How can they be so heartless – protester

It was January 1993 and I had been at the North West Evening Mail for a few months. We heard there was going to be a protest against cuts in the council chamber ahead of a meeting of Barrow Borough Council.

Political reporter Nick Turner asked if we could cover the meeting and get photos and we were given access.

The protest was led by Jim Hamezeian who was a supporter of numerous causes including the Poll Tax and, when I returned to Cumbria around 20 years later, he was actually a Barrow councillor with Cumbria County Council.

As the protesters entered the council chamber to stage their sit down protest I started taking photos and the police were called.

I do like the shot (above) because it shows him standing up to authority and making his point although the picture used on page 3 (in the gallery below) he looks a lot more submissive.

The paper splashed on the incident and, because a women’s refuge could be closed as a result of the cuts, it launched a campaign to try and save it which was led by reporter Claire Stocks.

Having said that the Conservative Mayor Joyce Fleet did not speak to me for a while, because she felt we had tricked our way into the meeting as I recall, which was quite awkward when I was photographing her at events.

Jim Hamezeian was threatened by her successor, Cllr Hazel Edwards, with a ban from the town hall of at least four months – to which his response was that he vowed to carry on.

From the North West Evening Mail on Friday, January 15, 1993.