Category: Political Issues

I have to say that I thought taking on Trafalgar Square for a protest by Stop Killing Londoners was perhaps over-ambitious. But the operation had been carefully planned and there was a rather larger group gathering when I arrived at the meeting point for the protesters. It had been a dull day and was raining a little, and half an hour before ‘sunset’ and I was getting just a little fed-up waiting for anything to happen as the the light was beginning to fade.

The organiser also had a very clear idea about the photograph they wanted to get, and as often it didn’t sound too good to me. Their banner in an traffic-free Trafalgar Square with Nelson on his column might sound a good idea, but that column is 52 metres tall, and even their large banner would seem pretty insignificant if I moved back far enough to include him where they were planning to stand.

I’d set both cameras to ISO 2,500 by the time the groups began to move into place to stop traffic on all the roads feeding onto the roundabout at the south end of the square around the Charles II statue – St Martin’s Place, The Strand, Northumberland Ave, Whitehall, The Mall and Cockspur St.

I wanted to photograph all the groups blocking the road – I think there must have been six of them – but only managed five despite running around dementedly during the short period the roads were blocked for, as well as taking as best I could the banner in front of Nelson. I settled in the end for including the two lions at the base, but cutting out all of the column above its bas-reliefs. Of course I wasn’t the only photographer present, and getting a clear view without people in the way took some patience, difficult as the whole total block was only for around 5 minutes.

The group then moved into the centre of Trafalgar Square, pleased with its success, and after another five minutes moved together to block St Martin’s Place, this time accompanied by music and dancing, until after almost ten minutes the police, who had stood back and watched during the earlier protest, made a more determined attempt and persuaded them to finish and they moved off without much argument. This part of the square is very much shaded by trees, and the light was pretty low. Because of this and the movement, most of the pictures I took were at higher ISOs and for some I also added some flash, taking care not to completely overpower the ambient lighting.

As with their previous road blocks, this was intended to gain publicity for the almost 10,000 premature deaths and many more people suffering from the excessive air pollution in London, mainly caused by traffic. But although it got some publicity, neither the Mayor of London or Transport for London, although aware of the problem and making some minor improvements, have taken the kind of drastic action that this serious problem requires, and Stop Killing London are keeping up their campaign.

Trafalgar Square blocked over pollution

Continue reading Trafalgar Square Road Block

It has been relatively easy to finish my ‘My London Diary’ entries for last month – and I finally did so around 11pm on March 2nd. It was helped by having almost a week off after a minor dental operation, as well as some reduced activity because of the cold weather and snow, both as I was reluctant to go out and as a number of events I would otherwise have photographed were called off.  We didn’t have a great deal of snow where I live, but of course I did take a few pictures of it, though I’ve no great interest in weather images.

Feb 2018

Solidarity with Yarl’s Wood hunger strikers
HE & FE rally for pensions and jobs
HE and FE march for pensions and jobs
London Snow
A little snow in Staines

Class War’s Lambeth Walk for housing
More London

15th Reclaim Love Valentine Party
Against US war plans for Ukraine
‘Stay Put’ monthly Sewol silent protest
Protect Venezuelan democracy
Bolivians protest against President Morales

Lambeth Council opens fake Carnegie library
Grenfell Remembered – 8 Months On
Russia Stop the Killing, Leave Syria

Ladbroke Grove Pret-a-Manger land theft
Class War protest at Shard
Class War victory against Qatari Royals
Plasticus the Whale at Parliament
Sling the Mesh say campaigners
Fair Votes Hunger Strike for Democracy

Save Brixton Arches: 3rd Anniversary Action
Fix the NHS Crisis Now
TINAG Living Archive & Sylvia McAdam

London Images

In 2001, Eritrean dictator Isayas Afewerk closed down the free press and imprisoned leading opposition politicians and journalists. Since then ten leading journalists have been kept in isolation without charge, without trial and without contact with the outside world. Nobody knows their whereabouts and only four are now thought to be still alive.

The journalists were represented at the protest by a row of ten chairs opposite the Eritrean embassy in north London. Most were empty, with four people sitting with black gags holding up the names of those thought still be living, while to the side there were speakers and others holding posters about the disappeared journalists and politicians. The protest was organised by One Day Seyoum, a human rights movement working for the release of journalist Seyoum Tsehaye, one of the four thought still alive.

Lonely Planet‘s web site describes Eritrea thus:

“Historically intriguing, culturally compelling and scenically inspiring, Eritrea is one of the most secretive countries in Africa. For those with a hankering for off-the-beaten-track places, it offers challenges and excitement alike, with a unique blend of natural and cultural highlights.”

although the page does have a warning across the top about the Foreign office advice to UK citizens which should probably put anyone off visiting there, and certainly against going outside the capital, Asmara, which is apparently a fascinating place. The UK offers no consular services  elsewhere as it takes diplomats a week to get a permit required to travel outside, and tourists are subject to some pretty draconian restrictions.

A better description of the country comes from Human Rights Watch:

“Despite occasional vague promises of improvement, Eritrea’s respect for human rights obligations remains abysmal. In 2016, a United Nations Commission of Inquiry established by the Human Rights Council found the government’s “totalitarian practices” and disrespect for the rule of law manifested “wholesale disregard for the liberty” of its citizens. Thousands of Eritreans flee the country monthly to avoid “national service,” conscription that lasts indefinitely. Eritreans are subject to arbitrary arrest and harsh treatment in detention. Eritrea has had no national elections, no legislature, no independent media, and no independent nongovernmental organizations since 2001. Religious freedom remains severely curtailed.”

From Islington a couple of buses took me to the Home Office, where SOAS Detainee Support had called an emergency demonstration after another death in an immigration detention centre. The death of a Chinese man in Dungavel immigration detention centre followed the death earlier this month of a Polish man who took his own life in Harmondsworth (now called Heathrow Immigration Removal Centre) after the Home Office refused to release him despite the courts having granted him bail.

There are now too many cases since 2010 in which the government refuses to accept the decisions of the courts, often taking them through needless appeals and failing to take appropriate action even when they finally lose. I don’t think this has ever happened before and shows the current government’s contempt for the law and human rights. Parliament  this week voted against including the European Charter of Fundamental Rights in UK law after Brexit.

People are sent to immigration detention centres without any trial, and are held for indefinite lengths of time, which can be for extended periods – Mabel Gawanas was sent to Yarl’s Wood on May 12th 2014 and only released on bail on May 10th 2017, a few days short of 3 years later. Conditions in a Yarls Wood led to it being described as a ‘place of national concern’ by HM Inspectorate of Prisons in 2015, though perhaps national shame would be a more accurate term.

Green Party co-leader Jonathan Bartley was among the speakers at the protest, called at short notice after the news of the death broke.

Free forgotten jailed Eritrean Journalists
No More Deaths in immigration detention
Continue reading Human Rights – UK and Eritrea

September 16th was certainly a busy day in London, but then most are. I could have stood all day in queues waiting to visit some of the more interesting of the city’s buildings, as it was Open House Weekend, a two day event when many buildings open their doors to the public. It’s a great idea which came from Europe, beginning in France in 1983 and starting in London in 1992, and over the years I’ve visited quite a few places either generally closed to the public or which normally charge an entrance fee.

In the early years you just turned up and queues were generally non-existent or short, but the event has grown tremendously in popularity, and advance booking is needed for many of the more interesting sites and there are very long queues for some of the others, sometimes taking several hours. So I’ve largely stopped bothering.

I’ve never had a great interest in photographing interiors, and of course although this is an opportunity to take photographs (hard to stop anyway now that almost everyone has a camera on the phone in their pockets), permission to take photographs gives you no right to make any commercial use of them, though generally it would not be a problem to put them on non-commercial blogs such as this which generate no income (*though I’m always pleased to accept donations!)

I hadn’t intended to visit the Banqueting House on Whitehall, but was walking past it and noticed it was open and there was no queue. So when I found the protest I had come to photograph opposite Downing St was not there. I turned around and came back.

It’s a fine building, Palladio via Inigo Jones, built in 1619-22, the earliest neo-classical building in England. It provided a useful ascent to the scaffold for the only English monarch to get the end he deserved, the son of the man who commanded it to be built. King Charles I stepped out of a side window to be beheaded outside it in 1649.  The interior is almost entirely a single large room, used for grand official events over the years, and would be rather plain except for its ceiling.  Charles obviously thought so, and commissioned Peter Paul Rubens to paint it.  Rubens did it in pieces in his Antwerp studio and they were shipped to London and installed. It is a very high ceiling, and to save visitors getting a crick in the neck there a several large mirror-topped cabinets in the room where you can look down and see up.

Alternatively there are cushions so you can lie on your back and contemplate it at your leisure, but I was rather afraid I might not be able to get up from these. I’m not a particular fan of Rubens, but the ceiling is certainly impressive.

The building I had been intending to visit was the Old Waiting Room at platform level at Peckham Rye Station, reached by the impressive stairs in the picture, though my interest was perhaps more in the exhibition of local photographs that was taking place there. As someone who photographed Peckham in the 1980s and have seen the changes since I was interested to see more earlier pictures of the place. The show also included some more recent pictures, though I found these a little disappointing. There was another show of recent local pictures on a wall a little way down Rye Lane that was rather more lively that I also wanted to see, as well as going to Copeland Park, where other Peckham festival events were taking place, but I was too early for there to be much of interest happening.

Back in the centre of London at Trafalgar Square I took a few pictures of the monthly protest about the Sewol ferry disaster. It was the 41st such event calling on the South Korean government to conduct a thorough inquiry into the disaster, recover all missing victims, punish those responsible and enact special anti-disaster regulations.

A few yards away, the 8 march women’s organisation (Iran-Afghanistan)  were starting their protest on the  29th anniversary of the massacre of political prisoners in Iraq in which over 30,000 political prisoners, mostly members of the main opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran(PMOI/MEK) were executed.

Repression of course continues in Iran, led by a fundamentalist Islamic regime, and there were around 500 executions in 2017 and many trade unionists and human rights activists are imprisoned, with torture being used on a large scale to extract confessions which are used if they are brought to trial. Various religious groups are also subject to particular persecution, as too are the Ahwazi Arabs whose land in the Khuzestan Province in southern Iran is rich in natural resouces, and where Iran has long pursued a process of ‘Persianisation’, beginning with the rise of the Pahlavi regime in the 1920s attempting to eliminate the Ahwazi language and culture and take over the region.

A short walk away opposite Downing St, a Malaysia Day protest was taking place by Sabahans and Sarawkians. They say Malaysia Day is a ‘Black Day for Sabah and Sarawak‘ and they call for a restoration of human rights and the repeal of the Sedition Act and and freedom for Sarawak and Sabah, the main areas of what Malaysia calls  East Malaysia.

These two former British colonies on Borneo became part of the new Federation of Malaysia in 1963 with considerable autonomy, but this was greatly reduced ten years later.  They argue that they entered the federation with equal status to Malaya but are now treated as simply constituent states on the same level as the states of Malaya, and there is a strong nationalist movement for secession.

Finally I had been watching out for the annual Lord Carson Memorial Parade by lodges of the Orange Order including the various lodges dedicated to the Apprentice Boys of Derry and others remembering the Ulster regiments that fought on the Somme.  I knew where they were meeting, but had decided not to go there as on some previous occasions I have been threatened when photographing their parades (though I don’t know why they should resent my reports, and others taking part have congratulated me), so was waiting for them on Whitehall, where I knew they would be coming to lay wreaths.

I’m not a supporter of the Orange Order, but I’ve always tried to report objectively on their activities in London. In my reports I have sometimes given some information about the past which they perhaps find uncomfortable – as for instance on this occasion where I state that Lord Carson, one of the founders of a unionist militia that became the Ulster Volunteer Force,  later warned Unionists not to alienate Catholics in the north of Ireland – which parades such as this through some Catholic areas clearly do – though in London they are considerably less controversial.

Open House – Banqueting House
Open House & more – Peckham
41st monthly Sewol ‘Stay Put!’ vigil
Overthrow the Islamic Regime of Iran
Black Day for Sabah & Sarawak
Lord Carson Memorial Parade

Continue reading A Day in London

I took the bus from Clapham Junction to Brixton on my way to photograph a protest by Stop Killing Londoners against the terrible levels of air pollution in London. And it pulled up in a queue of traffic leading up to the traffic lights by the Northcote pub. The lights changed and we moved forward a few yards. Then back to red. Eventually the lights changed again, but we hardly moved. On the next green we moved forward a little, but I think it was the fourth green light before we finally reached the junction and our 37 bus took the left turn towards Clapham.

I don’t know what held us up, but it isn’t unusual to have a fairly long wait here, as I’ve found on many occasions on this route which I’ve been riding occasionally for over 40 years. Clapham High Street, where the bus waits to make a right turn can also cause similar hold-ups. And though the exhaust fumes from cars and buses are generally invisible, they are still lethal, part of the toxic air pollution that leads to almost ten thousand premature deaths in our city every year, as well as a great deal of suffering by the many more people suffering from lung diseases.

Back when I was young, air pollution in the city was rather more visible, and made its presence felt and seen at certain periods of the year as ‘pea-soupers’, dense and acrid fogs, which hung around for days and sent many to hospitals and their deaths. Thanks to the Clean Air Acts which banned the burning of coal, we no longer get this, but today’s pollution is more insidious, and keeps at high levels throughout the year peaking dangerously at times.

In 2017, Brixton Road in the centre of Brixton reached the annual limit for the year allowed under EU Regulation only five days after the start of the year, and over the whole year the street was the second most polluted in the capital (narrowly beaten by Putney High St.) So it was an appropriate location for a protest by ‘Stop Killing Londoners’, (SKL), a group that is trying to force London’s Mayor to take urgent action to cut air pollution.

Sadiq Khan has expressed concern about pollution, and there are some cautious half-measures being put into effect, but not the kind of drastic action that is needed to really tackle the problem. SKL believe that by mounting high-profile protests, and if necessary getting arrested for doing so, they will force the the Mayor, TfL and the government to act more decisively.

The action at Brixton was the first in South London, and the first that a number present had taken part in, and the protesters included several young mothers with children, who suffer disproportionately from air pollution. They went onto the pedestrian crossing outside Brixton Underground Station with their banner and blocked the south-bound carriageway for around 5-10 minutes, little if at all longer than my hold-up in Battersea on the way to the protest.

Despite telling the drivers what they were doing and why, and assuring them that they would not be held up for long, there were a few motorists who became rather angry. Few if any took the advice to cut their engines while waiting to reduce the pollution. There were others, including some pedestrians and cyclists who congratulated them too. After the short road block they went back onto the pavement and let the traffic clear.

Police then appeared and came to talk with them, but after a short conversation when the protesters assured them they were only going to make another short protest before leaving they walked away and watched from a distance. As promised there was a second short protest and then the campaigners dispersed, and I caught my bus back to Clapham Junction, this time without delays.

There is simply too much traffic in London, and though it is not the only cause of air pollution it is the major one. More drastic action is clearly needed. There does need to be a much greater push to provide safe cycle routes, to get people out of cars and onto cycles, and for many it is the dangers of cycling on roads with busy traffic that stops them getting on their bikes. We also need improvements in public transport, and lower costs, particularly for rail services, which are so much more expensive in London than in most other cities. Increasing the area covered by the congestion charge would help a little, though would penalise those on lower incomes. Other cities have banned private cars with odd or even registration numbers on alternate days, and even banned all private cars from large areas. Central London has too many taxis, private hire vehicles and tourist buses, and there are more places where service buses could be given priority or allowed to take short cuts.

Air Pollution protest blocks Brixton
Continue reading Brixton air pollution protest

An arms dealer coughs as CS Gas releases tear gas

The week of blockades and protests organised by Campaign Against Arms Trade ended on the Monday night before the DSEI arms fair actually opened, but the following day I was at work again, photographing the first performance of #ArmingTheWorld, a project by Ice & Fire theatre and Teatro Vivo with designer Takis at Woolwich Arsenal, with actors dressed as arms dealers, a Paveway IV Missile, a Eurofighter Typhoon and CS Gas.

A Paveway IV Missile on the catwalk

The audience at Woolwich was small but appreciative and the dramatic performance illustrated some of the facts about the arms trade that should be much more widely known. Further performances later in the week included one in Trafalgar Square and will have attracted rather larger crowds.

#Arming The World

Thanks to the DLR I was able to rush back to Royal Victoria Station where East London Against Arms Fair were carrying out their annual walk around the Royal Victoria Dock to float a wreath on the dock opposite the DSEI arms fair in memory of the victims killed by arms traded their in earlier years and for those who will be killed because of the deals now being made. Numbers were a little down on previous years as some were unable to take part because of police bail conditions imposed after their arrest the previous week.

After a procession around the dock with the Reverend Sister Yoshie Maruta and Reverend Gyoro Nagase praying and drumming there was a brief ceremony, and the wreath was then placed onto the water in the dock.

where it floated away, opposite the line of warships that were moored alongside the ExCeL centre as a part of the DSEI arms fair.

There was then a period of silence in memory of the dead and some prayers.

Wreath for victims of the arms trade

Continue reading Wreath for the victims of the arms trade

Friday I had a day off from the Arms Fair protests. It was an all day academic seminar, Conference at the Gates, on militarism and peace which sounded unlikely to be very visual, and I needed a day off to rest and catch up with other things. But I was there again on the Saturday, which was billed as the Big Day of Action, including Art The Arms Fair.

I started at the East Gate, where there were speakers, workshops, choirs and groups and a few attempts to stop cars and lorries going to the Arms Fair, but protesters were soon removed from the road by police and vehicles were only delayed by a few seconds

Things went quiet around lunchtime and I heard things were happening at the West Gate, so I jumped on the DLR and went to see, arriving just in time to see police leading away Charlie X, a Chaplin mime, which made for some rather surreal images.

There were quite a few other protesters at the West Gate, some standing at the roadside with posters and placards, and others, including a ‘Critical Mass’ group who had ridden here with a sound system they were dancing to on the roundabout.

Police suddenly surrounded one of them who had been standing quietly on the roundabout and I wondered what was going on. After a minute or so they took him across the road and continued to question him. One of his friends came and went up to talk to him, asking the police what was going on – and when he found out the man was being arrested for having a bicycle lock around his neck, he told the police what he thought about this and was himself threatened with arrest.

This was clearly the most bizarre arrest I’ve ever witnessed. The police had taken away a man who was standing wearing a bike helmet a couple of yards from his bike, and arrested him because he had a bike lock chain around his neck. Fortunately I think his friends looked after his bike.

I went back to the East Gate to find a lorry had been stopped by another lock on, with the two people joined together surrounded by a tight ring of police and protesters surrounding them. After a few minutes most of the protesters went and sat down on the already blocked road, and I managed some clearer pictures.

There were perhaps a hundred people sitting in a large circle on the road, which was in any case blocked by the lock-on, but police (and police horses) decided to start moving some of them, warning them they might be arrested if they stayed on the road. The protesters pointed out that they were hardly obstructing the highway as the highway was already blocked, but police persisted and made a few move, arresting one woman who kept on arguing with them and rushing her away to a police van. The arrest seemed to satisfy their pride and they soon gave up hassling the rest of the protesters.

A few minutes later they cut the first of the two locked-on free, and led him away to another van, only to find a man lying under the wheels of the lorry. Police dragged him out, hand-cuffed him and carried him away.

Meanwhile the ‘Art’ was continuing with a poetry recital, singing and dancing on the street and still well over 50 people were sitting or standing on the road in front of the blocked lorry.

Police by now didn’t seem to know what to do, as there were perhaps too many people to arrest – or they simply couldn’t face the paperwork involved. They surrounded a group of eight who were sitting in a circle with linked arms and warned them, but didn’t try to make an arrest. I stood watching for some minutes and they were still there. Eventually I had to leave to go home, with the road still blocked.

 CAAT (Campaign Against Arms Trade) continued their protests on Sunday and Monday, but I had other things to do. Altogether through the week of protest police made 103 arrests. Only around half of those arrested had charges pressed against them – and surely it would have been difficult to find an offence with which to charge a man carrying a lock for his bike. Most of those who were taken to court have been found not guilty, and the police have been told they gave insufficient weight to people’s right to protest in their policing. Nine people pleaded guilty and with 42 of the 48 remaining cases completed only 9 have been found guilty – though there are expected to be some appeals.

If the arms fair comes to ExCeL again in 2019, it seems likely there will be protests on an even larger scale, which police will find it very difficult to deal with. London clearly doesn’t want dirty dealing in arms on its patch.

DSEI Festival Morning at the East Gate
Festival of Resistance – DSEI West Gate
DSEI East Gate blocked

Continue reading Big Day of Arms Fair actions

Thursday I was back at the protests against the arms fair, for a day dedicated to the  free movement for people not weapons, with Veterans For Peace attempting to set up a military-style checkpoint on the road into the DSEI in order to check lorries arriving for any illegal weapons. Protesters called for refugees and others to move freely across borders while stopping the movement of arms.

Veterans for Peace began their action with a briefing, with people being assigned into groups with different roles and being given orders for the operation in some detail, before marching to the road carrying a large poster for the Banned Weapons Search Checkpoint and taking up their positions.

Two advance groups waved at lorries to slow down and the a group led by Ben Griffin stepped out into the road to stop a lorry. Police rushed to surround the Veterans, and Griffin read a statement saying that there were good reason to believe that some lorries would be carrying illegal weapons, and that unless the police would stop and search them the Veterans would try and do so.  The police officer refused to engage with the argument, simply telling them that unless they got off the road they would be arrested, and eventually the Veterans were forced off the road.

They attempted several further stops of lorries and vans, with police again rushing to move them away. Eventually the police went in groups to the road side and waved lorries on, encouraging some drivers to speed up, and after one lorry came through at excessive speed putting some of the Veterans at danger they decided to end their attempt to stop traffic. The police action seemed to me to contravene the clear duty of care they have for the public – including protesters.

There were a few diversions, with people playing games on the road, including with the large DSEI dice, and police largely cleared the road as lorries arrived, and there was music and dancing.

Then at lunchtime, North London Food Not Bombs moved onto the road, blocking it with their picnic, serving free food to all who wanted it, most of whom then sat on the road to eat it.

At first police liaison officers in blue waistcoats came to tell people politely that they were obstructing the highway and ask them to leave and were ignored. A few minutes later more police arrived and moved in, telling the diners that unless they moved they might be arrested, at first as a block and then hunkering down individually with each person and giving them a final warning. I think all did then move to the pavement and there were no arrests, though some did get a little forceful help to move.

One of the problems of being a photographer was that I was far too busy taking pictures to eat, and though I’d had my eyes on the Food Not Bombs cake I only got to photograph it. Of course it probably wasn’t suitable for diabetics, which for me was one of its attractions. What was insulin discovered for if not to let me indulge occasionally in unsuitable foods?

After lunch the protests continued with some dancing and a large scarf which had been knitted for some hours with the aid of two missiles as sewing needles – I’d earlier declined to add a few stitches myself but had photographed Ben Griffin doing so. You can see a picture of this as well as many more of the day’s activities at Protest picnic & checkpoint at DSEI.

Continue reading Free movement for people not weapons

Every two years, London is host to the world’s largest arms fair, DSEI (Defence & Security Equipment International), held at the ExCeL centre, owned since 2008 by Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company, since 2001. ExCeL is a large purpose built exhibition centre on the north bank of the now redundant Royal Victoria Dock, which closed to commercial traffic in 1981, but still has access from the Thames for shipping at North Woolwich. But exhibits other than a few naval ships which moor alongside the centre are brought in by lorry, through two entrance gates at the east and west end of the large site, around three-quarters of a mile apart.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the UK is the world’s sixth largest supplier of arms, after (in order from the largest) USA, Russia, China, France and Germany. And although we have bans on supplying some arms to some countries, many of the exhibitors at DSEI are not from the UK and don’t even pretend the scruples that our government and manufacturers do. Arms deals are made at DSEI for selling banned weapons to dodgy regimes around the world, and visitors allowed in have found banned weapons on display and also under the counter and produced on request.

Britain of course sells arms to corrupt regimes around the world, although there are some countries to which export licences are not granted. But British-made armaments are currently killing people in Yemen and pretty well everywhere else there is a war, often used by both sides.

The protesters attempted to stop lorries taking arms in for the show which was being set up. They managed to close the routes to both gates for some time, disrupting the preparations, though I’m sure all the weapons, legal and illegal, eventually got through, thanks to a huge police exercise. But although the protesters knew that this would be the case, their protests did raise public awareness about what was happening, and of the opposition to the fair across London, including from the Mayor of London and local councils.

I’d missed the first day when the emphasis had been on the Israeli arms industry, which actually markets arms as having been field-tested in Gaza on Palestinians. The second day was dominated by various faith groups, most of whom are pacifists and believe disputes should be settled by diplomacy and discussion rather than military might and killing people. Many were Quakers, but there were also Catholic, Anglicans and other Christians as well as a small group of Buddhists.

As well as holding religious services on the road leading to the gates, standing on the road holding banners or lying down on them, and walking slowly in front of lorries there was a rather more spectacular protest when 4 men abseiled down from a bridge across the road and held banners in pairs with messages ‘Theresa May who would Jesus sanciton, starve and then blow to pieces #StopDSEI’ and ‘DSEI is state terrorism #StopDSEI’.

Police seemed to handle most of the arrests and those arrested with more than usual care, though some not arrested were pushed pretty roughly. Over the whole week of protest more than a hundred people were arrested and some of those have beeing coming to court in recent weeks. Although there have been a few convictions, many have been acquitted, as the police were judged not to have properly weighed the right to protest against the need to keep a road open, while other cases failed as where they were charged with obstruction of the public highway was in fact private land.

As often happens with arrests at protests, many of the cases have been dropped before coming to court, sometimes only hours before the time set for trial, in what appears to be a deliberate police tactic of using the threat of trial as a punishment where there is insufficient evidence for a conviction. It seems likely that quite a few will get some compensation for wrongful arrest, and it will be interesting to see if this has any effect on policing the protests that will doubtless occur assuming the arms fair goes ahead in 2019.

More pictures: No Faith in War DSEI Arms Fair protest

Continue reading No Faith in War