No Borders and the West End: On Saturday 10th February 2007 I went to photograph a protest against our racist, cruel and arbitrary detention of immigrants and asylum seekers at the neighbouring Colnbrook and Harmondsworth detention centres on the Colnbrook By-Pass immediately north of Heathrow Airport – now known as Heathrow Immigration Removal Centre. Like the first protest I covered there in April 2006 it was organised by No Borders, though several later events there were and at Yarls Wood were by Movement for Justice who were taking part in this protest with a Fight Racism! Fight Imprerialism! banner and others.
Harmondsworth (or rather Longford where both centres are located) was only a few miles bike ride from home, and after around an hour I jumped back on my bike, cycled home and took the train into London where I had arranged to meet a friend, I think probably to hand over some material.
We took a wander around Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square and other parts of central London before saying goodbye and my making my way to Waterloo Station, photographing a few things on the way.
Here with the usual corrections is what I wrote about the day in 2007 on My London Diary and a few of the pictures with links more.
No Borders Demo at London Detention Centres
Colnbrook & Harmondsworth
Rhythms of Resistance players outside the detention centres – Harmondsworth centre in background.
I arrived at the detention centres at Harmondsworth (Colnbrook and Harmondsworth are separated only by a narrow private road) just as the people who had come by coach from London marched onto the roadway leading to the two sites, with banners and the street band of Rhythms Of Resistance.
Fight Racism, Fight Imperialism’
We had come to give support to migrants and refugees, and to demand the closure of detention centres, a stop to deportations and and end to immigration controls.
Since I was last here the windows of the two detention centres seem to have been blocked off, giving them a more sinister appearance, but although those imprisoned within the blocks were not allowed to see us, I imagine they could hear the noise that was being made.
Hands off Kurdish Asylum Seekers Now
I left after around an hour, when a few people were still arriving. As well as the crowd in the road, there were also a number of people lined up along the main road in front of the two ‘prisons’.
The Campaign For The Defence Of Africans Returned To Zimbabwe make the point Zimbabwe is not a safe place
There didn’t seem to be a huge police presence, although probably there were rather more on hand not far away. I left to meet a friend I’d arranged to see in the centre of London.
There wasn’t a great deal special happening as I walked through the streets of the West End of London. At Piccadilly Circus we bumped into some people with placards, but they were just celebrating someones birthday.
It was as boring as it looks
In Trafalgar Square we found the Biblical Gospel Mission preaching and handing out free bibles, though I told them I had several already at home.
One of several sculptures and statues I photographed
NHS Privatisation, Iran & the Bologna 12: On Wednesday 8th February 2012 I photographed a mock trial of Health Minister Andrew Lansley against his disastrous Health and Social Care Bill, visited the two peace camps then in Parliament Square and finally went to the Italian Embassy for a protest calling for the release of the Bologna 12, accused of terrorism through their membership of communist organisations, much like those who support Palestine Action in the UK now.
Stop NHS Privatisation – Kill Lansley’s Bill
Old Palace Yard, Westminster
Pensioners in the protest outside Parliament
The protest, organised by Hackney Keep Our NHS Public, drew campaigners from across the country for speeches and a mock trial of Health Minister Andrew Lansley as his bill was entering into its report stage. Among those taking part – if briefly – was shadow health minister Diane Abbott MP.
Diane Abbott was the only MP I saw at the protest
Lansley’s proposals were a clear step towards the privatisation of the NHS, still a continuing process under Labour’s Wes Streeting, despite many of the changes brought in by Lansley having been later abandoned after, according to the Darzi report commissioned by Streeting it “imprisoned more than a million NHS staff in a broken system for the best part of a decade.”
Lord Darzi’s report concluded that “The Health and Social Care Act of 2012 was a calamity without international precedent – it proved disastrous. The result of the disruption was a permanent loss of capability from the NHS“. As Streeting commented it ” led to the longest waiting times, lowest patient satisfaction, and most expensive NHS in history”, but that hasn’t stopped Streeting pursuing his own policies to further prepare the NHS and the country for its privatisation. Of course Lansley was awarded a life peerage in 2015 for his services to capitalism.
At the centre of the protest was the mock trial of Lansley with a judge with an impressive white wig and witnesses for the prosecution who spoke about their own experiences as patients and workers in the NHS.
Most still see the NHS, along with the other welfare state reforms of the period, as the greatest British achievements of the last century and for all its problems it still provides quality healthcare at a fraction of the cost of the US system which Lansley and his colleagues appeared to take as a model
Most importantly, provides services to the whole population including those who would be unable to pay expensive medical insurance. Over 60% of the two million personal bankruptcies filed each year in the US are a result of medical debt.
I don’t think there was much if any defence for Lansley, and the guilty verdict was inevitable. After the trial and a few stops a small group took the protest around Parliament Square, walking onto the various pedestrian crossings and facing the traffic holding up placards and the letters ‘S’, ‘T’, ‘O’ and ‘P’, usually but not quite always in that order and with a bed pan in the middle.
It was a cold day and I had to keep moving, walking around Parliament Square and stopping to talk with peace protesters still then protesting 24/7 in the square. Police and new laws against protest had resulted in the removal of all tents and in restricting the protests to the pavement facing Parliament, but the protests were continuing.
Brian Haw who began his Peace Campaign on 2 June 2001 had left the square on 1 January 2011 for treatment in Berlin for lung cancer, dying there on 18 June 2011. Since he left his campaign had been continued by his supporters, led by Babs Tucker, who had protested for some years with Haw. They on Day 3903 of the protest, continuing in the brutal winter weather despite police having taken away all tents, chairs and other items three weeks earlier.
Maria Gallastegui’s tent and one box remaining in the square
Maria Gallastegui, for some years a regular supporter of Brian Haw, had broken with him and begun her separate Peace Strike in the square several years earlier. She had cooperated with the police in various ways – such as covering her displays for the 2011 royal wedding – and had been granted a temporary injunction restraining police actions agaist her; police had left her tent and her large ‘peace’ box – modelled on the old police boxes – on the square until her case was heard.
Haw’s Peace Camp had been subject to lying and of devious and underhand actions throughout the ten and a half years of their presence in the square, and they told me the police had intentionally delayed their legal action so they could take away their property before the claim came to court.
I went with the three people from the Peace Strike to the weekly protest with others opposite the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in King Charles Street to remind Foreign Secretary William Hague of their opposition to war in Iran. Their protest was continuing when I needed to leave to go to the Italian Embassy.
The trial which was starting in Bologna that day of the twelve was being made under section 270bis of the Penal code introduced by the Fascist regime under Mussolini. They were brought as a part of a long campaign by Public Prosecutor Paolo Giovagnoli for the Authorities of the Papal Republic, aimed against freedom of expression and organisation of the left in Italy.
The twelve were accused of “subversive association for purposes of terrorism” for their membership of communist organisations and if they were convicted, similar prosecutions would be brought against those belonging to other groups outside the official left, including anarchists, Maoists and the Occupy movement.
It was a small token protest, with representative from groups including ‘Democracy and Class War’, ‘Socialist Fight’ and ‘Irish Republican Prisoners Support Group’ and began outside the impressive door in my picture in Grosvenor Square.
But after 20 minutes police came and very helpfully told them that they were in the wrong place. This was the back door of the embassy and they should be in Kings Yard at the front door. A man came out from the embassy and confirmed this and we all walked round to the gates outside the yard, while I went inside with two people who handed in a letter.
Muslims, Iran, Canary Wharf & Queer is Here: Saturday February 4th was a busy day for me with a couple of protests, a trip to Canary Wharf and then the opening of a show in the Foyer of the Museum of London which included some of my work from ten years of London’s Pride marches.
The first of the protests was by Hizb Ut-Tahrir Britain, a radical Muslim organisagion which was proscribed in the UK in January 2024 following a protest outside the Egyptian Embassy which called on ‘Muslim Armies’ to take action against Israel. I’d first photographed a group which had been formed by its former leader for ten years, Omar BakrI Muhammad at a protest in Trafalgar Square in 1998 and later had photographed a number of the Hizb Ut-Tahrir protests, including the one for which they were banned.
The ban was part of a government attempt to stigmatise all protests against the Israeli attacks taking place on Gaza as ‘hate protests‘ and the BBC and other media outlets aided them by failing to properly distinguish the protest by a few hundred radical Muslims from the hundreds of thousands who marched peacefully at the same time through London calling for peace and justice in Palestine. Had they thought if they could get away with proscribing Stop the War, CND and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign they would surely have done so.
Here I’ll re-post a normally capitalised and slightly corrected version of what I wrote back in 2006 on My London Diary about that and other events of the day, along with links to more pictures including the full set of my pictures used in the museum show.
Defend the Honour of the Prophet
Danish Embassy
Speaker addressing crowd penned in on the pavement at the official demonstration opposite the embassy.
Several thousand British Muslims turned up outside the Danish Embassy around midday on Saturday 4 February 2006 to protest peacefully about the publication of cartoons by a Danish newspaper some months ago, following their re-publication in a number of other newspapers around Europe and on the Internet. Although I understand their outrage, and support their right to protest, the world-wide reactions have seemed excessive, with violence and injuries as well as lurid threats of death and atrocities presenting a very negative image of Islam.
Some demonstrators wanted to continue after the official end of the demonstration, but were urged to go home.
To the credit of British Muslims, this demonstration was peaceful and restrained, with official placards provided by organisers Hizb Ut-Tahrir, Britain saying things such as ‘we do not fear debate or criticism – but no one likes abuse‘, ‘Islam says – don’t insult other peoples religions‘ and ‘Europe lacks respect for others’, or simply praising the prophet, although some of the speeches sounded rather more inflammatory.
Stewards (and of course the police) generally kept everyone well under order, as well as making sensible photography virtually impossible during the rally. After the event was officially over it was possible to take more pictures
The problem is I think not that “Europe lacks respect” but that our tradition is a secular liberal one which respects and upholds freedom of speech and opinion (our blasphemy laws, which should have been repealed long ago, are seldom invoked.)
There are many things said and written that I find offensive (including several of the cartoons at issue) and you and I have the right to state our objections, to debate or criticise and even to stop eating Danish butter – but not to stir up hatred or issue death threats. Despite some press reports, this demonstration was generally well-ordered, and I saw none of the placards which have led to calls for people to be prosecuted.
Protestors hold posters about public executions, torture and imprisonment of workers opposite Iran’s London Embassy in Kensington.
Meanwhile, a short distance away, a demonstration that perhaps should have attracted rather more support from the Muslim community was taking place opposite the Iranian embassy. Perhaps 50 people had gathered there to protest against human rights abuses in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and to support workers there who have no right to strike or organise under Iran’s draconian labour law.
The demonstration is a show of solidarity with Iranian trade unionists and the GMB London Region banner added colour.
In January 2004 workers staging a sit-in at the Khatoon Abad copper plant were attacked by riot police, with four killed and many more injured. Recently, bus workers in Tehran have been arrested for planning and carrying out strike action. According to Amnesty International, around 500 are still in jail, without charges being made or access to lawyers. Some of them have been beaten in prison, and their wives and children also beaten in raids on their homes.
A letter of protest was taken to the door of the embassy but nobody came to accept it
There are many more abuses of human rights being committed under the name of law in Iran including torture, murder and public executions (even of minors) for offences including ‘un-Islamic behaviour‘. Given the amount of news coverage on Iran at the moment over uranium enrichment, it is perhaps surprising that other stories from Iran – such as these – have not attracted more attention. And since most of those who are suffering are Muslim, I’m suprised at the apparent lack of solidarity from the community in Britain.
I left for a late lunch, then went on to Canary Wharf, where I had things to do. Although it was a very dull day I took a few pictures before catching the Docklands Light Railway to Bank and walking through the empty City to the Museum Of London on London Wall.
London Gay Mens Chorus at the opening of ‘Queer is Here’ at the Museum of London.
At the Museum Of London was an event I had a personal interest in, the opening of a foyer display ‘Queer Is Here‘. I’d provided the dozen images used on the front of the large display panel beside the general text on the show, and there was also a screen beside it showing more of my images taken at London Gay Pride Parades from 1993-2002. In those ten years of Pride I took perhaps 5,000 images, and the display shows around 40 of the best of them.
Gay Pride parade in Piccadilly, June 1994. Picture by Peter Marshall from ‘Ten Years of Pride’ , part of the ‘Queer is Here’ exhibition at the Museum of London.
There were a few of these on My London Diary already (along with many from later Prides) but I posted the full set of pictures used in the show.
Peter Tatchell
The exhibition was opened by Peter Tatchell, who I’ve photographed many times over the years, and was enlivened by a spirited performance from the London Gay Mens Chorus. After the month at the Museum Of London the display was to tour to libraries and other venues in London and possibly elsewhere around the country
End the War on Rojava: Last Saturday, 25th January 2026, I photographed thousands of Kurds and supporters marching from the BBC towards Downing Street in an attempt to break the world’s silence as the Trump/USA supported Al Qaeda Islamist Syrian government forces destroy much of the autonomous mainly Kurdish region of Rojava.
London, UK. 25 Jan 2026. Thousands of Kurds and supporters marched from the BBC to Downing Street
After the Syrian revolution began with mass protests against the brutal Assad regime in 2011, on July 19th 2012, three predominantly Kurdish-inhabited areas of north-east Syria declared their autonomy, becoming the democratic ‘Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria’ (AANES), better known as Rojava, although this later grew to include a third of Syrian territory and nearly a fifth of its population.
The area remained committed to the ideas of the Arab Spring and set up a democratic constitution with equality for all ethnic groups. It embodied the the slogan “Jin, Jiyan, Azadî” – “Women, Life, Freedom” and many of the banners and placards on the protest reflected this.
Turkey has for many decaades discriminated against its Kurdish communities, with a denial of Kurdish identity attempting to violently assimilate Kurds. In 1978 Kurds founde the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, PKK, which in 1984 began a militant insurgency against the Turkish state. Following pressure from NATO member Turkey, the New Labour government in 2001 proscribed this as a terrorist organisation, making support of it illegal in the UK.
London, UK. 25 Jan 2026. “Martyrs Are Immortal!
In a political show trial now taking place at the Old Bailey, six members of London’s Kurdish community are charged with being members of the banned PKK. The trail, largely unreported in the mass media, is a sign of Turkey’s increasing attempt to crush the Kurds and the UK’s further collaboration with its fellow NATO member and in line with an increasing use of terrorism charges to oppose political demonstrations – such as those by supporters of Palestine Action and others who oppose the actions of the Zionist state.
“Jin, Jiyan, Azadî” / “Women, Life, Freedom”
The PKK in 2025 announced an end to its military insurgency, ceremonially burnt some of its weapons and officially disbanded in an attempt by Kurds to make peace with Turkey. But the Turkish response has been to carry out military attacks in predominantly Kurdish areas of Syria and to persuade its NATO allies to take a harder line against the Kurds.
For some years the Kurds had been backed by USA air support in leading the fight on the ground against the Islamic state (ISIS) in Syria, largely ending their control of the area – and the UK had played a part in this too. But the situation changed after an Islamist group succeeded in overturning Assad and becoming the new government of Syria. And Trump and his advisers see Rojava as dangerously socialist if not communist – and would prefer any more conservative regime. The USA has a long record of support for dictators.
Since then the autonomous region has engaged with the government to come to agreement so that the advances in the area particularly in the relations between different ethnic groups and the hugely increased freedom for women can be retained. But it seems now that the government is attempting to put the clock back and impose its Islamist ideas across the country, and to fight – with the aid of Turkey -to do so.
Following a video showing a Syrian soldier proudly holding the braid of a slain Kurdish woman fighter, Kurdish women began braiding their hair in solidarity as an unusual form of protest. In London some carried hair braids and posters with the message “keziya me rimetame” – Our hair is a crown.
“Our hair is a crown”.
Other posters carried the message “2 + 2 = 1” – After the end of the First World War in treaties largely determined by England and France, the Kurdish areas were split between four countries – Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq and they were denied their own country, Kurdistan which the slogan states is a single people and country.
London, UK. 25 Jan 2026. 2+2=1 – Kurdistan is in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran
Kings Army, Clowns & Chinese New Year: Three things I photographed on Sunday 29th January 2006 – and what I wrote back then – with the usual corrections and a few comments.
The King’s Army Whitehall Parade
Whitehall
Pikemen at the Banqueting House
The King’s Army Annual Commemorative Parade is a colourful but little-known London event [though since 2006 mobile phones and social media have raised its profile] marking the execution of our reigning monarch during the English Revolution, arguably the last time we behaved sensibly towards royalty.
Before the parade in St James’s
My forebears, being strongly non-comformist, would doubtless have been on the opposite side to the regiments that gather here (and yes, there is a Roundhead Association also a part of the English Civil War Society). But for most of those taking part, the event isn’t about the issues of the day but simply a matter of re-enactment, of trying to look and act the part of those soldiers and ancillaries from the seventeenth century.
A little weapons training at the start of the parade
The march starts around St James’s Palace, forming up in the Mall for the march to the Banqueting House where Charles 1 was beheaded on 30 January 1649.
It is an event that seems to receive little official recognition or support, but which has now taken place every year for the last 30 or so years. It is an unusual event in that the regiments are allowed to bear arms in one of the most sensitive parts of the city and when they march through Horse Guards Arch they are apparently saluted by the guards on duty as if they were still a part of the army.
In the pub
At the Banqueting House there was a short service with a real vicar, as well as the presentation of various commissions and awards. [But diappointingly no beheading.] Then the army marched away to be dismissed and we took the opportunity to beat them to the pub, which was shortly after filled with people in seventeenth century dress, and, because this is London after all, some of our pearly kings and queens who were up west for the Chinese New Year.
As we came into Trafalgar Square we met some ‘rebel clowns’ protesting against the Serious Organised Crime And Police Act 2005, which was designed to get rid of Brian Haw from Parliament Square. Unfortunately those actually drafting the bill decided it should not be made retrospective, and the government to their amazement found that Brian’s protest wasn’t covered by it. (and yes, he’s still there – and I went along to have a short word with him.) [Later the courts decided that despite what the law said, the government had meant it to apply to Brian, so it did, and he could only protest on the pavement.]
However the rest of us have lost our democratic right to “demonstrate without authorisation” within 1km of parliament. Three days earlier they had demonstrated with this same banner in Parliament Square. The police had come up to talk to the clowns, and had then gone away confused without making an arrest. [No more pictures.]
Chinese New Year of the Dog
Soho
Lion outside shop in Soho
Across the road in Trafalgar Square and beyond through most of Soho, the Chinese New Year of the Dog was being celebrated. I took a few pictures of the lions performing, but the crowds were pretty dense and I soon gave up and went home.
Dragons and performers in Trafalgar SquareStalls in Wardour St, Soho, sell paper dragons
[As you can see I actually made quite a few pictures despite my comment in 2006, and when working in the crowded streets used a fisheye lens. This meant I could get really close to the people (and lions) I was photographing so there wasn’t room for people to easily walk between me and the subject. If I stood at all back, others simply got in front of me.]
Slavery, Cruelty to Animals & Afrin: On Saturday 27th January 2018 I photographed a protest against the imprisonment, torture and slavery of African migrants in Libya and their slavery in Dubai, the continuing protests against animal cruelty outside the Canada Goose store and a march by Kurds calling for an end to attacks by Turkish forces on Afrin. That protest took the same route as last Saturday’s protest against the attacks on Kurds in Syria, now by the Syrian army.
End UAE Support For Slavery In Libya
UAE Embassy
The protest outside the UAE Embassy had not been well advertised and was rather smaller than the organisers had hoped or the police had planned for. The United Arab Emireates was targeted as they fund armed groups in Libya which imprison, torture and kill African migrants and sell them as slaves.
One placard reminded us of the anti-slavery campaign over 200 years ago with the 1787 slogan ‘AM I NOT A MAN AND A BROTHER’
African migrants are also trafficked to be slaves in Dubai, the largest city and capital of the UAE and the protest called for an end to this and for help to be given for slavery victims in Dubai to return to their families in Africa.
Protesters outside the Canada Goose store with a toy dog and a banner with bloody fur
Protesters continue their regular protests outside the Canada Goose flagship store in Regent St calling on shoppers to boycott the store because of the horrific cruelty involved in trapping dogs for fur and raising birds for the down used in the company’s clothing.
Their activities have been restricted by injunctions obtained by the store but they were still protesting every Saturday and on at least one other day each week.
They say ‘Canada Goose Murders Dogs’ . The clothing they sell uses fur from wild dogs caught in traps; caught in the traps and wounded by them, they slowly bleed to death and may be attacked and eaten by predators while still alive before the trappers return. Some of those caught gnaw through their own legs to escape and die slowly elsewhere.
Several thousand, mainly Kurds took part in the march calling for an end to the attacks by Turkish forces on the Afrin Canton of Northern Syria, now a part of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria (DFNS) or Rojava, a de-facto autonomous region in northern Syria since the 2011 revolution.
Many see Rojava and its democratic constitution which treats all ethnic groups – which include Arabs, Assyrians, Syrian Turkmen and Yazidis as well as Kurds – equally and liberates women as a model for the future of this and other multi-ethnic areas.
Turkey has long been engaged in a fight against the Kurds inside Turkey and was now attempting to eliminate those in areas close to its border with Syria. The PKK, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a Kurdish nationalist organisation regarded by Turkey and its allies as a terrorist organisation, has been in armed conflict with Turkey since 1984, demanding equal rights and Kurdish autonomy in Turkey.
It was Kurdish forces, with the help of US air support that defeated ISIS in Syria, while Turkey was aiding ISIS in smuggling out the oil which financed their activities. But Turkey has the largest military forces in the area including weapons sold to them by the UK, France and USA as a member of NATO.
The PKK is a proscribed group in the UK and the police apparently seized a few PKK flags at the start of the march. It’s leader Abdullah Ocalan has been held largely in isolation in a Turkish jail since 1999, though in 2025 he called for the PKK to dissolve itself and announced an end to their insurgency against Turkey.
The Gambia & No Fracking: Two protests on Monday 26th January 2015 were both taking place at lunchtime in Old Palace Yard opposite the Houses of Parliament. One was by Gambians against the brutal repression in The Gambia and the other a protest against government support for fracking.
Gambians protest brutal repression
Old Palace Yard
The Gambia is the smallest country in mainland Africa, a long strip around 10 miles on each bank of the Gambia River for around 200 miles inland from its Atlantic mouth, surrounded on land by Senegal. Originally colonised by the Portuguese traders it later became a part of the British Empire, while inland from the river was under French control. After the UK 1807 act to abolish the slave trade, ships from the Royal Navy brought slaves from ships they intercepted to settle on the river. The Gambia became independent in 1965.
A military coup in 1994 led to Lieutenant Yahya Jammeh becoming President, and under his dictatorship any opposition “faced exile, harassment, arbitrary imprisonment, murder, and forced disappearance.”
The protest in January 2015 took place after the arbitrary arrests, detentions, tortures and summary executions of those who took part in the 30th Dec uprising against dictator Yahya Jammeh – and their innocent family and friends.
Despite the severe repression in the country in the following year Jammeh lost the December 2016 presidential election; his reluctance to leave the post led to military intervention which resulted in the victor Adama Barrow assuming power.
Hundreds of campaigners from across the country protested as MPs were due to vote on a proposal to ban fracking and also on a controversial proposal to allow fracking under people’s homes without permission in the Government’s Infrastructure Bill.
Tina-Louise Rothery with a Frack Free Lancashire poster
The protest was two days before Lancashire County Council were due to decide on whether to give the go ahead for Cuadrilla to frack in Lancashire which would set a precedent for the rest of the UK. Tina-Louise Rothery from Frack Free Lancashire was one of those who had come to speak at the protest.
Bianca Jagger
There were many other speakers too, including Bianca Jagger, Vivienne Westwood and Caroline Lucas MP, Vanessa Vine, the Founder of Frack Free Sussex and BIFF! (Britain & Ireland Frack Free), John Ashton, the Former UK Government Special Representative for Climate Change, Hannah Martin of Reclaim the Power, Norman Baker MP amd Labour MP Joan Walley, chair of parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee which that morning had come out against fracking .
Norman Baker, Bianca Jagger, Caroline Lucas and John Ashton with the ‘Frack-free Home’
Greenpeace had come with their model ‘Frack-free Home’ and a petition with 361,736 signatures to Parliament.
Puppet monster Mr Frackhead in front of Parliament
Despite the widespread opposition t it took several more years of campaigning before the UK government finally announced a moratorium on fracking in November 2019.
Police Protest & Lay Wreaths: On Wednesday January 23rd 2008 around 20,000 police marched through London to demand more pay. As ‘crown servants’ rather than employees they are not allowed to take strike action or work to rule or any other collective action, but apparently organising a demonstration like this doesn’t count. As a part of their protest police officers and families of officers laid wreaths in a dignified ceremony at the National Police Memorial. I photographed the events and wrote about them in some length on My London Diary back in 2008, and here I’ll post that again – with some minor corrections, mainly of typos.
Police March for More Pay
Westminster
Police on the march – along with BNP and Liberal Democrat candidates for London Mayor
Along with what seemed like a thousand other photographers, I had decided that the police demonstration against their recent pay award was one that I had to cover. (We did wonder idly whether it was also being a good day out for burglars and other crimes across the country – though of course all those attending the demo were off-duty.) But although it showed the ability of the Police Federation to motivate officers on the issue of pay, bringing coachloads from over the country, it was a drab event on a drab day.
For perhaps the one and only time, I’ve absolutely no reason to think that the figure given by police of around 20,000 attending was seriously in error. It was a significant size, although rather smaller than many other demonstrations I’ve photographed in current years. I think a more normal police estimate would probably have put it at 10,000! [Or rather less.]
Of course it’s axiomatic that the public services get screwed by governments, although, along with the armed forces the police have over the years got a relatively easy ride compared to teachers and others, and I’m pleased to see a current trend to reverse that.
Most of the police came in coaches, but this group cycled from Exeter to London
The ride by some Devon and Cornwall police from Exeter to be with the demonstration was one of the few point of interest – just a pity the demo wasn’t a couple of days later so they could have joined up with Critical Mass.
Liberal Democrat Mayoral candidate Brian Paddick retired from the Met in May 2007
The Evening Standard gave the event the headline ‘BNP Chief On Police March‘, and yes, the the Barking & Dagenham councillor and BNP Mayoral candidate Richard Barnbrook was there – as too was the Liberal Democrat Mayoral candidate Brian Paddick. Unlike Barnbrook, Paddick came to see the press at the beginning of the march for interviews and photographs, although it seemed to me that none of the police wanted to talk to him, though many had been his former colleagues. It may be OK now to be gay and out in the police, but if you have liberal views best hide them under your helmet.
The press and photographers aren’t too popular with the police either, and at one point when I walked along with the demonstration I was jostled and sworn at, told to get out. But 99% of the demonstration was well-behaved and just rather dull. How many pictures can you take of a crowd in white baseball caps?
As a crowd it really stood out in London for the very few black faces it contained – certainly very few compared even to the proportion among those policing the event, let alone those watching as it went through the streets around Victoria station.
The professional protest stall offers advice to the police on making placards and more
Fortunately a few left-wing groups turned up to give the police some advice and examples on demonstrating. The Space Hijackers had a Professional Protesters Stall at Hyde Park Corner, offering advice on making placards (and materials – although I don’t think anyone took up their offer), handing out leaflets on ‘Your Rights as a Protester’ as well as some suitable chants.
Their What do we want? More Money! When do we want it? Backdated from Spetember 2007! did draw a few smiles and even the occasional cheer from those walking past, but most officers showed a total lack of humour, and there was quite a lot of abuse and offensive language directed at them.
Some officers allowed themselves to smile, but others were abusive, some using language that could have got them arrested if there were any police around
Earlier, a group of around twenty from ‘Class War’ had made their opposition clear at the start of the march; the slogan on one cartoon showing four pigs in police uniform reading ‘Bacon’s pricy enough’ [sic]. Another showed a member of the riot police being hit on the back of the head by a brick.
A ‘FITwatch’ demonstrator is arrested when she refused to move out of the road
Some FITwatch protesters gave out leaflets and then attempted to block the march by standing on the roadway. Their protest held up the start of the march for almost half an hour until the police on duty for the day made a couple of arrests.
Surrounded by a media scrum, police tried hard to keep things relatively calm and made repeated attempts to the two to go back onto the pavement before making the arrest.
Preparing to lay wreaths at the National Police Memorial
I think there are many, many problems with the police, some of which arise from our problems with governments, but in some respects ours are still some of the better police forces around the world. Despite often having minor issues with them while working – and having once been threatened with a conspiracy to fit me up that was serious enough for me to make a complaint (and receive some kind of apology) there are still times I’m pretty glad they are there. Particularly when they drove up and rescued me from a vigilante attack.
Police – like firemen – frequently put themselves at risk through their work, at times requiring considerable bravery; and several thousands have lost their lives serving us over the years. Although this is something that deserves public recognition, I was not sure it was entirely appropriate to make use of the National Police Memorial as a part of the demonstration over pay. But the ceremony that took place was certainly solemn and dignified and expressed deep feelings among those taking part.
The service was led by a police chaplain
Officers and families from around the country made their way to the Police Memorial at the top of the Mall. There was a short service, including the laying of wreaths and a two minute silence, followed by the playing by two pipers.
Margaretta D’Arcy, Education & African Refugees: On Wednesday 22nd January I photographed a protest at the Irish Embassy demanding the release of anti-war activist Margaretta D’Arcy before going to a peaceful march by London Universitry students for democratic, public education free from exploitation and police violence. Finally I went to a protest close to the Israeli Embassy in Kensington in solidarity with African asylum seekers in Israel who are protesting their against arbitrary arrests, imprisonment and inhumane treatment.
Release Margaretta D’Arcy Now!
Irish Embassy
Selma James calls for the release of Margaretta D’Arcy
Margaretta D’Arcy (1934 – 2025) was an prominent Irish actress, writer, playwright and anti-war activist and a veteran of the Women’s Peace Camp at the US airbase on Greenham Common, where she had been a powerful member of the group at the ‘Yellow Gate’; protests by the Peace Camp eventually led to a legal challenge and the closure of the US Base with its cruise missiles.
Earlier in 1961 D’Arcy had joined the anti-nuclear Committee of 100 and in 1981 had been imprisoned for the first time after defacing a display at the Ulster Museum. Active in many campaigns in Ireland including the Shell to Sea campaign against the Corrib gas project and the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, she was arrested in October 2012 for lying down on the runway at Shannon in a peaceful direct action by members of Galway Alliance Against War against the use since 2001 of Shannon by Galway Alliance Against War in violation of Irish neutrality.
D’Arcy received a suspended sentence but after she had been arrested again on the runway at Shannon in September 2013 and she refused to sign a bond to keep out of restricted areas at Shannon the suspended 12-week sentence was reactivated. After serving nine and a half weeks of this she was released from Dublin prison in March 2014. She continued her activism until a few days before her death in 2025.
The protest at the Irish Embassy in London took place a week after D’Arcy was arrested to serve her suspended sentence, and around 50 people had come with banners and posters for a protest outside the Irish Embassy in London and to deliver a petition calling for her immediate release.
On My London Diary I list some of the many groups who supported the protest and most of those who spoke.
The protest by London University students took place following a number of incidents in London and elsewhere the previous term when university management had called police onto the campus or gone to the courts to prevent or oppose student protests or to harass students. This had led in December 2013 to a Cops Off Campus National Student Protest.
A student speaks about police violence, and in particular violence directed at the black community including the killing of Mark Duggan
The protest began outside the University of London Union which the university is closing down with a speech by ULU President Michael Chessum and also by representatives of the lecturers who were taking action that week and the cleaners, maintenance and security staff who were about to hold a 3-day strike in their ‘3 Cosas’ campaign for sick pay, holidays and pensions, as well as for recognition for their union, the ndependent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB). Another student spoke about police violence, in particular against the black community.
A few from the black bloc enter Woburn House, home to theUniversity & Colleges Employers Association but it was only a token gesture
The marchers then went on a tour of key university sites including Senate House and the University & Colleges Employers Association in Tavistock Square where there was a brief token occupation of the lobby before going on to protest outside Holborn Police Station. Here as well as protesting against police violence they also protested the police execution of Mark Duggan.
They continued down Kingsway to Aldwych and the Strand, ending the march with a short rally outside the Royal Courts of Justice. The police had kept at a discreet distance while the students were in the university area but both the police station and the law courts were guarded by a line of police.
At the end of the rally Alfie Meadows suggested people might like to go on to a protest at the Royal Opera House, where the cleaners are also going on strike the next month for a living wage and proper conditions of work. About half the students then marched off with him, but I needed to leave for another event.
Tens of thousands of African asylum seekers had been protesting in Israel since the start of the year holding mass rallies against their treatment by the Israeli authorities.
Protesters stand on the pavement in front of the private road in which the Israeli embassy is located
In December new laws in Israel had meant entering the country without proper papers could be held for up to a year without trial, and those already in the country could be held in indefinite detention. The detention facility in the Negev desert, like many other Israeli prisons, is run by the private security company G4S.
There were around 50,000 refugees currently living in Israel, most who had fled brutal conflicts in Sudan and Eritrea, with only a few hundred of their applications had been processed. Most keep alive by working illegally, exploited and in fear of arrest.
Recently a strike by those working as cleaners, cooks, dishwashers and other low paid workers had brought many restaurants, hotels and businesses to a standstill. They held a rally with over 20,000 in Rabin Square in the centre of Tel Aviv with banners saying ‘We are refugees, not criminals’ and demanding their rights.
The London protest was one of many around the world following a call by the African Asylum Seekers Community in Israel for international solidarity. It isn’t possible to protest outside the Israeli Embassy in London which is down a well-guarded private street, but the protesters gathered on the pavement in front of the entrance to this street, refusing police attempts to move them further away.
Crowds protest Trump’s Inauguration: On Friday 20th January 2017 I was with a large crowd outside the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square all of us “appalled at the thought of a president who is a climate change denier, has a long history of racist and Islamophobic outbursts, has boasted of sexually assaulting women and has downplayed the severity of sexual violence.“
No to hate, No to walls , No to Trump who just appalls. Charlie X put it more succinctly
We stood in solidarity at a protest in solidarity with those protesting in the US who had called for protests around the world. This one had been organised by Stand Up to Racism and was supported by many other groups and individuals.
SUTR had set up a stage at the side of the Embassy in a corner of the square and invited a long list of the usual speakers, but the lighting made it difficult to photograph them, with strong lighting shining into the audience and the speakers largely in shadow. I soon gave up as I think they were all people I’d photographed many times and the protesters were far more interesting to me.
Among those protesting were members of the London Guantanamo campaign, some in orange jumpsuits, who have held regular monthly protests outside the embassy for around nine years.
’15 years of Guantanamo is No Joke’
Away from the SUTR bright lights it seemed very dark and I needed to work with flash. Both Trump’s name and his appearance are a gift to protesters as the pictures show.
‘Not with a bang but with a Trump’‘Trump!’
It was good to see Charlie X as Chaplin back again from South Africa.
A group from the Campaign Against Climate Change had an illuminated banner with the message ‘Trump Climate Disaster’.
A woman held up a poster ‘Dear Queen, We’re sorry. Take us back? Love, An American‘.
To one side was a lone woman with a rosary and posters ‘God Bless Trump’. Nobody bothered her.
The statue of President Eisenhower was surrounded by protesters and I felt he looked less confident and happy than usual. Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in WW2, he had stood for president in 1952 against Taft who wanted to undo Roosevelt’s New Deal. But he had also considered using nuclear weapons in Korea and threatened China with them. Under his presidency we had a nuclear arms race, and he might have approved of Trump’s Nuclear Arms Race if not many of his other policies.
A woman holds a poster ‘WHEN ALL IS SAID AND ALL IS DONE WE HAVE BELIEFS, TRUMP HAS NONE’
F**k Trump
I left the Embassy protest to go to Trafalgar Square, where more radical groups were gathering for the F**k Trump protest.
A giant orange Trump’s head in Trafalgar Square
But while the group with the large orange head moved down from the North Terrace into the main Square and ignored the Heritage Wardens order to leave, not a lot seemed to be happening.
Police came and talked with the protesters who largely simply ignored them too, but not a lot appeared to be happening.
I was feeling cold and tired and decided it was time to go home. Later I heard that police had made an unprovoked attack on the protesters.
