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Jun. 29th, 2008 01:35 pmWent on the Save Haslar Hospital march. Arrived outside the Town Hall just before 11 am, where there was already a sizeable crowd gathered. The publicity posters had said 'Assemble between 11 and 12' for a 12 noon start, but some people had taken their cue from the local press which simply said 'meet 11 am' and thought the march would be leaving any minute. A few people were none too pleased when I said we wouldn't actually be getting moving for another hour, and one lady left saying "I can't leave my dinner for that long." Nonetheless there appeared to be over a thousand people present for the march.
Just before half past a huge cheer greeted the arrival of the flag-bearers from the Army, Navy and Air Force and the large contingent from Portsmouth. At 11.30 the soldier organising the march greeted us all on the megaphone and confirmed we'd be going at noon, as we were waiting for some people. I wandered around for a while, met Rosemary (from the civic trip to Royan) and said hello, then met Carol so stuck with her. I'd only just sent off for tickets to the Villagers' performance of Twelfth Night next month, so told her, and added "I do hope you're Maria. You'd be a superb Maria." With regret, she said she'd been unable to do rehearsals this year because of childcare "so I'm only a soldier".
At noon we set off marching down the High Street. I stuck with Carol at first, but, walking at different paces, we soon got separated :( At the bottom, we had to all get on the pavement to walk down the south relief road, so we had to all go just two or three abreast. So we had a huge snake of people stretching from the far junction with the High Street all the way down the relief road to the ferry and further back round - a very impressive sight. There was a bloke sitting by his window in one of the tower blocks waving to us and giving us the thumbs up as we went by, and a van driver honked his horn as he passed us.
By the time my section arrived back at the Town Hall, there was a man already giving a speech (though no-one at the back could hear him) about the inadequacy of the Queen Alexandra hospital for the needs of Gosport people. Next up was Peter, a councillor I know well and the driving force behind the campaign, who gave a passionate and well-argued speech highlighting the case for keeping Haslar open for both civilian and military use and condemning the spending on new resources elsewhere when there are perfectly good facilities at Haslar going idle. Next was a man who worked at Haslar for many years and whose daughter was treated there with an abscess on her brain nine years ago, who made the point about people having to battle the A32 traffic to get to "the palace in the sky" (the QA) and pointed out that if his daughter had had to be driven to QA she would have been in a very bad way (some shouted out "dead" and he said "I'm not going to say it over the megaphone but you're absolutely right") by the time she got there. Finally Lance Corporal Chris Hill, the march organiser, said a few words to thank us all for coming and urge us all to write to the NHS to press the case for keeping Haslar open, and invited people to join him in the Waterfront, where cheap tea, coffee and soft drinks were on offer, for a chat.
Gosport and district need this magnificent hospital and I am glad that I was there today.
Just before half past a huge cheer greeted the arrival of the flag-bearers from the Army, Navy and Air Force and the large contingent from Portsmouth. At 11.30 the soldier organising the march greeted us all on the megaphone and confirmed we'd be going at noon, as we were waiting for some people. I wandered around for a while, met Rosemary (from the civic trip to Royan) and said hello, then met Carol so stuck with her. I'd only just sent off for tickets to the Villagers' performance of Twelfth Night next month, so told her, and added "I do hope you're Maria. You'd be a superb Maria." With regret, she said she'd been unable to do rehearsals this year because of childcare "so I'm only a soldier".
At noon we set off marching down the High Street. I stuck with Carol at first, but, walking at different paces, we soon got separated :( At the bottom, we had to all get on the pavement to walk down the south relief road, so we had to all go just two or three abreast. So we had a huge snake of people stretching from the far junction with the High Street all the way down the relief road to the ferry and further back round - a very impressive sight. There was a bloke sitting by his window in one of the tower blocks waving to us and giving us the thumbs up as we went by, and a van driver honked his horn as he passed us.
By the time my section arrived back at the Town Hall, there was a man already giving a speech (though no-one at the back could hear him) about the inadequacy of the Queen Alexandra hospital for the needs of Gosport people. Next up was Peter, a councillor I know well and the driving force behind the campaign, who gave a passionate and well-argued speech highlighting the case for keeping Haslar open for both civilian and military use and condemning the spending on new resources elsewhere when there are perfectly good facilities at Haslar going idle. Next was a man who worked at Haslar for many years and whose daughter was treated there with an abscess on her brain nine years ago, who made the point about people having to battle the A32 traffic to get to "the palace in the sky" (the QA) and pointed out that if his daughter had had to be driven to QA she would have been in a very bad way (some shouted out "dead" and he said "I'm not going to say it over the megaphone but you're absolutely right") by the time she got there. Finally Lance Corporal Chris Hill, the march organiser, said a few words to thank us all for coming and urge us all to write to the NHS to press the case for keeping Haslar open, and invited people to join him in the Waterfront, where cheap tea, coffee and soft drinks were on offer, for a chat.
Gosport and district need this magnificent hospital and I am glad that I was there today.
