Hizb ut-Tahrir, Spain and Copyright: on Sunday 31 May 2009 I photographed a march by Hizb ut-Tahrir against attacks by Pakistan army on Taliban militants in Swat and then went to the ‘Taste of Spain’ festival in Regent Street, which led me to think and write about the copyright position over reproductions of works of art.
As I pointed out then, if works of art are out of copyright because of their age – now because the artist died over 70 years ago – then any reproduction of them “intended to be a faithful 2D representation” lack “the the artistic intent necessary for copyright to exist and so is also in the public domain.“
Picasso died in 1973 so his work will remain copyright until 2043
I wrote in 2009:
However copyright lawyers in the employ of many museums and photographic agencies who make money selling or licencing art reproductions take a rather different view of intellectual property law.
A judgement in the UK Court of Appeal in 2023 clarified the situation as far as the UK is concerned, confirming that photographs of two dimensional artworks which are out of copyright are indeed also in the public domain, and that museums and collections etc can no longer use copyright to restrict the circulation of images or make any charge for doing so.
Hizb ut-Tahrir protest US War in Pakistan – US Embassy – Pakistan High Commission
Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain was proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK in January 2024 after it organised protests which supported Hamas following their October 7th attack on Israel. I had been concerned about their activities since I first photographed them over 20 years earlier.
They marched from the US Embassy to the Pakistan High Commission in protest against the attacks by the Pakistan army on Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan militants who had taken control of parts of the Swat Valley. They called this an “American War”, blaming them on American pressure on the Pakistan government and called for an immediate end to attacks by Muslims on Muslims.
I ended my report on the protest with a long criticism of Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain calling on them to “have a proper respect for human rights, including the rights of women, although an Islamic interpretation of this may well differ in some respects from a Western one. It’s very hard not to agree with Hizb ut-Tahrir when it talks about the corrupt regimes currently leading Muslim countries, but it would also be welcome to see them standing against repression – and in particular the repression of women – that is currently practised in places including Swat and states such as Iran.”
The most impressive part of the ‘Taste of Spain’ festival in Regent Street was the display of large photographs of pictures from the Prado in Madrid which largely attracted attention because of the female nudity in some of the works (and it’s a shame that Ruskin had apparently not studied this work in detail before his wedding night, which might then have been less of a shock to his system.)
Quite a few people posed in front of it to have their picture taken – but by their friends rather than by me, but I and other photographers took advantage of this.
Filipino Health Workers, Coal Line, Tax Dodgers, Biafra & National Gallery: Ten years ago today, Saturday 30th May 2015, I began at the Daily Mail offices in Kensington where Filipino NHS workers were protesting about scandalous insults the rag had made, then went to Peckham to view the proposals for a linear park confusingly named and promoted as the ‘Coal Line’. From there I came back to central London for a UK Uncut banner drop on Westminster Bridge against tax dodgers, a Trafalgar Square protest by Biafrans and finally a rally there by staff on strike at the National Gallery.
Filipino Nurses tell Daily Mail to apologise – Kensington
Filipino health workers came to protest atthe Daily Mail over its reporting of the Victoriano Chua case which insulted Filipino NHS workers as a whole despite the vital contribution they make to the NHS. The demand the Daily Mail apologise for its racist comments and recognise the contribution that they make.
As a patient in intensive care in 2003 I had been very impressed by the care and attention I received from a Filipino nurse, and others when I was on the general ward had all been “competent, committed and caring” – along with those of other nationalities. We should be training more British nurses and improving conditions to keep them working for the NHS, but without staff from abroad at all levels the NHS would have collapsed long ago.
The Chelsea Fringe festival began in 2012 as an unofficial fringe, an alternative gardens festival to the annual Chelsea Flower Show and has since become an international event. Anyone can take part so long as “it’s on topic, legal and interesting, it can go in the Fringe, no matter how outlandish or odd it may seem.” It is “unsponsored, unfunded, unbranded and wholly independent, with no medals or judging committees. It relies entirely on volunteer efforts and survives on its registration fees.“
Rye Lane – the walk would start here opposite ZA Afro Foods and Peckham Rye Station
The Coal Line project began in 2014 and became a registered charity backed by many local people as well as TfL, Southwark Council, The Peckham Settlement, Sustrans and the Mayor of London for a 900 metre linear park linking Peckham Rye Station on Rye Land with Queens Road Peckham station.
Derek Jarman memorial garden
It seemed a good idea and would provide useful local short cuts for walkers and cyclists as well as a link in longer leisure walks at a relatively low cost. But its advocates over-hyped it tremendously, comparing it to the ‘High Line’ in New York.
Copeland Park
I wrote in 2015:
“More interesting than the Coal Line are both the Bussey Building in the former industrial estate Copeland Park and the multistorey car park. Saved from demolition by a locals, the Bussey Building, reached by an alley between shops in Rye Lane, houses small businesses, artists, faith groups, art spces and a rooftop bar.The multi-storey car park on its upper floors now has a cafe, a local radio performance space and another rooftop bar, next to the Derek Jarman memorial garden, as well as better views than the Bussey across Peckham and to central London.
Cossall Walk
Part of the Coal Line is already open to the public as a small nature reserve, left by the railway line after a scheme for a massive inner-ring road was fortunately abandoned. Its legacy is a hefty wall along part of the edge of the service road by the Cossall Walk line of flats.”
Protesters at Waterloo – Rich get Richer, Poor Get Poor – Osborne and Cameron
UK Uncut supporters marched from Waterloo to Westminster Bridge where they spread a large piece of cloth on the roadway and painted a banner telling Parliament that collecting dodged taxes would bring in more than cutting public services.
Painting the banner on Westminster BridgeThe message on the banner was £12 bn more cuts £120 bn tax dodged – AUSTERITY IS A LIE’.
I had to run to the southern end of the bridge and then rush down the Albert Embankment to photograph the banner hanging from the bridge along with the smoke from flares. It was perhaps the least interesting photograph of the event and it would have been rather better had they put it over the opposite side of the bridge to have the Houses of Parliament as a background.
While this was happening on Westminster Bridge, there was another protest against Tory plans to repeal the Human Rights Act closer to Parliament which I was sorry to have missed, with just a few people still standing on the roadway.
Biafrans had come to Trafalgar Square on the anniversary of their declaration of independence in 1967 which began a long and bloody civil war in which as well as those killed in fighting many Biafran civilians died of starvation.
Death follows Tony Blair of Britain
Biafrans say that the Igbo Kingdom of Nri lasted from the 10th century until 1911, although it was incorporated into Southern Nigeria by the 1884 Berlin Conference. Britain decided to unite Northern and Southern Nigeria in 1914 as the North was in financial difficulties.
Many at the protest wore t-shirts with Biafran flag and coat of arms and waved Biafran flags, still demanding independence for their country, as well as remembering those who died in the Ngerian-Biafran War.
Mass rally Supports National Gallery Strikers – Trafalgar Square
Workers at the National Gallery were on strike against plans to privatise staffing at the gallery and were supported at a rally with many trade unionists including speakers and in the body of the square.
They were also demanding the reinstatement of Candy Udwin, a PCS rep at the National Gallery, who had been sacked for her trade union activities over the privatisation. Speakers included PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka and comedian and activist Kate Smurthwaite.
Exhibitions in the Sainsbury wing have already been guarded by privatised staff, and the security there is also run by the private company. At the end of the rally the crowd moved to protest at the Sainsbury Wing. Police stopped them entering the gallery and the doors were locked.
West India Dock Road & Limehouse Cut: My walk in Limehouse on Sunday 6th January 1990 continued. The previous post from this walk is Garford Street Limehouse – 1990. As usual you can click on the images here (except the panorama) to view larger versions on my Flickr pages.
Shops, West India Dock Road, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1c-42
This area is close to the parish border of Limehouse and Poplar, but in popular imagination was certainly Limehouse, London’s first ‘Chinatown’. But by 1990 Chinatown had almost entirely moved to Soho, though a few elements remained, including the Peking Restaurant – though a few shops down the street is the Poplar Fish Bar.
Davey & Co, 88, West India Dock Road, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1c-43
“In February 1885 Arthur Christopher Davey began a venture that throughout the 20th century evolved into a culture in the manufacture and supply of marine equipment. From humble beginnings in Leadenhall Street, the company soon moved to its famous address at 88, West India Dock Road, London E14, where it successfully traded for over 100 years.” The company is now based in Colchester.
Shops, West India Dock Road, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, 90-1c-45
The Wah Ying Restaurant was another remanant of Chinatown – and you can see along the road the sign of the Peking Restaurant. In the distance are the warehouses of the West India Docks and beyond them the cranes building Cabot Square at Canary Wharf.
West India Dock Road was laid out at the same time as the West India Docks opened in 1802, a new road to give access to them, which was for many years a toll road. I think these buildings probably date from the 1870s or a little later after the tolls were removed.
The restaurant looks very much closed and the broken windows above suggest it was empty and derelict when I made this picture.
The Limehouse Cut runs on a straight route through Poplar but curves around at its southern end. It was blocked here in 1990, possibly in connection with the building of the Limehouse Link tunnel between 1989 and 1993. But there was also work on the Cut around then, with the vertical guillotine gate on the north side of Britannia Bridge across the Commercial Road being removed.
The tower of Hawksmoor’s St Annes Limeouse seen above the viaduct built for the London and Blackwall Railway and opened in July 1840, the second or third railway viaduct to be built in London, after the 1836 London to Greenwich viaduct and the the Hanwell viaduct, technically then outside London. The line went to Brunswick Wharf in Blackwall where passengers could board ferries and boats to other destinations down river or around the world.
I can tell you nothing more about Poplar Mods except that the graffiti tells us they are male “Hammers” fans. West Ham began life as a team for the workers of the last remaining shipbuilders in the area not far away on Bow Creek as the Thames Ironworks Football Club. From 1895 they played at Hermit Road in Canning Town, former home to Old Castle Swifts, Essex’s first professional team which had gone bankrupt, They became West Ham United in 1900 and moved to Plaistow, before in 2004 uniting with the Boleyn Castle football club and moving to their Upton Park ground where they stayed until 2016.
I think the next few pictures I made were taken from the block of flats immediately to the east of Limehouse Cut, Kiln Court, a medium rise block built as part of the Barley Mow Estate for the GLC in 1965-8. Back in 1990 many blocks still did not have security doors and it was possible to easily access shared areas.
Here you can see the Cut and the DLR viaduct across the north side of Limehouse Dock with its bridge and the Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady Immaculate & St Frederick on the corner of Island Row and Commercial Road.
I think the buildings on the far bank of Limehouse Cut were temporary offices and accommodation for the building of the Limehouse Link tunnel. The site is now occupied by housing at the end of Island Row.
In this picture you can see across to Limehouse Dock with the Hydraulic Accumulator Tower next to the DLR viaduct at the right. At the left is the temporary blockage on the Limehouse Link.
Sliding my shift lens to the left gave a view a little further towards the south and shows a little more of the Cut past the blockage and in the distance a small glimpse of the River Thames. This image was taken to create a panorama together with 90-1c-23:
Support Ukraine, Bring the Children Home: Last Saturday, 24th May 2025, I photographed three events in London, and you can see albums of pictures from all of them on Facebook – and they are also should be available to see (and purchase for editorial use) rather less conveniently on my Alamy Portfolio page should you not have a Facebook account. I’ll post links for the Facebook albums for all three at the bottom of this post. All the pictures in this post are from the third event I attended, a rally and march by Ukrainians.
London, UK, 24 May 2025.
My work began on Kensington High Street, close to the Israeli Embassy which is tucked away out of site around 80 metres up a private road, Palace Green. Barricades and a line of police officers – with further police vans parked on that street prevent today’s – or any other protest – ever taking place there.
London, UK, 24 May 2025.
In the past, protests had always been allowed opposite the entrance to Palace Green on the opposite side of Kensington High Street, but today the police had set up the protest pen on the pavement outside Kensington Gardens around 200 metres away and forced the protesters into it under threat of arrest.
London, UK, 24 May 2025.
Among the usual banners and placards calling for and end to the genocide in Gaza was one reading reading “WHY ARE 40 (FICTIONAL) ISRAELI BABIES MORE IMPORTANT THAN 14000 PALESTINIAN ONES”, referring to the continual re-iteration by Israelis from the Prime Minister down of some of the more sensational and long discredited claims made about the October 7 events. And of course they never refer to the scorched earth “Hannibal” policy the IDF were directed to adopt which was responsible for at least some of the Israeli deaths on that tragic day.
London, UK, 24 May 2025.
What was perhaps missing from this FRFI protest compared to the other protests for Palestine that I’ve covered was a call for the hostages to be freed. But they were calling for ‘Peace, though clearly for ‘Peace With Justice’ and for freedom for Palestine, and making clear their demand that the UK ends its complicity in genocide and cuts all military, financial, diplomatic, and cultural ties with the Zionist state.
London, UK, 24 May 2025
From close to the Israeli embassy I made my way to Marble Arch where I spent a few minutes photographing a very formal and managed event organised by the PMOI/MEK calling for an end to the executions of political prisoners in Iran.
London, UK, 24 May 2025.
Following the forced end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988 an enraged Khomeini issued a fatwa ordering the massacre of political prisoners and some 30,000 MEK supporters – then Iran’s main opposition to the clerical dictatorhip – were hanged. The executions and torture of any political opposition in Iran still continue.
London, UK, 24 May 2025.
At Hyde Park Corner, around the Wellington Arch I joined a crowd of Ukraininans, many men and women in embroiderd traditional dress. Obviously they had come to support their country in the war against the Russian invaders but the main theme of the afternoon was a call for the return of the stolen children.
London, UK, 24 May 2025.
According to Wikipedia, since 2014 Russia has “forcibly transferred … Ukrainian children to areas under its control, assigned them Russian citizenship, forcibly adopted them into Russian families, and created obstacles for their reunification with their parents and homeland.” Figures from 2022 claim that over 300,000 Ukrainian children had been taken to Russia. Russia has passed laws to make it very difficult for any of them to be returned.
London, UK, 24 May 2025.
Many Ukrainian children of all ages at the protest were in traditional dress andmany took part in performances by their schools at the event, along with a few speeches, prayers by “our Bishop” and a theatrical protest involving a figure entirely in black leading children by red ribbons representing Russia and death leading children by red ribbons who eventually overpower and and escape.
London, UK, 24 May 2025.
Much of the event was in Ukrainian and I may have missed much of the nuances, but perhaps the most emotional part was the singing together, hands on hearts, of the national anthem. It was perhaps the most un-English part of the ceremony; back in my youth, not long after the war the main place I heard our terrible anthem was in the cinema where it was a signal for a stampede to the exits, with just a handful of angry looking middle-class men left standing to attention at their seats.
London, UK, 24 May 2025.
There were so many children taking part in the performances that the procession began around 45 minutes late and I had to leave it well before it reached the St Volodymyr Monument at Holland Park.
More Colour From New Charlton: I think all of these pictures were taken in May 1995, the panoramic examples being made using a swing lens panoramic camera, probably the Horizon 202 from the Krasnogorsky Mechanicheskiy Zavod (KMZ) factory in Krasnogorsk near Moscow. This uses clockwork to rotate a 28mm f2.8 lens around a little over 120 degrees, keeping the lens to film distance constant by having the film in a curve around the axis of rotation. The camera made negatives 58mm long and 24mm tall on normal 35mm film, giving around 20 exposures from a normal ’36 exposure’ cassette.
Willoughby Way, New Charlton, Greenwich, 1995, 95p5-671
The film was exposed though a rotating slit behind the lens and different shutter speeds were obtained by altering the slit width. There were only two rotation speeds and for the faster speeds – 1/60 s, 1/125 s, and 1/250 s – the rotation took around a thirtieth of a second, enabling me to use the camera without a tripod.
Thames Path, Lombard Wall, New Charlton, Greenwich, 1995, 95p5-662
The lens focus was fixed and I think I usually worked at f8 which meant everything from a few metres away to infinity was sharp. The camera had a spirit level as by keeping the camera level vertical lines were rendered straight in the image. Horizontal lines away from the centre of the image become curved as you can see in some of these images, and care in composition was needed to stop these effects dominating the pictures.
Mudlarks Way, New Charlton, Greenwich, 1995, 95p7-161
The image quality was much the same as that from my several times more expensive Japanese Widelux f8 swing lens camera, but the Horizon had a useable viewfinder and was easier to use handheld. Though I think for most of my walks back in 1995 I was still carrying a rather large, heavy and solid Manfrotto tripod. I liked it because it could hold the camera absolutely steady at my eye level – and unless there was good reason not to do so I always preferred to view from that height.
Andrews Sykes, New Charlton, Greenwich, 1995, 95c5-832
But I was also photographing with more conventional cameras, and usually had two Olympus OM4 bodies, one with black and white and the other with colour negative film. Although I had a fairly full range of lenses, the great majority of the pictures were made using an Olympus 35mm shift lens.
Bugsby’s Way, New Charlton, Greenwich, 1995, 95-5o-66, 1995, 95c5-825
In particular this allowed me to place the horizon in the images below or above the centre of the frame without tilting the camera which would have resulted in converging or diverging verticals. As well as shifting the optical elements up and down the lens mount allowed the lens to move to either side which also gave more control over framing.
Works, Mudlarks Way, New Charlton, Greenwich, 1995, 95c5-823
This area beside the Thames was then almost entirely industrial with aggregate wharves and some commercial premises. On other occasions I took more pictures along the riverside path which in the following year became a part of the Thames Path.
London’s Canal Walk: On Saturday 26th May 2007 I walked across London together with my wife and older son on canal towpaths from Mile End in the east to Old Oak Lane in the west, from where we made the short walk to Willesden Junction for a train towards home.
There is a great deal of new building next to the Regents canal
I’d walked and cycled along many shorter sections of these canals before, but this was the first time I’d done the whole roughly 12 miles in a single stretch. Most of the way we kept to the towpaths, but there are two tunnels around which we had to detour on roads, and a few places where walking along a road was more convenient than using the tow path, particularly around Little Venice.
The Hereford Union runs into the Regents Canal in Bethnal Green just beyone here
Probably the definitive book on English canals was written by a photographer, Eric de Maré, (1910 – 2002), one of a now largely forgotten generation of British photographers, and illustrated with many of his fine photographs, as well as some by others. He was one of the finest architectural photographers of the mid-20th century and also someone whose popular Penguin book ‘Photography’ published in 1957 introduced many of us to the history, techniques and aesthetics of the medium. Others since have looked better on the coffee table but have lacked his insight.
By Cambridge Heath Road, Empress Coaches and the gas holders
de Maré and his first wife lived on a canal boat for some years and travelled around 600 miles along them while writing and taking the pictures for the book ‘The Canals of England’ published by Architectural Press in 1950 which remains the definitive publication on our canals, though in some obvious ways outdated. The canals – which had played an important part in the war effort – had been nationalised under the National Transport Act on 1st January 1948 and part of the book is an impassioned plea for the UK’s transport policies to be revised to update the system and make fuller use of our great canal heritage.
But of course that didn’t happen, thanks to huge road transport lobby, and instead of canals similar to some in the continent we got motorways. The canals were encouraged to bring commercial traffic to an end, and with a few isolated examples most was finished by 1970 with the canals being given over to leisure use.
Not that de Maré was against leisure use and his work actively promoted this for many of England’s narrow and more rural canals as well as making an argument based on the commercial possibilities of schemes such as the ‘Cross or Four River Scheme’ proposed earlier by a 1906 Royal Commission for wide high volume commercial canals linking Bristol, Hull, Liverpool and London with the Midlands cities of Birmingham, Nottingham and Leicester.
The book came out in a second edition in 1987 and copies of both are available reasonably priced secondhand – my copy of the first edition with a handwritten dedication from de Maré was at some point marked by a bookseller’s pencil for 6d but I think I paid just a little more. I can find no individual website showing more than a small handful of his pictures – though you can see many by searching for his images online.
It’s still interesting to walk along by the canals in London, and easy to do in smaller sections – or to add a little at either end should you want to and perhaps walk from Limehouse to Southall or Brentford. I didn’t write much about the walk in 2007, but I’ll end with what I did write back then – with the usual corrections.
On Saturday I accompanied Linda and Sam on a walk along some of London’s canals, from Mile End on the Regent’s Canal and along that to join the Grand Union Paddington Branch at ‘Little Venice’, and west on that to Willesden Junction.
When I first walked along the Regents Canal I had to climb over gates and fences to access most of it. The towpath was closed to install high voltage lines below it, but even the parts that were still theoretically open were often hard to find and gates were often locked. The public were perhaps tolerated, but not encouraged to walk along them.
Now everybody walks along them and there are those heritage direction posts and information boards that I’ve rather come to hate. And from this weekend, you no longer even theoretically need a licence to cycle the paths – though mine is still in my wallet, several years since I was last asked to show it.
Now, as walkers, the constant cycle traffic on some sections has become a nuisance. And although most cyclists obey the rules, riding carefully, ringing bells and where necessary giving way, we did have to jump for safety as one group chased madly after each other, racing with total disregard for safety.
But for the rain – the occasional shower at first, later settling in to a dense fine constant downpour, it would have been a pleasant walk.
Garford Street Limehouse: My walk in Limehouse on Sunday 6th January 1990 continued. The previous post from this walk is Around Emmett Street, Limehouse 1990. As usual you can click on the images here to view larger versions on my Flickr pages.
Garford Street is variously described as in Limehouse, Westferry and Poplar, although estate agents seem to prefer Canary Wharf, which is certainly isn’t, though fairly close by. Back in 1990 I think most of us thought it was Limehouse.
The 1994 LCC Survey of London deals with it in a chapter Limehouse Hole: The inland area. This tells us that a John Garford in the early 19th century had a wharf on the Thames at its western end on Emmett Street. Since the building of the Limehouse Link tunnel and the new route of Westferry Road for the Canary Wharf redevelopment it now starts around 200 yards to the east on Westferry Road. Its other end is still at the West India Dock Road.
I think the junction here is a part of the lost area on the north side of Garford Street. The chimney in the background is a remnant of the Lion Works, established here in “1896-7 by James Walker & Company, steam packing makers,” later Lion Packings Ltd who made “Patent metallic packing” here until around 1926. “The site was cleared for public housing in 1938–9” but as you can see the chimney survived until 1990.
Another view just a few yards from the previous image shows some large cable drums from AEI Gravesend. A notice tells those waiting for MOT tests at the Austin Rover garage where to queue.
This derelict warehouse building still has the remains of a hoist to the first floor entrance above its main door. There is now new housing on this site just to the west of the DLR railway bridge on the north side of the street.
Greig House, Garford St, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1990, Built 1902-3 as accommodation for officers from Scandinavian ships docked in London it was taken over in 1930 as a Salvation Army hostel, and later used to house male alcoholics and more recently as a residential detoxification centre for men and women with drug or alcohol problems. Grade II listed along with the cottages on Garford St.
A second view of Greig House which shows some of the buildings of the West India Dock on Hertsmere Road in the background as well as the cranes building parts of Canary Wharf around Cabot Square. You can read much more about this and the associated buildings on the Lost Hospitals of London site.
From here I walked across the West India Dock Road in Poplar where my next post on this walk will begin.
Thames Gateway – Essex: I didn’t write much about my bike ride in south Essex on 24th May 2007, though the pictures on My London Diary tell the story of my route. I began at Rainham on the edge of Greater London in the London Borough of Havering.
It wasn’t a linear ride but one where I went back and forth rather extensively exploring some of the areas.
Next came the village of Aveley, where the Old Ship has a pub interior “of Outstanding National Importance” but I didn’t go inside.
I photographed the Mar Dyke at North Stifford along with a number of houses, some thatched and cycled around the Stifford Green estate on site of Stepney Boys Home built around ‘The Tower’. This had been an approved school and then a community home until it closed in 1994.
Next came Chafford Hundred, an area where chalk was extensively quarried from 1874 until the last quarry closeed in 1976. In 1986 a proposal by Blue Circle Industries, West Thurrock Estates and Tunnel Holdings to build 5,000 homes on derelict land was approved and the first were completed in 1989.
Parts of the area were still in industrial use in 2007 and there is a nature park with extensive lakes and ditches.
Lion Gorge, Chafford Hundred
From there I cycled a little deeper into Grays before going to Orsett Fen and Orsett and Horndon on the Hill which has a rather fine old pub I also didn’t go inside. Cycling and beer really don’t mix well with modern traffic.
There are more impressive ancient buildings, a reminder of the wealth that once came from the wool trade.
I made my way via Bulphan towards Upminster where I could use my railcard to start my journey home.
Here is the short text I wrote back in 2007 – with the usual corrections. The cost of the ticket I bought then is now £15.30 – an increase of around 9% above inflation – another of the costs of privatisation.
Thursday I bought an expensive ticket – just up from £6.60 to £7.90 – for a one-day railcard for Greater London from Staines, and put my folding bike aboard the train, changing to reach Rainham, Essex, (L B Havering) on the furthest edge of London from where I live.
Don’t let anyone tell you Essex is flat. O boring. Over a few hundred yards you can move from idyllic thatched cottages to post-industrial dereliction; from dramatic man-made scenery with lakes and chalk gorges to densely packed modern housing estates. From farms owned by city millionaires to council tower blocks.
Most of my winding route took me through Thurrock, one of the major growth sites of the Thames Gateway area.
Jobs, Services, Education, Yemen, Rev Billy, Police Violence: Saturday 23 May 2009 was another busy day for protests in London. I began with the March to Defend Jobs, Services and Education in North London, moved to Whitehall for a protest by Southern Yemenis calling for independence and met the The Reverend Billy and his ‘Life After Shopping’ Gospel choir for a performance in front of the gates of Downing St. Later I met the Rev again on a march against police violence prompted by the killing of Ian Tomlinson by a police officer at he G20 protest at the start of the month.
March to Defend Jobs, Services and Education – Highbury Fields to Archway
The march by around 500 workers in Islington from Highbury Fields to Archway followed the loss of 1500 jobs in the area, including 550 mainly support workers from London Metropolitan University, 500 civil servants from Archway tower and more at City University, where adult education is under threat.
It was supported by many local groups including the Islington National Union of Teachers, the Public & Commercial Services Union, London Metropolitan University Unison and the University and College Union. Among the speakers at the Archway rally were local MP Jeremy Corbyn and local trade union leaders.
Education in the area has been particularly important in giving people who have missed out in various ways in their schooling a chance to gain qualifications, and the cuts threaten the future of many of these courses as well as the support such as nurseries which enable many mature students to continue education. Islington has the highest population density of any local authority in England and Wales and a third of its residents live in poverty – well above the London average.
Southern Yemenis Demonstrate For a Separate State – Downing St, Whitehall
Southern Yemenis from the Southern Democratic Assembly (TAJ), based in London came to protest following protests in Aden the previous week on the 15th anniversary of the attempt by Southern Yemen to break away from the North which began the 1994 Civil War, a short but brutal conflict which ended in July 1994 with defeat for the South.
Southern Yemen, until 1967 the British protectorate of Aden, was granted independence and in 1969 became the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen. Although a decision to unite with North Yemen – the Yemen Arab Republic – was made in principle in 1972 this only happened in 1990 when the Republic of Yemen was formed. South Yemen contains most of the reserves of oil and other resources and TAJ accuse the government of grabbing land and property and of human rights abuses.
Since 2004 the rise of the Houthis has dominated politics and armed conflict in Yemen with a full-scale civil war between them and a Saudi-led coalition backed by the US and the west since 2015.
The Reverend Billy and his ‘Life After Shopping’ Gospel choir from New York were busy in London today on their 2009 UK Shopocalypse Tour.
Police obviously had no idea of how to handle the Reverend and his green-robed choir when the came and gave a brief performance on the pavement in front of the tall gates with their armed guards.
As I wrote, ‘The Church of Life After Shopping believes that we need to “back away from the product” and resist the way that advertising and the media persuade us to live only thorough consuming corporate products, and get down to experiencing life directly. We can live more by consuming less – and at the same time help save the planet and put an end to climate change, which is a result of our excessive consumption. ‘
Consumerism is at the root of our government’s economic programme with its emphasis on growth but this comes at the expense of both personal fulfilment and the future of the planet, driving catastrophic climate change as we pursue this false God.
“As Billy says, following the G20 summit and the pathetic waste and greed shown in the continuing parliamentary allowances scandal, our government and MPs are clearly in need of the Life After Shopping Gospel.
National Demonstration against Police Violence Trafalgar Square to New Scotland Yard
The United Campaign Against Police Violence was set up after the G20 protest at Bank in London where Ian Tomlinson died following an assault by a police officer as he tried to make his way home from work through the area where the demonstration was taking place.
Who Killed Ian Tomlinson? And Sean Rigg?
Thee organisers included trade unionists and activists who had organised the G20 protest and campaigners against police violence, particularly those involved with the United Families and Friends Campaign by friends and the families of people who have died in police custody. Among those taking part were the families of two men who died in Brixton Police Station, Ricky Bishop and Sean Rigg.
In all these killings the police reaction to the deaths was to issue a number of highly misleading statements and to try to protect its officers by failing to make proper and timely investigations. This march attracted far more police attention and resources than any of these deaths where families have had to fight to get any information from police.
Leading the start of the march was a coffin and the red ‘Horse of the Apocalypse’ one of the four which headed the G20 protests – and gave the clear message at that protest that the intention was street theatre rather than the kind of insurrection that the police anticipated and then went on to themselves create.
Sean Rigg’s two sisters were on the march and making their views felt, and the Rev Billy came with his giant non-powered megaphone.
At Scotland Yard the mood became more solemn for a period of silence for those who had died and people linked hands to surround New Scotland Yard in a symbolic “kettle”.
Chis Knight spoke with Sean Rigg’s sisters on each side of him. A police officer stands impassive as people prepared to release black balloons in memory of the dead.
The mood was somber, solemn as we remembered those who have died. Suddenly the whole mood changes as an officer reads out a warning from her chief over the loudspeakers interrupting the ceremony.
For a few moments an angry crowd looks likely to attack the van – and it did seem an incredibly provocative action in what to this point had been a well ordered and restrained – although angry – demonstration against police violence.
Fortunately the moment passes and the release of balloons continues. It’s impossible to understand why police took this action at this time – unless they really wanted to provoke a riot. I can find no other explanation and it remains another of the many actions that has resulted in a loss of public confidence in the police as we drift relentlessly towards a police state.
Legal Aid Funeral & Daddy’s Pig: On Wednesday 22nd May 2013 lawyers held a mock funeral and rally against government proposals for further changes to legal aid proposed by Justice Secretary Chris Grayling. Legal aid had already been greatly restricted by the Civil Legal Aid (Remuneration) Regulations 2013 which had come into effect earlier in the year. I rushed away at the end of the rally to join Artist taxi-driver Mark McGowan who was pushing his Daddy’s Pig from Downing Street three miles to the Bank of England.
Lawyers Funeral for Legal Aid – Old Palace Yard, Westminster
The coffin of Legal Aid
Justice Secretary Chris Grayling having made huge cuts in legal aid was now proposing to end the right of legal aid clients to chose their solicitor with the work going to the lowest bidder in ‘price competitive tendering’, PCT. This would be open to “to large non-legal companies, including Eddie Stobart and Tesco, and remove the ability of those in need of legal aid to chose appropriate specialists in the legal area involved.”
The short funeral procession to Parliament Square by the London Criminal Courts Solicitors’ Association was led by a marching jazz band, followed by robed and wigged figures carrying the coffin of Legal Aid and a woman dressed as the Scales of Justice.
As well as lawyers others joined the protest including Women from Winvisible, Women Against Rape, Defend The Right To Protest, Liberty and more. The proposed changes would particularly effect women involved in domestic violence and rape cases, and immigrants fighting for asylum.
There were many excellent speakers and on My London Diary I gave a partial list on My London Diary:
Labour MPs Sadiq Khan, Jeremy Corbyn and his fellow Islington MP Emily Thornberry, Natalie Bennett of the Green Party and senior figures involved with the law from both Tories and Lib-Dems. There were those who had been involved with legal aid over cases of injustice, including Gerry Conlan, one of the Guildford 4, a member of the family of Jean Charles De Menzes, Susan Matthews, mother of Alfie Meadows and Breda Power, the daughter of Billy Power, one of the Birmingham 6. Solicitors who spoke included Clive Stafford Smith, the founder of Repreive, and Blur drummer Dave Rowntree, and notable among the QCs, Helena Kennedy. There were many memorable quotes (almost all of which I’ve forgotten) with Gerry Conlan making clear “Back in the 1970s they sent innocent people to jail by the van load. But if these cuts go through they’ll be sending them in by the Eddie Stobart truckload“.
The rally ended with “a summary by leading barrister John Cooper QC after which the whole assembly delivered its verdict on Grayling, guilty as charged.”
The plans for PCT were dropped in September 2013 but didn’t go away entirely with new plans to introduce it in 2016, and it took a High Court ruling in 2018 to quash proposals to use PCT for Housing Possession Court Duty schemes.
Legal aid remains unfairly restricted and in only the very wealthy and those of the very poor who are able to access legal aid are almost “equal under the law”, with the great majority of us being able to afford it. And of course the wealthy are able to use much greater legal resources than legal aid will ever provide.
True equality under the law would only become possible if we made a huge systemic change to essentially nationalise our whole justice system, making it entirely a public service.
Daddy’s Pig heads for the Trough – Downing St to Bank
Artist taxi-driver Mark McGowan pushed his Daddy’s Pig, accompanied by another protester pushing a fire engine, the three miles from Downing St to the Bank of England, hoping to present it to the governor for services to austerity and the criminal activities of the City of London.
McGowan had a small group of supporters with him as he undertook the second stage of his gruelling journey on hands and knees, pushing the pig on its plastic roller skate.
A few days earlier, he had pushed the pig from from Kings College hospital in Camberwell where he is receiving cancer treatment to Downing street as a protest against the privatisation of the NHS which is being driven by the bankers and private equity firms.
I walked with him and his pig on part of the second half of his painful slow route, joining him at the Royal Courts of Justice and leaving him and his colleague with the fire engine as they rested briefly before reaching Ludgate Circus. Even with knee pads and gloves the going was tough and Mark was struggling to meet his appointment with a banker at 3pm.
