Category: Political Issues

I’ve been fortunate always to have had a roof over my head, though it hasn’t always been a comfortable one. A few of the places I lived in as a student were beyond grotty and  one I had to leave after a week it was so desparate. The bed bugs were the final straw.

The room I moved into certainly wasn’t palatial, but it was at least clean and the walls weren’t running with damp. The rent was a little more, but it was reasonably warm and safe, in a house where the owner, my landlord lived.

I’ve lived in some cold places. Back in 1963 in a viciously cold winter there was a month or two where the bathroom never got above freezing and I never had a bath, and in Leicester the ice was thick inside the windows and I gave up shaving – and never started again.

In Manchester, where we lived on the top floor of a small terraced house, there were slotmeters on the landing for gas and electricity, and the landlord came and emptied them. We were paying three or four times the going rate. We went out and bought a paraffin heater. It was smelly but got our room warm – and the condensation from it brought the wall-paper off the wall.

Everything changed when I got a job in a new town – and a large new flat at council rent with a hot-air heating system run on off-peak electricity, and we lived in comfort for several years before buying a house of our own. We wanted to move and it wasn’t possible to remain in social housing.

We moved into a small victorian semi which was cold and draughty and which had hardly been modernised since it was built, other than having the gas lighting replaced by electricity – though some of the piping was still there.

We were fortunate that we could afford to replace the old draughty sash windows with double glazing. I spent hours fitting draught-proofing, putting insulation in the loft and on the inside of front and rear external walls behind plasterboard fixed to battens. The exterior walls were just a single brick thick – which didn’t stop people trying to sell me cavity wall insulation, though there was no cavity. We had gas fires put in rather than central heating as it was more energy efficient but it remained a rather cold house, though much better now since we had external insulation on the gable end a few years ago.

We were fortunate that we owned the property (though it took 20 years to pay off the mortgage) and could make it warmer – and that we could afford to do so – with the help of government grants to meet part of the costs for a new roof and, many years later, external insulation. And that we had enough income never to have to make the choice between turning on a fire and eating. When we were in private rentings things were much tougher.

I spent a year in a tower block too, on the 10th floor about half-way up. But fortunately it wasn’t covered in highly flammable material and didn’t catch fire. The worst that happened was broken down lifts. But there are still many blocks with the same dangerous cladding that was used at Grenfell, and probably also applied with much the same disregard for proper support and breaks; not really accidents but tragic fires waiting to happen.

We need new laws – like that the Conservatives – many of them landlords – voted down to ensure that properties are safe to live in. And for governemnt to keep the promises it made just after Grenfell. To bring in proper and regular fire safety checks, to ensure that building regulations are adhered to – and toughened where neceessary. To remove flammable cladding from all tall buildings, to reverse cuts in firefighters and fire appliances and so on.  To listen to the complaints of tenants and take action, and to end evictions of those who complain or ask for repairs of private rented properties. And of course to build much more council housing and end the demolition of existing council estates.

In my twenties I was a housing activist, part of the Moss Side Housing Action Group, trying hard to persuade the city council to build homes that people wanted and would last. We wanted safe, decent housing – and they built instant slums, now largely replaced. People deserve good  housing – and the cheapest way to provide it is council housing.  Rents are much lower not as many think because of subsidies, but because it is more cost-efficient and most council estates have more than paid for their costs in a reasonable time-scale.

I’ve not written anything here about the actual protest, but you can read that in the text and captions on My London Diary.

No More Grenfells – Make Tower Blocks Safe

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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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Further Education has often been discribed as the ‘Cinderella of Education’, and it is still sitting in the dirty fireplace, with no sign of a fairy godmother, ball or glass slipper. It remains terribly unfunded compared both with schools and with the more glamorous ‘Higher Education’. As well as colleges being strapped for cash, students have also suffered, particularly with the withdrawal of maintenance grants in England.

The march was a part of the ‘Love Our Colleges’ campaign week of action and was followed by a rally which I didn’t photograph, as well as a lobby of Parliament.

FE colleges have long been a vital part of our education system, and many were founded because of local needs and have very strong community links. Years ago many were a matter of fierce local pride. Some of these gradually took on more and more higher education courses and have transitioned to become universities, but FE remains vital for training at lower levels and in particular for 16-19 year olds. As well as providing the kind of academic courses available in school sixth forms they also offer a wide range of more techinical and vocational courses.

As the campaign states:

“Further education colleges are an essential part of England’s education system. Whether it’s through top-class technical education, basic skills or lifelong learning, colleges help people of all ages and backgrounds to make the most of their talents and ambitions. Rooted in local communities, they are crucial in driving social mobility and providing the skills to boost local and regional economies.”

The future of FE colleges is under threat as funding has been cut by 30% since 2009, meaning young students get fewer hours of teaching support and a huge reduction in learning opportunites for adults. The value of staff pay has falling by mnore than a quarter and they now get £7000 a year less on average than school teachers.

More pictures on My London Diary: March for Further Education

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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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There were two events in London opposing what the organisers of this event, Stand Up To Racism and Unite Against Fascism, described as “a demonstration for bigots and Islamophobes in London “by the racist ‘Democratic’ Football Lads Alliance (DFLA)”.

The more interesting and larger protest by anti-fascists was taking place starting at the BBC, and went to actually try to physically stop the march – with considerable success, holding it up for some time and forcing police to take it on a different route. But because I’d been with the ‘Funeral For the Unknown Cyclist‘ I hadn’t been able to keep up with what was happening there, and had ended up next to the SUTR/UAF demonstration, a static rally in Parliament Street, close to where the DFLA rally was to happen (though well separated by a large gap and many police officers.)

It wasn’t a huge rally, though rather more supporters than on the previous similar occasion, and with a better sound system which this time police had allowed them to put in place – at the earlier protest police had blocked them bringing it.  This time the police seemed more concerned about facilitating their protest rather than obstructing it, and at keeping out the handful of racists who came to try and disrupt it.

After taking some pictures of the rally, I went back into Parliament Square to sit down and eat a very late lunch of the sandwiches I had brought with me. I usually bring sandwiches when I’m working across the middle of the day, often eating them in the middle of protests. Of course you can buy food in London, but not always conveniently and seldom really suited to my dietary requirements as a diabetic. I watched police turning away a few shouting men and wandered across to take pictures, but decided there was really little of interest.

I’d been planning to walk around through St James Park (as Whitehall was blocked) to Trafalgar Square and Whitehall to find the DFLA and Anti-fascists, but felt too tired, and decided to leave this to younger and fitter photographers who also have the advantage of not being as well-known to the thugs, and went home.

More pictures, including a number of the speakers, at Rally opposes Islamophobic DFLA on My London Diary.

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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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Cycling is an inherently safe and healthy mode of transport; what makes it dangerous in some places are massive chunks of metal moving at high speeds, often with poor awareness of the surroundings and occasionally driven without proper care. Bad road design, badly designed vehicles and a few bad drivers.

Getting more people cycling would make an important contribution to our national well-being, cutting the huge amount of air pollution caused by traffic, particularly in cities such as London, where air pollution causes almost 10,000 early deaths each year with a much greater number suffereing from pollution-related health problems. It would cut the admissions to hospitals, reducing the pressure on the NHS.

For those who cycle, the healthy exercise involved gives even greater health benefits – though these are somewhat reduced by the filthy air in our cities. It also has financial benefits, providing by far the cheapest form of transport other than walking. And for many journeys of short to moderate length it can be the fastest way to go, particularly as there are few problems with parking a bike.

Even more important for many is the reliablity. When I cycled to work I could rely with almost certainty in getting there in somewhere between 12 and 15 minutes; colleagues driving a similar journey might occasionally do it a minute or two faster, but at least once a week would be delayed  by traffic and take twice as long as me or more.

Once in 20 years I did get delayed, when hit by a car coming out from a side road who failed to see me, and a handfull of times by punctures and mechanical faults, though I think these happened less often than with most drivers. And there were a few days when heavy snow made both cycling and driving impossible and I and drivers had to walk (though they often gave up and stayed home.)

The major reason people give for not cycling is that they don’t think it is safe. Even many people in cities who have bikes only use them recreationally, perhaps on footpaths or towpaths, some taking them by car to places where they can cycle away from traffic.

The widespread use of cycle helmets has added to people’s fears about safety, while also making cycling rather less convenient. They may marginally improve a cyclist’s chance of avoiding head injuries in some collisions (the evidence isn’t entirely clear and is certainly disputed) but provide little real protection.  They are certainly not an answer to the problem we have of safety, and most cyclists who are killed or badly injured were wearing helmets.

On busy routes we need far more provision of high-quality cycle routes protected from traffic. Much of what we already have – virtually all in my local area – is so badly designed that few cyclists use it, with ‘give way’ signs every few yards making it impracticable. Simply having marked cycle lanes also seldom works as too many vehicles park in them.

‘Stop Killing Cyclists’ calls for a large investment in  safer facilities for cyclists, but it would be an investment that would bring dividends both financially and in terms of well-being, particularly for those new cyclists it would bring onto our streets but also for the rest of us, pedestrians, cyclists and drivers.

Of course there are other things that are also needed to improve safety for all road users, but particularly for pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists who do not have a large metal box to keep them safe.  Better road design with safety rather than vehicle speed at its heart, better vehicle design, particularly in terms of all-round visibility, lower (and enforced) speed limits particularly on minor roads and backstreets…

And education and some changes in the laws. We have a Highway Code – and it is being revised, hopefully to make it safer for pedestrians and cyclists, but there are many areas that are either widely unknown or widely ignored by many drivers (and of course by some cyclists.)

Getting more people to use bikes would hopefully improve driver attitudes to cyclists, who too many drivers seem to see as obstacles to overcome rather than fellow road users with the same right to be on the highway as they have. Too many drivers pass cyclists where there is not safe room to do so:

(Rule 163: give motorcyclists, cyclists and horse riders at least as much room as you would when overtaking a car)

Many speed past me only a few inches away, often breaking the speed limit to do so, only to have to brake a few yards on when they catch up with other cars or to turn left ahead of me, slowing so I have to brake. Of course this kind of competitive attitude to driving also extends to their behaviour to other drivers, encouraged by advertising, car magazines and petrolhead TV programmes. Somehow we need to move away from a steering wheel inspiring too many to think they are Lewis Hamilton.

Oh yes, the protest.  The ‘National Funeral for the Unknown Cyclist’ organised by Stop Killing Cyclists started its procession in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, marching behind a very smart horse-drawn hearse to a die-in in front of the Houses of Parliament.

It had to change its planned route to Parliament as right-wing ‘football lads’ were holding a rally in Whitehall supporting ‘Tommy Robinson’ over his contempt of court which could have led to a trial of pedophiles being abandoned, and there was also a protest against them, so Whitehall was blocked. These rival protests meant  the ‘funeral’ it was seen by far fewer people and greatly diminished its chances of any coverage in the media. And it also meant that I left it before the rally in Smith Square.

You can see more pictures and text at
National Funeral for the Unknown Cyclist

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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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Various groups of women protesting over changes in the UK pension system came together in Hyde Park to stand ‘shoulder to shoulder’ and to go from there to lobby their MPs at Parliament. The event included many dressed as suffragettes to mark the 100th anniversary of some British women getting the vote.

The 1995 Conservative Government’s Pension Act, worsened by the 2011 Pension Acts, affects some 3.8 million women who have lost up to six years State Pension – for many over £40,000. They complain that the changes were brought in with little or no personal notice and faster than initially promised.

The first UK state pension introduced on Jan 1st 1909 was for men and women with low incomes from the age of 70, and was replaced in 1925 by a pension payable from age 65 dependent on contributions paid by workers and their employers. The higher married couples allowance was only paid when both of the couple were 65; because most men married younger women this created problems, so in 1940 the qualifying age for women was lowered to 60, which also applied to those who were in work and thus qualified for their own state pension. Women seldom continued in paid employment after marriage at the time.

Changes were made to the scheme in 1948, but the different ages remained in place until European equality rules forced the 1995 Tory government to bring about equalisation of pension age; they put this as far ahead as possible, with a slow rise of the retirement age for women to take place starting in April 2010 and reaching 65 in April 2020.

In 2007, Labour legislated for further increases in pension age for both men and women starting in 2024 and reaching 68 in 2044-46. The Coalition government accelerated the rise in pension age, and both men and women had the same retirement age of 65 by November 2018.

A person aged 60 now will have to work until he or she is 66, while someone aged 55 will need to work until they are 67 and someone aged 40 until they are 68.

Of course, future changes will almost certainly make those current figures incorrect which is what these women have found, and the figures from the government for their retirement age on which they planned their financial futures have been made incorrect by later changes. They feel – and it is hard not to sympathise with them – that the scheme under which they were making their National Insurance contributions should have informed them how these changes would affect them. It also appears to be the case that many were given incorrect information, with those working for the DWP failing to be aware of or understand the forthcoming changes.

Behind the increasing pension age is the more welcome trend of increasing life expectancy. Since 1948, when the NHS began this has increased by around 10-11 years for both men and women who at age 65 can now expect to live on average to 83.5 and almost 86 respectively.

After a number of speeches from representatives of the varous groups who share the anger over their pensions but have some differences in their aims the protest came to an end. I’d expected them to march to Parliament for their lobby and further rally there, but they simply told people to make their own way there.

I did wonder whether this was because the Metropolitan Police had refused to facilitate a march, telling them as they did another group of protesters that they would have to employ private contractors to ‘police’ the event. When the protesters found this would cost them around £40,000, they got Liberty to take the matter up – and the police quickly backed down and did their job. I think other marches in a similar position have simply called the Met’s bluff and gone ahead telling them they were not needed – but the police have turned up in any case. Autonomous groups have of course ignored the legal requirement to inform the police and simply marched.

More about the protest and many more pictures at: Women against Pension Theft

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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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The campaign group Foil Vedanta has been campaigning for some years to get mining company Vedanta de-listed from the London Stock Exchange, and on the morning of its AGM in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, the company de-listed itself. Not only activists such as Foil Vedanta, but politicians were calling for its delisting following May’s Thoothukudi massacre in Tamil Naduin which 13 protesters were killed and dozens injured, and the success of grassroots activism which has shut down Vedanta’s operations in Goa, Tuticorin and Niyamgiri.

Vedanta AGM protest 2012

The delisting also followed, as I wrote on My London Diary, the publication of Vedanta’s damning “report ‘Vedanta’s Billions: Regulatory failure, environment and human rights’ with a comprehensive account of the company’s crimes in all of its operations, and of the City of London’s total failure to regulate Vedanta, or any other criminal mining company and revealing the vast scale of tax evasion and money laundering.”

Vedanta AGM protest 2010

Although the company will continue, and doubtless continue to cheat and pollute, the de-listing will at least deprive it of some of it’s respectabilityand perhaps curtail some of its more damaging activities. Presumably the de-listing will mean no more AGMs in London, and I will miss the annual protests that I’ve attended most years since 2010, though I’m sure that so long as Vedanta continue their crimes anywhere around the world, Foil Vedanta will find some opportunity to protest them here.

Vedanta AGM protest 2013

Vedanta, owned largely by a billionaire Indian industrialist and his family, is the kind of company that has no place in a civilised world, with a long history of crimes in India, Zambia and elsewhere, attempting to mine sacred lands, dispossesing many, polluting air and water, evading taxes, lying to governments and courts, bribery and corruption, beating and shooting protesters, killing workers with a disregard for safety and more.

Vedanta AGM protest 2016

Its activities have been met by protests where it operates around the world, particularly in India, and in London where the company was based to get support from the British Government – with David Cameron pleading their case with the Indian Prime Minister and British taxpayers supporting its nefarous activities through our government agencies. Its crimes have been exposed by groups including Foil Vedanta, with detailed research summarised in the latest and earlier reports.

The report, Vedanta’s Billions:  Regulatory failure, environment and human rights can be downloaded here.  The de-listing, with a Bahamas based family trust buying back the 33% of shares not already owned by majority shareholder Anil Agarwal means that the company will now be much less open to public scrutiny. Though the financial authorities, as the report’s title suggests have failed in their duty over this, as a listed company Vedanta had to publish annual reports and individuals supporting Foil Vedanta were able to buy a single share to attend and ask questions at its AGMs. So while the de-listing was a victory for campaigners, it also presents a challenge, making their campaign more difficult.

Vedanta’s Final AGM

I can’t remember when I first went to Deptford, though it was possibly in 1982, the date of my earliest pictures in my ‘Deptford to Woolwich‘.  I’d certainly been to neighbouring Greenwich much earlier in my life, first on the only school trip from my primary school back in the mid 1950’s, when I will have seen its industrial shoreline from the river, but then few of us could have afforded a pencil, let alone a camera, and any impressions were solely on our young minds.

After my walk in 1982, I returned in 1984 to take  more pictures, again on my own, but in 1985 went on a group outing led by members of the Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society, GLIAS, to which I still belong. I had come across GLIAS in 1977 on a family outing to the Kew Bridge Engines, and immediately joined up – and many of my pictures reflect an interest in the area, though I’ve done very little actual detailed recording work.

With GLIAS we went into Convoys Wharf, walking through their listed Olympia sheds to the riverside and on to the jetty where giant paper rolls were being unloaded from the ship for the Murdoch press, as well as into the rum cellars of the former Royal Navy Victualling Yard. The wharf has now been derelict for around 18 years, a huge 18.5 hectare site in the middle of London’s housing crisis, one of London’s many housing scandals down to private developers. Outline planning permission for around 3500 homes was rushed through around five years ago by Boris Johnson against the wishes of the local council but the first more detailed plan for a small part of the area was only put in six months ago.

Of course I’ve returned numerous times since then, more recently walking along the Thames path and visiting the lively Deptford High St, photographing along the DLR and the river Ravensbourne and more recently to Deptford Cinema on Deptford Broadway, and it was time for me to go again. And I wrote a post here in 2012, Views of Deptford.

I’d been aware of the fight by local residents to save the Old Tidemill Garden and neighbouring council at Reginald House, and of the occupation of the garden which had begun on August 29th, but partly because I’d been away on holiday hadn’t found the time to visit. So I was keen to go on the Deptford Art & Gentrification Walk organised by Tidemill occupiers during the Deptford X Festival – I’d missed a first such walk earlier in the year as I was busy photographing elsewhere. The route had been published and I could see there were some places I’d like ot photograph it would not go to, so I arrived a couple of hours earlier for my own walk beforehand.

On My London Diary you can see pictures from my own walk and the organised walk, as well as a set of panoramic images made during both of these. As usual these images have a horizontal angle of view of around 147 degrees (some needed to be slightly croppped.)

Deptford Walk
Deptford Art & Gentrification Walk
Deptford Panoramas

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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

________________________________________________________