On the bus

I found myself on the top of the NUT (National Union of Teachers) bus in the Pride London parade - here's a view of the section of the parade which included the unions.  It was the first time I'd had the chance to take photos from the top of a bus and the views were just mind-blowing.  Apparently there were around 30,000 people taking part and it was wonderful to be part of something which was so joyous.  It also reinforced, to me, how fortunate we are here in the UK to be able to hold parades such as this and to demonstrate like we did last weekend.  I read somewhere that in Istanbul the police turned water cannon on people celebrating Pride ....

I wasn't expecting to be at Pride, however, as I'd gone down to London to attend a conference called 'Dangerous Times' with two friends.  The conference was billed as 'a weekend of subversive ideas which investigates a world in turmoil and debates ways to change the world' - I'll post about this on Sunday.

The change of plan came about after the first session when my chums announced 'Right, let's park our bags 'cos we're off to Pride'.  My friend Nick (you can see him in an 'extra' photo) is a teacher and just matter-of-factly said 'We need to find the NUT bus because I'm supposed to be on it.  You two are as well if you like'. 

It mattered not that me and Jan were neither teachers or lesbians, apparently, but I did feel a bit odd waving back in response to the loads of people who were waving and blowing kisses and shouting 'ooooh! Teachers!'

The full set of photos can be seen here and in 'extras' there's a photo of Miss Rae who I spotted purely by accident!