NHS | >Re-PHOTO

Barts NHS Cleaners march against Serco – 2017

Barts NHS Cleaners march against Serco: On Saturday 15th July 2017 a rally and march in Whitechapel follow five days of strike by cleaners and porters at the Royal London Hospital and the other East London hospitals in the Barts NHS Trust – Mile End Hospital, Newham University Hospital, St Bartholomew’s Hospital and Whipps Cross University Hospital.

Cleaning, portering, laundry, cleaning and security services were outsourced to Serco in 2017 and the workers involved immediately found their conditions being adversely affected. Serco’s first action was to write to them telling they were no longer allowed paid tea breaks; the workers sat in the canteen and refused to move before these were re-instated. But they accused Serco of increasing stress and workload with a climate of bullying, intimidation and fear and a failure to set up procedures for reporting problems with facilities and other issues.

When Serco refused a Unite claim for 30p per hour in line with inflation and cost of living increases in London the workers voted 99% in favour of strike action. Serco illegally brought in poorly trained agency workers to replace them and on the strike days conditions became unsanitary and many patients did not get hot meals.

Barts Trust had put these services out to tender to save money they needed to pay out £2.4million a week because of a disastrous PFI contract made under New Labour. Although It had provided a much-needed new hospital completed in 2016 but with two floors Barts didn’t have the money to fit out, it left them paying these huge sums long into the future. But Barts were attempting to save money at the expense of their workers and endangering patients.

The protest began on the busy street outside the old Royal London buildings but there were soon too many for the pavement here and we moved around to the side of the hospital for a rally, where speakers including Gail Cartmel of Unite, John McDonnell, then Shadow Chancellor and Unite pickets and other trade unionists including Victor Ramirez of United Voices of the World who spoke forcefully in Spanish – the first language of many of the cleaners – spoke from a balcony above the crowd – and I was able to take some pictures. Some brought greetings and support from other unions.

Serco employ mainly migrant workers in other public sector workplaces as well as running immigration prisons such as Yarl’s Wood where migrant women and families are daily repressed and subject to physical and sexual abuse and some had come to support the Barts workers and also to protest against their activities elsewhere.

Eventually the marchers formed up behind the banner and made there way along Mile End Road to another rally in a small park close to Mile End Hospital, where there were a few more speakers before we all dispersed.

Back in 2003 I’d spent time in several hospitals and had experienced a clear difference between the standards of cleaning and food between those with contracted out cleaners who were allowed insufficient time to clean the wards and one where the cleaners were still a part of the hospital team. It was the difference between dirt and used needles under my bed and a spotless shiny floor.

Protests continued at Barts and in 2023 Serco withdrew early from the contract. Both Unite and Unison claimed victory for the decision by Barts to directly employ the workers under the same conditions as other existing staff.

Labour in opposition were clearly opposed to outsourcing particularly in the public services and promising to outlaw it, but the Employment Rights Bill Implementation Roadmap published this month seems to have drawn back from the earlier promise and contains no explicit reference to outsourcing.

I was pleased with the photographs I had been able to make at the event and as well as the few here there are many more you can see on My London Diary at Barts NHS Cleaners march against Serco.

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NHS at 65, Lewisham & the DLR – 2013

NHS at 65, Lewisham & the DLR: Friday 5th July 2013 was the 65th anniversary of the founding of our National Health Service and I photographed three events connected with this, two in Westminster and one opposite Lewisham Hospital where campaigners were fighting to keep services. And on the way back from Lewisham I took some pictures though the window of the DLR train, mainly as we went past Deptford Creek.

The National Health Action Party was a publicity stunt and single issue parties such as this are never likely to make much widespread impact on British politics. But given the strength of the recent Labour rebellion over Starmer’s attack on the disabled I wonder if a new left of centre political party might result in a radical change in our political system, with possibly a significant number of Labour MPs deserting the sinking ship in favour of a party which represents traditional Labour values. We could then have two different parties fighting out the next election.

NHS 65: GMB – Westminster

The GMB trade union came with three vintage ambulances to protest outside Parliament where trade unionists in vintage ambulance uniforms posed with MPs including Dennis Skinner and Sadiq Khan warning that the NHS is at risk.

I’m afraid I’ve forgotten who the other MPs were, but you can see a couple more in the pictures on My London Diary I took as the photographer for the GMB posed and photographed them. I have a personal antipathy to posing people, though I might occasionally deliberately attract their attention and even very occasionally ask them to keep still or look at me. But generally I see my role as recording what is happening rather than directing it. And here what was happening was that people were being photographed.

Later I went with them (and the ambulances) as they took 65th Birthday cards for the NHS, with the message inside “Do Not Pension Off Our NHS’ to the Ministry of Health, then still in Richmond House on Whitehall.

More at NHS 65: GMB.

NHS 65: Lewisham Hospital

In the memorial garden opposite the Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign were holding a lunchtime party to celebrate the 65th Birthday of the NHS, and as a part of their campaign to keep this busy, successful and much needed hospital open.

The plans for its closure were not related to the hospital’s performance in any way but because the health authority needed to make drastic cuts to meet the disastrous PFI debts of a neighbouring hospital.

There had been a massive community campaign to save vital NHS services at the hospital, backed by “Patients, NHS staff, Lewisham Council, MPs, schools, pensioners, families, businesses, faith groups, charities, unions, students and health campaigners” – the whole community including the Millwall Football Club.

Later at the end of July 2013 the High Court ruled in favour of the Judicial Reviews by the Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign and Lewisham Council and quashed the Government’s closure plans. And ten years later in July 2023 on the 75th anniversary of the founding of the NHS a newly engraved community bench was unveiled to celebrate the victory. I’m sorry I wasn’t present to record that occasion.

More at NHS 65: Lewisham Hospital.

DLR Views – Deptford-Canary Wharf

I decided to travel back from Lewisham into central London by taking the DLR to Canary Wharf where I could change to the Jubilee Line because I could try to take some pictures from the train, particularly on the section where the viaduct goes alongside and over Deptford Creek.

There are many problems in taking pictures from trains. Finding a reasonably clean window is the first, and avoiding reflections another. It was easier back in the 1970s when there were windows you could pull down and lean out! And now apparently AI can remove reflections, though I’ve yet to try it.

DLR Views

NHS 65: Rally & Camarathon – Westminster

On the 65th Birthday of the NHS, Dr Clive Peedell began a 65 mile ultramarathon to David Cameron’s Witney constituency to bury the NHS coffin and launch the National Health Action Party plan by doctors and health professionals to revive the NHS.

Dr Clive Peedell posed in a Cameron mask with the coffin and wreath and had come with a small group of supporters, including one wearing a mask of his coalition partner Nick Clegg. Campaigners accuse both of deliberately running down our NHS, with more and more NHS services being delivered by private healthcare companies.

After posing in front of the Ministry of Health, the campaigners crossed Whitehall to stand in front of the gates of Downing St before processing behind the coffin to Parliament for more pictures, ending with some street theatre involving severed hands and speeches by several distnguished health professions including the Chair of the Royal College of GPs in Old Palace Yard.

I left before Dr Peedell and two others set off on his long run – though I’m sure others would be carrying the wreath and coffin. The event had clearly been set up to attract the media, but received little publicity.

On My London Diary you can read a long statement by Dr Peedell about how the “2012 Health and Social Care Act, will result in the NHS being increasingly dismantled and privatised” with the Labour Party whose “previous pro-market, pro-privatisation reforms, actually set the platform for the current changes” had failed to sufficiently oppose. Health professionals had “formed the National Health Action Party to raise awareness and inform the public about what is happening to their NHS” and had today “set out our own 10 point plan to reinstate, protect and improve the NHS“.

Much more on My London Diary at NHS 65: Rally & Camarathon.

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Anti-Homeless Spikes & No More Austerity – 2014

Anti-Homeless Spikes & No More Austerity: On Saturday 21st June 2014 I photographed a small protest against anti-homeless spikes outside the Tesco Metro on Lower Regent Street on my way to a much larger protest against austerity meeting at the BBC in Portland Place and marching to a rally in Parliament Square.

Call for Nationwide Homeless Spikes Ban

Public disquiet was mounting against the increasing use of anti-homeless spikes on and around buildings, metal or concrete spikes used to make pavements, ledges and other horizontal surface impossible or very uncomfortable for people to lie down or sometimes even sit on, aimed in particular at stopping homeless people sleeping there.

These spikes and other ‘hostile measures’ are increasingly used to force homeless people out of public spaces – you can read more about it in a 2016 article on the Crisis web site as well as in various newspaper reports. ‘Defensive Architecture’ continues and you can read about a 2024 campaign against spikes by artist Stuart Semple and creative agency TBWA\MCR in Big Issue.

Call for Nationwide Homeless Spikes Ban

No More Austerity – Demand The Alternative

There was huge support for the march and rally by The People’s Assembly, trade unions and campaign groups calling for an end to austerity which gathered outside the BBC to march to a rally in Parliament Square.

Clearly the government cuts since 2010 were causing huge problems across the nation and were stifling economic growth. And while we were still wasting huge amounts on senseless projects such as Trident nuclear missiles, public services were being cut, public sector workers were getting cuts in pay through below inflation increases. Education was suffering, the NHS was being increasingly privatised and generally the interests of the majority were being sacrificed while the wealthy were getting even richer.

Measure such as 2012 bedroom tax and later the two child benefit cap brought in in 2017 plunged many of the poorest even deeper into poverty and there were continued attacks on disability benefits.

I put almost all of the pictures from the march on-line without captions with a promise to add them later but – as so often – later never came. But I think most of the pictures tell their own story,

Among them are a number of pictures of Class War – some of them carrying a banner which later became their manifesto for the 2015 general election – for which they became a political party and stood a handful of candidates – who each only received a handful of votes. But perhaps ‘DOUBLE DOLE – NO BEDROOM TAX – DOUBLE PENSIONS’ was never likely to be an entirely convincing alternative.

In 2017 we did have a real alternative and the Labour vote was up by 9.5% and it was only a deliberate and deceitful campaign by the party right who were in control of the party mechanism diverting resources from key marginals that stopped a Corbyn victory. They out-manoeuvred the left again in 2019 both to ensure defeat and for the key architect of the disastrous policy that lost them the vote as minister for Brexit to become party leader.

But people in 2024 still wanted change, and voted against the hopeless and hapless Tories who had blustered under Boris, wilted faster than lettuce under Truss and submerged under Sunak. But what we got was not chage but Tory-lite, even resurrecting the tired skeletons of Blair and Mandelson. It now seems more than likely that at the next election we may get change – but for the even worse.

I won’t bother to put any of the pictures of speakers at the rally on-line, though I photographed a long list of them – all on My London Diary.

Parliament Square was pretty full and people were still arriving at the square long after I made a picture of the crowd at the start of the rally.

More pictures:
People’s Assembly Rally
No more Austerity – demand the alternative

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Carnival, Racist Deportations & more Naked Cyclists – 2009

Carnival, Racist Deportations & more Naked Cyclists: I began work on Saturday 13 June 2009 photographing a carnival procession in Carshalton in the south of London, travelled to Islington in north London for a protest against Britain’s racist and inhuman immigration policies and finally covered the uncovered cyclists taking part in the 2009 London World Naked Bike Ride, photographing the preparations in Hyde Park ad the start of the ride there and then on the ride at Waterloo and in the West End.

Carshalton Carnival Procession – St Helier – Carshalton

Carnival, Racist Deportations & more Naked Cyclists - 2009 — *Sutton’s May Queen 2009 came to look at my cameras*

My account of this event on My London Diary begins with a slightly unkind description “of the St Helier estate, a huge sprawling area built by the LCC 1930 to a kind of debased Garden City plan almost entirely without the charm of those earlier developments on what had previously mainly been the lavender fields of Mitcham.”

The procession began next to the “St Helier Hospital [built] in the modern style of the 30s, facing the imaginatively named St Helier Open Space” outside the Sutton Arena leisure centre and as usual I found the more interesting pictures were those I took there rather than on long procession to Carshalton where it was to end at a fair in Carshalton Park.

I’d come to the carnival largely because I was then working on a project on London’s May Queens, with several groups of them from across south London taking part in the procession, along with various other local organisations. And a Dalek and others in fancy dress.

The Rotary had brought their Father Christmas coming out unseasonably from the chimney of a small four-wheeled house towed behind a car at the rear of the procession. He’d been there too when I photographed the carnival previously in 2004.

It was a long an hot trek to Carshalton from St Helier, and the procession paused at Carshalton College for a break. I’d walked enough and made my way to the station missing the rest of the event and the funfair in Carshalton Park.

Carshalton Carnival Procession.

Speak out against Racism and Deportations – Angel, Islington

Britain’s major political parties at the prompting of our mainstream press have long promoted myths about migrants and asylum seekers, the more rabid of our tabloids in particular promoting the views of clearly racist columnists who publish stories about them getting homes and huge benefits, depriving the working class of housing, pushing down wages, taking “our jobs“, making it impossible to see doctors and more.

Nothing could of course be further from the truth. It’s the greed of the wealthy and government policies that have led to these problems – and without the migrants we would be in a considerably worse position. It’s something that is glaringly obvious when we need to make use of the NHS which would have collapsed entirely without them, but also in other areas. Demonising migrants is a deliberate policy divert public attention and anger away from the real problem of our class-based society. Divide and rule by our rulers,

Most of those who settle here from abroad want nothing more than to work and contribute to our society, though we make it hard for many of them to do so. They want a better life, particularly for their children and often work long hours for it. Migrant workers who clean offices are often more qualified than those who work in them – but their qualifications are not recognised here, and asylum seekers are unable to work except in the illegal economy.

Some facts:

Over a quarter of NHS doctors were born abroad (and others are the sons and daughters of migrants);
Immigrants are 60% less likely to claim benefits than people born in Britain;
Studies sho immigration has no significant effect on overall employment, or on unemployment of those born in Britain.

This campaigning protest in a busy shopping area outside one of London’s busier Underground Stations was organised by the Revolutionary Communist Group and was also part of a campaign by the Suarez family to prevent the deportation of John Freddy Suarez Santander, a 21 year-old father with a 3 year-old son. He came here from Colombia when he was six and grew up here. As a teenager he committed an offence and served 7 months in a young offenders institution.

Two years after he had served his sentence, the New Labour government passed a law to deport all immigrants with a criminal record, and an order was made for him to be sent back to Colombia, where he has no remaining relatives. His case in 2009 was still being considered at the European Court of Human Rights. The ECHR generally asserts that juvenile offences should not be seen as a part of a criminal record, but the Home Office decided the month before this protest to deport him anyway, and this was only stopped by his family going to the airport.

Speak out against Racism & Deportations

World Naked Bike Ride – London

I’ve written rather often about this event, intended as a protest against the domination of our lives by ‘car culture’ which has resulted in our towns and cities and transport networks being designed around the priorities of motorists and road transport rather than us as pedestrians and cyclists – and to serve the interests of the companies that make cars and lorries. And it has resulted in illegal levels of pollution causing massive health problems.

Although it’s certainly an eye-catching event, it isn’t always very clear why it is taking place to those standing on the pavements, gazint at it in amazement, laughing and recording it on their phones. It’s probably good for our tourist industry, though I rather think London has too many tourists anyway, particularly as I struggle to walk over Westminster Bridge.

Heres one paragraph of what I wrote in 2009 – you can read the rest on My London Diary.

Some riders did have slogans on their bodies, mainly about oil and traffic, and some bikes carried A4 posters reading REAL RIGHTS FOR BIKE and CELEBRATE BODY FREEDOM or had flags stating ‘CURB CAR CULTURE’ which made clear the purpose of the event to the careful onlooker, but for most people it seemed simply a spectacle of naked or near-naked bodies. Though of course also a rare treat for any bicycle spotters among them.

I didn’t censor the pictures I put on line from the event though I’ve carefully selected those in this post. I think that there is nothing offensive about the naked human body but I included the following statement with the link to more pictures I posted then and which you can still see online.

Warning: these pictures show men and women with no clothes on. Do not click this link to more pictures if pictures of the naked human body may offend you.

Many more pictures at World Naked Bike Ride – London.

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People’s Assembly against Austerity 2.0

People’s Assembly against Austerity 2.0: Last Saturday, 7th June 2025 the People’s Assembly had organised what they hoped would be a huge anti-austerity demonstration against Labour’s Austerity 2.0 which seems a return to the policies of the Cameron and other Tory governments, cutting spending on public services while ensuring the rich continue to get richer.

They say:

Austerity is not an inevitability; it is a political choice. By sticking to her arbitrary ‘fiscal rules,’ Rachel Reeves is plunging the country into more crisis.
By choosing to spend money on arms rather than public services, social security and our NHS, this government is actively impoverishing us. We say no – and we mean it.

Recent government announcements of a huge increase in defence spending are based on a return to the worst excesses of the Cold War and a false narrative of Russian invasion of all of Europe – something that the criminal and disastrous invasion of Ukraine when what Putin thought would be over in three days has turned into years of attrition, ruining the Russian economy, actually makes less likely.

Arms manufacturers have always played on our fears to boost their profits – and they are the only people who come out of wars as winners – both the Ukrainian people and the Russian people will end up as losers whatever the final outcome in Ukraine. And it was them and the NATO military hawks who kept up the isolation of Russia and the manipulation of politics in Ukraine and elsewhere after the fall of the USSR rather than welcoming Russia into our fold.

Already our government has drastically cut the aid budget, probably the most important expenditure to promote peace across the world, and is also planning huge cuts in benefits in an attack on the most vulnerable in our society.

It has also continued its attacks on migrants with a new Immigration White Paper which will attack our migrant communities and affect millions of migrants, continuing the racist policies of previous governments. We need migrants, particularly as our population is ageing. Those already here are making a positive contribution to our country – and would do more if we introduced safe ways for them to come here, particularly to join relatives already living here, allowed asylum seekers who can to work, recognised their qualification and made it easier for them to become British citizens. We need a positive approach to migrants rather than the increasingly hostile one.

Many on the protest came to protest about the increasing privatisation of the NHS and the failures to adequately resource it, about the cuts in education and about misguided and inadequate housing policies which have led to huge increases in rents – while making landlords wealthy. About the increases in energy prices and in prices generally which are making many poor. About the failure to abolish to two child cap on benefits which has put so many children into poverty.

*Kid Starver Out – and a cut up Labour Party card.*

We live in a country with massive inequalities and with governments that are inatroducing policies to increase these. The protest called for ‘Welfare not Warfare’, to ‘Tax the Rich’ and ‘Stop the Cuts’.

We would not need to bring in tax increases to greatly increase the amount of tax the country receives but could bring in billions by simply clamping down on tax evasion and tax avoidance. We should outlaw all those schemes that enable companies and individuals who earn money in the UK from not paying taxes. We need to change the law so HMRC would work to a simple rule – if you earn it here, you pay tax on it here – and enforce it. It would probably bring in at least another £20 billion a year.

Saturday’s protest was not the huge demonstration that the People’s Assembly had hoped for, though it was a respectable size, perhaps 3-5,000 people. The drastic and inaccurate weather forecast may have put some people off, but the many groups who backed the event only came in small numbers. Sometimes only just enough to carry their banner.

By far the largest and loudest bloc on the march was that of the Revolutionary Communist Party. Until 2024 called ‘Socialist Appeal’ it was relaunched under this new name. Back around the 1970s it was the Trotskyist Labour group ‘Militant tendency’, set up around the newspaper ‘Militant’ in 1964 and finally proscribed by the Labour Party in 1982.

Many more pictures in my Facebook album Welfare Not Warfare, Stop The Cuts March.

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Free Syria & Keep the NHS Public – 2011

Free Syria & Keep the NHS Public: On Tuesday May 17th 2011 I photographed two protests, a march against the continuing privatisation of parts of our NHS and the Health & Social Care Bill then going through parliament, and a protest at Downing Street calling for the government to support the revolution against the Assad regime in Syria and work to end the bloodshed taking place there.

Fourteen years later the NHS is still under threat with more and more of its services being taken over by private healthcare companies, and although some changes have been made to the disastrous ‘reforms’ introduced under Andrew Lansley but implemented by Jeremy Hunt who later called the fragmentation that it caused ‘frankly, completely ridiculous’ and tried hard to ignore much of it.

What Hunt thought was the only successful part of the Act was that it established the independence of NHS England from the government. On 13th March 2025 the Labour government announced they were scropping NHS England, putting the NHS firmly under the control of Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Health Secretary Wes Streeting, two men who one of my Facebook friends posted should not be in charge of a first aid kit let alone the NHS. If only, many of us think, had Leanne Mohamad got another 529 votes in Ilforn North in 2024 and she had become the MP for Ilford North rather than Streeting. It was perhaps the greatest disappointment of that General Election.

Both Britain and the USA failed to support the Arab Spring in Syria with much more than weak words and when Russian put the forces behind Assad his survival was ensured until finally ousted by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and others after 13 years of brutal civil war in December 2024.

The US gave some support to the Kurds to enable them to defeat ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham) despite the support ISIS received from our NATO ally Turkey. But by 2024 lamost half a million Syrians had been killed and around 6.7 million refugees had fled Syria with another 5 million internally displaced. And Turkey had taken advantage of the situation to invade and occupy some largely Kurdish areas.

In deference to Turkey, the UK government proscribed the Partiya Karkeren Kurdistani (PKK) or Kurdish Workers Party in 2001, later adding a whole list of other names it used, KADEK, Kongra Gele Kurdistan, Teyre Azadiye Kurdistan (TAK) and Hezen Parastina Gel (HPG). For some years the PKK had moved from fighting for an independent state of Kurdistan to calling for greater autonomy and civil rights for Kurds in Turkey and a few days ago at a PKK conference it announced it was to disband and disarm.

Keep The NHS Public – UCH Euston Road to Whitehall

Over a thousand people, including many medical professionals and medical students, marched through London to show their opposition to government reforms which threatens jobs and many feel would destroy the NHS.

After a rally at University College Hospital on Euston Road the march, the second large march in London aimed at saving the NHS and killing Andrew Lansley’s Health & Social Care Bill, set off for Westminster.

There was a brief ‘die-in’ at Cambridge Circus and a small ‘sit-in’ outside Downing Street before the marchers held a final rally in front of the Department of Health at Richmond House before dispersing.

You can read a fuller account of the protest and see many more pictures on My London Diary at Keep The NHS Public.

Syrians Ask For Support at Downing St

Syrians supporting the ‘People’s Revolution’ in their country called for support from the British people and government to support their demands for reform and to stop the bloodshed in Syria.

A large group of Syrians including Kurds from Northern Syria called for support from David Cameron and the British people for the Syrian people.

Since demonstrations for political and economic freedom and an end to the tyranny and bloodshed of the Assad regime started in Syria on March 15th 2011, more than 800 innocent protesters have been killed, over 2000 injured and many more detained.

Assad’s father Hafez al-Assad was president of Syria from 1971 until he died in 2000, and was responsible for many deaths and disappearances, including a massacre of 40,000 people at Hama in 1982. His son Bashar Al-Assad, nicknamed as ‘The Butcher’ continued the “arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, rape, and mass surveillance.”

More about the protest and many more pictures at Syrians Ask For Support.

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VE Day 60 Years On – 2005

VE Day 60 Years On: Twenty Years ago Britain had a two day major celebration of the end of the war in Europe on 8th May 1945, and I wrote about this both at the time on My London Diary and last year here on >Re:PHOTO at VE Day 60 Years On – 2005.

Of course it wasn’t the end of the war, which continued against Japan for another 3 months, only brought to an end following the dreadful revelation of the power of nuclear weapons to destroy whole cities at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The huge civilian deaths these caused may have shortened the war by a few days, but probably a USA determined to bring it to an end might have achieved a settlement earlier had some not wanted this more spectacular and deadly finale.

I grew up among many who had fought in WW2 and some who had lost fathers, uncles, cousins and brothers. There was a strong feeling that while the First World War which had been known as ‘The War to end all Wars’ had not proved to do so, this one should lead to an era of peace on the world.

It was this spirit that led to the foundation of the United Nations, and to developments such as the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, both of which are now very much under threat. And of course the war led to a Labour government which brought in reforms including the setting up of the NHS.

Peace did not last long, at least in part because it was not good for business. In part it was replaced by the ‘Cold War’ but there have been plenty of hot wars too. The world has seen war after war since VE day, many of which have involved either the USA or the UK, either actively with “boots on the ground”, or supporting one or sometimes both sides in the conflict openly or clandestinely and selling them the weapons with which to fight. There is a long list of wars the UK has been actively involved in on Wikipedia, since 1946 as well as a longer list for the USA which includes some others the UK was involved in.

The Cold War should have come to an end with the end of the Soviet Union in August 1991, but the ‘hawks’ were determined to keep it going rather than work with Russia. Had they not done so things might have been very different and Russia would not have felt the need for a strong president which led to the appointment of Putin.

Recently British jets have bombed the Houthis in Yemen, and the UK has sold arms to Saudi Arabia to be used against them in the war there. And the UK has given diplomatic support and supplied arms for the Israeli government for the genocide in Gaza, as well as carrying out reconnaissance flights for Israel over Gaza from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus to enable them to locate targets.

There are now relatively few survivors who actually fought in World War 2, although it was estimated that “under 70,000” British WW2 veterans were still alive, aged between 95 and 112.

My London Diary 2005
VE Day 60 Years On – 2005

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Armenians, Football, Tweed, TTIP, KFC, BP, NHS – 2015

Armenians, Football, Tweed, TTIP, KFC, BP, NHS: Ten years ago on Saturday 18th April 2015 London was busy with protests and I rushed around covering seven events, though the last four at Shepherds Bush were all part of the Day of Dissent rally against TTIP, related to the problems which would be caused with a trade deal with the USA – and all threats now relevant to the current talks between our government and the Trump administration.

Centenary of Armenian Genocide

Armenians, Football, Tweed, TTIP, KFC, BP, NHS - 2015 — *A woman paints an Armenian flag on a man’s cheek*

I met hundreds of Armenians close to Hyde Park corner on Piccadilly as they prepared for their annual march in protest against the Armenian Genocide. This year, 2015 marked the centenary of the start of the killing of 1.5m Armenians by Turkey between 1915 and 1923.

Turkey still refuse to accept the mass killings as genocide and the UK has not recognised the Armenian genocide. Armenians demannd that both countries should recognise this historic event and that it should be taught in the national curriculum.

Some carried placards with pictures of Hrant Dink who is described as ‘The 1,500,001st Victim of The Armenian Genocide‘. Editor of the Istanbul Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos, he was prosecuted under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code which makes it a crime to publicly denigrate the Turkish government, republic or nation. After having received many death threats he was assassinated by a 17 year old Turkish Nationalist in January 2007.

I left the protest shortly before the march began, hoping to see them later at Downing Street but had left Westminster before they arrived.

More pictures: Centenary of Armenian Genocide

Football Action Network Manifesto

I went to Westminster to find the Football Action Network who were taking copies of their manifesto to the Labour, Tory and Lib-Dem offices, and finally caught up with them on the steps of the Lib-Dem offices.

Their demands include a Football Reform Bill, a living wage for all staff, fair ticket prices, safe standing, and reforms to clubs & FA.

Football Action Network Manifesto

Tweed Cycle Ride

I briefly left the football fans as the Tweed Cycle Ride stopped on the road opposite and rushed to take pictures as it went into Parliament Square. The vintage-themed ride, “a jaunty bike ride around London in our sartorial best“, stops for tea and a picnic and ends with “a bit of a jolly knees-up” and raises funds for the London Cycling Campaign.

Tweed Cycle Ride

Stop TTIP Rally – Shepherds Bush

Shepherds Bush was the venue chosen for the Day of Dissent rally against TTIP, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, a proposed trade treaty between the European Union (then still including Britain) and the United States which would have given excessive power to corporations, enabling them to override national laws.

The event began with a rally on Shepherds Bush Green with speakers including Dame Vivienne Westwood, John Hilary of War on Want along with many others.

But much of the time was spent in a number of group discussions and it wasn’t an easy event to make interesting pictures. What was really clear was the threat that the TTIP treaty being negotiated by governments and corporations poses to democracy and all public services, that it would be a threat to public health and the NHS and would prevent changes made to combat climate change.

Campaigners then left to carry out the three separate actions I then photographed.

Stop TTIP rally

KFC protest over TTIP – Shepherds Bush

Protesters in white coats formed a line outside KFC at Shepherds Bush dipping rubber chickens in buckets of chlorine and acid, illustrating that TTIP would force the UK to accept unsafe agricultural and food practices (including GMO crops) allowed in the USA.

Chickens need chlorine washing because of lower farm hygiene standards and US meat contains much higher levels of hormones and other chemicals than here.

KFC protest over TTIP

BP die-in against Climate Change

On the other side of Shepherds Bush Green protesters calling for a fossil fuel free future staged a die-in at BP Shepherds Bush against TTIP, which would force countries to use dirty fuels including coal, tar oil and arctic oil and seriously delay cutting carbon emissions and the move to renewable energy.

After some speeches about the protest the protesters got up from the garage forecourt and walked away.

More at BP die-in against Climate Change.

Westfield ‘Save our NHS’ protest

Protesters walked in to the Westfield Centre to protest outside the Virgin media shop over the danger that TTIP poses to our NHS. Virgin Healthcare, (in 2021 rebranded as HCRG Care Group) had already taken over providing large parts of the simpler services provided by the NHS, replacing the easily run parts of our National Health service, and taking money out of the system.

*NHS campaigner Gay Lee introduces the protest and the short piece of street theatre*

Campaigners urged that the NHS should be excluded from TTIP, but governments and business insist it should not be. Now in 2025 we are again worried that any US-UK trade agreement made by the Starmer Labour government may open up our health service to much greater privatisation by the giant US health companies.

*George Barda offers his garland of dollars to ‘Richard Branson’*

Many UK government members have significant financial interests in private healthcare companies, and coulld have expected rich profits if TTIP is agreed as it will force the NHS to contract out its services to them.

After Trump became president he stopped the TTIP talks so he could pursue a trade war with the EU. One of the few things we can thank him for.

I had been worried that security staff might try to stop photographers working as like most shopping centres, Westfield does not generally allow photography. Police and security watched the protest closely but did not generally try to stop it or photographers working.

The protesters were considering further protests, but I had been on my feet too long and left for home.

More on My London Diary at Westfield ‘Save our NHS’ protest.

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Junior Doctors and Student Nurse Bursaries – 2016

Junior Doctors and Student Nurse Bursaries: On Wednesday 6th of April 2016 I photographed a picket and rally against the imposition of new contracts on junior doctors – hospital doctors now renamed to resident doctors to better reflect their status and then a march rally and die-in against the axing of NHS Student Bursaries.

The NHS was under attack from the Conservatives in various ways throughout their time in government from 2010 to 2024 and its hard to find any rational explanation of most of their policies other than a desire to bring in increasing privatisation. A desire perhaps largely driven by MPs financial interests in health companies as well as by the donations they receive.

Although the Labour Government quickly solved some of the outstanding pay issues in the NHS, research reveals that “Starmer’s cabinet received more than £500,000 in donations alone from lobbyists, hedge funds and private equity firms connected to the private healthcare sector since 2023.”

The Good Law Project gives more details on some of these donations to Wes Streeting. They say that “60% of the registered donations accepted by the health secretary come from people and companies linked to private health“, amounting to a total of £311,400 since 2015. Streeting has been one of the most vigorous advocates of private health company involvements in the NHS.

Support for Junior Doctor’s Picket – St Thomas’ Hospital

New contracts being imposed by Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Jeremy Hunt were described as sexist, racist and classist, and as aimed at easing the takeover of the NHS by private healthcare companies which is currently taking place. The doctors say the contract will reduce safety in hospitals, removing safeguards on overwork and unsocial hours. They claim the contract will particularly affect the disabled and women in general, both as workers in the NHS and as users of its services.

There were speeches at a rally next to the picket line at St Thomas’ Hospital and supporters, including Sisters Uncut, trade unionists, students, student nurses, medical professionals and DPAC members had come to support the doctors.

As well as some junior doctors, other speakers included Sara Tomlinson of Lambeth Teachers Association who announced that the NUT would be coordinating its strikes with further actions by the doctors, Danielle Tiplady, an organiser of the ‘Bursary or Bust’ campaign against the government’s intention to axe NHS student bursaries, Paula Peters of DPAC and a speaker for Sisters Uncut.

Support for Junior Doctor’s Picket

Bursary or Bust march to Dept of Health

*Danielle Tiplady of Bursary Or Bust leads the march in front of Florence Nightingale over Westminster Bridge*

As the picket outside St Thomas’ Hospital was about to come to an end most of those who had taken part in the rally marched the short distance across Westminster Bridge to a rally in Whitehall outside Richmond House, then the headquarters of the Department for Health and Social Security.

The march was led by DPAC and student nurses from the ‘Bursaries or Bust’ campaign included Sisters Uncut, trade unionists, students, medical professionals and DPAC members. They were followed a few minutes later by junior doctors at the end of their picket.

Bursary or Bust march to Dept of Health

Bursary or Bust Die-In & Rally – Dept of Health, Whitehall

It was hard to see the axing of bursaries for student nurses which eventually happened in 2017 as anything more than a direct attack on the NHS, then and now desperately short of nurses. The most recent statistics show 27,000 unfilled nursing positions.

Nurses are required as an integral part of their training to spend long hours working as nurses in hospitals where they are a vital part of the workforce. Along with long hours of study this makes them unable to take the part-time jobs that many students now work.

Axing the bursaries also makes it much for difficult for more mature entrants and those from less affluent backgrounds to train to become nurses and midwives.

Bursary or Bust Die-In & Rally

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Junior Doctors, Uganda & Benefit Sanctions – 2016

Junior Doctors, Uganda & Benefit Sanctions: On Wednesday 9th March 2016 Junior Doctors held a one-day strike over their claims for a better deal from the NHS and I joined a rally outside University College Hospital where health workers and trade unionists showed support and called for an end to the creeping privatisation of the NHS. Later in Trafalgar Square Ugandans were protesting the rigged presidential elections. Finally I went to the Dept of Work & Pensions to cover a National Day of Action against Benefit Sanctions, which often leave people with no means of support for sometimes trivial reasons and were by then known to have led to at least 95 deaths.

UCH rally for Junior Doctors Strike – Euston Rd

Junior Doctors, Uganda & Benefit Sanctions - 2016

Trade unionists, medical staff at all levels and other supporters joined the Junior Doctors picket line outside University College Hospital to show their support.

They then held a rally across the road from the hospital, one of London’s largest on the busy Euston Road.

Junior doctors are fully trained doctors in postgraduate training and gaining clinical experience to become members of the appropriate Royal College of Medicine. They may remain as junior doctors for around 8-20 years and are the largest group of doctors working in our hospitals.

In 2023 the he British Medical Association (BMA) decided it would no longer use the term “junior doctor” as it failed to indicate their high level of skills. In 2024 and as a part of the settlement of their dispute which came finally after the election of a Labour government they were renamed “resident doctors.”

On My London Diary I gave a long list of some of the speakers which indicate the huge range of support for the junior doctors and their fight against a Tory government that was determined to wreck the NHS so that it could be fully privatised for the benefit of largely US-based health care companies in which many of them had a financial interest.

Their aim was move towards a US-style insurance-based system – which would lead to many of us being unable to afford appropriate treatment and to face enormous bills – healthcare is by far the largest cause of bankruptcy in the USA. It seems likely that Labour under Starmer will continue to move in the the same direction.

Personally I would be unable to get insurance for my existing long-term health conditions. The NHS has for over 22 years enabled me to lead a normal life without charge to me and at a relatively low cost to the nation, whereas in the USA my continuing treatment would by now have cost me well over a quarter of a million dollars.

UCH rally for Junior Doctors Strike

Ugandans protest rigged Presidential Election – Uganda High Commission

Many Ugandans believe that February 2016 elections that re-elecated Museeveni as president were rigged and protesters outside the High Commission in Trafalgar Square demanded an independent audit of the results and called for the immediate release of opposition candidate Dr Besigye and other political prisoners, as well as action against those responsible for torture.

The protest was organised by the Uganda Diaspora P10 UK, and FDC UK Chapter and was supported by the African LGBTI Out & Proud Diamond Group and Peter Tatchell Foundation.

Yoweri Museveni has been in power since 1986, but international observers widely reported widespread fraud and irregularities, with many voters being unable to vote and the declared results from many polling stations being very different from the actual votes. Opposition candidates were repeatedly arrested and voters were intimidated.

I arrived almost at the end of an hour-long protest in front of the High Commission and then photographed them marching down Whitehall behind a Nigerian flag towards Downing St where I left them.

Many more pictures at Ugandans protest rigged Presidential Election.

Unite against Benefit Sanctions – DWP, Caxton House

*Didi Rossi from Global Women’s Strike accuses the Tories of deliberately targeting and killing the poor*

Unite Community members had come to hold a protest outside the DWP headquarters in Westminster as a part of their National Day of Action against Benefit Sanctions. There were other protests at job centres in over 70 towns and cities.

Benefit sanctions – periods where claimants lose their benefits – are often imposed for trivial reasons and those beyond the power of claimants. They may be sanctioned for arriving late after buses were cancelled or for not turning up when letters calling them to an appointment have not arrived in time or have been lost in the post.

*Winvisble and Global Womens’s Strike members were there in support*

As I commented, “Despite government denials, at least 95 deaths are known to have been as a result of sanctions which leave people destitute and starving. Some, like David Clapson, have actually starved to death while others have been so desperate that they have killed themselves. Without the efforts of the many food banks the figure would be much higher.“

There was anger when a Unite Community speaker said that the DWP’s policies had failed. Didi Rossi of Global Women’s Strike retorted that the DWP had been extremely successful in their attacks on the unemployed and disabled, and that the deaths were the clear intention behind the policies of Iain Duncan Smith.

Staff working for the DWP were being given incentives and targets for giving sanctions. And the faulty tests administered for “fitness for work” and being stripped of benefits were leading to many deaths. Over 80 people a month were dying shortly after this, most while appealing against the decision. More than 2,500 sick and disabled benefit claimants are known to have died after being found ‘fit for work’ in just 2 years.

More at Unite against Benefit Sanctions.

David Clapson – Sanctioned to Death – DWP, Caxton House

One of those taking part in the protest at the DWP was Gill Thompson, the sister of David Clapson, a diabetic ex-soldier who died starving and destitute because he was penalised by the Job Centre for missing a meeting.

She had come to hand in a petition to the DWP over his death and this was handed to a DWP representative together with another petition with over 200,000 signatures between them calling for an inquest into his death and an end to unfair benefit sanctions that leave claimants without support.

David Clapson – Sanctioned to Death

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