12 Days of Christmas -some of my favourite pictures from those I made in November 2025.
London, UK. 1 Nov 2025. Several thousands march from Marble Arch around the West End to demand that animals should not be treated as property or resources for humans. They say that animals feel love, pain, fear and joy “just like use” and say everyone should become vegan. They call for cages to be emptied, animal testing to be ended and for an end to all use of animals for any purpose whatsoever, demanding “Animal Liberation NOW!” Peter Marshall.London, UK. 8 Nov 2025. A rally and march from Gloucester Road station calls for an end to the UK-backed atrocity in Sudan. At Al-Fashir and elsewhere in Sudan UAE-backed RSF militia have committed executions, torture, mass displacement and deliberate starvation, armed by weapons sold by the UK to the UAE. Protesters demand the UK designate the RSF a terrorist organisation, end arms sales to the UAE and impose sanctions on them. In May Sudan took the UAE to the International Court of Justice for complicity in genocide. Peter Marshall.London, UK. 8 Nov 2025. Trade unionists protested outside the Chinese Embassy in solidarity with the three Hong Kong pro-democracy leaders charged with inciting subversion under Beijing’s National Security Law for organising protests and vigils whose trial begins on 11 Nov. They called for Lee Cheuk-yan, Chow Hang-tung, Albert Ho and all political prisoners to be released. One man who continually tried to disrupt the event was arrested.Peter Marshall.London, UK. 26 Nov 2025. Police banned farmers from bringing tractors to Parliament Square for their protest against the removal of inheritance tax relief at the last minute and instead told them they could hold a peaceful rally without vehicles opposite Downing St. A few did manage to drive to Parliament and a couple were parked opposite the House of Lords. Apparently some drivers were arrested in Trafalgar Square after refusing to drive out of London. Police had previously granted permission for the tractor protest. Peter MarshallLondon, UK. 26 Nov 2025. Police banned farmers from bringing tractors to Parliament Square for their protest against the removal of inheritance tax relief at the last minute and instead told them they could hold a peaceful rally without vehicles opposite Downing St. A few did manage to drive to Parliament and a couple were parked opposite the House of Lords. Apparently some drivers were arrested in Trafalgar Square after refusing to drive out of London. Police had previously granted permission for the tractor protest. Peter Marshall.London, UK. 26 Nov 2025. Paula Peters of DPAC speaking. Unite Community hold a Budget Day protest in Parliament Square as a part of a national day of action to protest against the ongoing cuts and sanctions to people’s benefits. They say sanctions which penalise people already struggling to feed, pay rent and heat homes, particularly the disabled, are now at record levels under this Labour government and are driving working people, disabled people, and children further into poverty. Peter MarshallLondon, UK. 26 Nov 2025. Unite Community hold a Budget Day protest in Parliament Square as a part of a national day of action to protest against the ongoing cuts and sanctions to people’s benefits. They say sanctions which penalise people already struggling to feed, pay rent and heat homes, particularly the disabled, are now at record levels under this Labour government and are driving working people, disabled people, and children further into poverty. Peter MarshallLondon, UK, 26 Nov 2025. Anti-Brexit campaigners including Steve Bray protested at the crossroad leading into Parliament Square with loud music and EU flags, as well as a Brexit elephant. They reminded people of the huge financial impact of Brexit on us all and the failure of any of the promised benefits to materialise – except for some of the super-rich and called for Britain to rejoin Europe. Peter MarshallLondon, UK. 29 Nov 2025. Blind wheelchair user Mike Higgins wants to be arrested again. Over two hundred people sat in silence holding placards “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action” outside the Royal Courts of Justice on the opening day of the Judicial Review of the ban on the organisation. They waited patiently for police to arrest them under the Terrorism Act. Many feel the ban is an abuse of law and are concerned at the attempt to scupper the review by appointing judgesfor the case with a clear conflict of interest. Police were slowly arresting people and carrying them away to waiting vans when I left. Peter Marshall.London, UK. 29 Nov 2025. Charlie X – Only Obeying Orders.Over two hundred people sat in silence holding placards “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action” outside the Royal Courts of Justice on the opening day of the Judicial Review of the ban on the organisation. They waited patiently for police to arrest them under the Terrorism Act. Many feel the ban is an abuse of law and are concerned at the attempt to scupper the review by appointing judgesfor the case with a clear conflict of interest. Police were slowly arresting people and carrying them away to waiting vans when I left. Peter Marshall
November turned out to have been a slighly confusing month for me and I managed to date some of my captions wrongly – thanks to careless “copy and paste”. I think the actual album dates for the Facebook albums are all correct.
Finally the 12 day of Christmas tomorrow – pictures from December 2025.
Darfur and the Mayor’s Thames Festival: On Sunday 16th September 2007 I went to London to photograph a march on an International Day of Action over the genocide which had been taking place on a large scale in Darfur since 2003, with around 300,000 civilians killed. My comments at the time are in italics below. After the end of the march I went to walk along the riverside wher the Mayor’s Thames Festival was taking place, though I found little actually happening.
Protect Darfur – International Day of Action
“Several hundred marched from the Sudanese Embassy in St James to Westminster where a protest rally was held opposite Downing Street over the continuing failure of the international community to take effective action over Darfur.”
“Among the mainly African demonstrators were groups of Jews, concerned that, as in the 1930s, too many are happy to turn a blind eye to what is going on.”
The Sudanese government had earlier co-opted and armed the Arab Janjaweed militias against those opposed to it in Darfur and they created what the UN described as one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world.
In July 2007 the UN and the African Union approved a the largest joint peacekeeping mission in the world UNAMID to the area, and over the years there were various peace agreements, but despite this conflicts continued and in 2023 a civil war broke out in Sudan between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) (which developed from the Janjaweed) and the government’s Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) – and genocide returned to Sudan.
The BBC has an article, ‘Sudan war: A simple guide to what is happening’ about the renewed genocide and famine in Darfur and across the country which again the United Nations has called the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
At the rally opposite Downing Street, demonstrators were asked to put on their blindfolds as a reminder that leaders around the world are refusing to see the problem in Darfur.
“I didn’t stay to hear all the speakers. The position of the rostrum made it hard to photograph, working directly into the sun behind the speakers’ heads from any available close positions, and photographs were not going to be of great interest.
The message on Darfur is clear, and the international community needs to take action.”
Many more pictures (too many) on My London Diary at protect darfur.
River Thames and the Mayor’s Thames Festival
“We were promised that Sunday was the end of our short, late summer, and I took a walk along the south bank of the River Thames from Westminster to Tower Bridge, among the crowds who had turned up for the Mayor’s Thames Festival.“
Nothing much exciting seemed to be happening while I was there (it seemed mainly a commercial opportunity for the very large number of stalls along the riverbank), but I then didn’t hang around for the procession and fireworks promised later.
I did take quite a few pictures which you can see at river thames and the mayor’s festival – and it looks as if I found it a little more interesting than my account suggested.
Brian Haw, Syria And EDL Stopped: My working day on Saturday 3rd September 2011 began in Parliament Square, then an extreme right protest in Westminster, Syrians at Downing Street and finally to Whitechapel where several thousand came to stop the EDL entering Tower Hamlets.
Brian Haw Peace Protest Continues
Three days earlier, police had come to Parliament Square and taken away all of the material in the permanent 24/7 peace protest there begun by Brian Haw in 2001 and now continued after his death in June 2001 by Barbara Tucker and other supporters.
Despite the protestation by those carrying on the protest there, the police claimed the material had been abandoned and removed it. The police have for years been under pressure from politicians to end the protest and took advantage of the fact that Barbara Tucker was then being held in Holloway Prison. But a team of others had kept up the protest while she was away and were there when the police came are were still continuing the protest.
This was not the first time that the display here has been stolen by police, the most famous being in May 2006, after which a reconstruction by an artist was controversially put on display at Tate Britain. Since 2006 there had been restrictions on the size of the display allowed there and continuous harassment and arrests of Brian Haw, Barbara Tucker and others involved.
Parliament Square had then been fenced off to the public for some time, with the public denied access to the statues of Churchill, Lloyd George and others, with protests and public limited to the pavements around two sides of the square. But the fencing was useful to display a number of banners. Police did not touch the other peace protest on the pavement by Peace Strike.
Alternative Action brought together “patriot activist groups” from the far-right who had previously taken part in EDL protests. They said they wanted to dissociate themselves from the loutish behaviour, violence and racism of EDL protests and in particular from the inflammatory incursion into Tower Hamlets the EDL were intending later in the day.
Among the groups involved were the English Nationalist Alliance, the British Patriotic Alliance, the Combined Ex Forces, the Ex EDL Association and the National League of Infidels. ‘Tommy Robinson’ had been reported as saying that the EDL would come to disrupt the peaceful march they had organised but this did not happen.
The setting up of Alternative Action reflects various bitter disputes over the leadership and policies of the EDL, in particular over the lack of accountability in the organisation and the behaviour of some of its self-appointed leaders, including Robinson and the ‘Jewish division’ of the EDL.
They had come to march from the Ministry of Justice to Downing Street to hand in a letter calling for one system of law in the UK and an end to Sharia courts. The march was peaceful although there was one minor incident when English Nationalist Alliance leader Bill Baker shouted at Syrian protesters, mistaking them for Islamic extremists, but others soon persuaded him to stop. Later some of those on the march expressed the view that it was inappropriate to allow protests involving foreign flags so close to the Cenotaph with its flags honouring our military dead.
Although well over a hundred had indicated on Facebook that they would march, only around 20 turned up. The march paused at the Cenotaph to lay a wreath and observe a minute’s silence in memory of the soldiers who have given their life for their country before continuing to the gates of Downing Street.
Although they had earlier made arrangements with the Downing St police liaison officer to deliver their letter, police at the gate refused to let them do so and would not take the letter. Other protests have had the same reception, which seems to me to be against the letter and spirit of democracy. The marchers then stopped on the pavement just past Downing Street for a rally and after a few minutes I left.
Around a hundred members of the Syrian Community in London had marched from the Syrian Embassy to hold a noisy protest at Downing St calling for freedom in Syria and an end to oppression, atrocities and humiliation by the Assad regime.
They called on the UK to support further sanctions and bring diplomatic pressure to support the peaceful protests in Syria against the Assad regime which had begun on 15th March 2011 and had met with brutal repression.
Marches has been met with tanks, cities and villages attacked by helicopter gunships, men, women and children tortured and more than 1800 people killed, including many children. Soldiers who refused to open fire on civilians or take part in torture have been themselves killed.
Many of the women taking part wore Muslim headscarves, but there were others who did not, and although most of the drumming, dancing and flag-waving was by the men, this was not a rigidly segregated event although men and women mainly stood it separate groups. The variety of Syrian flags suggested that those taking part included those from various groups opposing the Assad regime.
The protest in Tower Hamlets by residents and their supporters against the plans by the English Defence League to hold a rally somewhere in their borough had started around 11am, but I only arrived later at the time the EDL rally was scheduled to start close to Aldgate East Station.
The street there was empty but blocked by a row of police who refused to let me through despite showing my press card, and I was prevented from going to where the EDL were holding their rally a short distance to the west, just inside the City of London.
Initially the EDL had planned to march through Whitechapel but home secretary Theresa May had banned marches. The EDL then tried to have a static demonstration on a supermarket car park close to the East London Mosque, but the supermarket and other possible sites in the area refused them. Pubs in the area where they intended to meet up for the protest also said they would deny access, and the RMT announced they would close the Underground stations because of the danger to staff.
Police stopped some EDL supporters and turned them back as they tried to enter London. Others got lost wandering around London trying to find pubs that would serve them, and the numbers at the EDL rally were apparently considerably less than the organisers or police had anticipated.
I gave up trying to get to the EDL rally and went instead to the large crowds who had come to Whitechapel High Street and Brick Lane to stop them, and then on to another large crowd who had come to defend the the East London Mosque. The community had clearly united to stop the EDL and there was a huge cheer when it was announced that EDL leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson) had been arrested after speaking at the EDL rally, where he had apparently boasted of having broken his bail conditions.
There was more jubilation when the crowd heard that police were moving the EDL away from the rally at Aldgate to Liverpool street and their coaches waiting across the river in Tooley Street.
The protesters began a ‘Victory March’ from the bottom of Brick Lane along Whitechapel High St, led by the Mayor, councillors and others who linked arms across the width of the road.
It stopped at the East London Mosque, but some activists decided to continue and were briefly stopped by police who told them their march was illegal because of the ban in place in Tower Hamlets.
They walked around the police who tried to stop them but a few hundred yards on stewards and some of the protest leaders including Mayor Lutfer Rahmen managed to bring the march to a halt, telling them to enjoy their victory and not continue as arrests now would become the story of the day for the press rather than it being one of a community victory over racism. They calmed down, some took up the offer of a cup of tea back in the Muslim Centre, while others, including myself, went home.
