Category: Political Issues

Five Bridges against Extinction

Unfortunately our mass media have failed to respond honestly to the major challenges we face in alomost every area of life. A provocative and controversial statement but one that appears to me incontrovertable, whether one looks at Brexit and our current problem over that, at inequality in our society and globally, at our housing crisis, and most obviously and most dangerously about the environment and the ecological crisis – the sixth global mass extinction which is rapidly approaching, though there may be legitimate arguments about the fine print.

The reasons for this failure are also fairly clear. Mass media that are largely owned and controlled by a tiny group of the ultra-wealthy and a public sector broadcaster that largely supports the status quo, with staff and board who are also part of a highly privileged few; don’t rock the boat is their mantra.

But unfortunately the boat is sinking fast, and even the extreme rich will soon find the same old way no longer works, though only too late to do anything about it, almost certainly for themselves and certainly for the rest of us. What used to be apocalyptic and dystopian is fast becoming the new reality.

So (I think) argue those behind Extinction Rebellion, and I think they are convincing, though exactly when we reach the tipping points and what these are may still be up for scientific debate. But beyond debate is that urgent change is needed – and that currently it is not even on the agenda. They want to get people to take notice, and know the media in general seldom cover protests taking place in this country, even if thousands come out on the streets. Something more is needed to get attention.

The answer they came up with was blocking five major bridges in central London. Previously they and activists trying to get action over air pollution in London (which causes almost 10,000 early deaths each year) have blocked roads and road junctions for short periods – around 7 minutes at a tiem, often repeated a few times after short pauses to allow traffic flow, with perhaps the most ambitious block by Stop Killing Londoners bringing the whole of Trafalgar Square to a halt. But holding the five bridges for most of the daylight hours took disruption to a different level – and did gain them some publicity.

London does of course have many bridges, but blocking the five central ones meant longish diversions, with no road crossing between Vauxhall Bridge and London Bridge. Of course the publicity tended to be negative, with some commentators almost comparing it to the end of the world – just what the protesters are hoping to prevent. And it was hard to feel anything but contempt for those who accused the protesters of being selfish for being prepared to be arrested to try to stop our mass extinction. It’s perhaps also worth remembering that sporting events including cycle races and the London Marathon cause even more traffic disruption on the days they take place.

I managed to photograph on four of the five bridges, which involved quite a lot of walking, though I did start by taking the Underground from Westminster to Mansion House and Southwark Bridge, the further downstream of the five, coming back to Westminster on foot via Blackfriars Bridge and Waterloo Bridge, and taking the tube from Embankment to cover a different protest on Regent St. By the time I’d returned to Westminster Bridge after that detour it was too late and I was too tired to attempt the fifth bridge, Lambeth Bridge, a short distance upstream. But things were still happening on the bridge.

Extinction Rebellion Bridge blockade starts
Extinction Rebellion: Southwark, Blackfriars, Waterloo
Extinction Rebellion form Citizens’ Assembly

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My London Diary : London Photos : Hull : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

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South Norwood stands with Grenfell

No one with any human decency will not have been disgusted when a video emerged of a fireworks party burning a replica of Grenfell Tower, complete with people shown trapped inside. Police investigated and made arrests, though it wasn’t clear what those responsible could be charged with. Sickening and offensive though their act was, it was not specifically targeted at a particular racial or religious group, though thought to be racist in intent and particularly directed at those killed who were Muslim, it was rather an offence against humanity and human feelings as a whole, but not covered by our hate crime laws.

The event particularly shocked the people of South Norwood, where the party took place, and the South Norwood Tourist Board (an unofficial body which promotes the area, organising community events including tours and the setting up of a garden on waste ground beside one of its main streets) decided to take action over the sick event. As well as being local residents of South Norwood, at least one of the prominent members of the SNTB is a former resident of Grenfell Tower, and he and others have been involved with events aimed at getting justice over the fire.

The SNTB decided to organise a march to show community solidarity with the people of Grenfell as well as there disgust at the burning of the effigy, contacting the Grenfell victims group, Grenfell United to gain their approval for a march in SOuth Norwood to be held at the same time as the silent march of remembrance in Notting Hill on the 14th of every month.

Several hundred came to the start of the march outside Norwood Junction station, mainly from the local community, but with others from some distance who had been shocked and saddened by the video which was posted of the burning model tower. The start of the event was shown live on ITV News with an interview with Jane Nicholl of the SNTB and Sandra Ruiz from Grenfell United who had brought one of their banners.

Notably missing from the march were any members of the South Norwood Conservative Club, to which several of those areested belonged; the club does not appear to have made any public comment condeming or disassociating itself from their behaviour.

The march went in silence through the main streets of SOuth Norwood to a short rally outside South Norwood Leisure Centre where there were short final speeches from Jane and Sandra, before most of us went for a free cup of soup provided by the nearby The Portland Arms, and I went in for a drink with friends before catching the three trains to take me home.

South Norwood stands with Grenfell

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There are no adverts on this site and it receives no sponsorship, and I like to keep it that way. But it does take a considerable amount of my time and thought, and if you enjoy reading it, a small donation – perhaps the cost of a beer – would be appreciated.

My London Diary : London Photos : Hull : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

To order prints or reproduce images

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Saturday didn’t start well…

Saturday 10th November didn’t start well. I arrived on time for the start of what should have been a large protest to find nobody there. Of course protests are quite often planned and advertised on social media but never take place, some people get an idea it would be a good idea to have a protest, put up an event but give up when they find nobody shares their enthusiasm; others are cancelled at the last minute when I’m already on the way to them, and others were never really intended to take place. But this was different, a protest by a large group, so something was very clearly wrong.

Fortunately I’d remembered to bring my phone – quite often I come out without it, as I did this morning, though I realised when I was only a few yards down the street and rushed back to  pick it up. But other days I only think about it when my train is approaching the platform, or even when I’m actually at an event in London and put my hand into my pocket to phone someone and find the pocket is empty. But for once I’d remembered it, so took it out and began searching on Facebook for the event. I couldn’t find it.

Clearly something was wrong, and by then I had an idea what it might be. I did another search and found that I had put the event in my diary for the wrong week and was standing there waiting for something not due to happen for another 7 days.  This meant I had an hour and a half to wait for the next event I was hoping to cover (and I checked that this really was on the correct date.)

There were a number of possibilities. I was rather near one of my favourite pubs and it was tempting, but drinking early in the day when I wanted to cover more protests would not be a good idea. I could have gone to one of London’s museums or art galleries – and I often do visit one when I have a little time to spare, but I had long enough to do something else. I did a quick search on my phone for anything else  of interest happening and drew a blank, so instead I decided to go and look for a protest in those London places where protests often occur.

So I got on the tube and I found one in the first place I looked, Trafalgar Sqaure, though not something I would have have normally gone out of my way to photograph. UK Unity is an extreme right organisation which describes itself as “A genuine Grassroots campaign to Leave the EU then rebuild Britain!” and which states it “is entirely opposed to any hate speech, violence or harassment and we firmly believe in the rule of law.” but which publicises the actions of peole like Tommy Robinson and Nigel Farage and is running a petition urging the immediate deportation of all “illegal immigrants” wit the claim “Those crossing the channel from France are not ‘refugees’ or ‘asylum seekers’ but unvetted and illegal migrants in our country.”

Their protest in Trafalgar Square about the lack of progress in leaving the EU also called for the resignation of London Mayor Sadiq Khan, and for policies which “Put British Laws, British Culture and British People first“. There were a number of faces in the crowd familiar from photographing groups such as the EDL and the National Front. They favour simply leaving the EU with no agreement, refusing to make any payments and fail to acknowledge the disastrous consequences that would follow.

I’d soon had enough of being around them, and wandered off down the road to see if anything was happening at Downing St, or outside Parliament, but there was nothing. However it was now time to get on the District Line from Westminster to Aldgate East and the next event in my diary, a rally by the UK branch of the National Committee to Protect Oil Gas & Mineral Resources, Bangladesh, supported by others including Fossil Free Newham. This was a part of a global day of protest to save the Sunderbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which was taking place in Altab Ali Park in Whitechapel.

There are some protests which don’t take a great deal of time to photograph, with relatively little happening at least visually. People standing in a line with posters , placards and banners. The odd tiger. Losts of speeches, a few in English. So I was soon leaving and making my way to the pub where I hoped to meet Class War. They were a little late so I had time to drink a pint without rushing.

It wasn’t really a full-scale protest by Class War, just a short visit to remind the ‘Jack The Rippe’r tourist venue in Cable St, with its macabre displays profiting from the gory deaths of a few working class women, that it disgusts many and should close.

Police were waiting just around the corner when they arrived and came to harass the protesters, with one women constable making threats about arresting them for their bad language – who had the law pointed out to her. After a short protest Class War rolled up their banner and went in search of another pub. They almost got there when they were diverted into yet another on the way…

Clas War are very much a group misunderstood in various ways by different people and often deliberately, but whose actions often attract far more publicity than many other groups – and their intention is to provoke. I don’t always share their views – though on the Ripper obscenity I’m 100% with them – but their activities are always interesting. Protest is definitely more fun with Class War, and they do very much raise the profile of important issues.

Where I differ from Class War is that I’m more of a pragmatist and I don’t think the chances of getting revolution on anarchist lines is too probable in the foreseeable future. So while I share many of their opinions about the Labour Party, and in particular about criminal London Labour councils which are demolishing council estates, handing over public assets to private developers and failing to provide council housing for current residents and others who can’t afford high market house prices or rents who Class War are very rightly castigating, I’d like to support those in the party who are campaigning for socialists to take control of the local parties, which could bring about a real change. And while I don’t have particularly high hopes of what a Corbyn government might be able to acheive, I’m convinced that there would be some advantages over the Tories, who have shown themselves cruel, unthinking and quite simply evil beyond previous administrations. Though under our current system, my vote inone of the country’s safer Tory seats is entirely a worthless gesture.

More on all these protests at:
Leave Voters say Leave Now!
Global Day to save the Sunderbans
Class War picket the Ripper ‘Museum’

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There are no adverts on this site and it receives no sponsorship, and I like to keep it that way. But it does take a considerable amount of my time and thought, and if you enjoy reading it, a small donation – perhaps the cost of a beer – would be appreciated.

My London Diary : London Photos : Hull : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

To order prints or reproduce images

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Darkest London


Class War had come to support the protesters

Another protest about London Councils and housing took place in Deptford, one of the literally and metaphorically darkest areas of the capital on that Tuesday evening. Lewisham Council had turned the Old Tidemill Garden, a community garden, into a fortress, surrounded by fences and ringed by security guards 24 hours a day, at considerable cost to the local council tax payers.

After discussions with the council had failed to acheive any meaningful communication, local residents had occupied the garden around the end of August, but two months later were very forcefully evicted at the end of October in a scandalous and illegal action by a large force of bailiffs, while police stood back and watched.

The campaigners set up a camp on an area of open ground just to the east of the garden and in front of Reginald House, council flats that are also to be demolished under the council’s plans, along with a disused school. Campaigners have put forward alternative proposals which would allow the same number of new homes – though with more social housing – on the site but retain the garden and allow all current residents to remain in the area, but the council and developers Peabody have refused to give them any serious consideration.

The area around the camp where people met was in darkness, and most of the pictures I took there at slow shutter speeds were spoilt by subject movement, a few by camera shake. Closer to the road and the roundabout there was a little more light and my efforts were more succesful.

The march set off down a dimly lit road past the heavily guarded garden, and few of the pictures I took at the start were usable. When it turned onto Deptford High St things became much easier, but after a short walk up there it turned off into another dimily lit road and path, on its way to the New Cross Assembly Meeting where the recently elected Mayor was expected to answer questions from the public.

The side street outside the building where this was to be held was also dark,  and working at high ISO and slow shutter speeds was rather hit and miss. I took a few pictures using my LED light, but this only usefully illuminates a fairly small distance from it and doesn’t give a wide enough spread of light for my wider images.

I took a few pictures using flash,  but was unhappy with the results. With so low ambient light it is hard to get any satisfactory balance between people and things close to the flash and the background, and I abandoned the effort. The flash didn’t seem to be working properly in any case – probably some incorrect setting on camera or flash. The Nikon system is great when it works, but there are quite a few silly little things that can prevent it working properly.  A few of the better pictures were made with the help of headlights from cars, stopped briefly by protesters on the road.


Lit by car headlights

We waited and waited for the Mayor, but he didn’t arrive, though a couple of police did. Messages came through that he had been held up, and after it began to seem unlikely he was coming I and some of the other protesters left. It was cold and I’d been standing around too long and was very pleased to be able to sit on a warm bus to take me to the station for a train on my way home.

Later I heard that the Mayor had finally arrived, and there had been a rather unsatisfactory meeting, with most of the protesters being refused entry and few questions being answered. Later, when the Mayor left, their had been some noisy scenes and at least one arrest. I was sorry to have missed the action, but also felt some relief as I was faily sure I wouldn’t have managed any good pictures.

More text and pictures:
Save Old Tidemill Garden & Reginald House

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There are no adverts on this site and it receives no sponsorship, and I like to keep it that way. But it does take a considerable amount of my time and thought, and if you enjoy reading it, a small donation – perhaps the cost of a beer – would be appreciated.

My London Diary : London Photos : Hull : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

To order prints or reproduce images

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Labour, Labour Home Snatchers!


Anarchist Martin Wright leads a protest as a Labour Party activist is called to the microphone

The picture above has an interesting structure with a strong central figure and two planes defined by the poster he is holding and the banners behind, which appeals to me. But it is also a picture in which the text is important, particularly the poster message ‘Labour Leaders in the Social Cleansing of Council Estates in London’, not just because it actually makes  an unfortunately true point, but because it very clearly makes the point which this image is about – a protest by one of London’s leading anarchists over housing, and against the policies pursued by Labour councils in London.


Tanya Murat of Southwark Defend Council Housing and a council tenant in Walworth

When the Labour government brought in the idea of regeneration it was probably for the best of motives, an attempt to improve the housing of many who were living in sub-standard accomodation by providing them with homes that met modern standards. But it was soon being used to do something very different, partly because developers saw it as a huge money-making opportunity, partly because some councillors and officers saw it as a way to develop their careers (and personal fortunes), partly because local authorities lacked the knowledge and experience to deal with the developers, and at least in part because of the demands and limitations imposed by central government on local authorities.

The result has been a culture in  which the needs of the people local authority housing is intended to meet – local residents – have become largely neglected, with councils aiming at realising the values of public assets and some councillors and officials getting treated to extravagant entertainment and getting lucrative jobs. Of course local councils have always suffered from people exploiting their positions for their own interests (and only a very few have been brought to justice.) But the huge redevelopment proposals which came out of thte regeneration process provided rich pickings for some.

Most local government in London is Labour led – with some borough such as Newham having no effective opposition at all. So mostly it is Labour controlled councils that are demolishing estates and handing public assets over to often rather corrupt developers – including some housing associations. Conservative councils are just as bad, but there are few of them. And we expect Conservatives to serve their own interests and those of their wealth friends, while Labour we expect to be ‘for the many not for the few’.


Ted Knight (right) argues with Martin Wright

Class War and other anarchist and left groups had come to take part in the protest called by called by ‘Axe the Housing Act’ against the demolition of council estates but neither they nor housing activists they have worked with were given the chance to speak. The final straw for them was when a prominent London Labour Party activist was called to the microphone. It is a long time since Ted Knight was ‘Red Ted’, the leader of a Labour council which planned and built homes on the premise that “nothing was too good for the working class”, was in power, but he remains a member of a party that has been responsible for more than 160 estate demolitions in the capital (though he has been fighting against some of them.)


‘Labour Labour Home Snatchers! Even Worse than Maggie Thatcher’

It wasn’t then suprising that Class War and some other activists erupted at this point, disrupting the meeting by shouting their views. They didn’t stop the meeting, but held it up for some time before things quietened down enough for Knight to speak – and the arguments continued. The banner behind Martin Wright, on which only a few words can be seen (you can read it unobstructed at the right of the picature above ), shows Corbyn reading another Class War poster, listing the names of many of the estates Labour Councils are demolishing, thrust in his face as he went to speak at another protest.


‘The people Ballotless by MendaCity Hall’ – Sadiq Khan rushed through proposals to avoid ballots

Some weeks after this Labour did make a new policy statement on housing, which did include some of the demands activists including Class War and  residents have been making, among them calling for all estate residents to be balloted and to be treated better when councils want to ‘regenerate’ estates. But those proposals are still being largely ignored by London Labour councils, with London Mayor Sadiq Khan rushing through a number of proposals which failed to meet the new standards, and others finding excuses to avoid implementing them.

There have been a few sucesses, notably in Haringey, where a huge level of protests by activists iniside and outwith the Labour Party resulted in the election of Labour councillors opposed to the billion-pound giveaway of council assets involved in the HDV (Haringey Development Vehicle), but elsewhere in London Labour councils dominated by the Labour right (and organisations such as Progress) are still finding ways to continue  the old and discredited policies.

I tried to cover both the main protest and the reaction to it from Class War and others, and separated out the two on My London Diary. There were a number of speakers representing estates currently being demolished or under threat in the main protest, but it did seem a shame that it was not more inclusive.

Class War protest Labour Housing record
No Demolitions Without Permission
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There are no adverts on this site and it receives no sponsorship, and I like to keep it that way. But it does take a considerable amount of my time and thought, and if you enjoy reading it, a small donation – perhaps the cost of a beer – would be appreciated.

My London Diary : London Photos : Hull : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

To order prints or reproduce images

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December 2018

A few days off with virtually no protests taking place in London have given me time to catch up with December’s pictures, which as well as those from London also include those from a short trip to Matlock.

My london diary

Dec 2018


Matlock & High Tor
Matlock & Lumsdale
Matlock – Oker Hill
Brentford to Hammersmith
Boxing Day Walk
London Bike Life


Debenhams Pay Your Cleaners
Nine Elms Wander
Humanity Face Extinction
Extinction Rebellion at the BBC


Anna Soubry MP harassed by extremists
Extremist Brexiteers at parliament
Extremist Brexiteers clash with SODEM
MP welcomes Delhi to London driver
Cuts kill disabled people say protesters
Berlin Syndikat protest at London landlords
London Stands With The Stansted15


Grenfell silent walk – 18 months on
Hand Back Venezuela’s stolen money
SODEM vigil against Brexit
70 years of Human Rights


Marchers oppose Tommy Robinson
London flooded with Santas
British Museum Stolen Goods Tour
Dharma meditation for climate
Protest Slavery in Libya
Winkfield Walk
SHAC Alternative Housing Awards 2018
BBC Boycott Eurovision Israel 2019


Together for Climate Justice
Stop Universal Credit day of action

London Images

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There are no adverts on this site and it receives no sponsorship, and I like to keep it that way. But it does take a considerable amount of my time and thought, and if you enjoy reading it, a small donation – perhaps the cost of a beer – would be appreciated.

My London Diary : London Photos : Hull : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

To order prints or reproduce images

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No Justice! No Peace! 20 Years

This was the 20th annual march by the United Families and Friends Campaign (UFFC), a coalition of of people killed by police, in prisons, in immigration detention and in secure psychiatric hospitals. I first knew about their campaign in 2003, when I took the picture above, along with others. Then the list they carried of those who have died in custody since 1969 hand around 1800 names on it; now it is considerably longer, with many new names being added each year.

Some of those I photographed in 2003 were still there in 2018, but others have themselves died – sometimes as a result of their grief. Many have given up on the struggle for justice, beaten down by the system which lies and obstructs the course of justice – including the police, coroners and judges who all dissemble, and a complaints procedure dedicated to being ineffective. For most there is no justice – but many are determined to fight on despite this. The most determined sometimes make a little progress, but still the system keeps slapping them back.

Of course not every death in custody is a result of criminal acts by police or others concerned. Some are from natural causes. But too many are from a lack of care; too many from the use of excessive force and failures to carry out proper procedures for restraint. And too many from clearly criminal acts which our courts allow to go unpunished.

The only case among around two and a half thousand where there has been a sucessful prosecution, so far as I’m aware, is one where the violence by fellow officers so offended one policeman that he broke ranks and gave evidence against them. In other cases police have got away with perjury, supporting the clearly false evidence of their fellow officers, making up stories between them that bear little relation to what actually happened.

So many police inquiries into these incidents have been at best half-hearted and often facially incompetent or even criminal. CCTV cameras – even in police stations – never seem to work when officers would be in the frame, and interviews are not made or delayed for months.

Of course police have a difficult job, and mistakes will sometimes happen, but this goes beyond this, and is an institutional problem – like the racism which, despite its revelation after the death of Stephen Lawrence, is still active in police forces around the country, and involved in too many of the deaths. Many of the victims are also people with mental health problems, and the continuing deaths also reflect a lack of proper mental health provision, exacerbated by changes in policies and government cuts both to health services and to community services.

The campaigners met in Trafalgar Square, and then marched slowly, very slowly down Whitehall, stopping for a rally opposite Downing St, where many representatives of the bereaved families spoke. A delegation went to take a letter to the Prime Minister at 10 Downing St, as they have done each year, though never getting a sensible reply. This year they were even refused entry, despite having made their application several months earlier. Police on the gate were apologetic (and the police had facilitated the march and rally in exemplary fashion) and took the letter promising to see it was delieved, but apparently their request had been lost, perhaps deliberately, by Theresa May’s office and they could not be allowed to enter.

‘No Justice! No Peace!’ is the slogan of the campaign, and so far justice is sadly lacking.

More at:
20th UFFC remembrance procession
20th UFFC remembrance rally

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There are no adverts on this site and it receives no sponsorship, and I like to keep it that way. But it does take a considerable amount of my time and thought, and if you enjoy reading it, a small donation – perhaps the cost of a beer – would be appreciated.

My London Diary : London Photos : Hull : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

To order prints or reproduce images

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Don’t Break Up the NHS

As the holed and bloody NHS logo under Jeremy the Vulture suggests, the NHS has been subjected to a long and brusing campaign of privatisation by the coalition and Tory governments since 2010 (and New Labour before then didn’t help.)

Many of us have found that our NHS clinics and services have been taken over by companies including Richard Branson’s Virgin Healthcare, and more and more of our NHS services are being moved into the hands of private companies, with even some NHS hospitals being run by them – though at least one has been returned to the NHS when the private company found it couldn’t make enough.

The process of privatisation has been carried out largely by stealth through various reforms by politicians who mouth about the NHS being safe in their hands while selling off parts of it to companies owned by party donors, friends and relatives and deliberately failing to cope with many of the real problems of the system.

One of the latest of these back-door privatisation schemes is the ICP contract. The Health & Social Care Act 2012 forced competitive contracting onto the English NHS, resulting in the wasting huge amounts of time and resources on competition and tendering processes. NHS England want to plaster over the obvious failures of this by adding another layer of contracting, the Integrated Care Provider contract, rather than getting rid of the system which has failed.

Brexit comes into all of this through the hope by some leading Brexiteers that after Brexit we would be able to offer the US a trade treaty which would enable American healthcare companies to take over much of our NHS as an incentive to get advantageous terms for British companies trading with the US.

The introduction of ICPs would break the NHS into smaller business units which would be competed for by private sector organisations. The plan is being driven by NHS England under CEO Simon Stevens, previously a senior executive of the giant US healthcare and health insurance company United Health Group.

The Carillion failure shows the danger of such contracting arrangements, where a failure of a ‘lead provider’ with multiple sub-contracters has led to thousands of job losses, abandoned major projects (including part-built hospitals), poorer services and great public expense.  Similar arrangements with multiple levels of contracting also made possible some of the failures which made Grenfell Tower a deathtrap.

We need – in the NHS and elsewhere – to move towards simpler systems and eliminate the many unnecessary and costly levels of management. Huge amounts too are wasted on consultancy fees. There is a kind of cult of management which bears no relation to its actual utility and too often it gets in the way of efficient working of organisations rather than facilitating it, often by forcing unsuitable structures in a ‘one size fits all’ approach.

I’m not an expert on the ins and outs of ICP, for which I suggest you look at the National Health Action Party’s page Reasons NHS England should scrap the draft ICP contract. The party and most of the speakers at the protest were professionals with years of experience in the NHS who are appalled at the privatisation which has taken place.

Among those who came to speak at the event was MP Eleanor Smith, a former NHS theatre nurse and Unison President, whose private members NHS Reinstatement Bill was due for its second reading later in the day, calling for the re-nationalisation of the NHS. 

Public services campaigning group ‘We Own It‘ had come to the event with a petition with 31,870 signatures to scrap the ICP contract, a large number considering the rather technical nature of the scheme, and after the rally the campaigners marched to the Dept of Health to hand in.

More pictures at Scrap ICP Contract, Keep NHS Public
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There are no adverts on this site and it receives no sponsorship, and I like to keep it that way. But it does take a considerable amount of my time and thought, and if you enjoy reading it, a small donation – perhaps the cost of a beer – would be appreciated.

My London Diary : London Photos : Hull : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

To order prints or reproduce images

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Minister Bone Saw

A protest outside the Saudi Embassy in London called for all those responsible for the horrific murder and dismembering of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, including Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman who is thought to have approved sending the death squad to the consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul, to be brought to justice.

The Committee to Protect Journalists website lists the name of 53 journalists killed in 2018, including Khashoggi,  one of the 34 murdered. Others were killed by crossfire (11) or on dangerous assignments (8).  Twelve of them were photographers, half killed by crossfire. Seven other media workers were also killed.

Few of these deaths made the UK news, because most were local photographers, working in their own countries, and there were no deaths in the UK. Kashoggi’s death made the news partly because he was a journalist for a major US newspaper, but also because of its horrific nature, dismembered while still living using a bone saw and his body in parts smuggled out of the Saudi consulate. I read about the recording apparently transmitted from his watch during his killing, but could not bear to click the link to listen to it.

Few if any believe the Saudi denial that his killing was approved by Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, generally known as MBS, which placards expanded to Minister Bone Saw.  It’s perhaps something of a mystery why MBS thought he could get away with it – though the rich often do, and while there was international revulsion there has been little or no real action. Also hard to understand is why Kashoggi believed the assurances he was apparently given about his safety.

Here in the UK, journalists are generally fairly safe, though a few of my colleagues have suffered at the hands of police, with teeth being knocked out and arms broken, normally the worst we get are a few bruises.  The only UK death on the CPJ site, which has records since 1992, was of Martin O’Hagan, a 51-year-old investigative journalist for the Dublin Sunday World, shot dead outside his home in September 2001 in Lurgan, Northern Ireland.

The protest outside the embassy was also against the Saudi involvement in the war in Yemen and called for the UK to immediately stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

Justice For Jamal Khashoggi & Yemen

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My London Diary : London Photos : Hull : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

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Remainers March Fills London

Although the front of the People’s Vote March for the Future was at the Hyde Park Corner end of Park Lane, several thousand people were in front of the banner when the march was due to begin, stretching some way down Piccadilly.

Among them and right at the front were a group of protesters from Movement for Justice who clearly see Brexit as motivated by xenophobia and racism. They called noisily for Brexit to be stopped and for free movement and an end to the UK’s racist immigration policies. Among them were many who have suffered long periods of indefinite detention in Britain’s immigration detention centres, where MfJ has held numerous protests calling for these prisons to be closed, as well as campaigning and giving assistance to those held inside .

Piccadilly behind the MfJ was fairly densely crowded and it took me some minutes to make my way back to the official head of the march with its banners and placards, where I think stewards were waiting hoping that the road ahead would be miracuolously cleared, but there were just too many people for this to happen.

The march began and I stood on Piccadilly taking pictures of the marchers (some of which are in People’s Vote March – Start on My London Diary.) When people were still walking past me half an hour later I got on the tube at Green Park and went to Westminster, where I found that before any marchers had reached Parliament Square it was already fairly full.

I walked around the edge of the square, then decided to walk up Parliament St towards Downing St to be around there when the marchers arrived, stopping there for a few minutes to photograph anopther protest taking place by the People’s Mujahedin of Iran against executions of the political opposition in Iran.  Political artist Kaya Ma was standing there with paintings of Theresa May, Jeremy Corbyn, Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees Mogg.

Among the first to arrive was Elvis, riding a tricycle, coming to sing and play with others who were already opposite Downing St, and soon Theresa May turned up holding a rope, with which she was leading a captive Britain.

At the end of the rope tying his wrists together was a man dressed up in a Union Flag, his mouth gagged and wearing a blindfold, carrying a small poster ‘No Influence’.

The whole width of the road was filled with people walking slowly towards Parliament Square, though after a while this was full and Whitehall also began to fill up. Some friends at the back of the march told me that they never managed to leave Park Lane, and there were reports of a large overfill in Green Park, unable to make further progress.

Eventually I decided I’d been standing on my feet too long and decided to try and make my way to Charing Cross – the crowd towards Westminster station which was closer looked too dense to make much progress. There was a single Brexiteer with a megaphone taking on a small crowd who gathered around him, but failing to make much sense, and a line of police across the entrance to Horseguards Avenue where a small protest was taking place in front of the Ministry of Defence.

I wandered down briefly to find it was Veterans United Against Suicide, who as well as calling for more to be done to help service men and veterans in the fight against their developing PTSD and eventually committing suicide were also supporting a soldier discharged for being photographed in  uniform with extreme right figure Tommy Robinson.

I returned to Whitehall and walked up towards Trafalgar Square, but was soon brought to a halt by a densely packed crowd now also trying to leave. People were partying in Trafalgar Square and it took me around 15 minutes to get to Charing Cross station for a train.

MfJ at People’s Vote March
People’s Vote March – End
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There are no adverts on this site and it receives no sponsorship, and I like to keep it that way. But it does take a considerable amount of my time and thought, and if you enjoy reading it, a small donation – perhaps the cost of a beer – would be appreciated.

My London Diary : London Photos : Hull : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

To order prints or reproduce images

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