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Make Them Pay March, London – 2025

Make Them Pay March: Thousands came to the ‘Make Them Pay’ march from the BBC to Parliament Square in London on Saturday 20th September 2025, part of a global week of action on climate justice backed by an alliance of trade unions and campaigning organisations representing millions of workers, citizens and communities across Britain. They say ‘Billionaires have broken Britain – Make THEM pay to fix it‘ and demand the government tax the super-rich, protect workers rather than billionaires and make polluters pay.

The march assembled in nine blocks, in anticipation of this being an extremely large protest given the number of organisations supporting it, but many of these were hard to spot on the march, though they may have been more obvious at the rally that followed.

After a couple of hours photographing before the start and on the first mile or so of the march I was getting rather tired, but also finding that I was beginning to photograph exactly the same people and groups.

It was time for me to take a rest and eat my sandwiches before going to photograph a protest over job losses for cleaners working for University College on the campus and at halls of residence.

Here I’ll try to post a picture from each bloc as well as the list of the organisations involved – although there were many groups I could not identify on the march – and I apologise in advance for any pictures I have featured in the wrong blocs.

Bloc A: Parents, families and kids

London, UK. 20 Sept 2025. Create a better future.

Parents for Future, Mothers Rise Up and Mothers’ Manifesto.

Bloc B: Economic and social justice

Action Aid UK, Another Europe is Possible, Compass, Debt Justice, DPAC, Equal Right, Equality Trust, Fuel Poverty Action, Greens Organise, Green Party of England and Wales, Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, It’s Just Economics, Just Treatment, MenaFem Movement, New Economics Foundation, Patriotic Millionaires UK, Peace & Justice Project, Positive Money, Tax Justice UK, 350.org.

Bloc C: Palestine solidarity

London, UK. 20 Sept 2025. Ecocide in Gaza.

No named group took part, but there were a few Palestinian flags and a few individuals reminding us of the vast ecocide being inflicted on Gaza

Bloc D: Migrant and racial justice

Black Liberation Alliance, Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants,
Migrants Organise, No Borders in Climate Justice.

Bloc E: Workers and trade unions

Bakers’ Union, Equity, Fire Brigades Union, Greener Jobs Alliance, National Education Union.

Bloc F: Billionaires out of fashion

London, UK. 20 Sept 2025. Billionaires out of fashion.

Labour Behind the Label, No Sweat .

Bloc G: Faith groups

London, UK. 20 Sept 2025. No More Fossil Fuels.

CAFOD, Christian Climate Action, Christian Aid, Church Action on Poverty, Faith for the Climate, Muslim Aid, Muslim Charities Forum, Quakers in Britain.

Bloc H: Restore nature

River Action, Take Back Water, Zero Hour. I can’t find a picture featuring these groups, but there were Extinction Rebellion supporters with a large fish.

Bloc J: Climate justice.

London, UK. 20 Sept 2025. Cut the ties to fossil fuels.

Anticapitalist Resistance, Campaign Against Climate Change, Climate Resistance, Debt for Climate, Ecojustice Ireland, Extinction Rebellion, Friends of the Earth EWNI, Global Justice Now, Global Witness, Greater Manchester Climate Justice Coalition, Green Economy Coalition, Greenpeace, Heat Strike, London Mining Network, Make Polluters Pay, Oxfam, People & Planet, Possible, Stop Rosebank, Tipping Point, Working Class Climate Alliance, War on Want, Yorkshire and Humber Climate Justice Coalition.

Many more pictures in my Facebook album Make Them Pay March including some that didn’t seem to fit in any of the blocs.

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Climate Rush Green Fayre, Aylesbury – 2009

Climate Rush Green Fayre in Aylesbury: I’d met with Climate Rush at the start of their tour of South West England at Sipson, near Heathrow and had photographed both their procession to Heathrow and the Celebration of Community Resistance they held there on the Sipson Airplot. On Wednesday 9th September 2009 I went to Aylesbury, the furthest north of their horse-drawn tour, where they were holding a Green Fayre in the centre of the town.

Although it was September, the day was one of the best afternoons of the summer and there were people sitting outside cafés around the square and walking to the shops in this pedestrianised area.

Along with the Climate Rush the Green Euro-MP Caroline Lucas had come to speak at the event, along with celebrity cookery writer and TV performer Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. I’d photographed Caroline at quite a few events, but this was the first time I’d met Hugh, and have to admit I’ve never watched him on screen, having no interest in cookery programmes.

At the start of the event Tamsin Omond and some of the other Rushers made a tour of the nearby shopping streets with their ‘EQUITY’ banner to try to drum up trade. An actual drum would have helped, or event a megaphone, but Tamsin had a surprisingly loud voice, announcing the opportunity to meet both the TV Cook and one of their Euro MPs.

They went through the busy market square – Aylesbury was a market town in Saxon times – and back to Kingsbury, a triangular open space to the north of the Market Square surrounded by shops and pubs where the Green Fayre was being held. It was I think only my second visit to the town which now has a population of around 65,000.

During the afternoon quite a few people did stop to talk with Hugh and tell him how much they enjoyed his programme. Others just edged towards him, stopping a few yards away phone in hand to take a photo.

There were a few short speeches and people talked with the Rushers and some wrote notes about climate change and other environmental issues, posting these in a box to be sent to the local MP. A few children came to draw pictures.

*The Aylesbury Museum provided some free pears and Aylesbury plums*

Aylesbury Museum had come to join in the event with a stall, and brought apples and rare Aylesbury plums to give away – and these were delicious. Other gardeners also brought fruit and vegetables from their gardens and we all enjoyed eating some of these.

*The screen was a bit blocked and gave an interestingly ‘distressed’ image*

A water feature in the centre of the square came in useful for the screen-printing demonstration, printing a Climate Rush image onto t-shirts and washing the screen afterwards.

And on a hot afternoon a pint of real ale from one of the pubs was very welcome. It was a long, hot afternoon and I was sorry to have to leave.

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The Wall Must Fall & Kyoto – 2004

The Wall Must Fall & Kyoto: There were two protests on May 15th 2004 over major issues still very relevant now. The first was against the separation wall being built by Israel which was breaking up many Palestinian urban settlements and dividing some farmers from their lands. Designed for the convenience of IsraelI Security forces it reconfigures many boundaries and paved the way for further IsralI settlements on Palestinian land, in complete disregard of the needs and civil rights of Palestinians.

Later I joined the march from Leatherhead to the US Embassy for the final few hundred yards of their march in protest against the failure of the US to ratify the Kyoto climate accord. US policies on climate change were and now are largely driven by the fossil fuel companies and have led to our current position with global temperatures continuing to rise towards levels the science tells us endangers human life on our planet. Though warming in the oceans may lead before long to a loss of the Gulf Stream which makes life in the UK tolerable and bring in a new Ice Age in the UK!

As with other events in the early years of My London Diary, the page design separated text and images, and the text was made less legible by eschewing capitals, a victory of style over sense which made no sense when I had begun to post more events on the pages with longer stories – but which it took me until 2008 to redesign. Below I’ll reunite some of the pictures with the text I wrote and links to the many more pictures still on their own pages on My London Diary.

The Wall Must Fall – Free Palestine Rally, Trafalgar Square

The Wall Must Fall rally in Trafalgar Square on 15 May started with an an ugly scene, when stewards stopped Peter Tatchell and a group from Outrage from being photographed in front of the banners around Nelson’s Column. The rally organisers argued that raising the question of the persecution of gays in Palestine distracted attention from the Palestinian cause. Their childish attempts to distract the attention of photographers by jumping in front of the Outrage protesters, holding placards in front of theirs and shouting over them simply increased the force of Tatchell’s arguments and coverage they gained.

Fortunately the rally soon got under way. The main speaker was Jamal Jumaa – Director of the Stop The Wall Campaign In Palestine, although there were many others, including Sophie Hurndall, the mother of murdered peace activist Tom, Green MEP Caroline Lucas, Afif Safieh the Palestinian General Delegate to the UK, George Galloway and more. Too many more for most of us.

War On Want activists came with a wall to dramatise the effect of the wall in Palestine. When the march moved off down Whitehall, the wall walked with them, and it was erected again opposite Downing Street. Here there was a short sit-down on the road before the event dissolved.

Many more pictures on My London Diary including of the main speakers.

Kyoto march to US embassy, Grosvenor Square

*Bristol Radical Cheerleaders in the Kyoto march to the US embassy*

I caught up with the Kyoto march, organised by the Campaign Against Climate Change, as it reached Berkeley Square on the last quarter-mile or so of its long trek [around 19 miles] from the Esso British HQ in Leatherhead. Esso are seen as being one of the main influences behind the refusal by President George Bush and the US administration to ratify the Kyoto Accord.

*Pedal-powered Rinky Dink sound system supports the Campaign against Climate Change*

The campaign had previously organised a number of marches in london, and this was an annual event.

*Marchers ready for the ‘Dinosaur Party’ at the US Embassy*

*CodePink campaigners with a coffin carrying planet Earth: TAKE ACTION NOW TO STOP CLIMATE CHANGE*

Among the marchers it was good to find a number dressed ready for the promised ‘Dinosaur Party’ at the US Embassy, as well as the fantastic Rinky Dink cycle-powered sound system. It was also good to meet a few of the Bristol Radical Cheerleaders again, bouncing with energy as ever. A little colour was also added by a small group of of Codepink activists forming a funeral cortège, carrying the globe on their coffin.

*Even the Statue of Liberty implores Bush to sign Kyoto*

*E$$o campaigners in front of the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square*

The police in Grosvenor Square were not helpful, but eventually the speeches got under way in a corner of the square.

More pictures on My London Diary.

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Save the Bees – 2013

Save the Bees: On Friday 26th April I joined several hundred beekeepers and environmentalists outside Parliament, “many in bee veils and with flowers and fruit that rely on bee pollination to urge DEFRA’s Owen Paterson to back a ban on bee-killing neonicotinoid pesticides in Monday’s EU vote.”

These systemic pesticides are absorbed by plants and taken to their leaves and flowers including nectar and pollen. They kill insects by attacking their central nervous systems but there are also serious sub-lethal effects which for bees, including “difficulty navigating, learning, and foraging, suppressed immune response, lower sperm viability, shortened lifespans of queens, and reduced numbers of new queens produced.”

They disrupt to complex systems by which bees are able to communicate with each other about good sources of nectar, to fly to these and to return to the hive – and our worker bees can simply get lost.

As well as being absorbed by the commercial crops on which they are sprayed, these water-soluble insectides run off into ditches, streams and rivers and are then absorbed by plants growing in the wild.

These are not the only threats to our bee population, also endangered by climate change, habitat loss, invasive bees and other species, parasites and diseases spread in intensive commercial bee farming.

As well as bees, these pesticides also are a threat to all other pollinating insects. Around a third of food supplies around the world depend on plants being pollinated. They also effect birds, especially seed-eating birds as their major use is in seed coatings, but also by killing insects which birds rely on for food.

Neonicotinoids have also been found widely in our bodies – “in children, adults and neonates” but although large doses have been found to impair cognitive ability and memory in laboratory rats there is as yet no evidence that they are having any effect on us.

*Katherine Hamnett and Dame Vivienne Westwood take the ‘Save the Bees’ petition to Downing St*

In April 2013 the EU voted to restrict their use across the EU for two years – though despite this protest Britain was one of eight states to vote against this. In 2018 the EU passed a total ban on the three main compounds, despite continuing strong opposition from the manufacturers and some farmers. There has been a general ban on their use in the UK since 2017, but until 2025 sugar beet farmers were given “emergency authorisations” for their use. Ending this was a Labour election pledge and it was confirmed by a government press release in December 2024.

More pictures at March of the Beekeepers.

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Trade Justice Mass Action 2007

Trade Justice Mass Action. Thursday 19th April 2007 saw a mass action by the Trade Justice Movement in London which was a part of a wider global day of action by campaigners across Europe as well as in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific – the ‘APC’ countries.

The protest was particularly about the agreements between the APC countries and the EU, and the unfair trade deals (economic partnership agreements or EPAs) that the EU was negotiating. The African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States organisation was founded in 1975 and the 71 countries then involved came to an trade agreement with the European Economic Community (EEC) in Lomé, Togo, the Lomé Convention.

This “provided for most ACP agricultural and mineral exports to enter the EEC free of duty. Preferential access based on a quota system was agreed for products, such as sugar and beef, in competition with EEC agriculture” from the 71 countries in the ACP and it also provided funds for aid and investment.

The Lomé Convention was twice updated but in 1995 the United States complained to the World Trade Organisation that it was unfair to them and the WTO Dispute Settlement Body ruled in their favour. Many argue that the WTO prioritizes the interests of wealthy nations and multinational companies and undermines national sovereignty, and hinders efforts to address global issues like poverty and climate change.

Negotiations between the European Union and the 78 ACP countries held in Coutonou, Benin in 2000 led to a new agreement, the Cotonou Agreement, signed by all except Cuba, which came into force in 2003 – and was later revised in 2005 and 2010.

According to Wikipedia, “The Cotonou Agreement is aimed at the reduction and eventual eradication of poverty while contributing to sustainable development and to the gradual integration of ACP countries into the world economy. The revised Cotonou Agreement is also concerned with the fight against impunity and promotion of criminal justice through the International Criminal Court.”

The ACP, now renamed the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States, came to a new agreement, the Samoa Agreement, to replace this which entered into force provisionally in January 2024 but has proved more controversial, particularly because of its support for gender equality.

The Mass Action in 2007 was organised by the Trade Justice Movement, which included 78 UK-based organisations including aid organisations such as Action Aid, Cafod, Christian Aid, Oxfam, Tearfund, War On Want and the World Development Movement, trade unions, churches, fair trade groups and more.

It began with a rally in Belgrave Square, a square containing many empbassies. The rally was outside the German (and Austrian) embassies, with speakers from a number of the groups including Frances O’Grady from the Trade Union Congress, Tony Juniper of Friends of the Earth and speakers from some APC countries.

*Setting off for the Department of Trade and Industry*

At the end of the rally groups left to deliver a letter and a large key to every EU country’s embassy with a letter and a key, demanding that the EU stops negotiating unfair trade deals (economic partnership agreements or EPAs) with developing countries. One group went to the Department of Trade and Industry to deliver to the UK. I could not go with all the groups going to all 27 locations to deliver these, but did manage to take photographs of the groups outside the Finnish, Spanish and Austrian embassies.

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Armenians, Football, Tweed, TTIP, KFC, BP, NHS – 2015

Armenians, Football, Tweed, TTIP, KFC, BP, NHS: Ten years ago on Saturday 18th April 2015 London was busy with protests and I rushed around covering seven events, though the last four at Shepherds Bush were all part of the Day of Dissent rally against TTIP, related to the problems which would be caused with a trade deal with the USA – and all threats now relevant to the current talks between our government and the Trump administration.

Centenary of Armenian Genocide

Armenians, Football, Tweed, TTIP, KFC, BP, NHS - 2015 — *A woman paints an Armenian flag on a man’s cheek*

I met hundreds of Armenians close to Hyde Park corner on Piccadilly as they prepared for their annual march in protest against the Armenian Genocide. This year, 2015 marked the centenary of the start of the killing of 1.5m Armenians by Turkey between 1915 and 1923.

Turkey still refuse to accept the mass killings as genocide and the UK has not recognised the Armenian genocide. Armenians demannd that both countries should recognise this historic event and that it should be taught in the national curriculum.

Some carried placards with pictures of Hrant Dink who is described as ‘The 1,500,001st Victim of The Armenian Genocide‘. Editor of the Istanbul Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos, he was prosecuted under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code which makes it a crime to publicly denigrate the Turkish government, republic or nation. After having received many death threats he was assassinated by a 17 year old Turkish Nationalist in January 2007.

I left the protest shortly before the march began, hoping to see them later at Downing Street but had left Westminster before they arrived.

More pictures: Centenary of Armenian Genocide

Football Action Network Manifesto

I went to Westminster to find the Football Action Network who were taking copies of their manifesto to the Labour, Tory and Lib-Dem offices, and finally caught up with them on the steps of the Lib-Dem offices.

Their demands include a Football Reform Bill, a living wage for all staff, fair ticket prices, safe standing, and reforms to clubs & FA.

Football Action Network Manifesto

Tweed Cycle Ride

I briefly left the football fans as the Tweed Cycle Ride stopped on the road opposite and rushed to take pictures as it went into Parliament Square. The vintage-themed ride, “a jaunty bike ride around London in our sartorial best“, stops for tea and a picnic and ends with “a bit of a jolly knees-up” and raises funds for the London Cycling Campaign.

Tweed Cycle Ride

Stop TTIP Rally – Shepherds Bush

Shepherds Bush was the venue chosen for the Day of Dissent rally against TTIP, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, a proposed trade treaty between the European Union (then still including Britain) and the United States which would have given excessive power to corporations, enabling them to override national laws.

The event began with a rally on Shepherds Bush Green with speakers including Dame Vivienne Westwood, John Hilary of War on Want along with many others.

But much of the time was spent in a number of group discussions and it wasn’t an easy event to make interesting pictures. What was really clear was the threat that the TTIP treaty being negotiated by governments and corporations poses to democracy and all public services, that it would be a threat to public health and the NHS and would prevent changes made to combat climate change.

Campaigners then left to carry out the three separate actions I then photographed.

Stop TTIP rally

KFC protest over TTIP – Shepherds Bush

Protesters in white coats formed a line outside KFC at Shepherds Bush dipping rubber chickens in buckets of chlorine and acid, illustrating that TTIP would force the UK to accept unsafe agricultural and food practices (including GMO crops) allowed in the USA.

Chickens need chlorine washing because of lower farm hygiene standards and US meat contains much higher levels of hormones and other chemicals than here.

KFC protest over TTIP

BP die-in against Climate Change

On the other side of Shepherds Bush Green protesters calling for a fossil fuel free future staged a die-in at BP Shepherds Bush against TTIP, which would force countries to use dirty fuels including coal, tar oil and arctic oil and seriously delay cutting carbon emissions and the move to renewable energy.

After some speeches about the protest the protesters got up from the garage forecourt and walked away.

More at BP die-in against Climate Change.

Westfield ‘Save our NHS’ protest

Protesters walked in to the Westfield Centre to protest outside the Virgin media shop over the danger that TTIP poses to our NHS. Virgin Healthcare, (in 2021 rebranded as HCRG Care Group) had already taken over providing large parts of the simpler services provided by the NHS, replacing the easily run parts of our National Health service, and taking money out of the system.

*NHS campaigner Gay Lee introduces the protest and the short piece of street theatre*

Campaigners urged that the NHS should be excluded from TTIP, but governments and business insist it should not be. Now in 2025 we are again worried that any US-UK trade agreement made by the Starmer Labour government may open up our health service to much greater privatisation by the giant US health companies.

*George Barda offers his garland of dollars to ‘Richard Branson’*

Many UK government members have significant financial interests in private healthcare companies, and coulld have expected rich profits if TTIP is agreed as it will force the NHS to contract out its services to them.

After Trump became president he stopped the TTIP talks so he could pursue a trade war with the EU. One of the few things we can thank him for.

I had been worried that security staff might try to stop photographers working as like most shopping centres, Westfield does not generally allow photography. Police and security watched the protest closely but did not generally try to stop it or photographers working.

The protesters were considering further protests, but I had been on my feet too long and left for home.

More on My London Diary at Westfield ‘Save our NHS’ protest.

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Fools Paradise Parade 2006 & Police State 2025

Fools Paradise Parade Against London Exclusion Zone: Another of my old posts on My London Diary that I’ll capitalise appropriately and make minor corrections is on the Fools Paradise Parade Against London Exclusion Zone which marched from beside the London Eye to Parliament Square on 1st April 2006. As well as the few pictures I’ll post here there are many more on My London Diary. And I’ll end with a dramatic illustration of our shift towards a police state as we have moved over my lifetime fromthe welfare state to a warfare state.

April Fools Day was a good day to demonstrate against the Serious Organised Crime And Police Act 2005 exclusion zone, which bans democratic protests within a kilometre of the the Houses of Parliament unless they have previous permission, as well as greatly restricting what protesters can do. It’s a peculiarly foolish piece of legislation, rushed through to try and tidy up Parliament Square and protect the government from the embarrassment of seeing Brian Haw and other peace protesters on their patch of grass in Parliament Square.

Even more foolish in that, at least so far, it hasn’t worked, although the authorities have appealed against Brian’s legal victory to be allowed to remain.

*Attacking the pinata in Parliament Square, Westminster, London*

April Fools were those who stuck their head in the sand and ignored the Calendar Change in 1752, which was accompanied by a shift in the New Year from March 25th (the Feast of the Assumption) to Jan 1st (the Feast of the Circumcision, latterly renamed the Solemnity of St Mary, Mother of Jesus.) The Inland Revenue still celebrates the old date (augmented by the 11 lost days of the Calendar Change and another that got lost in 1900) by starting the new tax year on April 6th.

The Fools Paradise Parade started on the Victoria Embankment next to the London Eye, with police taking only a friendly interest, but an argument with security men who told us we were on private property. Nice to know that its yet another bit of London that someone has flogged off, but it is public right of way, and we weren’t doing anything that could legally be objected to.

*Tony Blair won the vote to lead the march*

The main problem they had seemed to be that people were photographing them, which demonstrated their lack of training in their job, as did their attitude to the members of the public.

*The Queen was soon telling Mr Blair exactly what he could do.*

Eventually the parade made its way along the riverside path and across Westminster Bridge to Parliament Square, where there was a bit of a party, with a pinata stuffed with presents being attacked and destroyed by the children.

In Parliament Square the parade was greeted by Brian Haw, still continuing his protest despite SOCPA. April 1st also marked the start of our very own FBI, the Serious Organised Crime Agency which seems likely to be used against political opposition as well as serious crime.

Parliament’s incompetence in drafting the law so it failed to ban Brian Haw was corrected in a rather concerning court appeal decision where basically the judgement said that it didn’t matter what the law said as it was clear what parliament had intended.

*An illegal political placard just somehow slipped out in front of the houses of Parliament*

But the provisions on protests in the area around parliament were later repealed and replaced by the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011, which instead “restricts certain “prohibited activities” in Parliament Square garden and the adjoining footways. The police have used these powers to confiscate pizza boxes, tarpaulin and umbrellas from protesters in Parliament Square.” It was rather a case of one step forward, two steps back and almost killed Barbara Tucker who had by then taken over from Brian Haw.

Since 2006 we have seen many further restrictions on our right to protest and draconian prison sentences given to peaceful protesters. Some of the restrictions have been brought in by the Tories prompted by the success of protests by grass roots unions against companies particularly in London paying poverty wages and badly treating workers while others reflect the success of protests in promoting public awareness of issues including climate change and Israeli genocide in Gaza.

More pictures on My London Diary

The move towards a police state we are now witnessing was dramatically illustrated last week when when on 27th March more than 20 uniformed police, some equipped with tasers, forced their way into the Quaker Westminster Meeting House, searched the entire building and arrested six young women holding a meeting over concerns for the climate and Gaza.

As the Quakers state:

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023 have criminalised many forms of protest and allow police to halt actions deemed too disruptive.

Meanwhile, changes in judicial procedures limit protesters’ ability to defend their actions in court. All this means that there are fewer and fewer ways to speak truth to power.

Their statement concluds:

“Freedom of speech, assembly, and fair trials are an essential part of free public debate which underpins democracy.”

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Iraq War & Climate Change -2003

Iraq War & Climate Change: Two separate protests on Saturday 29th March. The invasion of Iraq had begun nine days earlier and there were protests against it around the country including one I covered outside the BBC where a march from North London came to protest against the biased coverage on BBC radio and TV.

Broadcasters were carefully toeing the government line on the war and acting as its mouthpiece. The country was at war and accurate unbiased coverage appeared to be the first casualty.

I didn’t write much about the protest, but the pictures and the posters and placards told the story.

The BBC lost a great deal of credibility over its coverage and I don’t think it has ever recovered from this, And of course it has gone on with biased coverage of other situations including its coverage of the attacks on Jeremy Corbyn and of the Israeli government’s actions in Palestine over the years and particularly the genocidal attacks since the October 7th Hamas attack.

After the protest at the BBC I went on to cover an event calling for urgent action on Climate Change. Twenty two years ago there was still time to avoid its worst effects – if the world took urgent action, but instead most governments dragged their feet, driven by fossil fuel interests and making largely token changes if any. In the UK we are still thinking in a way that should be unthinkable about discovering and exploiting new oil resources such as Rosebank and BP has recently moved away from Green energy back to oil. Total madness.

The Kyoto Protocol had been agreed at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in December 1997 and set targets industrialized countries and the European Union to reduce their emissions by an average of 5% below 1990 levels during in 2008-2012. Some did, although largely by various ways of fiddling the figures, but the major polluters – India, China and the USA made no attempt to do. The main cause of its failure was that the United States never ratified the agreement.

Kyoto was largely replaced by the 2015 Paris agreement and we are now seeing the results of the failure of this to be properly implemented. But here is what I wrote about the ‘Kyoto march’ organised by the Campaign Against Climate Change on Saturday 29th March.

Marchers had started at the UK Esso HQ in Leatherhead and were marching to a party outside the US Embassy. I joined them at the Imperial War Museum to take photographs.

The march marked the the second anniversary of Bush’s decisive rejection of the Kyoto climate treaty. Esso (ExxonMobil) is a key partner in Bush’s energy policy and its opposition to controls on energy use. The per capita energy use of US citizens is dramatically higher than that of other advanced countries, with no incentives for its reduction and a policy of low tax on fuel that makes the US by far the worst polluter of the planet.

More pictures from the Iraq war protest on My London Diary – and on the Kyoto March here.

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Campaign against Climate Change Kyoto Climate March – 2005

Campaign against Climate Change Kyoto Climate March: Another post from the past – 20 years ago on Saturday 12th February 2005- which has perhaps added resonance now that Trump and President Musk have condemned humanity to death with their climate roasting rejection of our last chances of survival. Though like some of his multi-billionaire friends he perhaps trusts inhumanity will survive in their climate bunkers with their heavily armed guards to keep out the rest of us. And as a small bonus I’ll add the anti-consumerist Valentines Day Reclaim Love which I photographed later the same day around Eros.

So here again is the text from 2005, suitably recapitalised and slightly corrected, along with a few of the pictures and linked to the rest. And the odd link to add context which people may have now forgotten.

Campaign against Climate Change Kyoto Climate March

When I talked about the dangers of increasing CO2 emission and the need to cut down use of fossil fuels 35 years ago, I was a crank. Now everyone except the USA oil lobby and their political poodles recognises that climate change is for real.

Even Blair has recognised it as the most vital issue facing us, threatening the future of the planet, although actually taking effective action still is a step too far for him. However he did call for a conference to examine the problem, which told him and us that we had perhaps ten years to take action before it would be to late.

*4x4s waste fuel and endanger pedestrians and cyclists*

Kyoto is history now thanks to the US boycott, (although it comes into effect this week), but it should have been the first inadequate step on the road to action.

*Displaying flags of the 141 countries who have adopted Kyoto*

Every journey has to start somehow, and even a half-hearted step is better than none, and would have led the way to others. What got in its way was Texan oil interests, whose political face is George W Bush.

I’ve photographed most of the Campaign Against Climate Change’s Kyoto marches over the past few years. This one was probably the largest, and certainly excited more media interest, truly a sign that the issue has become news.

*Police stand guard as Lucy Wills berates ExxonMobil for their lies on climate change which drives US policy*

Starting in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, the march stopped first outside the UK offices of Exxonmobil, on the corner of Kingsway for a brief declaration,

then for a longer demonstration outside the Australian High Commission in Aldwych (with guest appearances by its PM ‘John Howard‘ and an Australian ‘Grim Reaper’ with cork decorated hat),

*Uncle Sam as the Grim Reaper in Trafalgar Square*

before making its way past Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus to the Us Embassy.
more pictures

O-I-L One in Love – Reclaim Love, Eros, Piccadilly Circus

I left the climate march in Picadilly and returned to Eros, where O-I-L, One In Love, were organising a small gathering to “reclaim love” and “send love and healing to all the beings in the world” on the eve of Valentine’s day. It’s something we could all do with, and it was good to see people enjoying themselves around the statue of Eros (Anteros for pedants) in what is usually one of the most depressing spots on London’s tourist circuit.

*Irish poet Venus CuMara who founded and organised these free street party*

There was the samba band again, Rhythms Of Resistance, (hi guys) and dancing and people generally being happy and friendly and free Reclaim Love t shirts and apart from the occasional showers it was harmless fun.

*The circle to send love and healing to all the beings in this world*

Rather to my surprise, the police either didn’t notice it or decided to ignore it, an unusually sensible strategy

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King’s College Divest Oil & Gas Now! Strand, London – 2017

King’s College Divest Oil & Gas Now: On Thursday 9th February a colourful protest on the pavement in front of the college’s main buildings on London’s Strand called for the college to disinvest from fossil fuels.

The world desperately needs to move away from burning coal, oil and gas for energy production and transport, as has been clear for at least the last 30 years and recent temperature rise and increasing incidence of disruptive fires, floods and other extreme weather events make impossible to ignore.

Yet governments around the world largely continue to ignore this, or make attempts which are far too little and far too late, with the recently elected demented US president even determined to increase his countries emissions, led by the lobbying of the US industry only interested in its own short-term profits.

Let the world burn seems to be the message from the “ultra-wealthy stakeholders” while they plan their doomsday bunkers in the USA, Alaska or the Antarctic complete with military security forces to keep out the raiders and angry mobs.

Yet the UK financial sector still enables to extraction of more fossil fuels which endanger the future of our civilisation and human life on the planet. Banks still bankroll them, insurance companies still insure their climate destroying activities and many respectable organisations still invest in them, including pension funds, though increasingly investors are divesting.

And one that has now divested is King’s College, who state: “In 2017, King’s committed to full divestment from all fossil fuels by the end of 2022. We achieved this target in early 2021. King’s also does not invest in tobacco and armaments. In 2023, we reached the target to invest 40% of our endowment in investments with socially responsible benefits two years early.“

Although I suspect King’s would say that this protest had no effect on their decision, I’m sure that this campaign and this very public protest was a major factor in moving them in this direction.

And it was successful because it was noisy, public and colourful, employing the kinds of methods that led the Tories to bring in new laws restricting our rights to protest and giving the police new powers to try to prevent effective protest. We still have the right to protest but are now expected to do so discretely.

The one arrest of those taking part in the Stand Up to Racism protest a few days ago on February 1st was of one of those who lit a smoke flare, and similar arrests have been made at other recent protests. Setting off of fireworks on our streets has been illegal since 1875, but only recently have police begun to enforce this against the use of distress flares in protests.

People have been arrested for sticking things on walls and windows, even though they can be readily removed without damage.

In this protest police attempted to take the names and addresses of those who had made small blobs of colour using washable paint on a concrete pillar. This was done as a gesture of solidarity with PhD student Roger Hallam, one of the leading campaigners aat King’s who was suspended by the college for writing “Divest From Oil and Gas Now. Out of Time!” in washable paint at an earlier protest. Like the blobs this had washed off easily without trace, as was other painting I photographed him doing and being arrested for in the ‘Life Not Money’ protest at nearby LSE a couple of months later

*Roger Hallam is arrested at Life Not Money protest at LSE, April 25th 2017*

Roger Hallam, one of the co-founders of Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil, is now serving five years in prison after being convicted of conspiracy for organising protests to block the M25, a draconian sentence for a peaceful campaigner. Sixteen Just Stop Oil protesters were given jail sentences last year for peacefully protesting in response to the climate crisis and at their trials were prevented from defending themselves by explaining their motives to the jury. Others are being held on remand for long periods. We now have political policing, political trials and political prisoners in the UK.

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