Fragments

A year since Putin's invasion of Ukraine began.  Such devastation.
When we saw Suzanne Vega perform last week in Buxton, she sang a  song about Mariupol. I see that, in the comments underneath this YouTube version, there are many from Ukrainians, some remembering Mariupol before it was bombed to bloody pieces.  Here's the song, my way of marking the day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YYhJ9QykAY

Otherwise... I spent a useful morning with the researcher and director who are working on the 3 programmes that Channel 4 has commissioned about the 1984 Miners' Strike. I had archive material to hand over from the civil liberties monitoring work I was involved in, and we also had some long discussions about the strike itself, and the context for policing, both then and now.  They asked about how our local civil liberties group (Sheffield Policewatch) had started, and I mentioned the role of the local Trades Council. "What's a Trades Council", asked Christian, the director. He was 6 when the strike took place, and so doesn't remember the days when trade unions - and Trades Councils, as local umbrella bodies, with elected TU delegates - were a solid part of local institutional life. While it's odd to find yourself discussing your own past as 'history', the dialogue was good, and the plans for the programmes themselves are excellent. 

Today's image has no direct connection with any of this...! Locally there's an initiative to create a little art trail, including painting the various electrical junction boxes that sit on some street corners. This is early work in progress on our nearest one.  There'll be more to come.....