Karen Reissmann, UNISON Health SGE member, and union rep in Manchester where she has been the victim of the most disgusting and shameful attack on her integrity by an employer who would risk everything including patient safety in order to push through a fatuous disciplinary case against a dedicated trade unionist and a respected nurse. Karen's only crime in her career has been to stand up for the service she works in, the patients she works for and the staff she works with. For that, her employer has suspended her for months and conducted a bizarre and groundless investigation, culminating in a five-day disciplinary hearing. Karen should hear this week what the outcome of that hearing will be, and if there is any justice left in the NHS she will be cleared of all the charges.

Full, but not bursting at the seams, Trafalgar Square looked good with all the banners and the flags. If only we could remember that we need to do this more often than once every generation if we actually want to win back our health service from the hands of Tony Blair's business consultant chums.

... a pair of stilt-walking flamingoes. What do you mean, you didn't guess that?

The very front of the march. They may all "heart" the NHS, but only one of them works in it. Which one? Anyone know?

Harry Seddon, another of the 'awkward squad' it's been my pleasure and privilege to work with on the UNISON Health Service Group Executive recently. Harry may look like the demon barber of Fleet Street, but he's actually the demon trade unionist from Norwich.

With all the 'celebrating' of the NHS going on, it was easy sometimes to forget quite how bad things have already got - the depth to which some of the cuts have already struck, and the degree to which control of NHS services is already in the hands of private businesses. Not everyone had taken their eye off the ball, though!

Also out in force were the Scottish health workers - I'm still struggling with the vision of Margaret Bean from the Lothian health branch dancing her way into Trafalgar Square - and they'd brought their own musicians with them. Marching to the beat of a different drum, some said, but I think it's more a case of 'he who pays the piper calls the tune'.

Epitomising the East Midlands region - cheerful spirit, dedication to the cause and a complete inability to ever stop talking - it's Norman Wilson, our joint regional health convenor from Nottingham Healthcare Branch. What would we do if he ever took a holiday? Did someone say "change the locks"?

It wasn't just Leicestershire. Everywhere you looked on the demonstration there were people in the black East Midlands UNISON T-shirts. Good job it was unseasonably warm, and not raining. Our region had worked hard to get a good turnout for the demonstration, and an impressive proportion of the march must have been travelling down the M1 at nine o'clock that morning. If only some other regions, notably, London, which was hosting the event after all, had got a similar proportion of their membership to turn out, Trafalgar Square would have been bursting at the seams. Well done East Midlands!

Greg shows that he can wear a flag with style.