Around the Highwalks – Wood Street: London’s ambitious series of ‘highwalks’, aimed at separating movement on foot from traffic began after World War 2 when the City began to rebuild after extensive war damage – a process that really sprung into action on a large scale in the 1950s.
Highwalk, Wood St, City, 1994, 94-708-21
As Wikipedia states, “In 1947 architect Charles Holden and planner William Holford” had put forward a blueprint for “a network of first-floor walkways that would connect buildings across the City.”
Wood St, Escalator, London Wall, City, 1994, 94-709-31
The City of London Pedway Scheme was later adopted by the City of London Corporation and to get planning permission by the 1960s all new developments were required to include first floor access to walkways. It worked where there had large areas destroyed by bombing – such as the Barbican, but elsewhere these walkways were often dead ends leading nowhere.
Wood St, Escalator, London Wall, City, 1994, 94-709-12
Although London had suffered greatly from the bombing, much survived – and many damaged buildings had been restored in the immediate aftermath of the war. Although some of the city’s older buildings were demolished there was an increasing recognition of the value of many of them. The 1944 Town and Country Planning Act had given the government power to create a statutory list of buildings of special architectural interest – and those powers were increased in the 1947 Act.
Green Cuisine, Highwalk, Wood St, London Wall Citry, 1994, 94-709-21
Listing of buildings began seriously after this, and many buildings in the City gained some protection from demolition – and a resurvey in 1968 began to add more to the lists. It became increasingly clear that the Pedway scheme would never be able to produce a really coherent scheme over most of the City and by the mid-1980s it was effectively discontinued.
Highwalk, St Alphage Highwalk, London Wall, City, 1994, 94-710-22
Since then some parts of the walkway system have been lost, while some areas still remain. Around London Wall while some parts of it were closed. The part of the St Alphage Highwalk in these pictures had been demolished but it was partly replaced by a new section during redevelopment around 2017.
Highwalk, St Alphage Highwalk, London Wall, City, 1994, 94-710-12
Another problems with the Pedway is that London’s transport systems – buses and Underground largely leave passengers at street level. Getting to the highwalks generally requires going up steps and most people would prefer to simply continue to their destination at street level.
Highwalk, St Alphage Highwalk, London Wall, City, 1994, 94-710-11
For those with disabilities which make steps difficult or impossible this is a real barrier. There were very few places where escalators were provided to ease the problems as these were expensive.
More panoramic images from the City Highwalks in a later post.
Martyrdom of Ali, Save Fallujah: I had a fairly long and busy day on Sunday 7th November 2004, beginning with the annual London celebration of the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Ali, the first Imam of Shi’ite Islam. From Park Lane I walked to Parliament Square where a protest demanded that the troops were withdrawn from Iraq.
This was the day when US and UK troops began the bloody offensive of the Second Battle of Fallujah, codenamed ‘Operation Phantom Fury’, fighting against Iraqis in militia of all stripes including both Sunni and Shia, united in opposition to the US-imposed Shia-dominated government.
Finally I went to Trafalgar Square and took a few pictures of the Diwali celebrations taking place there, although I didn’t post any of these at the time on My London Diary.
In this post I’ll reproduce (with minor corrections) what I wrote in 2004, along with some of the pictures I took. These were made with the first digital DSLR camera I owned, the 6Mp Nikon D100, and most were made with a Nikon 24-85mm lens (36-127mm equivalent), though I had recently got a second lens, a Sigma 12-24mm (18-36 equivalent.) The Sigma wideangle was rather slow and working at f5.6 in low light was difficult as the D100 which did not have the high ISO capabilities of more modern cameras.
Muslims mourn in London
Hyde Park and Park Lane
Talks and prayers before the procession started in Hyde Park
Sunday saw Muslims on the street for a religious event, a Jaloos & Matam on the Martyrdom anniversary of Imam Ali, organised by Hub-e-Ali, making its way from Hyde Park down Park Lane carrying a taboot or ceremonial coffin.
A small boy carries burning incense sticks, while elders shoulder the heavy load of the taboot.
The event started with prayers, addresses and a mourning ceremony.
The weight took a strain as bare-footed bearers carried the heavy black taboot with its red roses slowly along Park Lane
The banners carried included texts from the ‘purified five‘ members of the prophet’s family, but particularly Hasan Bin Ali Bin Abu Talib, the cousin and first believer in the prophet.
There was some impressive chanting and much beating of breasts (matam or seena-zani) by the men, chanting and sticks of incense being burnt. The women followed quietly behind.
The women followed, their black-clad quiet dignity contrasting with the frenzied chest-beating of the men
Withdraw the Troops from Iraq – Save Fallujah From Destruction
Parliament Square and Whitehall
Code Pink activists carry a coffin “How many children will cease to play” in front of the Houses of Parliament.
I met Dave at the procession on Park Lane and walked with him to Parliament Square where a demonstration was to be held demanding the withdrawal of troops from the cities of Iraq. From the news that morning it seemed the Americans were about to storm Fallujah. [They did – see below *]
The large anti-war organisations seemed to be keeping strangely quiet, and there were only a hundred or two demonstrators here.
Among them of course was Brian Haw, now almost two and a half years into his permanent protest in the square, which seems likely to lead MPs to pass a bill specially to make such protests illegal.
I admire him for making such a stand, even if I don’t entirely share his views, and feel it will be a very sorry day for civil liberties in this country if such activities are banned.
There were a few placards and banners, and some people who had come with white flowers as requested.
There were few takers for the ‘open mike’ and nothing much was happening until a group of ‘Code Pink’ supporters intervened theatrically parading a black-dressed cortège around the square. The effect was literally dramatic.
There were a few more speeches, including a moving one by Iraqi exile Haifa Zangana.
It was getting dark (or rather darker, as it had been dull and overcast, with the odd spot of rain all day) as we moved off up Whitehall towards the Cenotaph, where the funeral wreath was laid on the monument.
Police tried (although it is impossible to see why) to restrict the number of those putting flowers on the monument to an arbitrary five, but those who had brought flowers were not to be so easily diverted.
People wait for police to allow them to lay their flowers at the Cenotaph
They ignored police orders and walked across the empty roadway to lay their flowers, and around 50 of the protesters staged a sit-down on the road.
Eventually the police warned them they would be removed forcibly if they did not get up, and then started to do so.
Police drag demonstrator away as peace protestor Brian Haw holds a placard “War Kills the Innocent” in front of Cenotaph and Code Pink wreath, “How Many Will Die in Iraq Today?”.
For the most part the police used minimum force, but there were one or two unnecessarily unpleasant incidents.
The protesters were then corralled for a few minutes on the pavement before being allowed to continue the demonstration in the pen opposite Downing Street.
Nothing much seemed to be happening, so I went home [via the Diwali celebrations in Trafalgar Square] when police refused to let me photograph from in front of the barriers.
It seemed an arbitrary and unnecessary decision, but this time I couldn’t be bothered to argue. I think they were just upset because I had taken pictures during the violence a few minutes earlier.
*More about Fallujah
The Second Battle of Fallujah lasted about six weeks and probably resulted in around 2,000 fighters dead and many wounded, mostly Iraqis, with just 107 of the coalition forces killed. Another roughly 1,500 Iraqis were captured.
US forces had stopped all men between 15 and 50 from leaving the city, and treated all those left inside as insurgents. Civilian deaths were later estimated at between 4,000 and 6,000. Civilians who were able to fled the city and around 200,000 became displaced across Iraq. Around a sixth of the city’s buildings were destroyed and roughly two thirds suffered significant damage.
The US forces were heavily criticised for their direct use of white phosphorus in the battle against both combatants and civilians. Highly radioactive epleted uranium shell were also used and a survey in 2009 reported “a high level of cancer, birth defects and infant mortality” in the city.”
Cinema Workers Strike, LSE against Homophobia: On Monday 6th November 2017 I photographed striking Picturehouse staff picketing the cinema in Shaftesbury Avenue before going on to the LSE where students, supporters and cleaners were protesting the homophobic abuse of one of the cleaners.
Picturehouse Strike for a Living Wage
Shaftesbury Avenue
Staff working of Picturehouse cinemas in London had been campaigning for over a year to be paid a living wage, and on 6th November 2017 they were striking at Crouch End, Hackney, and East Dulwich Picturehouses and the Brixton Ritzy as well as at Picturehouse Central close to Piccadilly Circus.
It was Living Wage Week and the new London Living Wage of £10.20 per hour had been announced earlier that day. As I noted on My London Diary, while the cinema staff were living on poverty wages, “the post-tax profits of Cineworld, the parent company of Picturehouse were £93.8m last year in UK and Ireland and the CEO is paid £2.5m.”
In the short time I spent with the picket a number of people “decided not to cross the picket line. Some went to the cinema a short distance down the road instead.” The strikers were expecting more people to join the picket later when there would be more customers but I had to leave to cover a protest elsewhere.
Protesters outside the New Academic Building where ‘LGBT Rights: what next?’ was taking place
That evening the LSE were hosting a talk, “LGBT Rights: what next?” and students and others including some cleaners were protesting outside over the homophobic abuse which Daniel, one of the LSE cleaners, had been subjected to over the past 10 months.
The cleaners who work at the LSE were then not employed by the LSE but the work had been outsourced to cleaning contractor Noonan. They were eventually brought back into direct employment after over a year of protests led by their union, United Voices of the World – I photographed most of these protests beginning with the launch of the campaign – on My London Diary.
Daniel’s abuse came from his managers at Noonan. Complaints by him and his union had been brushed aside and he had been threatened with him disciplinary action for making some of them. Crowd-sourcing and support from the UVW enabled his case to go to an employment tribunal and in April 2018 it found he had been harassed on multiple occasions at the LSE merely for being homosexual.
Members of the IWGB had come in solidarity with their fellow cleaners in the UVW
The tribunal heard that Daniel had been told “homosexuals were not human“, and that he should “sleep with women to cure his problem“, and that he was “a woman” for complaining about his treatment. It found that a culture existed at the LSE that made making such comments acceptable.
The tribunal vindicated the students accusation of hypocrisy against the LSE, which while hosting talks and boasting about its promotion of gay rights had refused to take any action when confronted by a clear case of anti-gay discrimination on its site. The protest pointed out that while Noonan employed the cleaners the LSE still had full control over their hiring and firing, and Noonan would have had to take action over the complaints if they had ordered them to do so.
Security stop protesters entering the building
The protesters called on the LSE to apologise and commit to zero tolerance of homophobic and racist behaviour at all levels throughout the institution and to sack all homophobic bullies.
Security tried unsuccessfully to stop some protesters coming onto the site to protest, pushing the SOAS Unison banner into the road but were unable to prevent LSE students to come onto the site, though they they did a few who tried to enter the building.
After some minutes of noisy protest the protesters marched around to the Kingsway entrance to protest there, then returned for further protests at the main entrance before moving off again to protest outside the New Academic Building.
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
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.
Bee-keepers start young – as I did
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.
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
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.
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.
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.”
IWGB organiser Alberto Durango at the Tower
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.
PCS members came to support the protest
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.”
Security stop the protesters at the gate, where the protest continues
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.
Owen Jones speaking
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.)
A speaker from PCS
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.”
A cleaner speaking
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.
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.”
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
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!”
‘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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
Bdoth Angelica and Freddy spoke
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.
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
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.
Stephanie speaks about her twin brother Leon Patterson and the lack of support for families who seek justice
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.
Operation Clean Sweep killed Ricky Bishop – his family protest
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.
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.
Opposite the Malaysian High Commission in 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.
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.
Corpse de Ballet
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 woman in a haunted house
“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.”
