A billboard was subvertised in Herne Hill at a major junction next to Brockwell Park yesterday. Activists pasted their own artwork over a Lloyds bank advertisement in support of NHS nurses’ 15% pay claim.

The poster shows two businessmen’s fists banging together in a deal to end the NHS, with the legends “1% pay rise in a pandemic is a joke” and “50% ICU nurses have PTSD’ on either side. The words, “Corruption” and “Chumocracy” refer to dodgy government deals over PPE and the failed ‘Track and Trace’ app.

The action was organised over message apps and most of the people involved didn’t know each other – a form of planning likely to become more ubiquitous as the government clamps down on the freedom to protest. The poster designer didn’t know the billboard pasters, the spokesperson didn’t know who designed the artwork nor had met the pasters, and the pasters hadn’t met each other until the action

Despite all this anonymity, the action passed without hitch, and was timed to support the coming Day of Action for the NHS on 1st April when there will be vigils and socially-distanced protests outside hospitals all around the country. #NHSPay15