Ken Loach in Battersea

By Bob Ede

Ken Loach and his film Sorry We Missed You was part of a sell-out audience of 450 attending South West London Law Centres’ (SWLLC) 45th Anniversary celebration at the Battersea Arts Centre last week. Guest speakers including Lord Alf Dubs, a former Battersea Labour MP and Marsha de Cordova, the current Battersea MP and Labour Shadow Minister for Disabilities; Ken Loach took questions on the film from an audience that was left stunned by the dramatic content.

Filmed in Newcastle and the surrounding area, Sorry We Missed You was released last year to critical acclaim. It was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival last year and it won the Belgian Margritte Award for Best Foreign Film in Coproduction.

I had planned to do a film review but should have taken heed of the woman who preceded me into the gents to gather tissues for her forthcoming tears.

All the dialogue was Geordie. The first half described the stress to a well-knit couple and their two children by zero-hours and austerity.

Attracted by the allure of delivering parcels, not as an employee but as a self-employed franchisee, he persuaded his NHS wife to sell their car so that he could lease a van.

He was then bullied into exhausting hours under a harsh sanctions regime, whilst his wife was equally exhausted travelling to those in need of care.

Their neglected teenage son was excluded from school and received a caution for shop-lifting. It was clearly not going to end well.

The screening was in celebration of SWLLC’s 45th anniversary. When I worked for them, cuts in legal aid had left them precariously financed. Much less so now, due mainly to the commitment of staff, volunteers and trustees.

Both Lord Dubs and Marsha de Cordova spoke passionately of their work helping refugees and people with disabilities. Lord Dubs described the callous ministerial undermining of his efforts since 2016 to relocate and support unaccompanied refugee children from Europe, giving them safe passage to the UK. Both of them praised SWLLC's 'We Unlock Justice' work, giving legal help to those unable to afford lawyers' fees. Last year, free or low-cost legal advice helped over 8,000 people to stay in their homes, clear debts, resolve employment and immigration problems, and access social security payments. When I was there, SWLLC's chief executive often asserted that no client had lost a case. What does that say about the millions who cannot unlock justice?