Peter Marshall | >Re-PHOTO

Photographers Christmas Walk – 2017

Photographers Christmas Walk: Six years ago on Thursday 7th December I celebrated the Christmas season with a walk around the City of London with four other photographers, old friends I had known – and occasionally worked with – for over 20 years.

It was something we have been doing every year for quite a few years, though in the 1990s there used to be a dozen or so of us. I’ll be making another similar outing this year, though its a rather sobering thought that of the five of us who were there in 2017, two have since died. This year there will be only be three of us.

Not all of the others in the original group have died – some have moved away, and one or two others – as in 2017 – are too busy to come at this time of year. But it’s a time when we will remember them all – and lift a glass to the memory of the dead as well as celebrating we are still here.

I’ll leave you to read what I wrote about the walk on My London Diary in 2017, but I think the pictures I took as we walked around show some interesting parts of London, and I’ll say a little here about one of the places we visited.

*Modern buildings tower above Threadneedle Street.*

Walking around the City gave us a thirst – and we went into the Crosse Keys in the grand building of the former Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank on Gracechurch Street. Wetherspoons may be owned by a man whose politics I loathe, but I have to admire the way they have found a new life for buildings such as this. And the building is a grand one, even though it is a reminder of the hey-day of Empire, funded by exploitation of the people and resources of an age when Britain ruled the world – and did so extremely bloodily.

This Grade II listed banking hall was designed by William Campbell Jones (1862-1951) and built in 1912-13 – you can read much more about the building here.

Now the building is a pub with an unusually wide and changing range of real ales – and whatever their faults, all Wetherspoons keep their beers well and the prices are – by London standards – keen. Though as you can read I wasn’t entirely won over by ‘Smokestack Lightning’.

It took some dragging for me to get the group of four of us (one had sulked and gone away as we entered the pub) out while there was still enough light to take pictures, and I led them down to the river.

We walked back to the bus stop at St Paul’s Churchyard across a small remaining part of the City’s highwalks, part of a post-war scheme to separate pedestrians and traffic, doomed from its inception by the nature of the City. I had photographed them extensively in many panoramas in the 1990s. I think we then ate and had a few more drinks at a pub in Holborn.

More about the walk and more pictures at Photographers Walk.

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Grenfell – 2017 & Hong Kong

Grenfell – 2017 & Hong Kong: On Wednesday 6th December 2017 I photographed two protests outside Kensington Town Hall in both of which people demanded answers from Kensington & Chelsea council about the terrible fire at Grenfell Tower almost six months earlier.

The protest had been approved earlier at a public meeting and was supported by the Justice4Grenfell campaign and the Revolutionary Communist Group who both came with PA systems.

J4G refused to let the RCG speak at their protest and tried to persuade them to move away, but they refused.

But they did pause their protest and turn off their sound system for the J4G’s main speakers, MPs Kate Osamor and Emma Dent-Coad.

After that the RCG resumed their protes as J4G appeared to have stopped – but soon they also began again and there were two protests taking place a few yards apart. A small group from J4G came to shout angrily at the RCG, and there were threats of physical violence with one man having to be held back by his friends after he tried to start a fist fight.

Also protesting with the RCG were some from Class War, who stood with posters of disgraced Councillor Rock Feilding-Mellen, who as deputy council leader and cabinet member responsible for housing and for the flammable cladding and other cuts which had created a disaster waiting to happen. Since the fire he had fled the area and hidden away – and under the large image of his face was the single word ‘WHERE?’

I tried hard to photograph both protests, moving between the two groups.

Both shared the same aims, both condemning the failures by the council which had led to a small fire turning rapidly into a major disaster and, after the fire its failure to respond adequately and in a timely way to the needs of the survivors, both calling for criminal charges against those responsible in Kensington and Chelsea council, the TMO and the cladding company and others.

Both calling for a real role for the local community in the official inquiry into the fire which they feel has already disrespected local residents and fear will be a cover up.

Now eight years later the inquiry has told us very little that was not already covered in the report by Architects for Social Housing published 5 weeks after the fire and there have still not been any criminal charges made against those responsible.

There have been some related cases, with people being prosecuted who have fraudulently tried to profit from the disaster – which were discussed in a blog post by Steve Tombs of the OU, The Poor Get Prison… Grenfell as a Site of Crime?, but none for those directly responsible for the tragedy.

Many will have noticed the enormous contrast between this and the recent fire at the Wang Fuk Court complex in Hong Kong where Reuters report at least 156 people died in a fire rapidly spread by substandard plastic mesh and insulation foam.

The first reports in the UK media over the fire also included that police had already arrested a number of people in connection with the fire. Reuters reported 15 on suspicion of manslaughter as well as another 12 arrests in a corruption investigation.

Grenfell protests outside council meeting.

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Bloody Murder at Ripper ‘Museum’ 2015

Bloody Murder at Ripper ‘Museum‘: Another of the series of protests by Class War at the so-called museum glorifying the gory murders of working-class women took place on Saturday 5th December 2015.

I photographed most if not all of the protests they organised in a campaign they kept up for some years, showing their disgust at this fake museum, which the owner, Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe got planning consent to open claiming it was to celebrate the powerful history of the women of London’s East end, not their bloody dismemberment by a homicidal maniac.

Class War were always interesting to photograph – and always fun to be with, as well as supporting important campaigns, particularly those around housing problems, bringing both a clear and informed anarchist perspective and a great deal of street theatre.

And their publications including the Class War magazine were always a good read, with often penetrating analysis as well as some distinctly black humour, truly black and red and read. You can see many earlier editions online at The Sparrow’s Nest.

Ian Bone’s autobiography, Bash the Rich: True Life Confessions of an Anarchist in the UK is certainly an interesting read and the 1991 Class War: A Decade of Disorder he edited comes with the ‘Publishers’ Warning! This book contains explicit language and illustration which may offend yuppies, police officers, members of the royal family and people who think the world can be changed by holding hands and singing “We shall overcome.” ‘

As I wrote back in 2015, “Class War re-enacted a murder outside the Jack the Ripper tourist attraction, women hacking and decapitating a dummy wearing the mask of owner Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe with a plastic scimitar and liberally spattering fake blood as others played kazoos“

Class War is more of a loose association of like-minded people than an organisation and its actions often gain support from many others, including on this occasion and others fourth-wave feminists.

After Jane others took their turn in attacking the dummy which proved remarkably resistant to the plastic scimitar, but finally Jane could triumphantly display the bloody severed head of Palmer-Edgecumbe,

and others came to kick its body.

Women showed their bloody hands,

and Ian Bone came carrying the rolled-up banner and his walking stick to inspect the corpse.

Police wanted Class Wat to remove the Palmer-Edgecumbe ‘guy’ but they declined, saying they were donating it to the museum as one of the few genuine exhibits for their display. Police followed Class War as they walked away to the pub, and it seemed for a moment they might make and arrest – perhaps for littering – but they thought better of it and walked back to guard the shop. They were still there when I left the pub around an hour later.

Ten years later the tacky tourist attraction remains open, though my conclusion to this protest had hoped for a different conclusion:

“Thanks at least in part to Class War’s publicity and vigorous protests over around five months others have taken up the fight against the so-called museum, and the fight to get a real museum celebrating the powerful history of the women of London’s East End. It’s a rich heritage with powerful and colourful figures in which the bloody murders by the Ripper are only an insignificant and entirely negative episode. Perhaps it’s now time for others to take up a long-term if probably lower-key campaign here and continue it until this bloody blot on our heritage is closed down.“

More of my thoughts about the ‘museum’ and about the protest – with many more pictures – on My London Diary at Bloody Murder at Ripper ‘museum’.

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Gate Gourmet & My Bike Ride – 2005

Gate Gourmet & a Bike Ride: On Sunday December 4th 2005 I got on my bike and rode the roughly 1l miles to Southall, where I locked up my bike (not the Brompton, but an old CinellI racer I’d got many years ago for my 13th birthday) and photographed a protest by workers sacked from their jobs at Heathrow airport catering firm Gate Gourmet.

There is an excellent article on the Striking Women website which gives the background to the dispute and explains why 56 women workers of South Asian origin felt betrayed by the agreement reached by the TGWU over the dispute and refused the compensation offered of between £5000 and £8000 – and refused to leave quietly – though most of the workers took the money rather than fight for justice.

The workers and their shop stewards received little support from the official trade union movement in their fight for justice and the TGWU hardship fund ended its support in January 2006, and the TGWU (by then part of UNITE) cease all support in 2009. Around a dozen of the workers – mainly those who were for various reasons not at work when Gate Gourmet locked the workers out – eventually won claims for unfair dismissal.

The dispute made very clear the extent to which union powers had been emasculated by a succession of Acts passed under Thatcher – the Employment Act 1980, Employment Act 1982, Trade Union Act 1984, Trade Union Art 1990, Employment Act 1988, Employment Act 1990. John Major continued with the Trade Union Reform and Employment Rights Act 1993 and then Blair and New Labour took over the job.

But even given all this, the TGWU ended up caving in to the employers and giving them everything they wanted in the settlement it made.

Below (with minor corrections) is the post I wrote back in 2005.

Gate Gourmet – the Struggle Continues

Southall, December 4, 2005

Gate Gourmet was split off from British Airways in 1997 to cut costs by out-sourcing their catering. It was sold to US company Texas Pacific in 2002, and they also decided to cut costs. This seems to have meant increasing workload, bringing in more managers (why?) and replacing skilled and experienced staff by unskilled workers. They went into a dispute with the TGWU (Heathrow’s major union) over layoffs and worsening conditions, then on 10 August 2005, took on 120 temporary workers.

Their aim was to provoke an unofficial walkout, which would allow them to sack the workers. The workers held a union meeting in the canteen and were told by management that if they were not back at work in 3 minutes they were all sacked. It is claimed that management had locked the doors just to make sure they didn’t return. The workers were then forcibly evicted from the premises by the private security guards the management just happened to have standing around waiting.

Britain’s anti-union laws (thanks to Mrs Thatcher) stack the odds against workers, allowing unscrupulous management to get away with most things short of murder if they put their minds to it.

The TGWU were hamstrung by a High Court injunction, which prevented them from doing much to help the workers. The only thing that helped them was illegal action by their former colleagues at BA, said to have cost that company £40 million. So eventually BA forced Gate Gourmet to come to some kind of compromise with the TGWU, but this has failed to satisfy most of the workers, who wanted their jobs back and decent working conditions. So, although all the papers reported it as over, the action still continues. When my wife flew BA from Heathrow a few days ago, she got a voucher to get sandwiches in the departure lounge rather than in-flight catering.

This is a dispute that highlights the need for proper trade union laws that give workers and unions a fair deal. It shows how union weakness has allowed the Labour Party to renege on the promises it made in opposition and to turn its back on its traditions of fair play. BA has also emerged as pretty short-sighted in its decision to out-source its catering, much as we have found out-sourcing to be a mistake over key services in hospitals and schools.

More pictures on My London Diary

Around Heathrow

December 4, 2005

*Farm at Bedfont, immediately south of Heathrow*

After the protest I was relieved to find my bike still in one piece where I had locked it and rode home. On my way to Southall I had time to spare and stopped to take a few pictures -and just a few more on my way home. Here is what I wrote in 2005.

I took my usual route to Southall on a push-bike – it takes me around 45 minutes if I don’t stop. but I nearly always do stop at least once to take some pictures. So here are a few pictures from around Heathrow, including a farm. Heathrow swallowed up some of the most productive arable land in the country including a number of fine orchards, but there are still a few farmed areas around its edges – cutting down the dangers of a crash, although some of the most used approaches come in low over many homes.

It was never a suitable site for a major airport, but the chances of any government biting the bullet and closing it down seem low. We should have been running it down for years, but instead have built 2 new terminals (both of which the airport authority said they would never need) and further disastrous development looks likely.

A few more pictures on My London Diary.

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Climate March 2005

Twenty years ago on Saturday 3 December 2005 the Campaign Against Climate Change organised a march calling for urgent action over climate change. Among groups supporting the march were the Green Party, Friends of the Earth and socialist organisations.

But in 2005 there was no interest from the major charities and mainstream organisations that have since supported some major London marches pointing out the dangers of climate change and global extinction, like most governments they had yet to wake up to the very real dangers facing the future of human life on our planet.

The Campaign Against Climate Change was one of the first organisations in the UK to serilsly begin organising against global warming – and I remember photographing them back in 2002 pushing an attractive ‘Tiger’ on a bed from the Esso headquarters in Leatherhead to the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square, Westminster. US President George W Bush had put the interests of climate-denying US Oil and fossil fuel companies, notably Esso, above the survival of our species with with his rejection of the Kyoto protocol, agreed in 1997 but only due to come into force in 2005.

Back in 2005, we needed governments to act with urgency, but they failed us and the world. One of those failing then was Tony Blair, whose New Labour government had also betrayed us over the invasion of Iraq as well as over climate change. And now in 2025 we have another Labour government, now under Keir Starmer, pressing ahead with new climate-destroying road schemes, oil exploration and extra runways rather than facing up to the need to change our assumptions and way of life in ways that would reduce CO2 emissions and slow global warming.

Saturday 3rd December 2005 was an international day of climate protest but the march to the US Embassy in London achieved little media coverage – the billionaires who own and control most of our media have little interest in the subject (and probably large financial interests in fossil fuels and other drivers of climate change.) Even the BBC had been a hive of complacency, and have given a totally unwarranted level of coverage to those who continue to refuse the overwhelming scientific evidence. Though now they are perhaps beginning to realise that you cannot have ‘balance’ over scientific fact.

*The ‘Statue of Taking Liberties’ was at the Front of the march to the US Embassy*

Here – with minor corrections – is what I wrote about the march back in 2005 – and a few of the pictures I took at the event – you can see more on My London Diary at the link at the bottom of this page.

Kyoto was the first attempt to at least recognise the problem was global and take some concerted action, even if less than half-hearted. Thanks to George Bush and the oil companies he represents, the ineffectual has been made even more so.

Problems related to growth and pollution are inextricably linked with industry and trade. It is hard to see any possibility of their solution without the imposition of tariffs on the exports of countries that continue to pollute – such as the USA. It’s equally hard to envisage this happening while the USA is so dominant in the world bodies and conferences that set the rules on trade.

There were around 10,000 of us on the streets of London on Saturday, and many more around the world in demonstrations elsewhere, all part of the International Day of Climate Protest, the march in London organised, as previous climate marches and protests, by the UK Campaign Against Climate Change.

*A sit down in pouring rain in Parliament Square is not a good idea*

Here in London the climate smiled on us for an hour or so, then the rain came as the march entered Parliament Square. It was pouring rain rather than the police that persuaded the students who sat down in front of the Houses of Parliament that it was a good idea to get up and move on.

My camera also began to suffer, and I needed to move inside to dry it out. My injured knee was beginning to hurt too, so I decided it was time to take a rest and go home.

More pictures begin here on My London Diary.

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More From Beckton, Cyprus and Silvertown – 1994

I spent a long day in July 1994 travelling up and down the recently opened Beckton Extension, taking some pictures from the trains but also getting off at every station and explouring the area around the stations, sometimes at some length. The previous set of pictures, DLR – Beckton Extension – 1994, began from around the end of the line at Beckton, and these images start with those from a walk from the next station along, Gallions Reach.

In the 2000s there was a plan to extend the DLR from here to Dagenham Dock, but these were cancelled in 2008; now plans have been approved for an extension to a Beckton Riverside station and on under the Thames to Thamesmead.

DLR, Roundabout, Woolwich Manor Way, Cyprus, Newham, 1994, 94-716-13 — *DLR, Gallions Roundabout, Woolwich Manor Way, Cyprus, Newham, 1994, 94-716-13*

From the Gallions roundabout you can go north and south along Woolwich Manor Way or take the more recent roads, Royal Albert Way, Royal Docks Road and Atlantis Avenue. My picture was made from Woolwich Manor Way looking roughly north. In the centre of the roundabout is a pumping station, which I think is a 16-sided building, though I always lose count. On top in its centre is a small 8 sided pimple. Locally listed, it was built for Thames Water in 1974.

*Ruins, Beckton Gas Works, Beckton, Newham, 1994, 94-717-61*

Beckton Gas Works were built on the East Ham Levels from 1868-1870 by the Gas Light and Coke Company which had been founded in 1812 by Frederick Albert Winsor and was not only the UK’s first gas company but the first public gas company in the world. It was for some years the largest gas works in Europe and until 1969 produced gas for industry and homes across much of East London.

The site was named Beckton after then company chairman Simon Adams Beck and covered a huge of 550 acres. As well as giving room for the huge works, its site on the Thames well to the east of London meant that larger colliers could bring coal to it than to the gas works closer to the city.

As well as town gas, the site also contained the Beckton Product Works which became the largest UK manufacture of tar and ammonia by-products. Beckton was a huge local employer, providing jobs for as many as 10,000 men.

For many years after it closure the site remained derelict and was used in a number of films, most notably Stanley Kubrick’s Vietnam War film ‘Full Metal Jacket’. Back in 1994 there was little left on the site which is now largely a retail park.

I’d taken a few pictures in the area in black and white and colour ten years earlier when more of the works where still there – such as this one:

Beckton Gas Works, Beckton, Newham, 1984 81-NorthWoolwich-008 — *Beckton Gas Works, Beckton, Newham, 1984*

[If you open the image you can browse a few more on Flickr.]

Royal Docks Rd, Galions Reach, Newham, 1994, 94-717-52 — *Atlantis Avenue, Gallions Reach, Newham, 1994, 94-717-52*

A view made from underneath Gallions Reach Station looking roughly north-east towards the former gas works site.

DLR, Approaching Woolwich Manor Way, Cyprus, Newham, 1994, 94-717-43 — *View from Gallions Reach DLR, Station, Atlantis Avenue, Gallions Reach, Newham, 1994, 94-717-43*

I went up to the station platform and made this picture as I waited for a train to arrive. At right you can see the Thames Water pumping station in the middle of the Gallions roundabout. On the left others waiting on the platform can be seen in a mirror. Beyond that is the Royal Albert Dock and in the distance the hills on the other side of the Thames. In the sky is a plane shortly after take-off from London City Airport.

DLR Station, Beckton Park, Beckton, Newham, 1994, 94-717-31 — *Beckton Park Station, DLR, Beckton, Newham, 1994, 94-717-31*

I can’t remember if I got off the train first at Cyprus station or continued directly to the next stop, Beckton Park. The two stations are fairly similar and both are in the centre of roundabouts in the Royal Albert Way, built for the LDDC and opened in 1990.

*DLR, Royal Albert Dock, West Beckton, Newham, 1994, 94-717-11*

I got back on a train to go to the next stop on the line, Royal Albert, where I took a walk around the area beside Royal Albert Dock dock, making this picture from its west end looking east down the dock. In the distance is a DLR train approaching and to the left is the road leading the the Connaught Bridge. I think the brick structure at left of picture is a ventilator for the railway tunnel below.

Connaught Bridge, Royal Albert Dock, West Beckton, Newham, 1994, 94-717-12 — *Connaught Bridge, Royal Albert Dock, Silvertown, Newham, 1994, 94-717-12*

I made this from a temporary footpath across the channel between the Royal Victoria and Royal Albert Docks a few yards to the west of the Connaught Bridge. Under the bridge is the full 1.75 miles of the Royal Albert Dock, built in 1875-80 and opened by the Duke of Connaught. The dock finally closed to commercial traffic in 1981.

In 1984 I got permission to go onto the site and photograph the remaining buildings – virtually all now demolished. They had no great architectural value but were an important part of London’s history. You can see some of the black and white pictures I took in the book The Deserted Royals – there is a good preview with over 40 pictures on the website and the PDF version is reasonably priced – and rather more, including colour work on Flickr – in the two albums 1984 London Photographs and 1984 Docklands Colour.

More Docklands colour from 1994 in my next post in this series.

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Another Don’t Bomb Syria Protest – 2015

Another Don’t Bomb Syria Protest: On the evening of Tuesday 1st December 2015 a protest by Stop The War again called on MPs not to back David Cameron’s motion to bomb Syria.

There was a large crowd in Parliament Square who listened to speeches by a wide range from the British left including Andrew Murray, Lindsay German, Salma Yaqoob of Stop the War, Kate Hudson of CND, SNP MPs Philippa Whitford and Tommy Sheppard, Former Green Party leader Caroline Lucas, Labour’s Richard Burgon and Imran Hussain, Weyman Bennett of Unite Against Fascism, Momentum organiser Adam Klug, George Galloway.

I photographed all of these speakers and you can see several pictures of most of them on My London Diary.

But as in the previous Stop The War protest, there were “no speeches by Syrians or Kurds, and no real attempt to take their views into account. And while the speakers all condemned the UK plans to bomb in Syria, there was no condemnation of the Russian bombing of the Syrian opposition, perhaps a greater threat to the Syrian people than Daesh, and certainly than the handful of UK planes.“

Present in the crowd were a number of supporters of President Assad, with flags of his regime, though most of those present were opposed to the Assad regime and Daesh as well as to bombing by the UK.

As I commented, “It’s rather unfortunate that the only organisation promoting large-scale protests against the bombing is Stop the War rather than one clearly supporting the aspirations of the Syrian people for freedom.”

Hours after this protest, Stop the War issued an article ‘For the avoidance of doubt‘ by John Rees which began by stating “The STWC has never supported the Assad regime.” I commented: “Well, it’s good to make that clear, because there have been many protests by Stop the War which Assad supporters have attended and appeared to be welcome, and by refusing to let Syrians opposed to the regime speak at this and other protests STW have certainly given that impression.”

It had become clear by 2015 “that while our government has fulminated against ISIS/Daesh it has also been complicit in support for them through its support of Saudi Arabia which provides support for their Wahabi ideology and more materially, for Turkey which is deeply involved in their oil exports, refining much of their output as well as providing pipelines and ports, and Israel which is the major customer for the smuggled oil.”

The bombing which later took place was largely ineffectual, hypocritical and immoral. While inflicting “little damage on Assad’s military inflicting real damage on the economic and military capability of Daesh” it was as predicted “catastrophic in effect on the civilians” that were bombed either deliberately or by accident.

After the speeches, the protesters marched first to the Tory HQ and then to Labour to deliver letters before returning to Parliament Square where the official protest ended.

*A police officer tells Jasmin Stone that megaphones are not allowed to be used in Parliament Square*

Many stayed on in the square and there were minor incidents with police making a few who had climbed onto the plinth of Churchill’s statue come down and stopping some from using a megaphone. But after a few minutes I decided it was time to go home.

More about the protest and many more pictures at Don’t Bomb Syria.

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Second Day of Student Fees Protests – 2010

Second Day of Student Fees Protests: London Tuesday 30th November 2010 - A student holds a lighter to set fire to a placard — *Second Day of Student Fees Protests: London Tuesday 30th November 2010 – A student holds a lighter to set fire to a placard*

Six days earlier a march against the Browne Review of Higher Education Funding, which had advocated an increase in tuition fees, allowing them to rise to £9000 a year, as well as the scrapping of the Educational Maintenance Allowances (EMA) for 16-18 year old and other changes including closing many arts and humanities courses had led to an angry confrontation between students and police when police decided to halt and kettle the march in Whitehall.

Second Day of Student Fees Protests - 2010

I had been there and reported at some length on the events, including the smashing of a worn-out police van which seemed to have been deliberately left by the police “as a plaything for the protesters” and charges in which some “police made pretty liberal use of their batons and a couple clearly went a little berserk“, and protesters were in danger of being crushed, screaming that they couldn’t breathe.

It hadn’t been like those protests I had taken part in during the late 60’s and most of those taking part “were probably well-behaved students on their first demonstration” who when more militant students breached the police lines “just stood around wondering what to do rather than following them.”

I concluded:

“It had been a pretty confused situation, and it seemed to me that neither police nor students came out of it with much credit. The police tactics seemed designed to create public disorder by kettling and a small minority of the students rose to the bait. Although most of the students were out for a peaceful march and rally and to exercise their democratic right to protest, the police seemed to have little interest in upholding that right.”

*Protesters run down Whitehall – but turn around when get close to a police line*

The following Tuesday around 5000 students came back to Trafalgar Square for what was meant to be a peaceful march at 1pm along the same route down Whitehall to a rally in Parliament Square – which had been agreed in advance with police. I think both sides wanted to avoid a replay of the previous week.

*They go back and through Admiralty Arch – with not a policeman in sight*

But shortly after noon, more radical students, including a group of younger students who would lose the EMA took to the plinth under Nelson’s column and called for the crowd to go down Whitehall and demonstrate at Downing Street; several hundreds followed them.

*When they see the police in Parliament Square they turn around again*

There were only a few police at the top of Whitehall and clearly they stood no change of stopping them, but their attempts to do so heightened the tension and when police formed a tighter line further down Whitehall the protesters began shouting that they were being kettled.

They turned around and went under Admiralty Arch and on to the Mall before continuing down Horse Guards Road. Police followed them, walking beside them as they crossed into Storey’s Gate, then turned into Parliament Square.

By now this group of protesters – perhaps by then a thousand or two were obsessed with the idea that they were being kettled – and certainly there were a large number of police in Parliament Square, particularly behind barriers set up in front of Parliament and at some of the exits from the square.

*A police medic attacks a protester in one of the only violent incidents I witnessed*

The protesters turned around and walked and ran, beginning a “long rather rapid walk around London“, rather painful for me as I was still suffering from a foot injury, “taking in Hyde Park Corner, Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Circus and Oxford Street and turning down Kingsway at Holborn and then walking into the City of London along Fleet St” with a couple of hundred police walking along the side of the march.

Most of the Met police stopped at the City of London boundary as the march continued “past St Pauls, the Stock Exchange, on up some of the narrow winding streets around St Bartholomews Hospital (it rather looked as if they were trying to kettle themselves there) to Smithfield Market before going back along Holborn Viaduct where I eventually left them to catch a bus and make my way back to see what was happening in Trafalgar Square.” The City of London Police had seemed to ignore the march and there was little or no trouble on their patch.

In Trafalgar Square there were still some of the original demonstrators but things were pretty quiet. There were police at the exits but people could walk past in both directions; “the protest was being isolated and watched rather than being kettled.”

Some of those I had been marching around London with made their way back into the square and there were a few short speeches before one of the official organisers announced that the demonstration was over and police would be happy for people to leave in small groups towards Charing Cross Station.

But most people decided to stay on and there were a few scuffles with police, with other students “linking arms in front of the police to protect them and stop any violence.”

It was snowing and beginning to get dark and it seemed to me that little further was happening so I walked out of the square and went home. It had been a confusing and tiring day for me. Later I heard that small group who had remained in Trafalgar Square had been kettled and some had been arrested.

More at Students Fees Protest – Day 2.

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Leveson & Cold Homes – 2012

Leveson & Cold Homes: On Thursday 29th November press and protesters were outside the QEII centre waiting for the publication of the Leveson inquiry report, and were joined briefly by people who had been protesting outside the treasury over George Osborne’s cuts and energy policies and later moved to protest outside parliament where Energy Secretary, Ed Davey was to introduce the Energy Bill.

Leveson Comes Out

QEII Centre

Lord Justice Leveson had been appointed in 2011 to lead an inquiry into the culture, practices, and ethics of the British press after the News of the World had been found to have illegally hacked into the phones of celebrities, politicians, royals and others since the 1990s.

Of course the News of the World which had been closed down by Murdoch’s News International in 2011 over this was not the only newspaper to have used illegal hacking. As well as other papers in the Murdoch Press it was said to be fairly widespread across the tabloid papers.

The Leveson Inquiry was to be in two parts and the report on Part 1 was due to be released on 29th November 2012. Part 2 which was to examine the extent of phone hacking in News International and other media as well as the complicity of the police in receiving bribes and other ways was shelved in 2015 and then scrapped in 2018.

Leveson found that the Press Complaints Commission was toothless and ineffective and recommended that a new voluntary independent body be set up. There are now two press regulators; Impress, which largely follows Leveson’s proposals and IPSO, the Independent Press Standards Organisation which as its name says remains independent, and which more publications have signed up to, while others, including The Guardian belong to neither.

This was a small but visually interesting protest, and ss I wrote in 2012:

Avaaz had brought large puppet heads of Murdoch and a gagged Cameron with placards ‘End the Murdoch Mafia’ and a flaming dustbin into which Murdoch lowered the Leveson report.

Political artist Kaya Mar had brought one of his paintings with the judge and a cart-load of people, though I couldn’t recognise them all.

And a protester from Kick Nuclear was walking up and down with his dog which was wearing a poster about Fukushima warning of the dangers of nuclear power.

More pictures at Leveson Comes Out.

Cold Homes Kill Treasury Protest

Westminster

Fuel Poverty Action along with others including Disabled People Against Cuts, the Greater London Pensioners’ Association, Single Mothers’ Self-Defence, Southwark Pensioners’ Action Group and WinVisible (women with visible and invisible disabilities) had come to protest against the cuts to come from George Osborne’s energy bill which they say will cause 24,000 extra winter deaths.

The protest which began outside the Treasury and then moved on pausing briefly at the Leveson protest outside the QEII centre to Parliament Square in front of the House of Commons where Secretary, Ed Davey, was to introduce the Energy Bill later that day.

“The protesters had brought plastic silver reflective coated ‘space blankets’ to wear and had three ‘tombstones’ with the messages ‘George Osborne Your Cuts KILL’, ‘Gas Power = Killer Bills’ and ‘24,000 Winter Deaths – Big Six Profits up 700%’.”

They say that already because of the government cuts many people were going hungry, with food banks being set up and kept busy even in the more prosperous areas of the country, and now with winter coming many have to chose between ‘eating or heating’.

*A protester with a hot water bottle tries to walk into the Treasury but is stopped by the police*

Cuts will mean more people suffering from “hypothermia, and the disabled in particular are hard hit, both because of the ruthless removal of benefits by poorly designed tests adminstered by poorly qualified testers with targets to meet and also because they often have special needs for heating.”

The protesters ignored police requests to leave the steps up to the Treasury and police then pushed them down, “usually with minimum force, but just occasionally rather more than necessary, but both protesters and police generally remained calm.” The rally continued on the pavement with speakers including Green Party leader Natalie Bennett.

After this the group of 50 or so protesters moved to the pavement in front of the Houses of Parliament, pausing briefly on the way for photographs in front of those waiting for the Leveson report.

Police again tried to get them to move on when they stopped in front of the Houses of Parliament, at first telling them they had to move as “a Royal movement” was about to take place, an announcement that cause much hilarity and comment but no movement. A little later they were told they could stay, but decided instead to cross onto the grass in Parliament Square for some final photographs.

More pictures at Cold Homes Kill Treasury Protest.

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Don’t Bomb Syria – 2015

Several thousands had come to Downing St on Saturday 28th November 2015 to urge MPs not to support British air strikes on Syria and more arrived as the rally was beginning bring the number up to perhaps ten thousand.

Police who had tried to restrict the crowd to the wide pavement area were forced to stop traffic on the southbound carriageway, but put in a row of barriers so they could keep northbound traffic moving.

There were a long list of speeches – you can read a partial list and see photographs of most of them on My London Diary.

Don't Bomb Syria - 2015 Tariq Ali — *British Pakistani writer, journalist, and filmmaker Tariq Ali*

The speakers called for the need to take effective action against the Turkish complicity in Daesh oil exports, in which members of Erdogan’s family take a leading role, and against what Tariq Ali described as “the obscenity of the Wahabi regime in Saudi Arabia” which provides the fanatical religious basis and much funding for Daesh. And, always in the background, the continuing crisis over Palestine.

But there seemed to me to a glaring omission. As I wrote, I was there “with notebook poised ready to write down the names of the speakers representing the Syrians and the Syrian Kurds, who should surely have been at the forefront of this protest rather than so many old ‘Stop the War’ war-horses. None came, not because none were available or willing to speak, but because the politics of those most closely involved don’t accord with those of Stop the War.”

Throughout the speeches some protesters had been trying to move across onto the roadway directly in front of Downing Street. Eventually so many moved past the barriers that it became impossible for the police to force them back and keep the road clear for traffic.

Hundreds then sat done on the road and were still there chanting ‘Don’t Bomb Syria’ and other slogans well after the speeches had ended. After around an hour after police reinforcements arrived.

Previously police had been trying to persuade the protesters to stand up and leave the road with little success, but now they were warned they would be arrested if they failed to do so. Some were more reluctant than others to move, but I think eventually all did and I saw no arrests.

*People slowly decide to move rather than be arrested*

In September 2014 the UK Parliament had voted overwhelmingly in favour of British air strikes against ISIS in Iraq, but Parliament had also blocked the government’s plans for military action against Syria after the 2013 Ghouta chemical attack.

PM David Cameron had repeated calls for air strikes following a mass killing of tourists by an Islamist militant group in Tunisia, but it was only after the terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015 that the House of Commons approved air strikes against ISIL in Syria – which began hours later in December 2015. In the next 15 months the RAF carried out 85 strikes – and there have been others since.

Many more pictures on My London Diary:
Don’t Bomb Syria
Speakers at Don’t Bomb Syria
Don’t Bomb Syria Blocks Whitehall

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