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Letting Agencies Illegal Colour Bar – 2013

Letting Agencies Illegal Colour Bar: On Tuesday 15 October 2013 people were quick to react to to a BBC London investigation broadcast the previous night showing that letting agents in London were prepared to break equality laws and discriminate against African-Caribbean people on behalf of landlords.

Among the letting agents who were shown to be operating a colour bar were two on the Willesden High Road in Brent, and Brent Housing Action organised a protest against National Estate Agents and A to Z Property Services who had been named by the BBC. Supporting Brent Housing Action were Unite Community, Brent Renters Campaign, Housing 4 All (the Counihan Family Campaign), Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group, and Cllr Margaret McLennan, Brent Council’s lead member for housing. Several other Brent councillors also joined the protest along with two workers from another letting agency in Willesden Green.

The BBC investigation had put a flat in Notting Hill on the market with a number of agents and had then sent closely matched Black and White investigators to ask for a viewing of the property.

At National Estates, the Black applicant was told the flat had already been let, while the White man was given an appointment to view.

A to Z Property told the Black investigator they would ring back – but never did, while offering the White investigator a viewing. It seems clear that both agents were operating an illegal colour bar.

It was well known that many letting agents were acting illegally. The the BBC report quoted a Runnymede Trust survey “29% of black people seeking private housing had experienced discrimination – compared to 1% of white respondents.” It also stated that “36 people told the Property Ombudsman they were the victim of racial discrimination in the past three years, not one single complaint was upheld” and only two of the allegations were fully investigated.

It seemed to many a return to the disgusting practices of the 1950s and 60s, made illegal under the 1968 Race Relations Act, and now against the Equality Act 2010. The protesters called for prosecutions and an end to all illegal discrimination by housing agents.

Both of the named agencies were closed and shuttered for the day. After speeches and protesting outside National Estate Agents, the group of around 30 protesters marched the half mile along Willesden High Rd to A to Z Properties, where a further protest with a few short speeches was held.

Brent is one of London’s more multicultural boroughs, and one with a proud record of community activities celebrating this. Brent councillors and Brent Housing Action promised to take further action to stamp out the housing colour bar to “make sure these practices – and the racism underpinning them – can finally be consigned to history.”

The National Estates Agent shop is now a nail bar, but A to Z Property Services is still at the same address on High Road Willesden.

Unfortunately such discrimination is still common in letting agencies. Shelter and others including the UK Government give advice on what to do if you feel you have been discriminated against, but I think there has been little real action to stop it happening, although the law has been strengthened to prevent discrimination against Of course what we really need is far more council housing to provide homes for all at a fair cost, but while we still have a high-priced private housing market – often taking half of tenant’s wages for substandard accommodation and paying huge subsidies to private landlords – at least that market should operate within the law.

More here about the ‘Counihan Family Campaign‘ and there are more pictures from the protest at Letting Agencies Illegal Colour Bar.

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Crime, Cleaners and Lewisham – 2007

Crime, Cleaners and Lewisham: On Saturday 15 September 2007 I went to Brent for a march against gun and knife crimes. Next I was in the City of London, usually deserted on a Saturday, but this was Open House Day and cleaners were taking the opportunity to protest at Lloyd’s of London where people were queueing to visit the buildings. Finally I travelled to New Cross where an event was taking place to remember the Battle of Lewisham on 13th August 1977, a month after its 30th anniversary.

Below are my three posts from My London Diary in 2007 (with usual corrections) and a few of the pictures and links to those I posted back then.

Not Another Drop – March against Gun and Knife Crime

Stonebridge Park, Brent

Crime, Cleaners and Lewisham - 2007 — *White doves were released just before the start of the march*

Brent has suffered more than most London boroughs from gun and knife crimes resulting in the deaths of far too many young men (and women) on its streets.

The annual police march was started in 2004 by Patsy Hopwood, whose son, Kavian Francis-Hopwood was shot dead on the Stonebridge Estate in 2003, and is part of the ‘Not Another Drop’ campaign organised by the Met and Brent Council.

Around 250 people including two large church groups set off on the march across the borough to South Kilburn.

More pictures on My London Diary at not a drop more

Cleaners picket Lloyd’s Building

City of London

Cleaners at Lloyd’s Of London – a bastion of wealth and privilege in the City – are among the lowest paid workers in London and don’t get sick pay or holiday pay.

Open House Day provided a good audience for the London Citizen Workers Association to publicise their appalling treatment.

[The cleaning at Lloyd’s – and almost all other office buildings is outsourced with cleaners being employed by contractors, notoriously poor employers.]

More pictures at Picket at Lloyd’s.

Remembering The Battle of Lewisham

New Cross to Lewisham

*Photographer Red Saunders talks about his experiences in Lewisham on 13 Sugust 1977*

It is now just over 30 years since the battle of Lewisham in which protesters humiliated the National Front when they attempted a march through the area.

*The event began outside the New Cross Inn*

Having escorted the National Front home, the police then turned on the anti-racist protesters, using horses, batons, and, for the first time on the British mainland, riot shields.

*Batwinder Rana describes what happened to him in 1977*

At this incredible outbreak of police violence, the community came out onto the streets and the police lost control. Lewisham now has a massive police fortress.

*Our route took us past Mr Brenton Pink’s painted house on Loampit Hill*

On a walk around the area, a number of those present [in 1977] talked about the event and their own experiences on the day.

*and on to Lewisham High Street where the police used riot shields for the first time on the UK mainland*

*Here more people shared their experiences and the event ended.*

On My London Diary you can see many more pictures including of others who spoke at the event at Lewisham77

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Syria & St Patrick – 2012

Syria & St Patrick: Saturday 17th March 2012 was of course St Patrick’s Day, but before rushing to Willesden Green to photograph the St Patrick’s Day Parade there I photographed Syrians calling for freedom marching to the Syrian Embassy, where a rather smaller number had arrived earlier to support President Assad. When the march got to Edgware Road I took the Underground to Willesden Green and after photographing the procession rushed back to Belgrave Square and the Syrians.

Free Syrians March To Embassy

Paddington to Belgrave Square

Over a thousand Syrians had come to Paddington Green for the start of a march calling for freedom in Syria and an end to the massacres of the Syrian people.

They held a noisy rally there with a great deal of shouting, showing support for the ‘Free Syrian Army’, which included many who deserted from the Syrian Army after having been ordered to fire on innocent Syrian people.

A woman held a poster stating that 11,035 people had been killed by Asad’s forces, while others had placards giving monthly figures, for example that in December 2011 they had killed 1119 including 58 women and 68 children.

After an hour the march set off. I left them at Edgware Road but returned later to cover the events in Belgrave Square where there was a large pen filling most of the north side of the square with a platform for speakers opposite the Syrian Embassy.

Next to the platform was a tall tower, a reminder of the tower in the main square of Homs, where huge peaceful demonstrations were put down by force, and where over 700 people, including many women and children were killed in government attacks the previous December.

During the speeches an effigy of Asad hanging from a gallows was carried through the crowd.

There was a large police presence in the whole area around the square and double barriers with an area empty except for police around 50 yards wide separating their protest from a smaller counter-protest by Assad supporters.

Much more on My London Diary: Free Syrians Protest.

Asad Supporters Counter-Protest

Belgrave Square

I walked away from the Free Syria protest to visit the very much smaller counter-protest. As I commented, “It seemed more a disco about a personality cult than a political rally of any kind, with almost everyone waving a placard with Asad’s photograph on it, and many wearing t-shirts featuring his face.”

They were playing music at a distressingly high volume, distorted through their speakers, clearly in an attempt to drown out the speakers at the other protest. Thankfully there were a few times when the music stopped for people to lead chants praising Asad.

There was only one speech while I was there, with a man calling on people to go to Syria and see for themselves that the situation in the country was being falsely reported by the media.

The placards and banners were all expensively produced

Asad Supporters Counter-Protest

Brent St Patrick’s Day

Willesden Green

There had been doubts over whether there would be a Brent St Patrick’s Day procession in 2012 after Brent Council had been forced to make drastic cuts in council spending on community events.

But the event went ahead and as usual was led through the streets by the Mayor of Brent and St Patrick on its way from Willesden Green station to Willesden Library, though the streets did seem a little less crowded than in previous years.

On a smaller scale and with a more friendly atmosphere than the main London event, the procession was on St Patrick’s Day itself, which in 2012 was a Saturday. Most years I’d been there it had been on a schoolday; many children came from the schools to take part and watch along with their parents, but perhaps on a Saturday more had other things to do.

As usual, as well as the crowds that had gathered for the start of the parade, people came out of the bars on the street to watch as it passed.

There are many more pictures on My London Diary, though I had to rush away before the end to get back to photograph the Syrian protest in Belgrave Square.

Brent St Patrick’s Day

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London St Patrick’s Day Parade – 2006

London St Patrick’s Day Parade: I used to enjoy St Patrick’s Day in London, particularly the parade in Willesden Green on the actual day itself. The main London celebrations take place the Sunday before this, and I made these pictures on Sunday 12th March 2006.

This annual London parade had begun in 2002 when Ken Livingstone, London’s first elected mayor. Though a Londoner, he had long been a supporter of a united Ireland and from 1987 to 2001 was MP for Brent East, a constituency with a large Irish population.

In his years as the leader of the Greater London Council from 1981 until its abolition by Thatcher in 1986 Livingstone had done much to change attitudes in London towards women and minority communities, and on being elected as London Mayor he began his victory speech saying “As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted 14 years ago…” and continued these and other policies from his years at the GLC.

One small part of his legacy to London was the opening up of Trafalgar Square to various Community celebrations – though there is much more, including changes to London’s transport begun under the GLC which made much of my photography of London much easier. His successor took the credit for Livingstone’s ‘Boris Bikes’ though Ken was not responsible for the multiple bikes for hire that now litter our pavements in a rather mad private developments of this.

I photographed the first London St Patrick’s Day Parade in 2002. All the pictures here are from the 2006 Parade and below is the short text I wrote for this.

London now has one of the larger celebrations of St Patricks Day, held on the Sunday before the actual day, with a parade from Hyde Park to Trafalagar Square and events there as well as in Leicester Square and Covent Garden.

The parade celebrates the enormous contribution the Irish have made to the capital – approximately 400,000 people of Irish descent form the largest minority group in London. Paraders come from various community associations and other Irish groups and cultural organisations in the London Boroughs, including Irish dancing, music and sports. There are also some groups from Ireland.

Leading the parade is an Irish Wolfhound, the mascot of the London Irish team, along with various Irish leaders and of course the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, more green than red on this occasion.

Unfortunately government cuts under the coalition’s austerity programme meant the Brent council could no longer support the St Patrick’s Day parade in Willesden Green and I last photographed a rather smaller event there in 2013. The London St Patrick’s Parade and St Patrick’s Festival at Trafalgar Square are on Sunday 15 March 2026, but like so many events is much more organised and for me less interesting, and its years since I last went.

More pictures from 2006 on My London Diary

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St Patrick’s Day – 2008

St Patrick’s Day – 2008: A parade in Willesden on Monday March 17th 2008 celebrated St Patrick’s Day. I came to it from a protest by the all-Irish environmental and social justice movement Gluaiseacht against the Corrib Gas Project in Mayo outside the Shell Centre, and had to rush away for a protest by Tibetans at the Chinese Embassy.

Brent St Patrick’s Day Parade – Willesden Green

Brent is one of London’s more diverse boroughs and has a large population of Irish and Anglo-Irish residents, particularly in what was sometimes called “County Kilburn“. As a borough it promoted various events to celebrate and unite its different communities, and among them I think was the only London borough to have its own St Patrick’s Day Parade.

Or it did until government cuts in funding to local authorities which hit particularly hard on boroughs like Brent meant it could no longer afford to support these community events.

London does now celebrate St Patrick’s Day with a march and event in Trafalgar Square on the nearest Sunday to the day itself, and I photographed the first of these, promoted by then London Mayor Ken Livingstone in 2002, though I only put a few black and white images on to My London Diary.

But the parade in Brent, though often involving some of the same people and floats was always a more interesting and intimate event, with the large local element giving it greater authenticity and I was sorry to see it go.

Local people came to view the parade, some waiting patiently on the pavement, others spilling out of packed bars drinks in hand as it arrived.

Local schools got involved, with children of all ethnicities becoming involved – and their families coming to watch.

I went to where the march was to start, at an Islamic Centre close to Willesden Green Underground Station, where the streets were most crowded and followed the procession as it made its way to the library in High Road Willesden where there were various musical performances and a bit of a funfair.

St Patrick was there of course, with the Mayor of Brent and others leading the parade. People walked with flags of the Irish counties (or at least the 26 of the 32 that are in the Republic of Ireland.)

I had to rush away shortly after the parade began to cover another protest.

More pictures at Brent St Patrick’s Day Parade.

Irish Protest Brings Pipeline to Shell – Waterloo

All-Irish environmental and social justice movement Gluaiseacht were in London for the weekend, and on St Patrick’s Day itself gathered outside the Shell HQ at Waterloo, bringing with them a very large pipeline.

The protest was over the Corrib Gas Project in Mayo in the north-west of Ireland, which the Irish Government has given at a knock-down price to Shell, Statoil and Marathon. It’s a project estimated to be worth over 50 billion Euros, but the Irish people will hardly benefit from the profits – and Shell gets the largest share.

Even worse the people in Mayo will suffer from the pollution around an inland refinery and a high pressure pipeline that will endanger local communities. Protests in Ireland have led to innocent people being jailed.

More text and many more pictures at Protest Brings Pipeline to Shell.

Tibet Vigil at Chinese Embassy – Portland Place

According to the Chinese Authorities, they “exercised restraint” in dealing with the Lhasa protests, using only non-lethal weapons and only killing 13 innocent civilians. Monday afternoon’s demonstration in Portland Place opposite the Chinese Embassy was timed to coincide with the midnight deadline in Lhasa for protesters to surrender.

After protesting for around an hour on the opposite side of the wide dual carriageway, one man jumped over the barriers and rushed across towards the embassy door waving a Tibetan flag. Others followed and police were unable to stop them.

The stewards from the protest tried to get them to make back and were eventually able to persuade them with some gentle pushing to make back to the central island in the road where the protest continued, with some of the protesters sitting down.

Eventually police reinforcements arrived and after failing to persuade them them to move an officer read out something over a loudspeaker. The protest was too noisy for me to hear it, but I think it was a warning that the protesters would be arrested if they didn’t go back to the pavement. The stewards then persuaded everyone to move back to the pavement to continue their vigil, and I went home.

Tibet Vigil at Chinese Embassy

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Brent St Patrick’s Day Parade – Willesden Green 2007

Brent St Patrick’s Day Parade – Willesden Green

In 2007 St Patrick’s Day, 17th March, fell on a Saturday and the parade in Willesden Green held on the day itself was well attended. I found it rather more interesting than the big London celebration with a march from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square the following day, though I met some of the same peopleand groups again there.

It had been a busy day for me, starting with a protest about problems for young doctors in the NHS whose managers had managed to make a complete mess of their workforce planning with thousands of junior doctors likely to find themselves without a place to continue their careers in the coming August, and there being no consultant posts for thousands of registrars in 2010-11. Among the speakers was the then Leader of the Opposition, David Cameron who I found hard to photograph. More on this on My London Diary, with pictures starting here.

Next up was a protest four years after the invasion of Iraq, where 655,000 had by then died. My comment in 2007: “It is always easy to be right in hindsight, but the majority of the British people were right at the time of the invasion, and the government held its telescope firmly to its blind eye of mis-interpreted, faulty and partly invented intelligence. unfortunately both Britain and even more Iraq will suffer for Blair’s shameful mistake for many years to come.” And they are still suffering. It was a small protest in Trafalgar Square, mainly by Iraqis and there are just a few pictures here.

Also in Trafalgar Square, close to Canada House was a protest against the annual slaughter of seal cubs in Canada, clubbed to death in a way that “is certainly inhumane and a public relations disaster, with blood staining the ice and clubbed animals at times being skinned while still conscious.”

But then I took the underground to Willesden Green, where “a much happier event was taking place … the borough of Brent was celebrating St Patrick’s day with a parade and cultural activities.” Mainly but not exclusively Irish, but with many from Brent’s other communities taking part and watching.

“It’s great to photograph the people out on the street to celebrate, and wanting to have their pictures taken, and there was plenty to photograph, including of course St Patrick himself leading the procession, along with the mayor, Kensal Green councillor Bertha Joseph, in her second term as mayor.“

“She was brent’s first African Caribbean mayor in 1998. but of course the real stars of the event were the people of all ages who were taking part and having a fine time.”

“After the parade there was time for the culture – in the form of a pint of Guinness in a real Irish bar, after which I went to watch the band ‘Neck’ performing, and the people dancing to their music.“

It was a fine event, the band clearly setting out not just to play but to entertain the audience and doing so in great style.

More pictures of Brent St Patrick’s Day Parade begin here, and you can also view those I took on the following day at London Celebrates St Patrick’s Day.

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Christmas Greetings From My Flickr Albums

Christmas Greetings From My Flickr Albums – There are only 17 pictures out of the roughly 30,000 on my Flickr account which have the tag ‘Christmas‘, and some of those are only because I’ve mentioned the festival in my description rather than for anything in the picture. Although I’ve taken many pictures of Santas on the streets of London, almost all of these have been in the last 25 years, and so far I’ve mainly put pictures from earlier times onto Flickr – mostly from 1970-1994 and mainly of London. Wishing you all a happy Christmas. But if you get too fed up with the nonsense on TV or even with family and friends there are plenty of pictures on-line to look at!

Former Cobblers, Hackney Road, Cambridge Heath, Tower Hamlets. 1983 36u-62 — *Former Cobblers, Hackney Road, Cambridge Heath, Tower Hamlets, 1983 36u-62*

I took this in 1983, looking through the window of a cobblers shop which had recently closed but still had posters with the message ‘It wouldn’t be Christmas without Pirelli’. Santa Claus wasn’t entirely the invention of Coca-Cola though his popularity and appearance owes much to their Christmas advertising from the 1930s. The article on the link to Wikipedia above has more about Santa than you will ever want to know. This year I produced a short run of poorly printed versions of this picture as Christmas cards for selected personal friends, mainly photographers. This picture is in my album London 1983 and also appears in Tower Hamlets – Black and White.

*Auto-Sparks Ltd, Electric Harness Manufacturers, Wincolmlee, Hull, 1982 33g21*

In my Hull Black and White album you can find this picture and the long description below:

An unprepossessing 20th century industrial building on or close to Wincolmlee where electrical harnesses – bundles of cables and connectors – for various makes of cars and other vehicles were made. Apparently Auto-Sparks Ltd Hull dates back to an electrical business founded by Mr Henry Colomb on Beverley Rd in the 1920s. Auto-Sparks Ltd was incorporated in April 1942 and a history page on the web site of its successor company, Autosparks reproduces the original company logo from 1954 when it was registered as a trade mark.

After the original owner and manager retired in the 1980s Auto-Sparks got into difficulties and collapsed in 1991. It was bought and moved to Sandiacre Nottingham by R D Components who were specialists in classic motorbike and car harnesses and they took over the name as Autosparks, and in 2005 became Autosparks Ltd.

This picture was taken in December, and my attention was drawn to the building by the Christmas decorations drawn on its first-floor windows. And by wondering whatever an electric harness was.
Hull Black and White

The SI unit of electric charge is of course the Coulomb, named after Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, so this electical business founded by Mr Henry Colomb would appear to be a remarkable example of nominative determinism.

*Father Christmas, High Rd, Willesden, Brent, 1990, 90-12c-55*

In 1990 in Brent I took two Christmas pictures in 1990, one in black and white in the album 1990 London Photos of a Santa holding a number of figures and with a Harrods tag ‘£22’ standing on a box containing a caravan TV aerial kit.

Café, Christmas, Harlesden, Brent, 1990, 90c12-01b-41

The second picture from 1990 Brent was a café window in colour with Christmas decorations and an advert posted in it for flats to let in Station Road. Also in the window is a poster for Sickle Cell Awareness Day, 15th December 1990, to the left of which you can see part of me reflected as I made the image, along with reflections of a parked van and the shops and flats on the opposite side of the road. This is one of many pictures in my album 1990 London Colour.

*Christmas, Car Sales, High St, Norwood, Croydon, 1991, 91-1b-22*

From a South London used car showroom in the album 1991 London Photos is a 1987 car with its features and price described in notices on the windscreen complete with Christmas decorations. Usually when photographing interiors through windows I tried to work close to the glass and eliminate reflections so far as possible, but here I deliberately moved the black glove I was wearing to include the church across the road.

*Christmas Lights, West End, Westminster, London, 1986, 86c123-32*

In 1986 I took a few colour photographs at night around Piccadilly Circus just before Christmas which are in both 1986 Colour – London & the Thames and in Westminster – Colour 1985-92.

Pictures at night are so much easier now with digital cameras as you can work with much shorter exposures – this was probably taken on ISO400 film, while now at night I often work and get better results at 4 stops faster – the ISO6400 setting on my camera. Also being able to see what you have taken immediately makes it much easier than having to wait until the film was processed and printed.

*Eros, Christmas, Piccadilly Circus, Westminster, 1986, 86c123-43*

In the same albums and taken within a minute or two of the previous picture was this picture of Eros and the advertising display. The clock tells us that I made this at 16.06, around 15 minutes after sunset. Of course Eros isn’t really Eros, but Anteros, designed by Sir Alfred Gilbert to commemorate the philanthropic work of Lord Shaftesbury and called by him ‘The God of Selfless Love‘ – “as opposed to Eros or Cupid, the frivolous tyrant.”

But Piccadilly is a place at Christmas where some like to come and celebrate drunkenly and Anteros needs boarding up for protection and instead of seeing the fountain we see the hoardings with vintage Christmas images and greetings from The London Standard which featured Eros on its masthead.

*Christmas, Shop window, Shepherds Bush, Hammersmith & Fulham, 1988, 88c1-01-61*

Finally in 1988 in Shepherds Bush and now the first image in my album 1988 London Colour. This shop was a pet shop and the window is full of Christmas Stockings for cats and dogs and boxes of ‘Good Boy’ treats. Even the scratching post has some green ribbon attached. Along with some rather horrible artificial tree-like objects complete with blue and silver hanging balls. It seemed a particularly bleak image of the capitalist commercialisation of a religious festival.

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Hospitals, Muslims and Housing

Hospitals, Muslims and Housing: On Saturday 6th of October 2012 I went to Shepherds Bush for a march against hospital closure, then on to Westminster for a protest against Muslim gangs and a much larger protest by Muslims against an anti-Muslim film, finally to Kilburn for a rally calling for Brent council to rehouse a homeless family.

Save Our Hospitals – Shepherds Bush

Residents of West London who were furious at proposals to close Accident and Emergency services at four of the nine hospitals in their area met at Shepherds Bush to march though Hammersmith and past Charing Cross Hospital on the Fulham Palace Road to a rally at Lillie Road recreation ground.

Under the proposals, Charing Cross Hospital in Hammersmith would lose nine of the 11 major types of service currently provided on-site, including the A&E, becoming a ‘local hospital’, while Hammersmith Hospital would be only a specialist unit.

A&E would only remain at Chelsea and Westminster, St Mary’s Paddington, Northwick Park, West Middlesex and Hillingdon, all five involving slow journeys over congested roads from much of the area.

As well as this march there had also been earlier marches against the plans in Harlesden and in Southall and Action. As a result of the huge public campaign then Health Minister Jeremy Hunt reprieved the A&E services at Charing Cross and Ealing, but closures went ahead at Hammersmith and Central Middlesex.

Save Our Hospitals – Shepherds Bush.

Britain First – Muslim Grooming – Westminster

A small group met at Downing St to protest against grooming and abuse of young girls by Muslim gangs, and the failure of police to properly investigate them; it was led by the extreme-right racist group Britain First.

The protest has been backed by other extreme-right groups including the English Defence League and among those taking part was Paul Pitt (Paul Prodromou) then the chairman of the South East Alliance after having been thrown out of the EDL for his association with openly racist organisations including the National Front and BNP.

In 2012 there had been high-profile cases in areas such as Rochdale which have high Parkistani populations, and the media coverage of these had produced a distorted impression that grooming gangs were largely Muslim men.

A Home Office investigation on grooming hangs published in 2020 concluded there was not enough evidence to conclude that child sexual abuse gangs were disproportionately made up of Asian offenders, stating “Research has found that group-based child sexual exploitation offenders are most commonly white“.

The small group of protesters marched to Parliament Square where they tried with little success to burn an Islamic flag, ending up by hitting it with a shoe instead.

I left them as they returned to Downing Street and went to join a much larger Muslim protest in Old Palace Yard.

More pictures at Britain First – Muslim Grooming.

Muslims against Anti-Muslim Film – Old Palace Yard, Westminster

Thousands of Muslims packed Old Palace Yard opposite the Houses of Parliament in a peaceful protest against an made in the USA. They called for laws to protect religious figures.

The film was a short video by Egyptian-born Mark Basseley Youssef (aka Nakoula Basseley Nakoula) which has prompted violent anti-American protests in various Muslim countries. Youssef was then in jail in Los Angeles as he made the film in breach of a probation order banning him from using aliases following a conviction for a bank fraud in 2010. He was later sentenced to one year in prison and four years of supervised release. He had falsely claimed the video had been funded by $5 million collected from 100 Jewish donors, and that he himself was an Israeli Jew.

In the hour I was there only one of the speeches was in English, but many of the placards were, and ‘Stop Hurting Muslims’, ‘Freedom of Speech is Not Freedom to Abuse’, ‘The Prophet is Dearer to us than our lives’, ‘Stop Islamophobia’ were clear.

As with many Muslim events this was segregated, with women being relegated to a small area in the background where they could see little of what was happening, although they could hear the speeches. All the speakers while I was there were men.

Muslims against Anti-Muslim Film.

Rehouse the Counihans – Kilburn

I took the Underground from Westminster to Kilburn where people were meeting for a march and rally demanding that Brent council rehouse the Counihan family.

Back in 2007 the family had moved from council property in Kilburn to Galway to look after Anthony Counihan’s sick father. Council officials had failed to advise him he could sublet the tenancy and instead he signed away the lease.

They returned to Brent so Anthony could take up his job as a London bus driver again when his father died. Anthony inherited 9.5 acres of land in Galway with a shack on it which brings in £18 a week in rent and when he reported this to the council they responded with an eviction order and a demand for repayment of £70,000 of housing benefit.

One council official advised the family to move back to Ireland, at the same time advising Anthony to hang on to his job as a bus driver out of the Cricklewood depot as jobs were hard to find, suggesting he should commute from Galway!

You can read more about this case in the post on My London Diary, where I comment that it “has revealed an astonishing level of both incompetence and lack of humanity among both officers and councillors in Brent Council, and some have made highly misleading or factually incorrect comments in public.“

The campaigners accuse the council of “behaving vindictively, dishonestly, and punitively towards local residents” and around a hundred came to the rally in Kilburn before marching around South Kilburn to a rally in the South Kilburn Estate, which was addressed by Isabel Counihan-Sanchez with one of her daughters and speakers representing various groups supporting the family, including trade unionists, local residents and representatives of various groups including the Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group.

On the route the march stopped outside the flat which had been the home of Nygel Firminger. Harassed by Kilburn jobcentre after had various problems at work, including 3 months for which he did not get paid and a work head injury he was evicted from the flat without his medicines. Later in the day he got back into the where he was later found dead.

More on My London Diary at Rehouse the Counihans.

Housing, Fukushima, Dolphins, Poppies, Deloitte & Royal Opera House

Friday 7th November 2014 was an unusually long and busy day for me in London.

Brent Housing Sit-in – South Kilburn Housing Office, Friday 7th November 2014

My day began outside the South Kilburn Housing Office where campaigners were calling for Brent to end selling properties to overseas investors while rehousing local residents outside the area. They accuse the Labour council of social cleansing and say people need to be put before profit. Soon they moved into the office and sat with their posters in the lobby.

There is a huge amount of ‘regeneration’ taking place in council estates in Brent, but the new properties are is largely advertised and sold off to people from outside the borough – including to wealthy investors abroad who often will leave the properties empty while London house prices rise, selling them after a few years at a high profit. It’s easier to sell empty properties than to have the bother of sitting tenants, though generally these can be easily evicted.

The campaigners included Isabel Counihan Sanchez and other members of the Housing 4 All campaign which grew out of the Counihan family campaign and Unite Community members. The result of profit-led regeneration process is social cleansing – with people from Brent having to move to outer London or away from London altogether because they cannot afford properties in the area. Often they have to move into private rented accommodation with little or no security of tenure on short-term contracts, where landlords often fail to do repairs and evict tenants who complain.

What residents of Brent (and other boroughs need), as the campaigner’s posters stated is ‘Social Housing Not Social Cleansing’, as in the previous century when philanthropic schemes – such as Peabody – and councils built houses and flats as social housing at rents that are actually affordable to people on low or minimum wage.

Brent Housing Sit-in

Fukushima Nuclear Protest – Japanese Embassy, Friday 7th November 2014

From Brent I travelled to the Japanese Embassy on Piccadilly, where a small group of Japanese and English protesters were handing out bi-lingual Japanese/English fliers about the continuing danger from radioactive leaks from the Fukushima nuclear power station.

Their weekly lunchtime protests here call for an end to the building of nuclear power stations worldwide because of the safety risks that Fukushima has highlighted, and for a proper investigation of the failures of TEPCO, the owners of the Fukushima power plant in running the plant and reporting and tackling the catastrophe. Later they left to protest at the nearby offices of TEPCO in Berkeley Square.

Fukushima Nuclear Protest

Taiji Dolphin slaughter protest – Japanese Embassy, Friday 7th November 2014

I remained outside the embassy where a crowd of several hundred as calling on Japan to halt the annual slaughter of 20,000 dolphins, porpoises and small whales each year in Taiji Cove, which had been taking place annually for around 40 years.

Those protesting included Ric O’ Barry, founder of the Dolphin Project and the maker of the film ‘The Cove’ which has shown the shocking reality of the dolphin slaughter to audiences around the world. Here he holds a poste ‘Enough Is Enough’.

The protest was remarkable for the number of hand drawn and painted posters and placards, as well as some 3D artworks. Many of those present accepted the offer of having their hands covered in red paint to represent the blood of the dolphins, which turns the water in the bay red during the slaughter.

Most of the protesters remained behind the barriers on the opposite side of the road to the embassy, but there was some tension between the police and a few who crossed the road to protest closer to the embassy doorway.

Taiji Dolphin slaughter protest

Trafalgar Square Poppy Memorial – Friday 7th November 2014

On my way to the next protest I changed buses at Trafalgar Square and stopped to look at Mark Humphrey’s brass ‘Every Man Remembered’ which had been unveiled there earlier in the day. Later I wrote about this bland and idealised image of an unknown soldier in Remembering the Dead on this site. To truly remember and honour the sacrifice our memorials might better show – in Seigfried Sassoon’s words – ‘Young faces bleared with blood, Sucked down into the mud‘. In my article I linked the another by Paul Mason in which he reminds us that the First World War actually ended when German sailors, soldiers and workers refused to fight.

Trafalgar Square Poppy Memorial

IWGB protest at Deloitte, Friday 7th November 2014

Another bus took me in into the City, where the IWGB (Independent Workers of Great Britain trade union) were protesting around Shoe Lane at Deloitte’s City offices. The cleaners in these are outsourced and employed by Serco who have suspended to workers for taking part in earlier protests over working conditions and staff shortages which have led to cleaners suffering from stress and back problems.

The cleaners had hoped to take security by surprise at the first of the offices they arrived at, but they were obviously prepared, and the cleaners could only play their drums, blow their horns and whistles, shout slogans and wave their flags in the courtyard outside, unfurling a large banner with the message ‘Solidarity. We Are Performing a SercoExorcism’.

Security managed to keep ahead of them as they visited and protested outside three nearby Deloitte offices. At the third, two City of London police officers grabbed Alberto Durango as he was speaking and tried to stop him protesting. IWGB members surrounded them, insisting that they had a right to lawful protest and eventually the police backed down. The IWGB marched on to protest at a fourth office, then marched back to Fleet St.

IWGB protest at Deloitte

IWGB protest at Royal Opera House, Friday 7th November 2014

By now I was rather hoping to say goodbye and go home, but as we arrived on Fleet St, Alberto Durango announced that the group would be marching on to pay a surprise visit to the Royal Opera House, were outsourced IWGB cleaners are in dispute with cleaning contractor Mitie over victimisation, trade union recognition and working conditions.

The cleaners moved quietly through the streets and rather surprised me as we arrived at the opera house by rushing into the foyer. A security guard grabbed hold of Alberto Durango but he pulled away from here and the rest of the group followed in and I went with them.

There they held a short protest with Alberto making clear their demands and calling on the Royal Opera House to support their cleaners and pressure Mitie who they have given the contract to to treat the cleaners properly. Opera House staff stood and listened and then the IWGB walked out. And at last I could go home.

IWGB protest at Royal Opera House

Brent St Patrick’s Day Parade

Brent St Patrick’s Day Parade

Brent is the London Borough with the largest Irish population and there are also significant numbers in the neighbouring boroughs of Camden and Islington and Hammersmith & Fulham, with Kilburn and Willesden Green being the in particular having large populations of Irish descent,

So it was hardly surprising that Willesden Green for some years had its own St Patrick’s Day procession, held on the day itself, March 17th, as well as the London celebration begun in 2002 when Ken Livingstone was Mayor on the nearest Sunday. Labour Brent also celebrated days for some of its other communities until recently cuts in funding from a Tory dominated central government made this no longer possible.

The parade in Brent was on a smaller and friendlier scale than the London parade, and far more a community festival on the street, with others as well as the Irish joining in and having a good time.

The multi-cultural nature of Brent was clear in that the parade began outside an Islamic Cultural Centre and those taking part included many local school-children from a whole mix of heritages. Brent as well as St Patrick’s Day also then celebrated Diwali, Eid, Christmas, Chanukah and Navrati, and Holocaust Memorial Day, along with a black history programme, its own ‘Respect’ festival and a world food and music festival.

*St Patrick blesses the photographer, Willesden Green, 2009*

But it was very clearly an Irish event, with Irish people from all across London coming to watch and take part, both in the parade and in the various pubs and bars along the route.

Some of the floats in the parade were also in the main London St Patrick’s Day parade, but the atmosphere here was much more relaxed. Here are a few pictures that I made from 2009-2013.

*Two St Patricks, Willesden Green, 2012*

In 2013, the event was much smaller as council funding had been cut, thanks to Tory austerity policies. And because St Patricks Day that year was on the Sunday, the celebration in Brent was held a day earlier so not to clash with the London parade.

I think this was the last St Patrick’s Day Parade in Brent – certainly it was the last I photographed. You can see many other pictures from Brent St Patrick’s Day Parade on My London Diary

Brent St Patrick’s Day Parade 2007 (scroll down the page)
Brent St Patrick’s Day Parade 2008
Brent St Patrick’s Day Parade 2009
Brent St Patrick’s Day Parade 2010
Brent St Patrick’s Day Parade 2011
Brent St Patrick’s Day Parade 2012
Brent St Patrick’s Day Parade 2013