H&F Hospitals: Funeral parade

Coffins bearing the names of local hospitals set to be downgraded, including the complete loss of Accident & Emergency services, were carried through the streets on Saturday in what was hailed by Ealing Council to have been the largest ever march in that borough. I have no idea what the competition to that was, but it was a well attended march with several thousand joining the throng as it wound its way from Acton Park up to Ealing Common.

scary rides

As ever with these things there was the comedy element, as Ealing Common is currently shared with a children's funfair. So as speakers regaled the crowd with what would be the horrors of life without A&E, there were blood curdling screams coming from the next door fairground, as kids were spun and propelled around on terrifying looking rides.



But the messages were very serious and quite clear - we are not accepting these cuts, and we are not going away. That last point will not have been lost on our own Council, who it turned out had been negotiating with the bureaucrats even as they professed to be members of the Save our Hospitals campaign.

They have since produced several glossy leaflets, hand delivered at great cost to every household, to justify that decision. As the local elections approach, you can expect more glossy leaflets.

You can also see what people think of those claims in the video above, which was taken at a public meeting in Hammersmith last month - it's worth watching to the end as Peter Graham from the Council valiantly sets out their case, to be followed by a pithy response from a local.

There will be more marches, protests and rallies with the next being a London-wide event taking place on May 18th, bringing campaigners from across the capital together at Jubilee Gardens in Waterloo.

More on that from the campaign website here.