>Re:PHOTO Peter Marshall - Thoughts on Photography

Beekeepers Protest – and some graffiti – 2008

Beekeepers Protest – and some graffiti: On Tuesday 5 Nov, 2008 I went to a protest by bee-keepers outside Parliament calling for more to be spent into research into the threats that bees were facing across the world – and which threaten our food supply. On my way back for my train I took a slightly longer route through Leake Street, the graffiti tunnel under the lines into Waterloo Station. I wrote a more personal than usual piece related to the bees back in 2008, and here I’ll post a corrected and slightly enlarged version of this with a few of the pictures.

Beekeepers Protest – Spend More on Research

Old Palace Yard, Westminster

Beekeepers Protest - and some graffiti - 2008

Forget the birds, it was the bees that led to my existence. My father, then a young bachelor, signed up for a bee-keeping course at the newly founded Twickenham and Thames Valley Bee-Keepers Association and made friends with his similarly aged instructor. Both had younger sisters, and soon, thanks undoubtedly to the magical properties of honey, there were two engaged pairs – and, in the fullness of time, me. Though that was rather later as I was my parent’s fourth and final child.

Both Dad and Uncle Alf kept bees for money as well as honey, both gained certificates at various local and national honey shows. For Dad it was only one of the many small jobs as carpenter, plasterer, plumber, roofer, bricky, glazier, electrician, painter and decorator, gardener and more by which he scraped a living, but I think for Alf it was his only job.

Dad’s second war service involved getting on his bike to inspect hives across Middlesex for foul brood, and for a time he was paid to look after the T&TVBKA’s own bees at their apiary in Twickenham, as well as those of Mr Miller at Angelfield in Hounslow, and of course he had his own on several sites, while Uncle Alf had hives in west country orchards as well as locally.

So although I’ve never kept bees, I certainly learnt about them helping Dad as a young boy, and learnt to love honey. We used it liberally, as while for most people honey came in small glass jars, ours came in 28lb cans – and I had been the motive power to turn the handle of the extractor to spin it out of the combs.

I’d also help my dad when he went to open the hives, perhaps to add or take off a layer of combs or simply inspect them. I’d puff the smoker into which we had stuffed a roll of smouldering corrugated cardboard to pacify the workers inside and buzzing around, my head in a gauze veil to keep the bees out. But often – if not usually – I’d still get at least one sting. They hurt, but my father seemed immune, simply brushing the bees off his usually bare arms. And he certainly felt bee-stings were good for you.

The police got to know Dad well and any time there was a swarm in the area there would be a knock at our front door. Dad would get on his bike with a box and his bee gear on the rear rack and cycle off to deal with it, bringing the bees back to put in an empty hive.

For Dad honey was the cure for all ills. We gargled with it in warm water when we had colds and he smeared it on his toes when he had chilblains. Though I couldn’t bear having sticky toes.

Vegans criticise us for “stealing the honey from the bees” but of course we gave then candy in return, made from the extra sugar ration – stained with dye – that we got for the purpose, housed them well and ensured that they kept alive over cold winters. They owed their existence to us – and we of course all – not just me – in part owe our existence to them.

Bees aren’t just about honey, they are vital for pollination of crops, with around a third of what we eat depending on their work. The economic benefit from this in the UK is about ten times that from honey production at around £120-200 million a year.

But bees are under threat. Since the early 1990s, the Varroa mite has devastated many wild bee colonies. Bee-keepers have managed to control the mite, but now strains have developed which resist the treatments. A fungus, Nosema ceranae has added to the problems.

An even greater threat is colony collapse, a poorly understood disorder probably caused by a combination of factors including viruses, stress, pesticides, bad weather and various diseases. There have been huge loses of bees in the USA and parts of Europe but as yet is has not reached here.

Around 300 bee-keepers, organised by the British Bee-Keepers Association (BBKA) came to lobby parliament for greater research to combat the threats to bees and to deliver a petition with with over 140,000 signatures for increased funding for research into bee health to Downing St.

Most wore bee-keeping suits and hats with veils and some brought the bee-smokers that are used to calm the hives. Labour MP for Norwich North , Dr Ian Gibson, spoke briefly at the start of the protest. One of the few MPs with a scientific background, he was Dean of Biology at the University of East Anglia before being elected as an MP in 1997. The current president of the BBKA, Tim Lovett, who led the protesters, was a former student of his.

Every year the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s (APHA) National Bee Unit launches a Hive Count and the 2025 Hive count began on 1st November. Last year there were 252,647 over-wintering bee colonies in the UK and we seem so far to have avoided the catastrophic loss in bee numbers that seemed likely in 2008, though I think other pollinating insects – which are not protected by keepers – have declined.

More pictures on My London Diary at Beekeepers protest.

Leake St Grafitti

Leake St, Waterloo

The graffiti in my pictures from 2008 seem rather less impressive than those I’ve photographed in this official graffiti space in more recent years.

There are a few more on My London Dairy at Leake St Grafitti

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End NHS Privatisation, Kurds Call For Democracy – 2016

End NHS Privatisation, Kurds Call For Democracy: On Friday 4th November 2016 I photographed two unrelated protests. Opposite Parliament a rally supported the second reading of Labour MP Margaret Greenwood’s NHS Bill to end the creeping privatisation of our National Health Service, and from there I joined hundreds of Kurds as they marched through Parliament Square on their way to protest at the Turkish Embassy follow the arrest of leaders and MPs of the pro-Kurdish oppposition in Turkey earlier that morning.

Bill to reverse NHS Privatisation

Old Palace Yard, Westminster

End NHS Privatisation, Kurds Call For Democracy - 2016 — *Larry Sanders, Green Party Health spokesperson and Bernie’s brother speaking*

Labour MP Margaret Greenwood’s NHS Bill which proposes to fully restore the NHS as an accountable public service and to prevent further marketisation at the hands of the Tories stood little chance of actually being debated that day as it was low on the list. Of course had no chance of ever becoming law against a government and opposition majority including many MPs receiving donations or having interests in private healthcare.

The privatisation of NHS services was taking place under New Labour before the Tories came to power in the 2010 coalition but was accelerated by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 which allowed NHS services to be contracted out to ‘any qualified provider‘, including private companies – and increasingly Clinical Commissioning Groups have been under pressure to outsource.

In 2016 Sustainability and Transformation Plans were being developed in private for 44 areas covering the whole of England to be in place by Christmas. The NHS England director of strategy Michael McConnell had said that these STPs offer private sector companies an “enormous opportunity” but critics said that they could mean the end of the NHS as we have known it.

Private healthcare is parasitic on the NHS. Their contracts cherry-pick the more straightforward areas of provision – such as my annual diabetic eye photographs – while leaving the more difficult areas to the public sector. And where complications do happen, the private NHS badged providers are quick to pass on patients to the real NHS as they do not have the trained staff or resources to deal with them.

Only the NHS is there to cope with accidents and emergencies – the private sector offers no A&E services. And it is only the NHS that trains the doctors and other medical staff that keeps the private hospitals and the services that private healthcare contracts from the NHS running.

Of course there is no chance of Parliament reversing this trend while private healthcare makes huge donations to politicians to pursue their interests. ‘Every Doctor ‘ reported in April 2025 that “The Labour Party received four times as much in donations from donors connected to private healthcare than all other political parties combined … in 2023-2025“. Health Minister Wes Streeting alone has received “almost £167,000 from individuals and companies with ties to the private healthcare sector.” The total amount of donations to politicians from people and companies involved in private healthcare in that two year period was more than £2.7 million.

On Byline Times you can read a 2021 investigation “The Conservative Party’s Private Healthcare Patrons” which explores “the financial ties between Conservative MPs and private health companies“. It’s a remarkable list of MPs and Tory Peers with details of their connections and the amounts involved.

Although the Byline Times article is careful to point out that “There is no evidence that any of the companies have benefited due to their relationships with Conservative MPs or donors” it is hard to believe that these and the other donations have had no influence on the increasing takeover of NHS services by private healthcare companies. And although there do seem to be clear possibilities of conflicts of interest so far as I am aware no MP or Peer has ever abstained from a vote because of this.

The MP’s code of conduct is extremely weak on this matter, and simply relies on MPs to do the right thing – “Members must base their conduct on consideration of the public interest. They must avoid conflict between personal and public interest. If there is any conflict between the two, they must resolve it at once in favour of the public interest.”

This is one of the areas which have caused the current high levels of distrust of politics and politicians. We need much tighter controls on lobbying, an end the system which allows large political donations in cash or kind to MPs, and ensure that MPs who have conflicts of interest abstain from voting on these issues. MPs are paid to represent their constituents, not healthcare companies and not their own financial interests.

More about the protest on My London Diary at Bill to reverse NHS Privatisation

Kurds march for Peace & Democracy

I left the protest at Parliament when over 500 Kurds marched into Parliament Square protesting noisily against the arrest early that morning of two leaders of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic party (HDP), along with at least 11 MPs.

They sat down briefly on the road in front of Parliament on their way to the Turkish Embassy in Belgrave Square.

At Belgrave Square police tried to stop them and keep them on the opposite side of the road to the Embassy, but they simply walked around the police line and crowded on the pavement and road in front of the Embassy door.

Eventually the police abandoned their attempts to push the protesters back and simply stood several lines deep in front of the doorway while the protest continued.

The rain came down heavily and we were all getting wet but the noisy protest and speeches continued. Eventually the protesters moved away from the embassy and I left them.

Many more pictures on My London Diary at Kurds march for Peace & Democracy.

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Cleaners Protest at Tower of London – 2012

Cleaners Protest at Tower of London: On Saturday 3rd November 2012 the trade union Industrial Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) held a high profile protest outside the Tower of London as a part of their campaign to get the London Living Wage, better contracts and improved working condition and management for the workers who clean the Tower, one of London’s major tourist attractions.

The Tower of London is run by a charity, ‘Historic Royal Palaces’, which also runs other royal palaces on behalf of the Crown, but they employ no cleaners. Instead they were using the cleaning contractor MITIE to employ the workers who clean the Tower and make it fit for visitors. By outsourcing the work in this way they try to deny responsibility for the poverty wages, lousy pensions, holidays and sick pay, poor physical conditions, overworking and bad management of their workers.

The IWGB was formed by Latin American cleaners organising for better working conditions earlier in 2012 after they had become disillusioned with the lack of support for lower paid workers by some of our traditional unions as “a worker led union organising the unorganised, the abandoned and the betrayed.”

It remains a powerful grass-roots trade union, based on building workers’ power and developing leadership by its members, taking action through strikes, powerful protests and legal actions and developing solidarity across cultural and language barriers.

The union has developed significantly since 2012 and has had many victories in its campaigns to improve the conditions of low paid workers. It now “organises couriers, cycling instructors, charity workers, yoga teachers, cleaners, security officers, video game workers, nannies, university workers, foster carers, private hire drivers and more.”

I reported on many of the protests by the IWGB and other grass-roots unions including the United Voices of the World (UVW) over the years – and you can see many of my reports on My London Diary. There had been a number of protests by cleaners before these unions were formed, but they brought a new level of activity and creativity to the protests.

The campaign for a London Living Wage was started by London Citizens in 2001 and recognises the extra costs of living in the city – something that had long been recognised in professions such as teaching, where teachers in Greater London received a London allowance. The London Living Wage level is calculated independently and supported by successive Mayors of London, but companies are not obliged to pay the extra amount above the National Minimum Wage (rebranded the National Living Wage for those over 21 a few years ago.)

As I wrote in 2012, the London Living Wage “still meets with bitter opposition from some of the most profitable companies around who are low pay employers, including MITIE, who last year increased their profit margins to 5.6% and had a pre-tax profit of £104.5m.”

The IWGB’s campaign as I also wrote, is “not only about wages, but also about civil rights, dignity and respect. MITIE seems to be treating its workers and employment law with contempt. The cleaners demand justice and fair treatment, and say they are treated as medieval serfs. They are asking for:

• the London Living Wage of £8.30 per hour
• proper contracts which reflect the actual hours of work and provide
    holidays and other normal employment benefits
• adequate staffing levels to cope with the workload
• proper changing and washing facilities
• proper Health & Safety training for managers and workers, and risk
    assessments of tasks
• proper safety equipment including protective gloves etc"

MITIE’s response to the campaign was simply “to ban the IWGB. Senior HR Manager Kevin Watson-Griffin stated ‘IWGB representatives will not be permitted access to any MITIE site, including the Tower of London, Barbican etc. to support the IWGB members who are employed by MITIE.'”

*After an hour or so of noisy protest it was time to go – but with the message “***We’ll be back**“

On My London Diary you can read more about the protest at the Tower, including what actually happened at this very public, very visible and very noisy protest which received considerable support from trade unionists from other unions involved with cleaners including the PCS, RMT and Unison. I also wrote about some of the speakers and their speeches and the photographs include most of them including journalist Owen Jones.

More on My London Diary at Cleaners Protest at Tower.

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Mass Lobby for Trade Justice – 2005

Westminster, Wednesday 2nd November 2005

Trade Justice means policies that are “designed to deliver a sustainable economic system that tackles poverty and protects the environment.”

The Trade Justice movement includes “trade unions and charities focusing on sustainable development, human rights and the environment.”

Trade Justice is different from ‘free trade‘ in that it calls for trade rules that enable poor countries to chose solutions to end poverty and protect the environment rather than those that allow international businesses to profit at the expense of people and environment and would ensure that the trade rules are made transparently and democratically.

The Trade Justice Movement was formed in 2000 to bring together organisations promoting trade justice to work together more effectively. As you can see from my pictures this event included Christian Aid, Cafod, Make Poverty History, Traidcraft, War on Want, World Development Movement and others, and people had come from around the country to meet their MPs.

Many MPs had agreed to come out from Parliament to meet their constituents and they had agreed to do so at a long line of meetings with some in front of parliament and others through into Victoria Tower Gardens and on across Lambeth Bridge.

They came out despite the weather – and you can see many umbrellas in the pictures I took. There were frequent showers, some heavy and I got rather wet – as I commented “you can’t hold an umbrella and take pictures like this.”

My camera was reasonably weather-sealed and I try to wipe the raindrops off the front of the lens before each pictures but zoom lenses which I use for almost all pictures tend to get condensation on inner glass surfaces from damp air drawn during zooming and become unusable until they have dried out. I gave up taking pictures after two hours, but my wife who had gone up to lobby our MP had to wait a further three hours to see him.

Although many MPs came out to meet their constituents, some used the occasion as a way to speak to them in a rather patronising manner about how they didn’t really understand the real business of international trade rather than really listen and take on the arguments they were making.

I think this lobby will have had very little effect compared to the lobbying of major companies and professional lobbyists on their behalf who give MPs large amounts of cash and VIP tickets to sporting and other event etc. We know the huge amounts MPs have received and declared from various sources – including the private health companies and various sources connected to Israel and its hard to believe that they don’t get results from their cash – and it seems clear they do from some government statements and policies. Surely all such donations should be banned.

Anyway, here is what I wrote back in 2005:

“8,000 or more of us queued up along both banks of the Thames from Westminster to Lambeth bridge and beyond to take part in a mass lobby for trade justice. People continued to queue, some for four hours and more to see talk to their members of parliament, despite a long wait in often heavy pouring rain. We arrived at Westminster around 12.15 and it was almost 5pm before my wife was able to meet our MP.

“Others were more fortunate, with a number of MPs from all parties coming out onto the street and into Victoria Tower Gardens to meet their constituents. The lobby aimed to make clear the difference between ‘fair trade’ and ‘free trade’ and to stress the necessity to make trade fair so that economically weak nations have a chance to develop.

“Despite the lousy weather (not good for photography or queuing) spirits were high among those waiting, and there were some street theatre performances that helped.”

Many more pictures from the event here on My London Diary.

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Naked Bodies, Acid Attacks, Revolution & Kobane – 2014

Naked Bodies, Acid Attacks, Revolution & Kobane: 1st November 2014 was apparently World Vegan Day and PETA celebrated the event, highlighting the 255 animals killed for food in the UK every second by a similar number of people lying near naked or nearly naked and smeared with fake blood on a tarpaulin in Trafalgar Square. A few yards away the 8th March Women’s Organisation (Iran – Afghanistan) protested against acid attacks on women who do not wear a veil in Iran. I walked onto Westminster Bridge to photograph the distant banner with the message ‘REVOLUTION’ held by ‘Anonymous‘ protesters, some in Guy Fawkes masks, on Waterloo Bridge – and later they brought it to Trafalgar Square where I was covering a rally supporting the Kurds defending Kobane, the capital of Rojava in northern Syria.

PETA World Vegan Day Naked Protest

Trafalgar Square

Naked Bodies, Acid Attacks, Revolution & Kobane - 2014

In 1994 Louise Wallis, then Chair of the UK Vegan Society which was celebrating its 50th anniversary, declared November 1st to be World Vegan Day and since then it has been adopted by vegans around the world. It comes at the start of World Vegan Month – which is November.

PETA believe “Animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way“. They state than in the UK 255 animals are killed for food and they held a protest to dramatise this in Trafalgar Square with a similar number of near naked or nearly naked people smeared with fake blood on a tarpaulin.

Most of those taking part in the protest were women and a few held large posters with the message:

‘1 BILLION ANIMALS
KILLED
FOR FLESH
EACH YEAR
PETA’

Others held posters ‘CHOOSE LIFE: CHOSE VEGAN’. It was certainly a protest which attracted the interest of tourists and photographers.

I’m not a vegetarian or a vegan and I commented back in 2014:

“Nature isn’t vegetarian, and certainly not vegan, though of course some species are herbivores. But others are carnivorous or omnivores, and I can see no problem in our own species eating meat or fish though I would like to see all of the current cruel practices involved in producing food for us outlawed. Eating foie gras should definitely be made a crime!”

More pictures on My London Diary at PETA World Vegan Day Naked Protest.

Against acid attacks on Iranian women

Trafalgar Square

The 8th March Women’s Organisation (Iran – Afghanistan) protested in Trafalgar Square against acid attacks on women who do not wear a veil in Iran.

Attacks by gangs encouraged by the regime to enforce strict Islamic rules have left many women scarred and blinded.

Against acid attacks on Iranian women.

‘Anonymous’ Revolution Banner

Waterloo Bridge and Trafalgar Square

‘Anonymous’ protesters had brought a banner to hold up on Waterloo Bridge, with the message REVOLUTION but it was too small to really make an impact even using the longest lens I own and was rather dwarfed by the City backdrop.

Intended to publicise the Nov 5th ‘March Against Government Corruption’ in London it was rather more effective when they brought it to Trafalgar Square where a protest supporting Kobane was taking place.

Revolution Banner Drop

Global Solidarity With Kobane

Trafalgar Square

*Women with Kurdish Workers Party flags*

During the Syrian Revolution the government forces had abandoned Kobane to the Kurish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in July 2012 and it had became a centre of part of the autonomous Kurdish-led region of Rojava in north Syria.

From September 2014 to January 2015 Kobane was under siege by ISIS who managed to occupy much of the city. With the help of US air support and US forcing Turkey to allow Kurds from Iraqi Kurdistan to come to join the fight, Kobane was finally freed from ISIS in January 2015.

November 1st was also World Kobane Day, and thousands had come to Trafalgar Square on a Global day of solidarity calling for aid for the Kurdish fighters in the YPG (People’s Defence Units), the women of the YPJ and refugees from Kobane.

*A woman talks with Mark Thomas and Peter Tatchell*

They had also come to support Rojava, which many see as an important democratic development with its constitution which enshrines equality, pluralism, democratic participation and protection of fundamental human rights and liberties.

Many were critical of Turkey which was supporting ISIS and financing its fighting by allowing it to export its oil through Turkey as well as preventing Turkish Kurds from joining in the fight while allowing fighters across its border to join ISIS.

Turkey has long suppressed the Kurds and had tried to suppress the Kurdish language and culture, and the protesters called of the release of the Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan, kidnapped in Kenya in 1999 and held in a Turkish jail since then. Protesters also called for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK to be removed from the list of proscribed organisations here and elsewhere.

On My London Diary you can read more about the rally and the speakers and there are many more pictures at Global Solidarity With Kobane.

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March of the Mummies & Halloween Ferrari Showroom Protest – 2017

March of the Mummies & Halloween Ferrari Showroom Protest: On Tuesday 31st October 2017 I photographed a lunchtime protest in Whitehall by campaign group Pregnant Not Screwed against unfair sacking of women who become pregnant. In late afternoon I went to South Kensington whhere United Voices of the World were protesting outside a luxury car dealer after the its cleaners had been told they could either promise not to strike against their poverty wages or lose their jobs.

Pregnant Then Screwed March of the Mummies

Westminster

March of the Mummies & Halloween Ferrari Showroom Protest - 2017

A march by Pregnant Then Screwed mothers, many wrapped in bandages as ‘mummies’ and pushing buggies or carrying young children called for action over pregnancy and maternity discrimination.

Over a year ago a report commissioned by the government had reported that around 54,000 women, 1 in 9 of those who get pregnant each year had been sacked. That figure had almost doubled in the previous decade and it has been almost impossible for the victims to access justice – fewer than 1% had made a tribunal claim. The government had failed to take any action on the report.

Pregnant Then Screwed called on the time limit for making employment claims to be increased from three months to six for pregnant and postpartum women.

They said companies should be required to report annually how many claims for flexible working had been made by their employees and how many were granted.

They also asked for fathers to be entitled to six weeks paternity leave at 90% salary, for subsidised childcare from six months and for the self-employed to have statutory shared parental pay.

After some speeched in Trafalgar Square they marched down Whitehall to deliver a petition and protest outside Downing St. They then continued to Parliament Square where after posing for photographs they held a rally.

More pictures on My London Diary at Pregnant Then Screwed March of the Mummies.

Halloween Protest for Living Wage at H R Owen

South Kensington

*Protesters, including Jane Nicholl, stop a car attempting to drive through their road block outside H R Owen*

The two cleaners who clean the H R Owen Ferrari showrooms had asked the contractor who employs them for them to be paid the London Living Wage. Contractor Templewood turned down their request and they had then both voted for strike action.

In response Templewood suspended them without pay and H R Owen then banned them from working at their showrooms which they have cleaned for 12 years.

On 30th September their union, United Voices of the World (UVW), had held a protest demanding the two cleaners be reinstated.

At a five hour grievance and disciplinary hearing on 30th October cleaners Angelica Valencia and Freddy Lopez were given a choice – either promise not to strike at Ferrari and accept your poverty wage, or find work elsewhere. The UVW responded by calling this emergency protest with a Halloween theme and despite only 24 hours notice union members and supporters came to take part.

I met them outside South Kensington Station and walked with them down to the showroom, where some rushed towards the door to try to enter. But they had been spotted coming down the street and the doors were locked.

They began a noisy protest on the pavement and street outside, drumming and dancing and were soon blocking the street to traffic. Most drivers turned around and found other routes, but one tried to drive through the protest but was soon halted as more protesters came to stand in the way of his car. Another car was blocked by people holding a banner in front of it.

Eventually a handful of police officers turned up and began to argue with the protesters, telling them they must move off the road.

After a few minutes and some more speeches the UVW decided to march away along the road to protest outside the Royal College of Music whose cleaners are also involved in a dispute, but I had to go home.

Both this and September’s protest had caused considerable disruption in the area, but had also attracted much support from those walking past who had taken the UVW leaflets or listened to the speeches by Angelica and Freddy and others from the UVW. Some were clearly disgusted that people working in the showroom of a company making high profits from selling expensive luxury cars in of the richest areas of London were paid so badly.

Shortly after these protests H R Owen decided it was better to talk with the UVW and a further planned protest was cancelled as a satisfactory settlement meeting the cleaners demands was reached. I found it hard to understand why the company had acted earlier as it, spending large amounts on increased security against the protests – it seemed like the knee-jerk reaction of a company that had no regard for its employees. The extra pay the cleaners had asked for was minuscule compared to the company’s profits and the dispute had damaged their reputation.

More pictures on My London Diary at Halloween protest for living wage at HR Owen.

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Police Killing, No Borders, Malaysia & Dance of the Dead – 2010

Police Killing, NoBorders, Malaysia & Dance of the Dead: Saturday 30th October 2010 I went to the annual protest by United Friends and Families against deaths in custody, then a march by No Borders against surveillance and border control. At the Malaysian High Commission I photographed a protest against torture and other human rights abuses before finally going to photograph zombies in a Halloween Dance of the Dead Street Parade in Hoxton.

United Friends & Families March

Trafalgar Square to Downing St

Police Killing, No Borders, Malaysia & Dance of the Dead - 2010 — *Marcia Rigg-Samuel, sister of Sean Rigg, killed by police in Brixton, tries to deliver a letter at Downing St*

The annual march by United Friends and Families of those who have died in suspicious circumstances in police custody, prisons and secure mental institutions went in a slow, silent funeral march down Whitehall to Downing St, where they held a noisy rally.

Police refused to allow them entry to the street to deliver a letter to the Prime Minister, David Cameron and would not take it. Apparently nobody from No 10 was prepared to come and receive it.

This march has taken place every year since 1999 and in most years police have stood back and let it happen, even facilitating it by stopping traffic. This year they had decided to try to stop people marching on the road down Whitehall, but the protesters simply stood in the road blocking it and refusing to move and were eventually allowed to proceed.

On My London Diary you can read more about a few of the several thousands of deaths in police custody, often clearly at the hands of officers.

Among speakers at the rally were Stephanie, the twin sister of Leon Patterson, Rupert Sylvester, the father of Roger Sylvester, Ricky Bishop’s sister Rhonda and mother Doreen, Samantha, sister of Jason McPherson and his grandmother, Susan Alexander, the mother of Azelle Rodney, and finally the two sisters of Sean Rigg.

There were noisy scenes at the gates to Downing Street as the protesters tried to deliver a letter to the Prime Minister calling for justice, with police at the gate even refusing to accept the letter addressed to him. Eventually a few of the group were allowed to sellotape the flowers, a photo of Sean Rigg and the letter to the gates.

Much more at United Friends & Families March.

Life Is Too Short To Be Controlled

Piccadilly Circus, London

*Juliet speaks at Piccadilly Circus before the march*

London NoBorders had organised a march from the pavement above the London main CCTV control room at Piccadilly Circus to the UK border at St Pancras International, protesting about the obsession with surveillance and border control.

Westminster Council CCTV HQ, which controls many of London’s 10,000 CCTV cameras, able to follow our movement on almost every street in the capital was an obvious starting point for the second ‘Life is Too Short to Be Controlled’ protest organised by London NoBorders.

They point out that despite CCTV everywhere on our streets it had not been possible to show a link between it and crimes being sold and say the real purpose of spying on our every movement is its potential to control dissent.

The protesters also called out the deliberate racism inherent in the term “illegal imigrants“. No immigrants on reaching this country are illegal; they simply do not have the particular documents that give them the right to live here and only became illegal once their case to stay here has been turned down.

Until recently the free movement of people – like the free movement of money, goods and capital – was seen as normal and beneficial.Our immigration rules are explicitly racist and NoBorders say anyone should be able to move and live where they please.

The march was delayed and I had to leave for another event before it reached St Pancras International, where those taking the Eurostar enter of leave the country. The station has detention facilities run by the UK Border Agency.

I returned later to hear that they had briefly occupied the ‘border’ area there before being escorted out by police. One person had been arrested and apparently charged with aggravated trespass, but I was told he was shortly to be released by the Transport Police.

Life Is Too Short

Stop Torture in Malaysia

Belgrave Square

2010 was the 50th anniversary of the Malaysian Internal Security Act, ISA, under which more than 10,000 people have been detained without trial for up to two years – and this can then then renewed making it effectively indefinite.

Detainees can be held incommunicado in detention for up to 60 days, during which they are often tortured, mistreated and placed under severe psychological stress while being denied access to legal process.

In June 2010 the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention visited Malaysia and they called for the ISA to be immediately repealed, and the UK chapter of the Malaysian Abolish ISA Movement (AIM) was protesting outside the Malaysian High Commission.

The protest in October marked 23 years since ‘Operation Weed Out’ (Operasi Lalang) when the ISA was used to arrest over 100 Chinese educationalists, civil rights lawyers, opposition politicians and others.

More on My London Diary at Stop Torture in Malaysia.

Halloween In London & Dance of the Dead

West End & Hoxton Square

I’d met a few zombies stumbling around as I walked through the West End – and some of them had come to be photographed with the NoBorders ‘Life is too Short’ banner. But I went photograph the the Halloween Dance of the Dead Street Parade which started from Hoxton Square and was going on to end at a party in Gillett Square, Dalston.

Hoxton Square had by 2010 become a trendy area with art galleries such as White Cube moving in an area some years after furniture and other local trades had declined and it had been squatted or rented as cheap studios for artists since the 1980s or so. Below is what I wrote in 2010 about the parade.

“By 7pm, there were several hundred people ready for the procession to start, including a group of dancers, the ‘Corpse de Ballet’ and a group from Strangeworks with some very well designed costumes, along with many others dressed up for the occasion.”

“A samba band, led by a giant skeleton came along from Coronet Street and led the large group of revellers, many carrying bottles, around Hoxton Square and then on to Old Street. By this time I’d been out taking pictures for around 8 hours and was feeling tired and hungry, so I jumped on a bus to begin my journey home, leaving the procession, organised by StrangeWorks Theatre collective and [then} in its fifth year, to head on its way to a dance in Gillett Square.”

More pictures at Halloween In London.

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Scrap Tuition Fees & No More Fallujahs – 2006

Scrap Tuition Fees & No More Fallujahs: On Sunday 29th October 2006 I went to the start of a National Union of Students march against university tuition fees, first introduced by New Labour under Tony Blair in 1998. University education had been free across the UK since 1945, with local authorities meeting the bill rather than students. In 2004, these fees, initially £1,000 a year, were increased to £3,000. In 2025 fees are now £9.535 a year and a major reform is expected later which will probably result in University education becoming even more expensive.

From there I left to cover a demonstration in Parliament Square where people were intending to set up a 24 hour ‘unauthorised’ peace camp protesting about the battles fought largely by US Marines against the Iraqi city of Fallujah in April and November 2004.

In the November battle US troops used white phosphorus, stopped military age males from leaving the city and treated all the inhabitants as combatants. The levelled thousands of buildings, denied Red Crescent access and according to the UN used “hunger and deprivation of water as a weapon of war against the civilian population“. Their use of depleted uranium shells led after the fighting to a high level of cancer, birth defects and infant mortality in the city.

This protest was illegal under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 which had required any demonstration within one kilometre of Parliament Square (excluding those in Trafalgar Square) to give written notice to the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police six days in advance.

It was as a way to prevent embarrassment to politicians by seeing or hearing protests taking place, and to remove the permanent Peace Camp by Brian Haw which had been in Parliament Square since 2001, but it failed to do so, though it did lend to increased harassment of him by police and more shadowy figures. In 2011 these sections of the Act were repealed and the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 imposed different and in some ways more draconian restrictions on the right to protest.

Below is the text I wrote about these events in 2006.

NUS – Scrap Tuition Fees March

Malet St

I arrived in Malet Street early for the start of the NUS march against tuition fees, but there were already plenty of students there, including many Scottish students who had come down to show solidarity.

My father had left school at 14, at the end of his elementary education and never managed to complete the part-time studies which he had once dreamt would lead to qualifications. I came from the first generation of my family who could go to university, thanks to the 1944 Education Act that opened up secondary education and also the free tuition and student grants that were available. Without that support I would never have gone to university.

Both my sons were also fortunate to be able to study without having to pay tuition fees, [and to get maintenance grants] and were able to leave university with a degree and no debts.

Things are rather different for most of today’s students, with tuition fees now at £3000 a year, and costs of accommodation increasing all the time.

The NUS is campaigning for free education, but also calling for a cap on fees, as some universities call to be able to raise them without limits. Already the current level of fees seems to have led to a drop in the numbers of students entering universities.

more pictures on My London Diary

No More Fallujahs: Peace Camp

Parliament Square

I left shortly before the march started to get to Parliament Square, where the 24 hour ‘unauthorised’ Peace Camp, ‘No More Fallujahs’, was about to start. Potestors formed a circle and joined Maya Evans and Milan Rai in reading the names of Iraqis who have died as a result of the occupation.

*Milan Ray and Maya Evans read the names; Maya sounds a bell after each name*

A year ago, the two were arrested in Whitehall for a similar reading. In december 2005 Maya was the first person to be convicted for taking part in an unauthorised demonstration under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act, and in April 2006, Milan was convicted for organising the demonstration.

Maya is appealing against her conviction and fine, but was risking a prison sentence as arrest for this action would break the terms of her 12-month conditional discharge. Milan has refused to pay the fine of £350 with £150 costs imposed on him, and is also appealing to a higher court.

The demonstrators formed a circle in Parliament Square and began reading the names at one minute intervals, each marked by a bell. Various volunteers joined Maya and Milan in reading names from the list.

The police simply stood and watched for around half and hour, then at 12.30 began to circulate and hand out a notice to everyone that they were a part of an illegal demonstration. Where people refused to take one, they left a copy at their feet.

The officers concerned were extremely patient and polite, and were attended by a police photographer filming everything they did. Rather to my surprise one officer insisted I have a copy, despite my assurances that I was press, so I took it, while being recorded for yet another 15 seconds of so of video by the photographer, pointing out that I always complied with police directions.

It isn’t as if I’m unknown to the police. Earlier in the day in Malet Street, as I walked past two officers, one turned to the other and said “looks who’s here then.” I turned and gave them a smile.

After that, the protestors decided it was time to pitch their tents, and soon the square was covered with small tents, mainly blue. For a while nothing much seemed to be happening, and I went away for an hour or two.

When I returned, the news was that police had taken four people away. they had been approaching individuals involved in the demonstration and asking them to give their name and address.

They were told that they could then later expect a summons for taking part in an illegal demonstration. People were informed that if they did not give their details, they would be taken to the police station and arrested for taking part in the event.

While I was there several other people were questioned and one was taken away when he refused to give his details. Those who gave their names and addresses seemed to be allowed to continue to take part in the demonstration. While I was present, everything was conducted civilly and without any violent handling of those concerned, although I was told there had been a little rough handling of at least one person.

The demonstrators held an open meeting in the centre of the square to discuss what to do in the event of a more concerted approach by the police, while on the corner by Churchill’s statue, Brian Haw was making use of his megaphone to hold his weekly service. Its a sermon I’ve heard many times and I felt it was time to go home.

More pictures on My London Diary.

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Cockroaches Protest Lousy Temporary Housing – 2016

Cockroaches Protest Lousy Temporary Housing; On Friday 28th October 2016, Housing For All activists from Focus E15, two dressed as cockroaches, went together with residents from the Boundary House hostel in Welwyn Garden City to the offices of Theori Housing Management in a Halloween-themed protest at the terrible living conditions for residents in their hostel.

The main statutory housing duty of local authorities is to provide temporary accommodation for those who are homeless, eligible, have a priority need and are not intentionally homeless. Priority can include living with a child, being pregnant, domestic abuse or emergencies such as flood and fire. Most of those who qualify have suffered some fairly traumatic experiences and deserve suitably careful treatment and adequate accomodation, but many do not get it.

Council make use of hostels run by companies such as Theori Housing Management who run hostels providing temporary accommodation such as Boundary House which provides temporary housing for residents from London boroughs including Waltham Forest and Newham for these vulnerable people for months or even years.

Those living in Boundary House say that rooms there have leaking roofs and mould on the walls, are infested with cockroaches, have upper floor windows that children could easily fall out of and dangerous faulty appliances. Several of them had come to the protest but most others were either scared to do so or could not afford the £15 off-peak rail fare into London. This also makes it impossible for those moved to the hostel to continue with any work they had in London as well visits to their doctors or clinics and for children to attend their former schools.

As I wrote in 2016, “Residents who make complaints are hung up on, placed on hold for hours and called liars, ignored, insulted and patronised.” So the campaign had come to bring their complaints to Theori.

Campaigners from Haringey Housing Action Group who were also at the protest “also have experience of poor hostel accommodation, provided by Haringey Council, and we know how hard it is try to go about your daily activities – going to work, taking kids to school – when you are living in cramped conditions, with little or no cooking facilities.“

Residents who have complained to their local authority housing departments complain they are not listened to and no action is taken. The campaigners call on boroughs to stop using companies like Theori who provide sub-standard housing and fail to keep it in good order, and say councils should house Londoners in London where they have schools, friends and jobs.

Focus E15 come from Newham, where Mayor Robin Wales has said that those who can’t afford it should not be living in the borough, where vast luxury housing developments are welcome, but social housing is hardly on the agenda.

They point out that Newham, a Labour stronghold, has hundreds of empty properties in what was a popular estate, the Carpenters Estate close to the centre of Stratford. These homes had then been empty and boarded up for more than ten years while the council has been trying to sell off the whole area for various development schemes. They also point out that Newham has taken out ill-advised loans which have resulted in incredible repayments of interest.

The campaigners tried to enter the Theori offices, pushing against the doors which were held by men inside, and Theori called the police. The two officers who arrived were obviously rather amused at having to talk to a cockroach. The protesters stepped away from the door to that one of the police could enter the office while the protest continued on the pavement outside.

They then held a Halloween party on the pavement outside the office before finally lining up for photographs.

More at Cockroaches at Theori Housing Management.

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Clock House to Olympic Site – 2005

Clock House to Olympic Site: Thursday October 27 2005 was a fine late autumn day and I decided to go for a bike ride, putting my folding bike on a couple of trains to my start point, Clock House station. This is in south east London, halfway between Penge and Beckenham and just inside the London Borough of Bromley.

The Chaffinch Brook runs close by and joins with the River Beck to form the River Pool (aka Pool River) a mile or so north and a footpath going north from there is now part of a national cycle route. Parts of the Pool River which were once culverted have now been restored to an open stream, which will help prevent flooding downstream. The river’s main claim to fame is that four years after my ride then London Mayor Boris Johnson fell into it on an official visit to encourage volunteers who were cleaning the river up.

The Pool River is a tributary of the River Ravensborne and I had planned to continue along this as closely as I could to Deptford Creek where it joins the Thames. But I ran out of time, so took the Docklands Light Railway at Lewisham rather than Greenwich to cross the river to Canning Town.

My ride then continued with a loop around Bow Creek and over the Lower Lea Crossing back through Canning Town and on to Stratford Marsh where work was then just beginning to turn this whole area into the Olympic site.

It wasn’t a long ride – probably around ten miles in all, perhaps a little longer with all the small diversions I took. All the pictures here were taken on this ride and there are more on My London Diary, along with the account below that I wrote back in 2005. As usual I’ve made a few small corrections.

*Pool River and Ravensbourne (left) join*

The Brompton folding bike is really an ideal form of transport for London, an essential tool for the urban photographer. It’s short wheelbase is great in slow-moving crowded traffic, and it can be folded in 15s to travel by tube, rail, taxi or even bus. [I’ve never put mine in a taxi.] The only problem is that they are highly prized by cycle thieves. [They are fairly expensive and slip easily into a car boot.]

*Bridges over Bow Creek, River Lea, Canning Town, London*

The weather forecast was for a fine summery day, so I took the opportunity to check up on a few things and fill in some little gaps, where I’d not quite managed to photograph things before. First I wanted to go along the footpath at Bell Green, next to Sainsbury’s, so I decided to make a slightly longer trip of it by starting at Clock House Station. There is a good, almost traffic-free route north from there along the Pool River, then the River Ravensbourne, at times surprisingly rural.

Taking photographs slows you down, as does stopping to sit in the sun and eat sandwiches, so at Lewisham I decided to get on the DLR with the bike to travel to Canning Town.

*DLR extension, Millenium Dome and Canary Wharf from Silvertown Way.*

Perhaps one day the riverside walkway by Bow Creek from the station will open [it did, but only to go across a new bridge to City Island – the route south still comes to a dead end], but it seems unlikely to be in our lifetime. I went round the creek, over the Lower Lea Crossing and on to Silvertown Way to see how the new stretch of DLR was progressing. [It opened north of the river at the end of 2005.]

Then I cycled up to Stratford to take a look at Stratford Marsh again before work starts in earnest to demolish the existing businesses and create the Olympic waste. It was getting later and noticeably darker by the time I was there, although the day felt like summer, it gets dark rather earlier at the end of October.

*The Greenway goes under the railway line on Stratford Marsh.*

What really makes no sense at all is to put our clocks back to make it even darker still, as we were going to do in a couple of days time. If I were in charge, we’d move to the same time as France and the rest of our neighbours across the channel. I don’t like dark mornings, but it would be much better than having it get dark in the middle of the afternoon in winter. Orcadians or even Scots would be welcome to have their own time zone if they really must, but its about time they stopped imposing it on the rest of us. The sun set around 5.30, and next week that means it will be 4.30pm.

More pictures start here on My London Diary.

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