a hot track where the sun would be focussed by the concave glass south facing front. Now we know that they hadn’t even thought of it. If they had done O level science, they would have.