UK Election 2015 – time for a major change

With the UK general election almost upon us isn’t time that we had some radical changes? Here are some to think about:

1. Empty properties in London and other major cities, if they are not being lived in by the owners for more than a month per year then the local councils have the right to rent them out at affordable rents to people. This would stop the one percent using our cities and homes as investment vehicles.

2. Corporations, all corporations in retail, food, clothing and entertainment to be limited. Let’s put individuality, small owners, family businesses back into the running of our cities.

3. Commercial property owners of retail space, cap and reduce the rent they can charge allowing non corporate businesses to start and flourish.

I’m sure that there are a few more that we can think of to divide up the wealth in a fairer way.

Let’s break the chains that bind us the ninety nine percent.

Advertisement

Emily Galton Exhibition Carnegie Library Herne Hill Lambeth London

We went to a private viewing of the work of Emily Galton last night currently on show at the Carnegie Library in Herne Hill, South London. This is a link to the library http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/places/carnegie-library. And this is link to Emily http://www.emilygalton.co.uk/.

Now If I Was A Betting Man

Fortunately for me I’m not. It looks very enticing at times in that somebody has to win but invariably there has to be a lot of losers as well for there to be a big winner. My partner took this photo of some very good street art in the East End of London. It is a very detailed piece of work and is a play on a well known chain of betting shops in the UK. Copyright Paul Andrews and Caroline Schmutz, http://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk

Bus Station Art – Spare Parts from old Buses Coro Venezuela

I’m sure that if you welded together a load of scrap iron and then painted it in the UK or some other countries and displayed it somewhere that you would get paid a fortune for what your average trainee welder probably gets paid a pittance for. Yes, I know I’m very cynical. Maybe in Coro, Venezuela where this photo  was taken the person or persons who created this wonderful piece of work were too or maybe they were just paid for doing a decent day’s work like the rest of us. Art is for everyone isn’t it? We did think however that at the time there was very little difference between the buses running and the ones hanging on the wall. On one bus we experienced a dramatic bang from some suspension component failing. The trouble was that the used part that they replaced it with didn’t look all that different from the component being removed. But that’s how a lot of the world still works. Copyright Junagarh Media, http://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk.

Cuban band playing on a Sunday morning

I’m hoping that with the thaw in relations between Cuba and the US that they won’t lose too much of the many good things that go with their alternative system of government. They have considering their GDP such amazing health and education systems and as in this photo  a lot of natural talent in the arts. This was taken in Parque Serafin Sanchez in the Cuban city of Sancti Spiritus on a sunny Sunday morning. On one of our previous trips there was already a very low quality American film being played on the bus journey we took between two cities. This is already the case all over South America so we can only hope that Cuba pushes back a little. Copyright Junagarh Media, http://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk.

Southbank Centre London – 60th Anniversary of the 1951 Festival of Britain

The Southbank in London may not be to everyone’s taste but it is there so leave it alone developers! Built when pouring concrete to create large monolithic structures was almost as popular in Britain as it must have been in the former Soviet Union the arts centre is a true public space. Back in 2011 the centre celebrated its 60th anniversary. As part of that there were some temporary fountains set up and on one sunny Saturday in June children were playing in the fountains. I was lucky enough to catch this photo of one of them getting caught out although maybe it was on purpose. Although it is a public space there is room for improvement on the pricing of the performances which, as with most other places and events in London, creates exclusion. You can see and buy more of our photographs on our Junagarh Flickr site or our website, http://www.junagarhmedia.co.uk.