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XR at the BBC, Noahs Ark & Nine Elms – 2018

XR at the BBC, Noahs Ark & Nine Elms: On Thursday 21st December 2018 after photographing a protest at the BBC by the Climate Media Coalition over the BBC failures in presenting the climate emergency and their programmes which encourage climate wrecking activities I took a few pictures of the nearby Noah’s Ark Earth Rescue display before going to the US Embassy to cover a protest there. Unfortunately although I and the police made it on time the protesters failed to turn up. I took a walk around the area – London’s largest development taking a few pictures and when after an hour only a single protester and another photographer had arrived I went home.

Extinction Rebellion at the BBC – Broadcasting House

XR at the BBC, Noahs Ark & Nine Elms - 2018

Climate campaigners from Extinction Rebellion came to the BBC to tell it to stop ignoring the climate emergency and mass extinction taking place and promoting destructive high-carbon living through programmes such as Top Gear and those on fashion, travel, makeovers etc.

The BBC had long misused its policy of impartiality to give huge prominence to a small group of climate deniers, largely fossil fuel lobbyists, to give them equal airtime to the warnings supported by the huge body of scientific evidence on global warming caused by our increasing consumption of coal, oil and gas with the associated rise in greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere.

The protest had been organised by environmental campaigner Donnachadh McCarthy and the Climate Media Coalition and they had brought with them mannequins wrapped in white sheets to represent the 27 climate victims from the Greek Village of Mati, burned alive by a wildfire. They were among a hundred people are known to have died in Greece in the fires caused by global warming. They set these out in front of the BBC for a vigil at the start of the protest

Later there were angry protests at both entrances to the BBC site which which was closed off by barriers and security staff. It took a couple of minutes through the local streets to get between the two and I was at the other one where two protesters had superglued their hands, one to the steps and another to the door, when Donnachadh McCarthy attempted to climb over the security banners and was arrested.

You can read more about the protest along with many pictures and captions on My London Diary at Extinction Rebellion at the BBC.

Humanity Face Extinction – Great Portland St

The protest at the BBC was continuing when I walked towards the tube to travel to a protest sceduled at the US Embassy in Nine Elms and stopped to take a few pictures of the Noah’s Ark Earth Rescue display.

This was deserted probably as those usually here were all at the BBC protest. The display was a part of the “eco-warriors’ worldwide publicity campaign to save the South Pacific island nations from vanishing beneath the rising sea levels and offering genuine solutions to save humanity from being driven to extinction by global warming as a result of the burning of fossil fuels.”

More pictures at Humanity Face Extinction

Nine Elms Wander

I arrived at the US Embassy at the time given on the press release and the Facebook event page for a protest against Trump’s announcement of the withdrawal of US troops from Syria to find two police vehicles but no protesters.

After waiting around ten minutes I took a walk around the area, part of a huge redevelopment between the former Battersea Power Station and Vauxhall which I’d been watching for some years from the train as I came into London and had often photographed through the train windows.

Under the River Thames construction was also taking place for London’s new super-sewer, the 16 mile long Thames Tideway Tunnel expected to be fully operational in 2025 and the first major upgrade to London’s sewage systems since Bazalgette in 1875.

I went back to the embassy an hour after the protest was due to start. By now one man had arrived also looking for the protest, and a second photographer. I walked back up to Vauxhall Station to see if I could find any protesters on their way, but met none and so I caught the train home.

More pictures at Nine Elms Wander.

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Cuts Kill, Turban Traveller & Brexit Bullies – 2018

Cuts Kill, Turban Traveller & Brexit Bullies – The area outside the Houses of Parliament was busy on Wednesday 19th December 2018 with a protest by Disabled People Against Cuts, a welcome for a driver who had come from Delhi and arguments between remainers and Brexiteers. But the most newsworthy event was when a small group of extreme right Brexiteers spotted MP Anna Soubry walking to Parliament and went to harass her. By then other photographers had drifted off and I was the only photographer on the scene. It made the news headlines and though the the press accounts were laughably inaccurate, some of my pictures did get used even if my story filed with them was ignored.

As usual you can read more about all of these events and see more pictures by following the links to My London Diary below.

Cuts kill disabled people say protesters – Old Palace Yard

Cuts Kill, Turban Traveller & Brexit Bullies - 2018 — *‘Tory Cuts Kill’ say DPAC and another banner has the names of a hundred who have died*

Disability groups DPAC (Disabled People Against Cuts) and MHRN (Mental Health Resistance Network) together with WOW campaign protested in support of the parliamentary debate due later in the day on the cumulative impact of the cuts on the lives of disabled people.

Laura Pidcock, then Labour MP for North West Durham and Lib-Dem peer Lord Roberts of Llandudno came out to talk with and support the protesters who said the the changes in benefits and inappropriate use of sanctions were resulting in great hardship, denying people their rights and causing many deaths. Labour MP for Ealing Virendra Sharma, there for another event also had a lengthy talk with the protesters.

Cuts kill disabled people say protesters

MP welcomes Delhi to London driver

British-Indian Labour MP for Ealing Southall Virendra Sharma whose constituency includes very many Sikhs and those from other Indian communities had come out to to welcome The ‘Turban Traveller‘, a Sikh with a film crew from Creative Concept Films in Delhi who arrived in London today after driving overland from Delhi.

MP welcomes Delhi to London driver

Extreme Brexiteers Clash with SODEM

A small group of extreme right-wing pro-Brexit protesters had come to shout and argue with protesters from SODEM (Stand of Defiance European Movement) and to shout personal insults at Steven Bray who had founded SODEM in September 2017.

They accused Bray of being a drunk and asked “Who funds Drunk Steve“, a question that was rather redundant as two large banners were covered with logos of organisations supporting SODEM’s daily pickets.

Police warned the Brexiteers about the language they were using and were accused of taking sides, but the SODEM people were not shouting and using offensive language. Eventually the Brexiteers moved away to continue their protest on the pavement in front of the Houses of Parliament.

Extremist Brexiteers clash with SODEM

Extremist Brexiteers at Parliament

A small group of extreme right Brexiteers wearing high-viz vests with Union flags and the message ‘Justice for Our Boys’ protested outside parliament calling for an immediate Brexit and attempted to stop vehicles leaving parliament but were moved away by police.

I recognised many of them; some from the video of an attack on the socialist bookshop Bookmarks earlier in the year and others from protests by the EDL and other extreme right groups.

Some of them then went to try and enter the by the visitors entrance and I went with them and took more pictures. But most soon left, probably to a nearby pub.

Extremist Brexiteers at parliament

Anna Soubry MP Harassed by Extremists

I hung around watching the few who remained when all the other photographers had moved away to file their pictures of the protest at the gates to parliament, wondering what they might do next.

One of them shouted to the others as he recognised Conservative MP Anna Soubry walking along the pavement to go into the House of Commons, and they met her and began calling her a traitor and asking her way she was suggesting there might be a second referendum. She clearly knew the man leading the group, addressing him by name.

She tried to walk away along the pavement, but they followed, some standing in her way (and in mine) and after another in the group shouted at her ‘You fucking traitor!’ she turned to one of the several police officers around and complained to him that this was an offence, and remained standing close to him.

Other officers came across to help and quickly escorted her away and into Parliament. There were no immediate arrests, but the incident later became subject to an inquiry by the speaker of the house, who extended his sympathy to Ms Soubry.

In later interviews she complained that she had been compared to the Nazis, but I had not heard this at any point in the exchanges. Though as I wrote. “I was busy moving backwards in a fairly confined space while trying to keep her in shot while she was walking briskly away, with one of the protesters who was filming on his phone in my way.”

It was certainly an unpleasant incident but perhaps one that became rather exaggerated. She was never in any real danger and although the questioning was certainly loud and aggresive she responded to it in a similarly forceful manner. Something that might be described by that old cliché as the “rough and tumble of politics”. I was rather surprised that she had not earlier simply asked one of the many police standing around for assistance or that none of them had seen and heard as I had and come to help.

I rushed away to file my pictures, and while one or two of these were fairly widely used I was never contacted about what happened despite being the only real witness to the event.

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UK Uncut, Syria, Iraq, Egypt & More – 2011

UK Uncut, Syria, Iraq, Egypt & More – Saturday 17th December was a busy day for me in London, with three protests by UK Uncut over companies not paying their share of tax in the UK, protests by Kurds over the massacres in Syria, Iraqis celebrating the withdrawal of US troops, Syrian supporters of President Bashar al-Assad demanding no US intervention in Syria, protests by Congolese over the rigged elections and atrocities, Egyptians against the military attacks on protesters and a birthday protest for Bradley – later Chelsea – Manning.

Now at last Assad is gone though the future in Syria is still uncertain, Manning is long out of jail, but companies are still finding ways to avoid paying tax. The Congo and Egypt are still both suffering. More about the protests and many more images on My London Diary – links for each event.

UK Uncut Santa Calls on Dave Hartnett – HMRC, Parliament St

UK Uncut, Syria, Iraq, Egypt & More - 2011

UK Uncut’s Santa, along with two helpers called at the Westminster offices of the head of UK’s tax collection with a present and a card. but unfortunately Dave Hartnett was not at home.

UK Uncut Santa Calls on Dave Hartnett

UK Uncut Xmas Protest At Topshop – Oxford St

Supporters of UK Uncut protested briefly inside the Oxford Circus Topshop at the failure of Arcadia group to pay UK tax on its UK earnings, continuing their protest on the pavement outside until cleared away by police.

UK Uncut Xmas Protest At Topshop

UK Uncut Xmas Protest At Vodaphone – Oxford St

After their protest at Topshop had been moved away by police, UK Uncut moved to Vodaphone to protest about their dodging of UK tax. Police kept them a few yards from the shop but otherwise did not interfere with the peaceful demonstration.

UK Uncut Xmas Protest At Vodaphone

Kurds Call For A Stop To Syrian Massacres – Downing St

The Syrian Kurdish community protested at Downing St as massacres continue in Syria, calling for Britain to help to stop them. They want freedom for Syria and also for Kurds in Syria in a federation to replace the Assad regime.

Kurds Call For A Stop To Syrian Massacres

Congolese Election Protests Continue – Downing St

Congolese continued their protests in London against the election fraud, rapes and massacres and called on the British government to withdraw its support from the immoral regime of President Kabila responsible for the atrocities and voted out by the people. I had photographed two larger protests earlier in the month at Congolese Protest Against Kabila Vote-Rigging and Congolese Election Protests Continue.

Congolese Protests Continue

Iraqis and Syrians Protest At US Embassy – US Embassy, Grosvenor Square

*Iraqis celebrate victory over the US but want all mercenaries to leave and the BBC to report fairly*

Iraqis met to celebrate their defeat of the occupation on the day US troops left Iraq, and called for the mercenaries to go too, as well as for proper coverage of Iraq by the BBC. They were joined by Syrian supporters of President Bashar al-Assad, at the embassy to demand no US intervention in Syria.

Iraqis and Syrians Protest At US

Bradley Manning Birthday Demo – US Embassy, Grosvenor Square

*It was the 24th birthday of Bradley Manning, who was in court for disclosing US documents to Wikileaks*

Supporters of Bradley Manning held a vigil at the US Embassy on Saturday afternoon, his 24th birthday, and on the second day of his pre-trail hearing, calling him an American Peace Hero.

Bradley Manning Birthday Demo

Egyptians Protest Against Attacks on Protesters – Egyptian Embassy, Mayfair

News of the deaths and injuries in Cairo as armed forces attacked protesters prompted Egyptians to protest at the London Embassy, calling for the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to halt the attacks and hand over power.

Egyptians Protest At Embassy

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Santas, Sardines & Earth Strike – 2019

Santas, Sardines & Earth Strike: On Saturday 14th December 2019 the Santas were on BMX bikes raising money for charity, Italians were supporting a spontaneous Italian anti-fascist movement and Earth Strike, a small group of anti-capitalist and anti-imperialists against environmental destruction held their first protest in Brixton.

Santas BMX Life Charity Ride

If you are in London today look out for the 10th BMX Life’s Santa Cruise riding around the capital in a charity ride raising money for the Evelina Children’s Heart Organisation, ECHO. There is a link for donations on the page linked.

The ride begins as it did five years ago in the graffiti tunnel under Waterloo Station and 10.30am and the dress code is Santa, Elf, Snowman,Christmas Tree or Reindeer.

So far by these rides and a number of raffles BMX Life have raised over £180,000 for ECHO and they hope that this year’s ride will be bigger than ever. When I took these pictures in 2019 there were around 700 riders.

From Leake St they moved off to Forum Magnum Square where some santas demonstrated their riding skills before the group left to ride around London.

More pictures on My London Diary at Santas BMX Life Charity Ride

‘6000 Sardines’ London protest – Parliament Square

The Sardines movement was a grass roots political movement which began in Italy in November 2019 after a flash mob in Bologna opposing right-wing leader Matteo Salvini packed the main square in Bologna “like sardines”.

People were appalled at the rise of Salvini because of his anti-immigrant policies, hate speech and Euroscepticism and the movement prompted other ‘sardine’ protests across Italy and by Italians elsewhere, with demonstrations, flash mobs and online actions.

14th December was declared ‘Global Sardine Day’, with similar rallies across Europe and in the USA as well as in many towns and cities in Italy. All of the speeches while I was at the event were in Italian.

The movement ended with the elections in January 2020 in the Bologna region of northern Italy, which resulted in a resounding victory for the centre-left who almost doubled the vote they had received five years earlier.

More pictures ‘6000 Sardines’ London protest.

Earth Strike South London – Brixton

The protest by Earth Strike South London began ther protest against environmental destruction with speeches and handing out fliers at a street stall on the corner of Coldharbour Lane and Brixton Rd, where members of the Revolutionary Communist Group taking part were also selling their newspaper.

The fliers pointed out that many companies who trade on our high streets are still making a huge contribution to global warming and environmental destruction and they went on to march up Brixton Road stopping for speeches and to protest at some of the major culprits.

They began by going into Barclays Bank who still have huge investments in fossil fuels and are major backers of fracking in the UK. They ignored bank staff who told them they could not protest inside but handed out leaflets and made a speech about the bank’s activities before leaving after a few minutes.

Next stop was H&M where they pointed out he fashion industry is the second largest producer of greenhouse gases, emitting 1.2 billion tons a year and textile manufacture creates 20% of all water pollution. They stood outside and ignored a security man who told them to go away.

A couple of police officers arrived and talked to the protesters who assured them that their protest would be peaceful. The officers then went away.

The protesters moved on to EE where they pointed out mobile phones and other similar electronic produces all need minerals such as Coltan, and the fight for these is behind the horrific wars that have taken place in the Congo region. Mining companies are also huge exploiters of African labour, create large amounts of pollution. lay huge areas to waste and evade taxes on a huge scale.

Further along the road they stopped briefly to point out that Boots avoids paying taxes in the UK, cheats the NHS and sells palm oil products made by clearing forests, destroying ecosystems. They make huge profits from the NHS, and are said to have charged charged them £1500 for pots of cream they sell for £2, as well as selling palm oil products grown on land cleared from ancient forests, disrupting ecosystems and resulting in the loss of species including orangutans.

At Sainsbury’s they reminded customers that it sells many products that harm the environment and lead to global warming, including beef that comes from ranches made by burning the Amazon Forest, destroying ecosystems and displacing indigenous tribes.

They held another protest outside Vodaphone, also a tax avoider and as well reliant on those minerals fuelling wars in central Africa before walking on to Brixton Police station.

Here they held a brief vigil for those killed by police in Brixton, including Ricky Bishop and Sean Rigg who was beaten to death inside the police station in 2008.

I left the group here as they were to continue their protest at shops on the opposite side of Brixton Road.

More pictures at Earth Strike South London.

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Serenading the Bomb Makers – 2008

Serenading the Bomb Makers: Given the current increased tension over the possible nuclear escalation of the Ukraine war – something that would be disastrous to us all and totally insane and irrational, but if NATO keep poking the Russian Bear with a stick could be provoked – it seems appropriate to remember the lunchtime tour around the London offices of some of the companies involved in making the UK’s nuclear weapons on Friday 12th December 2008.

I don’t think I can improve on the piece I posted on My London Diary in 2008 – except by adding the odd word that somehow got missed out, so I’ll copy that here, with some of the pictures from the event. I got too cold standing around and left after an hour and went to take a short look at the work taking place on the Olympic site at Stratford Marsh as the light was beginning to fade.

‘Muriel Lesters’ Serenade the Bomb Makers

Serenading the Bomb Makers - 2008 — *Lockheed Martin, Carlisle Place – A man sprawls in memory of the many deaths caused by atomic weapons; security men look bored.*

Ten activists turned up in Victoria, London on Friday for a festive protest outside the offices of the US company behind the production of the UK’s nuclear weapons and the huge expansion of bomb production facilities at Aldermaston – costing £6,000,000,000 – which has never been debated or approved by Parliament.

They were the ‘Muriel Lesters*’, a London affinity group of Trident Ploughshares. Dressed in Santa suits, white nuclear inspector overalls and festive hats they called for an end to bomb production at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE).

Appropriately, their renditions of festive songs and carols with modified anti-nuclear lyrics were largely less than tuneful (one taking part was hear to say “I’m a Quaker, we don’t sing” and who could contradict him?) They called for a stop to the illegal activities of these companies in making weapons.

First to be serenaded by the group were the offices of the US arms giant Lockheed Martin, makers of ‘bunker buster’ and ‘cluster’ bombs, the worlds largest exporter of weapons and the leading member of the consortium set up to produce the nuclear warheads for the UK Trident replacement at Aldermaston.

After an hour or so of leafleting and displaying banners on Vauxhall Bridge Road just around the corner, the group moved to the front door of the building housing Lockheed Martin and several other companies in Carlisle Place for their half hour carol ‘concert’. It was a site I knew from the ‘Merchants of Death‘ tour by CAAT earlier in the year. A number of people came in an out of the building while this was going on and some took leaflets while others hurried past, often to waiting taxis.

Half way through the performance, a police car pulled up and dropped off two constables who came to talk to the protesters. They asked who was in charge (and of course nobody was) and for a mobile number they could use to contact the group, saying “it’s standard practice for protests“. Oh no it isn’t! They were handed a leaflet with the Norwich details of Trident Ploughshares, but that wasn’t what they had in mind.

The police were informed that the real criminals were in the Lockheed Martin offices, carrying out the vast expansion in UK nuclear arms, a breach of the UK’s obligations under Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and that they were involved in an illegal conspiracy with some groups we could name down the road in Whitehall. The police chose to ignore this vital evidence but eventually they went away, reminding the protesters that while they supported the right to demonstrate, it was important to keep the pavement clear.

As they left, one member of the group stretched out “dead” on his back on that pavement as a symbol of the many victims of nuclear weapons, including those killed in nuclear strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, “bomb test veterans, and victims of leukaemias, lymphomas and cancers caused by exposure to radioactive discharges from AWE Aldermaston and AWE Burghfield in Berkshire, Sellafield in Cumbria, Rolls Royce Raynesway in Derby and other sites“

I left the group as it packed up and decided to take a short break before going on for a similar protest at the London offices of Jacobs Engineering and Fluor Corporation, two other US companies who are competing for the stake in the AWE bomb-making contract currently filled by the British Nuclear Group. The third player in the contract – the only remaining UK involvement – is SERCO.

A few more pictures here

Muriel Lester, (1883–1968), born in Leytonstone, was a leading Christian peace campaigner and writer. Among many other things she founded Kingsley Hall in Bow, was a friend of Gandhi, Travelling Secretary of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation and was detained for ten weeks in Trinidad and then several days in Holloway Prison for her activities during the Second World War.

Olympic Site – Stratford

A few more pictures from around the London 2012 site.

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Marine A, Mandela, CPS Failures, Cops off Campus – 2013

Marine A, Mandela, CPS Failures, Cops off Campus: On Friday 6th Decemeber 2013 some very varied events were taking place in Central London. Here they are in the order I photographed them.

EDL Protest Supports Marine A – Downing St

Marine A, Mandela, CPS Failures, Cops off Campus - 2013

The EDL had called for a major protest at Downing Street on the day that ‘Marine A’, Sergeant Alexander Blackman, was to be sentenced, but only around 50 supporters were there when I arrived.

Blackman was being tried for the murder of a wounded Taliban insurgent in Afghanistan in contravention of the Armed Forces Act 2006, and became the “first British soldier to be convicted of a battlefield murder whilst serving abroad since the Second World War.“

I commented “I doubt if there are many serving soldiers who would wish to see the Geneva conventions disregarded, and wonder what support if any this protest would have from serving soldiers, many of whom have condemned strongly the cold-blooded killing of a prisoner by Marine A and called for an appropriate sentence.“

However many did feel when later that day he was sentenced to “life imprisonment with a minimum term of ten years and dismissed with disgrace from the Royal Marines” he had been treated harshly, and in 2014 the sentence was reduced to eight years, then after a public campaign overturned on appeal and reduced to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. Given the time he had served he was released in April 2017.

EDL Protest Supports Marine A

Tributes to Mandela – Parliament Square & South Africa House

Nelson Mandela, the “Father of the Nation” who had become the first president of a new post-apartheid South Africa from 1994-1999, having previously spent 27 years in prison before his release in 1990, had died the previous day, 5th December 2013.

People brought flowers to the Nelson Mandela statue in Parliament Square and to South Africa House in Trafalgar Square, where a long queue waited patiently for several hours to sign a book of remembrance in the High Commission.

Tributes to Mandela

Bereaved protest at CPS Failure – Southwark Bridge

*Marcia Rigg holds a picture of Mandela as she addresses the protest against the PCS*

Since 1990 there had been 1433 deaths of people in custody, many under highly suspicious circumstances and not a single conviction of any police, prison officers or security guards who have either failed in their duty of care or more actively caused their deaths.

Relatives and friends of those who dies had come to protest outside Rose Court, the home of the Crown Prosecution Service. The last successful prosecution brought against a police officer was for involvement in a black death in custody was in 1972, after the death of David Oluwale in 1969. Police officers have been prosecuted for several other black deaths in custody – Joy Gardner, Christopher Alder and Mikey Powell – but none was successful.

The standard response from the CPS – led by Keir Starmer from 2008-2013 – is that there is ‘not enough evidence to prosecute’, largely because the cases have not been properly investigated. Often the police involved are simply not questioned, and in some other cases they simply refuse to answer questions.

Bereaved protest at CPS Failures

‘Cops Off Campus’ Protest Police Brutality – Bloomsbury

Following protests by students and others against student fees and cuts, the closure of the student union and calling for acceptable pay and conditions for low paid largely migrant cleaners, catering staff, security staff and others, the University management had tried to ban protests on campus and had brought in numbers of police to enforce that ban.

This protest was called after the previous day police had brutally assaulted a group of students who had briefly occupied a part of Senate House, arresting a number of students including the Editor of the student newspaper and a legal observer.

The organisers had intended this to be an entirely peaceful march around the various s sites of the university in the area to the west and north of Russell Square, but it was clear that the police had other ideas. There seemed to be police vans down every side-street in the area as students assembled on the pavement outside the University of London Union in Malet St.

There were a few short speeches before the march set off to walk around the block but were stopped by a line of police across the street, with those who tried to walk through it thrown roughly backwards.

They turned around only to find police blocking both the other end of the street and a side street leading to Gower Street and their only way open was to go onto the campus, walking past SOAS and out onto Thornhaugh Street. There they turned up into Woburn Square and then turned to make their way into UCL, only to find the gates from Torrington Place were locked and guarded by security.

They then turned into Gower Street where they saw another group of police rushing towards them and they then rushed through the gates into the Main Quad. Here there was a lot of discussion about what to do next and they eventually decided to take a back street route to Torrington Square, and set off at a rapid pace. I took a more direct route to meet them there. But by now it was dark and I was tired of walking around London and decided to go home.

The police operation seemed to me “an incredible and pointless waste of public money, and it resulted in more inconvenience to the public than if the event had not been policed at all.” Perhaps more importantly this kind of policing alienates a large proportion of young people, acting strongly to destroy the ‘policing by consent’ which has always been the the basis of our police system.

More at ‘Cops Off Campus’ Protest Police Brutality.

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Students Protest Fees & Cuts – 2010

Students Protest Fees & Cuts: On Wednesday 24th November 2010 several thousand students set out to march from the University of London Union in Malet St through Whitehall and then on to the Lib-Dem HQ in Cowley St.

The protest was called by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts and Revolution and was a part of a national day of action after the Browne Review of Higher Education Funding had advocated a huge increase in tuition fees, allowing them to rise from £3,290 to £9000 a year – £27,000 for a three year course. The increase was approved by Parliament in December 2010.

Living costs were also increasing and by 2010 a typical student in London needed around £5000 each year. With the increase in fees that meant those students who relied on loans would end their three year course owing over £40,000.

The government had also anoounced the previous month that the Educational Maintenance Allowances for 16-18 year old students in full-time education from low income homes were to be scrapped. Many youger students from schools and colleges had come to the protest along with those in higher education.

Universities were also being hit by the coalition government cuts in funding for arts and humanities courses. Many departments were being shut down, greatly reducing the opportunities for students.

So there were many things for students (and anyone concerned about education) to be angry about, but the march had begun peacefully and most of those taking part were not out for trouble.

The students intended to march to Trafalgar Square and then down Whitehall past Downing Street and on through Parliament Square to the Liberal-Democrat headquarters in Cowley Street, a short distance to the south.

But it soon became clear that the Metropolitan Police had other ideas and were out to confront the students and stop the march. When the marchers turned into Aldwych a line of police stopped them continuing.

The students then surged down towards Temple Station and marched west along the Embankment, then up a side street onto Strand and on to Trafalgar Square. On Whitehall and met another group of students who had started their march at Trafalgar Square but had been stopped by police just before reaching Parliament Square.

“There were now perhaps 5000 students milling around in a small area, some chanting slogans (rather than the rather ordinary ones about education and cuts many favoured “Tory Scum, Here we come” and a long drawn out ‘David Camero-o-on’, answered by the crowd with ‘F**k off back to Eton’) but most just standing around waiting for something to happen. “

“Police had thoughtfully left an old police van as a plaything for the protesters outside the treasury. Perhaps because the tread on its tyres was so worn it would have been a traffic offence to move it – and it looked very unlikely to pass an MOT.”

“The stewards told the protesters it was obviously a plant, and certainly the press I talked to were convinced. This didn’t stop a few masked guys attacking it (and I was threatened with having my camera smashed for photographing them doing so) despite a number of students who tried to prevent them, some linking hands and forming a chain round it. It was possibly the same small group who earlier had smashed the glass on the bus stop across the road.

A few protesters managed to burst through the police lines, but most of those there “were probably well-behaved students on their first demonstration, and although the police line was breached a number of times most of them just stood around wondering what to do rather than following them.”

On My London Diary I try to describe the confused and dangerous situation that developed as police began threatening protesters and some making rather indiscriminate use of their batons. I was shocked at the police tactics which appeared designed to create public disorder by kettling – and a small minority of the students rose to the bait. The great majority of the students had come for a peaceful march and rally and to exercise their democratic right to protest, but the police, almost certainly under political pressure, had decided not to allow that.

Eventually I’d had enough and it seemed that the protesters would be kettled for some hours, and I decided to leave in order to file my pictures and story.

Students Protest Fees & Cuts

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No to Heathrow Expansion – 2016

No to Heathrow Expansion: When Zac Goldsmith was elected as MP for the Richmond Park constituency in 2010 he had promised he would resign if the government support a third runway at Heathrow. And when they did so in October 2016 he kept his word, forcing a by-election in which he stood as an independent candidate. The election took place on December 1st 2016, a couple of weeks after this rally.

As a part of his campaigning against Heathrow Expansion – and his election campaign around this issue, he called a public meeting on Richmond Green on Saturday 19th November 2016.

Many groups campaigning against airport expansion came to support, including Richmond Heathrow Campaign, Teddington Action Group, SHE (Stop Heathrow Expansion), Residents Against Aircraft Noise(RAAN), Chiswick Against the Third Runway and others campaigning against the noise, pollution and catastrophic climate change the third runway and expansion of aviation would cause.

But also at the meeting where Green Party and Lib-Dem supporters. All major candidates in the by-election were strongly opposed to Heathrow so although many admired Goldsmith for keeping his promise Heathrow was not really at issue in the election. The Green Party, strong in the area, did not put up a candidate as the local party instead voted to support the Lib-Dem candidate Sarah Olney, who beat Goldsmith by 1872 votes. Her major campaign issue was opposition to Brexit, which Goldsmith supported.

The Conservative Party had also not put up a candidate, feeling correctly that to do so would result in a large split in the Tory vote, leading both to to a humiliating defeat for any official Tory candidate as well as giving the seat to the Lib-Dems. Although Goldsmith was standing as an independent, many leading Tories backed him.

A few of Goldsmith’s supporters objected to me taking pictures, insisting it was a private meeting, which was of course total nonsense – it had been called as a public meeting and was taking place in a very public place. One man followed me around trying to get me to stop. Perhaps they realised that although the rally showed considerable opposition to Heathrow there was little if any support for their candidate.

I left after most of the campaigners had spoken and before various local government representatives spoke. All but one of the local authorities in the area are against the third runway. You can read more about the rally and the speakers in my account – with many more pictures on My London Diary.

Climate Crisis rally against Airport Expansion – Heathrow

*Harmondsworth resident Neil Keveren of Stop Heathrow Expansion speaks again at Heathrow*

I left before the end of the rally on Richmond Green to get to a protest taking place at Heathrow by public transport.

Activists from Rising Up were blocking the Heathrow spur from the M4 and local campaigners were holding a family-friendly demonstration in support on the Bath Road overlooking the airport.

Campaigners met at the Three Magpies on a part of Bath Road which would disappear under the Third runway and I had time for a quick pint and a few words with the barmaid who I knew from previous Heathrow campaigns before we walked the short distance to the Bath Road bridge over the airport spur from the M4

Police would not allow me through to photograph the road block, which I could just see in the distance with police vehicles surrounding the activists who were blocking the road into the airport – too far away to photograph with any lens I own – and we could hear their sirens.

There was a large police presence at the rally on the pavement of Bath Road which organisers had made clear would be entirely peaceful and legal. This seemed a considerable waste of police resources, and more like an attempt to intimidate the protesters rather than as police usually claim is their role – to facilitate the protest and ensure safety.

Most of the speakers at the rally were those I had already heard on Richmond Green earlier in the day, although there were none of the Conservative Goldsmith supporters who were presumably still busy campaigning in Richmond. But there were also others, including from Grow Heathrow who were still in occupation of a derelict local nursery, from Occupy and environmental campaigner Donnachadh McCarthy.

Speakers argued that expansion at Heathrow would mean the UK breaking its own laws on reducing carbon emissions, and undermine the Paris agreements. The new runway would devastate local communities with many families losing their homes bring chaos to transport already highly stressed in a wide area around. It would increase the dangerous levels of air pollution both from the flights as well as the traffic increase in a wide area, as well as noise pollution across much of London under the flight paths.

They pointed out that as well as the actual runway the development would need a huge spending on infrastructure in the area with important roads having to be re-routed – and that Heathrow was expecting the taxpayer to pick up almost all the bill, which Transport for London predict would be around £18 billion. And the actual cost of all such large projects always turns out much higher than projected.

*Local resident Christine Taylor of Stop Heathrow Expansion*

As I wrote then, “We need to totally rethink the aviation industry and evaluate the contribution it makes to our economy, and to remove its privileged status and subsidies which currently allow it to expand and pollute for the benefit of its shareholders and the convenience of rich frequent flyers. The industry greatly inflates the contribution it makes to the economy while refusing to acknowledge the many problems it creates.“

But even more importantly as I also pointed out, “We don’t just need to stop airport expansion, but to reassess much of they way we live. We need System Change if we are to avoid the disastrous effects of Climate Change.”

Eight years later there has been no start on expanding Heathrow, but there is very little evidence that this reassessment is taking place, and the election of Trump for a second term makes it even less likely that the world can avoid an unthinkable disaster. Perhaps the only question now is when rather than whether it will happen.

More about the two protests with more pictures on My London Diary:
Climate Crisis rally against Airport Expansion
Rally against Heathrow Expansion

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HP, Poor Doors & Anonymous 2014

HP, Poor Doors & Anonymous: On Wednesday 5th November 2014 Guy Fawkes was obviously on our minds, and from a protest against HP’s support of the Israeli army and prisons I went on to a protest where a guy with a Boris Johnson mask was burnt and then joined Anonymous with their march on Parliament.

Boycott Hewlett Packard – Sustainable Brands – Lancaster London Hotel

Hewlett Packard, now known as HP, though that’s still a name that makes me think of brown sauce in bottles with a picture of the Houses of Parliament, were the sponsors of the Sustainable Brands conference taking place at the Lancaster London Hotel at Lancaster Gate.

Protesters from Inminds came there to protest against the company’s role in IT support for Israeli forces who had killed 521 Palestinian children in the then recent attack on Gaza, as well as in running the Israeli prison system. They handed out fliers to those going in and out of the hotel and others spoke about the HP’s deep involvement in Israeli war crimes and persecution of Palestinians.

They point out that young Palestinian boys as well as other prisoners have been kept for long periods in solitary confinement and tortured in Israeli prisons supported by HP. Many older Palestinian men and women are also locked up in ‘administrative confinement’ without any proper charges or trial, often being released and then immediately being confined again in what amounts to infinite imprisonment.

More at Boycott Hewlett Packard – Sustainable Brands.

[HP Sauce is definitely a long-lived brand, having got its name in 1895, five years after it was first produced in Nottingham as ‘The Banquet Sauce’, though in 1988 like most things British it was sold off to foreigners. Currently it is owned by Heinz and made in the Netherlands and still tastes much the same. ]

Poor Doors Guy Fawkes Burn Boris – One Commercial St, Aldgate

I met Class War in a nearby pub before they marched to yet another of their weekly protests against the ‘social apartheid’ in this large block with a plush foyer and concierge for the ‘luxury’ flats for the wealthy and a bleak side entrance down an alley for the poor in social housing in the same building.

They had with them two effigies of Boris Johnson, one a BJ placard, one hand holding a bottle of ‘Boris Bolly’ and the other fanning out a wad of notes, and a life-size ‘guy’ in a suit and tie with a Boris facemask and a mop as hair, who was dragged along the the protest holding one end of the Class War Womens Death Squad banner.

Class War had brought along sparklers for the protest, and at some point the inevitable happened and ‘Boris’ was set alight, eventually burning to a small heap of burning material in the middle of the wide pavement. As you can see in the picture there was plenty of space around so no-one was in any danger.

The police called the Fire Brigade, who when they arrived, looked, laughed and walked away. But police insisted they deal with the fire. It took one fireman and one bucket of water.

After the fire was put out, police grabbed Jane Nicholl and told her she was being arrested for having set light to the guy.

A large crowd surrounded her and the police, calling on them to release her, but eventually they managed to take her and put her in the back of a van, which was then surrounded by people.

More police arrived and there were flashing blue lights everywhere, as police tried to clear a path for the van. Eventually police managed to drive away.

They then grabbed another of the protesters, handcuffed him and carried him away, though I think he was later released without charge. The CPS had agreed that burning the effigy was legitimate freedom of expression but Jane was charged with lighting a fire on or over a highway so a person using the highway was injured or endangered. But the CPS were unable to produce any evidence that burning Boris ‘injured, interrupted or endangered’ any passerby – it clearly hadn’t – and the case was dismissed.

Many more pictures at Poor Doors Guy Fawkes burn Boris

Guy Fawkes ‘Anonymous’ Million Mask March – Parliament Square

Hundreds had met in Trafalgar Square for the world wide Million Mask March against austerity, the corporate takeover of government and the abuse of power, but by the time I arrived from Aldgate had marched down to Parliament Square. Some were on the ground under a police van with another standing on its read bumper with a placard.

Here there were a mass of barriers and large groups of riot police threatening the protesters, who called on them to put their batons away and join their Guy Fawkes party without success.

Many of the protesters wore ‘Anonymous’ masks but there were relatively few with placards and nobody seemed to have much idea about what they should do. They stood around, then marched around the square a bit before some decided to march to Buckingham Palace where I learned later that things did get a bit more lively. But I’d had enough by then and had gone home.

Guy Fawkes ‘Anonymous’ Million Mask March

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Students March for Free Education – 2015

Students March for Free Education. On Wednesday 4th November 2015 students, led by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC) marched through central London against the abolition of maintenance grants calling for free education without fees and huge student debts and an end to turning higher education into a market system impoverishing staff and students.

Back in the distant past when I was a student, UK students paid no tuition fees at UK universities and I got a grant of around £300 a year which was then just about enough to pay my living expenses, at least for the three terms I was away from each year, paid by my local authority.

Because my family income was low, I got a full grant, while some of my friends from wealthier families got lower grants and had to rely on their parents to give them a ‘parental contribution’ – and not all did, though some others were more than generous.

More recently, my two sons also benefited from maintenance grants and no fees, my younger son just squeezing into the final year before student fees came in. By then my salary as a teacher – our sole household income at the time – meant we were assessed to make a small parental contribution to his maintenance.

Since then things have got a lot tougher for students, with loans for both tuition fees and their living expenses. New Labour brought in tuition fees in 1998, means-tested at £1000 per year, then tightened the screw in 2004 when they tripled to £3000 and poorer families now had to pay the full amount.

In 2012 the Tory-led coalition tripled the fee yet again, setting a maximum of £9000 – and I think all universities charged more or less that maximum. Currently they are frozen after being rasied to £9250 in 2017, but are expected to rise with inflation from 2025 if no further changes are made. For a few years in opposition Labour promised to remove tuition fees, but that promise seems to have been quickly forgotten after Starmer became leader.

It was Thatcher who first introduced student loans for maintenance but these were in addition to maintenance grants for those who did not get full grants. It was again New Labour in 1998 that abolished maintenance grants for all but the poorest students – and these went in 2016.

Student loans have operated under several systems since 1990, with the first major change taking place in 1998 and the next in 2012, when the first Income-Contingent Repayment Plan 1 was introduced. Students this year are on the 5th version of this, with a new version for those starting in 2023.

Martin Lewis summarises the 1923 changes in a clear graphic. Students who started in 2023 pay 9% of their income when they earn over £25,000 a year and keep paying for 40 years after they left university. Inflation-linked interest is added to the amount on loan, typically now around £60,000 for a three-year course.

Most students now also have to supplement their income with part time jobs, as estimates for the income needed to take a full part in three years of university life together with tuition fees come to more than £80,000. It’s a far cry from back when I was at university when students taking paid work during term-time was frowned upon or prohibited by the university authorities.

The 2015 protest formed up at Malet Street outside what had until 2013 been the University of London Union where there were speeched, then marched to Parliament Square . From there it went on the Home Office and Dept of Business, Innovation & Skills and became more chaotic, with a black bloc of students took over and police rather fragmented the march.

You can read about it and see many more pictures – and also of the celebration going on in Parliament Square following the release of the last British resident, Shaker Aamer from Guantanamo on My London Diary.

Free Education – No Barriers, Borders or Business
Students at Home Office and BIS
‘Welcome Home Shaker’ celebration

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