#uk
©Si Barber. Moral rights asserted
World War Two reneactors recreating the German defence of Normandy and interacting with the public. Holme,Lincolnshire,UK
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At the Knicat Cafe, Downham Market,Norfolk.
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A butcher delivering meat to ZP & VP Butchers in King’s Lynn, Norfolk,UK
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A demonstration against the prorogation of Parliament in King’s Lynn, Norfolk,UK, 2019.
Si Barber
After his resignation as prime minister in September 2022, Boris Johnson's portrait is removed from the wall and Winston Churchill resumes his place of prominence at King's Lynn Conservative Club, Norfolk.
A room (kolhata) to rent advertisement in a newsagents window. The text is in Russian cyrillic and deliberately designed to appeal to prospective East European migrants tenants of a certain age. Anyone who went to school within the USSR before its collapse 1991 learned Russian as part of the curriculum, and as part of the Soviet cultural domination of its occupied territories. Although widely loathed and abandoned after the fall of communism, the practise of having a common language proved useful for migrants when those countries joined the EU under the A8 accession rules in 2004 and they were given the right to come to live and work in the UK. That meant Czechs, Latvians, Lithuanians, Slovakians, Slovenians, Poles, Hungarians and Estonians could communicate with each other. Useful if you’re trying to make yourself heard on a factory floor or field in the Fens. Even today If you go into any of the East European shops in the town the transaction will often complete with the assistant exclaiming “spasiba”, the Russian word for thanks.
New Roots, Old Soil
Babak, a Hungarian of Iranian descent waits for his friends in Wisbech market place on a Saturday afternoon wearing his new jeans. Taking advantage of the Citizens' Rights Directive 2004/38/EC he came to the UK for work and is employed in a vegetable packing factory on the edge of the town. Initially working the night shift he has recently been promoted to team leader and now works days.
Little Europe convenience shop, in Wisbech market place.
“Foreign cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco are not subject to the strict regulation and control measures that would benefit UK authorised sale items and in most cases have not had UK duty paid on them. Distribution and sale of illicit / counterfeit goods is linked to serious and organised crime and nationally is a drain on the economy.”
A demonstration in Boston, Lincolnshire, calling the invocation of Article 50, which would initiate the process of the UK leaving the EU. It was finally granted by PM Teresa May on 29th March 2017 sending a formal notification to the European Council, triggering the two-year period for withdrawal negotiations .
New Roots, Old Soil
Migrant workers from Eastern Europe shopping in Boston town centre on a Saturday afternoon.They’ve adopted the ‘gopnik’ look, popular amongst fans of 'blatnaya pesnya' - literally 'criminal’s songs’, a genre of music popularised by East European hip-hop artists but with its roots in 19th Century czarist Russia.
British Union of Fascism symbol in Stiffkey.
Graffiti showing the insignia of the British Union of Fascists on the walls of a building in Aylsham, Norfolk, UK, reading Stand By The King, referring to the 1936 abdication crisis . The BUF political movement enjoyed some popularity in rural East Anglia during the 1930s as it opposed the Queen Anne’s Bounty, a tax that was laid upon farmers by the Church of England. If the farmer refused to pay the tithe the church commissioners would send bailiffs to enforce the debt, removing livestock or farm machinery. BUF members known as Blackshirts and led by Oswald Mosley could be called upon by the landowner to defend the property, by force if necessary. The longevity of the markings is attributed to the fact the are made in bitumen.
These images have been digitally retouched
British Union of Fascism graffiti in Aylsham
Graffiti showing the insignia of the British Union of Fascists on the walls of a building in Aylsham, Norfolk, UK, reading Stand By The King, referring to the 1936 abdication crisis . The BUF political movement enjoyed some popularity in rural East Anglia during the 1930s as it opposed the Queen Anne’s Bounty, a tax that was laid upon farmers by the Church of England. If the farmer refused to pay the tithe the church commissioners would send bailiffs to enforce the debt, removing livestock or farm machinery. BUF members known as Blackshirts and led by Oswald Mosley could be called upon by the landowner to defend the property, by force if necessary. The longevity of the markings is attributed to the fact the are made in bitumen.
These images have been digitally retouched
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St Nicholas Tavern, St Nicholas Rd.
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Dog harnesses for sale.