CND | >Re-PHOTO

Bring All the Troops Home NOW – 2007

Bring All the Troops Home NOW: CND and Stop The War had called for a march to Parliament on 8th October 2007 to arrive when Gordon Brown was making his statement to Parliament on Iraq where British troops were still present having taken part in the US-led invasion in 2003.

They wanted to march to make clear that all UK troops should come back here now. The invasion of Iraq in 2003 had led to the fall of Saddam Hussein but had been made without any real thought for the future of Iraq – except for the profits which US companies hoped to make. Saddam’s civil and military administration which had united the country were simply removed rather than being put to use to keep the country running and chaos reigned. Iraq didn’t need foreign armies but needed real support to set up a new civil society and that had not been forthcoming.

Gordon Brown tried to ban the protest, using “Sessional Orders” to the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police for him to prevent the march under section 52 of the Metropolitan Police Act 1839. But CND and Stop The War made clear it would go ahead despite this.

On the morning of the march Prime Minister Gordon Brown – probably reacting both to huge public pressure and legal advice – lifted the ban, thus avoiding a huge burden on both police and courts. They might otherwise have ended with thousands of arrests – and cases which the courts would probably throw out.

Around ten years later the powers that the Brown government had attempted to use were officially recognised to no longer have any legal effect – something I suspect had been part of legal advice given to Brown in 2007.

Last Saturday, October 4th 2025, I again watched a protest by Defend Our Juries in defiance of the government’s proscription of Palestine Action under terrorist laws, with police arresting almost 500 people for sitting holding a piece of cardboard with a message supporting the banned group. Many of those arrested seemed to be elderly and some also disabled, though there were also younger people.

The protestersy presented no danger to public order – other than challenging the legally doubtful ban on the group who few outside the government and those making arms for sale to Israel who had been heavily lobbying for a ban – believe could be described as terrorists. And this is something to be shortly tested in the courts. And the arrests made the police look unfeeling and stooges of the government rather than a force acting with the consent of the people.

Perhaps our current Labour government should have learnt from the example of George Brown in 2007. Supposedly we are a nation where the police operate by consent – which was clearly not the case here – and the police should have made this clear to the government and simply ignored this and earlier protests by ‘Defend Our Juries’. Which would of course have made the action – with people coming on purpose to be arrested and waiting patiently for hours for it to happen – totally ineffectual. And we do after all we have many laws which people – especially motorists – break every day and the police ignore.

Defend Our Juries also protests against the practice by some judges in some courts to prevent those charged from making a defence of their actions and instructing juries that they cannot use their consciences in coming to decisions – both vital protections essential to a fair legal system. Actions introduced into our legal system because successive governments have been angered by the decisions reached by juries in some cases. But it should not be the job of our legal system to serve the government but to serve the people and these developments endanger the whole basis of trial by jury which protects us and our democracy.

Here’s what I wrote in 2007 about the march and rally on 8th October 2007. All the pictures in this post come the event and there are many more on My London Diary.

Brian Haw’s t-shirt summed up the disaster: “Iraq 2,000,000 dead 4,000,000 fled genocide theft torture cholera starvation” though there were a number of other crimes to mention, in particular the poisoning of so much the area for generations to come through the dumping there of so much of our nuclear waste in the form of ‘depleted uranium’ weapons.

I was surprised at the level of support for Monday’s demonstration, a day when many of the supporters of the campaign would have been at work, and I had expected hundreds rather than the three thousand or so who actually turned up. The government’s clumsy ban on the event, using 1839 legislation passed against the Chartists, drummed up support, and to such an extent that on the morning of the rally they had to climb down and allow the march and the lobby of parliament to proceed.

Later in the day, the success of the demonstration even became rather an embarrassment for Stop The War, who when I left around 4.30pm, two hours after the start of the march, were trying to help police in clearing the large crowd who were still blocking Parliament Street, Parliament Square and St Margaret St, urging them to move along to College Green. Later in the day a small group of protestors took down the barriers on the grassed area of parliament square, piling them up.

But the real embarrassment was for Gordon Brown, forced to climb down and allow democratic protest. Unfortunately he didn’t do the decent and sensible thing (and surely now inescapably the logical thing in the interests of both Iraq and Britain) and announce a speedy withdrawal of troops to be replaced by a real programme of support for the Iraqi people.

Although doubtless pressure from the police at the highest level was obviously vital in the decision to allow the march to go ahead, there were clearly a few officers in charge on the ground who weren’t happy.

As we went down Whitehall, they obstructed photographers trying to photograph the event quite unnecessarily – so obviously so that some of the officers actually carrying out the orders were apologising to me as they did so. And later in the day a few tempers flared and there were a few fairly random assaults on demonstrators.

It did seem an unnecessarily provocative move to bring back Inspector Terry, apparently the man responsible for much of the harassment of Brian Haw and the officer in charge at the 2006 ‘Sack Parliament’ demo last year (photographer Marc Vallée who was injured is now taking legal action against the Met, with the support of the NUJ.)

British troops remained in Iraq in a combat role until 2009, with smaller numbers there mainly involved in training until the final withdrawal in 2011. You can read more about my NUJ colleague Marc Vallée being thrown to the ground by police and his eventually reaching a settlement on the EPUK web site.

Many more pictures from the march and rally on My London Diary at
Bring All the Troops Home NOW.

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Hiroshima Day Ceremony – Tavistock Square 2004

Hiroshima Day Ceremony: On 6th August 2004 I went to the annual Hiroshima Day commemoration organised in Tavistock Square by London CND. It’s an event I like to attend each year if I’m in London, and one I’ve photographed in quite a few years.

The bombs heralded the start of a new age, the Atomic Age, and were clearly a war crime, indiscriminately destroying huge numbers of innocent civilians and with little or no military purpose. Many who survived the initial blast died in the following weeks, months and years later from the effects of nuclear radiation, particularly from the ‘black rain’ that fell later in the day caused by the bombing.

Last Saturday (02 Aug 2025) BBC Radio 4’s Archive On 4 broadcast Exposing Hiroshima, the story of US attempts to cover up the scale of the casualties and deny the “deadly and lasting impacts of radiation” revealed by Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett, the first Western journalist to publish an uncensored eye-witness account from Ground Zero in Hiroshima. Eventually revealed to the world on the front page of the Daily Express the US response was a PR campaign to supress the truth, dismissing his and other articles that emerged as ‘Japanese propaganda’.

The pictures here are all from 6th August 2004. They were made with my first DSLR, the Nikon D100 and converted from RAW files in 2004 using the then availahle conversion software which was not up to current standards. I’m sure I could do better if I now went back to the original files.

Back in August 1945 Japan was already ready to surrender and the allies (or at least the USA) knew this. They wanted to show Russia that they had a weapon that could be used should Russia step out of line. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were annihilated as a gesture to Stalin (“Uncle Joe” as some newspapers liked to refer to him then.)

*Michael Foot (at left) and others at the Hiroshima Plaque in Tavistock Square, London*

Since then we have had a continuous campaign of lies and deceptions over nuclear weapons. It continues to this day with the ridiculous pretence that we have an independent nuclear weapon, and we are being softened up for the arrival of ‘mini-nukes’, smaller but even more dangerous nuclear weapons.

The anniversary was commemorated at Tavistock Square by Hampstead and London Region Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament. Those present included the former labour leader Michael Foot and Tony Benn, as well as the oldest member of the Labour Party and an American visitor from US Labor Against The War.

*Cllr Barbara Hughes, Deputy Mayor of Camden, places flowers at the memorial plaque*

Tavistock Square has a number of interesting memorials, including a fine statue of Gandhi, and a cherry tree planted in memory of the victims past and present of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6th and 9th 1945. The ceremony was a reminder that if anyone is still looking for weapons of mass destruction they are present in America; any “war on terror” should perhaps start against the country which used these weapons to devasting effect without any compunction in 1945.

*A greeting for Michael Foot from the oldest member of the Labour Party*

The event was chaired by local MP Jeremy Corbyn, and speakers included Ken Savage of Greater London Pensioners Association, Sophie Bolt, Chair of London CND [and now CND General Secretary], Darren Johnson, GLA Green Party Leader and Tony Benn. Mordechai Vanunu had been invited to come from Jerusalem where he is under house arrest, but was prevented from coming by the Israeli government. There were also songs from the Workers’ Music Association choir.

More pictures on My London Diary

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End the Genocide, Stop Arming Israel – 19 July 2025

End the Genocide, Stop Arming Israel: Last Saturday, 19th July 2025, the weather forecast for London was dire. Thunderstorms and heavy rain until clearing a little later in the afternoon, with up to several inches of rain leading to some localised flooding. In the event it was a bit under two inches, with small rivers running along the side of some streets.

In this account I intend to write about my personal experiences and working as a photographer on the day rather than my views on the terrible situation in Palestine and the reprehensible actions of the Israeli government and army – and Hamas. I’ve often written about the need for peace and justice, for an end to occupation and destruction and for the release of hostages and prisoners.

Linda and I were determined to go out and join the national demonstration, to show our support for the people of Gaza, to demand our government stop selling arms to Israel and to call on the Israeli government to end its terrible destruction and genocidal attacks and to allow humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza, many now starving. A little rain was not going to stop us.

As usual I checked online for our trains, only to find that our services into London were subject to delay and cancellation due to signalling problems. We dropped everything and hurried to get an earlier train than we had intended – and which actually was more punctual than usual – only two or three minutes late into Waterloo.

It was raining fairly heavily as we walked out of the station and by the time we’d crossed the Jubilee bridge to the Embankment where the march was gathering we were already quite wet.

As the forecast was for afternoon temperatures in the low to mid twenties I’d grabbed a lightweight waterproof jacket on my way out, which was a mistake. It did keep the water off to start with but was soon getting soaked through in places. I realised too late that I should have worn my poncho – or a heavier jacket that although too warm would have kept me dry. At least I’d had the sense to put on my truly waterproof walking boots rather than my usual trainers.

We joined the large crowd that was sheltering under the bridge carrying the rail lines into Charing Cross and I started to take photographs. It was dry – so long as you avoided the areas where water was leaking down from above – but rather dark.

I was working with my Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III (what a crazy mouthful of a name) a camera that came out over 5 years ago. It’s a Micro 43 camera with a sensor only around half the size of full-frame, but that does mean it can be significantly smaller and lighter – something increasingly important to me as I get less able to carry heavy camera bags. And, vitally important today, it is a camera that has good weather protection.

I also had my Fuji X-T30 in my camera bag, with a 10-24 zoom fitted. Had I not rushed out I might have chosen a more suitable body and wide angle for use in wet weather. Neither that camera or lens are weather sealed (the more recent 10-24mm is) and for most of the day they stayed in my bag. I did take them out a couple of times when the rain had eased off, but hardly any of the pictures I took with them were usable.

Under the bridge light was low, but the Olympus has good image stablisation and the main problem was subject movement, as people shouted slogans, jumped up and down, banged drums and more. Being very crowded also meant people were often banging into me as I was working.

I also use small and light lenses – in the case the Olympus 14-150mm F4-5.6 – equivalent to 28-300mm on full frame, going from a decent but not extreme wide-angle to a long telephoto. Its a small, light and incredibly versatile lens, but not one at its best in low light with its rather small aperture.

I started off working with the lens on the P setting, the programme choosing suitable shutter speed and aperture – with the lens wide open and shutter speeds of around 1/15 to 1/25 second. But I soon realised to stop action I would need a faster speed and switched to manual, deliberating underexposing at 1/100th second, f5.0 and at ISO 3200. The RAW images were dark but I knew that I could get Lightroom to make them look fine – if sometimes lacking in shadow detail.

Eventually people began to move out into the rain and march and I went with them, holding my camera under my jacket and only taking it out quickly to take pictures. I looked in my bag for the chamois leather I usually hold to dry and hold in front of the lens filter and it wasn’t there – I’d left it back home in the pocket of the jacket I was wearing when it last rained while I was taking pictures. I had to make do with a handkerchief instead, giving the protective filter a quick wipe before each exposure.

Outside it was a little brighter and I was able to increase the shutter speed to something more sensible, and was using manual settings of 1/160 f5.6 with auto-ISO giving me correct exposure. I was mainly working at the wider focal lengths of the lens and f5.6 gave me enough depth of field.

I hadn’t got out my umbrella, but of course many others were carrying them to keep dry. I find it hard to work with one hand while holding an umbrella in the other. But other people’s umbrellas were a little of a nuisance, with water often pouring from them onto me as I took pictures, adding to the effect of the rain.

So I was getting increasing wet – and soon retreated to the sheltered area under the bridge where different groups were now coming through. Keeping close to the end of the sheltered area I was able to keep working at the same settings, with the ISO now 3200.

London, UK. 19 July 2025. Stephen Kapos and another holocaust survivor on the march.

After a while I went out into the wet again – the rain had eased off slightly, and took more pictures. Then I noticed the banner for the Jewish holocaust survivors and their descendants and went over to greet Stephen Kapos, photograph him and another survivor as they set off on the march.

Shortly after I decided I would move to Westminster Bridge to take pictures of the marchers with the Houses of Parliament in the background, and walked as quickly as I could to there. Crowds of marchers and tourists watching the march slowed my progress somewhat.

The bridge is open to light and I was now using 1/250 second, but still with the Olympus lens at its wide-angle lens there was no need to stop down and I was working at around ISO 640.

I think around half of the march had gone over the bridge before I got there and I stayed taking pictures around halfway across the bridge for around half an hour, only leaving when I could see the end of the march coming on to the bridge. Fortunately the rain had eased off, but I was still getting wet.

I then hurried taking a short cut to get to Waterloo Bridge, taking just a few pictures where hurried past the march again on York Road. I took more photographs as people came onto Waterloo Bridge and then saw that a large group had stopped in the shelter underneath the railyway bridge and were having a spirited protest there – so I went to photograph them. When they marched off I went with them to Waterloo Bridge.

I looked at my watch. I had thought about taking the tube to Westminster and then going to photograph the rally in Whitehall, but decided it was perhaps too late to bother. I’d taken a lot of photographs and was rather wet and also hungry and decided it was time to go home.

I went to Waterloo and got on a train. Eventually, 15 minutes late, it decided to leave, and with a few stoppages at signals got me home around 25 minutes later than it should. Fortunately I’d packed some sandwiches and was able to eat them sitting at Waterloo, though the view wasn’t interesting. I’d edited and filed my pictures by the time Linda arrived home.

More pictures on Alamy and Facebook.

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2004 Aldermaston March

2004 Aldermaston March. On Friday 9th April the 2004 Aldermaston March began with a rally in Trafalgar Square before following the route taken by the first march back in April 1958, which had also begun with a rally in the square. The 2004 march was called as a protest against the development then of a new generation of nuclear weapons.

I covered the rally and went with the marchers as far as Hyde Park, and cycled to join them again in Maidenhead on Sunday 11th, walking with them for a few miles before returning to pick up my bike and cycle home. On the final day I caught the train to Reading and walked with them to Aldermaston.

I put many of my pictures from the march on My London Diary where you can still view them, and wrote a post about the events which I’ll reproduce here with proper capitalisation and some minor corrections, along with a few of the pictures I made in London on Friday 9th April 2004.

Aldermaston 2004: No New Nukes Rally & Start of March

Aldermaston isn’t in London, but the ‘stop the next generation of nuclear weapons‘ march from London to Aldermaston started on Good Friday, 9 April 2004, from Trafalgar Square, where there was a ‘No New Nukes‘ rally.

Aldermaston and nearby Burghfield are at the centre of the UK’s atomic weapon programme, and the march was a protest against the development of a new generation of nuclear weapons.

In 1958 the dangers of nuclear war were clear to most of us, and almost fifty years of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction among members of the nuclear club make them even more of a danger now. We have seen another almost 50 years of lies and deception dressed up as security and national interest. For example we still haven’t been told of the nuclear warheads kept by our American allies at Lakenheath.

It was good to see many familiar faces, both on the platform and off, with addresses from Tony Benn, Jenny Jones, Pat Arrowsmith, Jeremu Corbyn and more, including a fine performance from Susannah York. There were a considerable number who had been on the first Aldermaston march, back in 1958, forty six years ago. I was too young to be involved then, but my two older brothers had been there.

*Street theatre about Trident from Theatre of War*

‘Theatre Of War’ gave a spirited performance, and there was a jazz band to add a little spirit at the front of the march, perhaps a reminder of the trad boom of the fifties. Pat Arrowsmith, Bruce Kent and some other CND veterans were up there too, leading off the 2,300 who led off through St James. The police estimated the march at 1000. I actually stood and counted as they went by, and although it isn’t an exact science with a march this size, I won’t be more than fifty or so out either way.

*A single Trident submarine has warheads equivalent to 3000 Hiroshima bombs.*

It was a cheerful sendoff to those marchers on the long plod to Aldermaston, one of several marches there starting from different parts of the country.

At Hyde Park, the march proper formed up, with around 430 making their way west through Kensington and towards the first night stay at Southall. I couldn’t walk all the way, although I’d probably covered as much distance running around taking pictures and left the march in Kensington.

On Saturday, the march continued from Southall to Slough via Uxbridge. I had other things to do in the East End and central London, but I managed to catch up with the march on Sunday morning at Maidenhead Bridge with some furious bike riding from Staines.

By then, some problems with Thames Valley Police had emerged, with the police trying to force the march on to the pavement, while some marchers insisted on keeping to the road. In the end a compromise emerged, with the police tolerating those who wanted to stay on the road walking close to the edge of the pavement.

From Maidenhead it seemed a long walk along the A4 to Knowl Hill for a rather late lunch stop. There we were greeted from a distance by the sounds of the Sheffield Samba Band who piped the march in to lunch. I regretted not bothering to pick up my meal tickets, but was really too busy to stop to eat. I photographed the column of marchers setting off for Reading and then started a more lonely walk back to Maidenhead and my bike.

By this time I was feeling the strain. Even on my ‘day off’ on Saturday I’d walked over 10 miles with a heavy camera bag, and the weight of a Nikon with a solid lens round my neck was getting to be too much. So for Monday I travelled light, working with a tiny Canon Digital Ixus. It had the nasty habit of often not taking a picture until a second or so after you pressed the button, by which time I’ve usually put the camera down, so I came home with quite a few pictures of random patches of road and grass from Berkshire. However, as you can see on My London Diary, some came out.

On Monday I walked all the way and a few miles more, with pictures from Reading to Burghfield, were we stopped close to AWE Burghfield [where atomic bombs are made] to the end of the march rally at AWE Aldermaston, after which we took a walk halfway round the large site.

Aldermaston2004 was jointly organised by CND, the Aldermaston women’s peace Camp and Slough4Peace.

My pictures from the rally and march start here on My London Diary, with more pictures starting on further web pages for Friday, Sunday and Monday.

CND is still active, still campaigning for peace and a nuclear free world and opposing the UK’s possession of nuclear weapons. As they say, “Nuclear weapons threaten us all. And they are an obscene drain on public finances.” You can find out more about their actions and sign their petition calling on the government to embrace diplomacy and peace negotiations, instead of nuclear weapons and war and take steps towards nuclear disarmament and a safer world.

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Against the Invasion of Iraq – April 2003

Against the Invasion of Iraq: The US and its allies had begun the invasion of Iraq on 20th March 2003, with Britain taking part despite the huge opposition of the British people. President Bush had decided months earlier that the invasion would take place and the US had manufactured fake information that Iraq had failed to abandon its weapons of mass destruction.

UK’s Prime Minister Tony Blair had added his own lies to this to persuade the British parliament, presenting the “dodgy dossier” together with highly misleading statements. Although 84 Labour MPs voted against (along with almost all of the Liberal Democrats and most of the smaller parties) and there were 94 mainly Labour abstentions the Labour Government won the vote easily with the support of the Conservative Party. For many of us it seemed a vote which demonstrated a complete failure of our parliamentary democracy, MPs following the party line and voting for war in clear disregard of the evidence.

And the BBC and mass media had failed to properly investigate and challenge the official position, with the BBC moving into an establishment role in supporting the war.

On Saturday 5th April Stop the War, CND and others organised another protest against the war and I walked with the protesters from outside Broadcasting House in Portland Place to a rally close to the US embassy in Grosvenor Square and later posted the following piece (corrected as usual) on My London Diary with some of my pictures.

April started with the country at war, invading Iraq together with the USA.

On Saturday 5th I went to a march to protest against this and to call for proper reporting of the events in the media, especially the BBC.

I walked to the march past the houses of parliament and a small group of protesters in whitehall who were pointing out the number of Iraqi civilians already killed by the allied forces.

The main thrust of the demonstration now was that the civilian population of Iraq should be respected. The use of weapons such as depleted uranium shells and cluster bombs will mean the deaths continue for generations after the end of the fighting.

The march started opposite the BBC building in Portland Place and went to Grosvenor Square, close to the US Embassy. There were perhaps five thousand marchers, and several hundred police surrounding them most of the time. As the speakers pointed out, it was difficult not to see the war as a US takeover of the country when plans were already in place for Americans to run the country after the war.

The killing of Iraqis must stop, and rapid progress should be made to hand control of the country back to its people.

Iraq has still not recovered from the disastrous effects of the invasion and in particular from the failure of the USA to think beyond getting rid of Saddam Hussein and his regime. In doing so they also demolished the civil state and the internal security of the country turning it into a lawless state.

It is now clear that there were no “Weapons of Mass Destruction” and that the whole invasion was justified on what were known at the time to be lies.

The USA established a provisional authority led by US diplomat Paul Bremner which made the ridiculous decision to disband the Iraqi Army and exclude all members of Saddam’s Ba’ath party from government in Iraq rather than taking these over and using them to build a new Iraq.

As well as leaving the country at the mercy of a wide range of militia units this also disqualified the entire civil service at all levels from taking part in the rebuilding of the the country – including all government officials for whom party membership was simply a condition of service, even the 40,000 teachers.

As Wikipedia states, in 2023, “Corruption remains endemic throughout all levels of governance while US-endorsed sectarian political system has driven increased levels of violent terrorism and sectarian conflicts within Iraq.” And although accurate estimates are difficult, probably by now over a million Iraqis have died because of the invasion and the insurgencies that followed. Around 2.4 million Iraqis have left the country as refugees and well over a million remain internally displaced inside the Iraq.

As we are now seeing under Trump, a total irresponsibility and ignorance seems to be at the heart of US foreign policy. Trump has just made this more open and obvious.

There are just a few more pictures with the original article, particularly of the speakers at the event.

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No Trident Lobby & Rally 2007

No Trident Lobby & Rally: On March 14th 2007 the House of Commons were debating the principle to replace the existing UK nuclear weapons and begin a process to design, build and commission submarines to replace the existing Vanguard-class submarines carrying Trident nuclear missiles with updated systems over the coming 17 years. The New Labour government, led by PM Tony Blair and the Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett were supported by the Conservatives and one DUP member and won the final division by 408 votes to 160.

Voting against were many Labour MPs and almost all the Liberal Democrats, SNP and other minority parties, although there were a few absentees.

Around Parliament Square there was a day of protest by Greenpeace and others with the main CND rally called for 5pm and continuing into the evening. Here is the account I wrote of the day for My London Diary – with the usual minor corrections and a few of the pictures I posted – more are still on My London Diary

No Trident Lobby & Rally – Parliament Square, London

I missed Bianca and Annie and the others, but I didn’t miss them as there was plenty else going on. As I walked over Westminster bridge there was the banner flying on the crane in front of the houses of parliament, and there were quite a few people stopping to look at it.

Later, Greenpeace activists got on their bikes and cycled across Westminster Bridge to Parliament Square, where they were stopped by police and threatened with arrest unless they left the roadway and moved onto the square. After a while they all did, many cycling away after a few minutes to cycle around London before joining the ‘fish on a bicycle‘ critical mass that arrived back at the square a few hours later, and got the same ‘off your bike‘ treatment from the police.

*Cyclists are ordered off the road and onto the pavement of Parliament Square under threat of arrest*

The square started to fill up rather more from around 5pm when a silent protest attended by a couple of hundred took place in the far corner of the square. By the time the speeches started at 6.15 there was a respectable crowd, perhaps around 500, but people were still arriving and with the addition of the cyclists there were perhaps closer to a thousand present.

A brief attempt by Greenpeace to protest on the pavement in front of the Houses Of Parliament took the police by surprise, but the group were soon escorted back across the road.

*Greenpeace demonstrators on the pavement outside Parliament*

*Veteran peace campaigner Pat Arrowsmith was among those in the crowd*

Throughout the day there had been plenty of signs of the personal vendetta between some Met officers and the regular protesters in the square. Two hapless officers appear to have been deployed just to stand in front of one fluorescent pink placard, and there were some incidents of minor harassment. The injunction thrown out by the judge at Southwark Court recently showed how the police are wasting our money in this respect.

*Brian Haw: Find Your Courage; Share Your Vision; Change Your World. (T-shirt from Dan Wilkins, The Nth Degree.)*

Apparently the latest approach to try and remove the protesters from the square comes from London Mayor Ken Livingstone who is worried about the grass being damaged by the tents there. As I remarked when this was mentioned, “grass regenerates, dead children don’t.” Perhaps we should start a ‘Brian [Haw] For Mayor‘ campaign.

*We need Trident “like a fish needs a bicycle”*

Several Labour MPs came out from the house to address the meeting, along with many activists. Bruce Kent started his speech by thanking Brian Haw for allowing the demo to use his back garden, and Brian later came from his protest at the front of the square to address the meeting.

This time the government got its vote, but there will be later occasions to oppose Trident, as well as the continuing actions at Faslane which those at the demo were urged to take part in.

Trident replacement is still continuing in 2025, with the government being committed to the building of four replacement submarines by the early 2030s and an extension to the life of the Trident missiles potentially to the early 2060s as well as work taking place now to produce replacement nuclear warheads in the 2030s. It is an important support to the UK arms industry but of little or no military consequence with its obscene cost threatening our ability to defend the country by conventional means and it remains – like all nuclear weapons – a definite threat to the peace and future of the world.

Many more pictures on My London Diary beginning here.

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Stop Trident, Troops out of Iraq – 2007

Stop Trident, Troops out of Iraq: On Saturday 24th February 2007 I photographed the march and rally organised by Stop The War, The Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament and The British Muslim Initiative to call for British troops to be brought back from Iraq and for an end to the deployment of Trident nuclear missiles and their proposed expensive replacement.

The marchers met in Hyde Park around Speakers’ Corner and marched to a rally in Trafalgar Square.

I wrote a slightly long text to go with the pictures which I’ll repeat in a more normal form below with normal capitalisation. It includes an explanation of how I arrived at an rough estimate for the numbers taking part for this and other protests – often very significantly greater than that then given by the police to the press and usually rather less than that of the organisers.

Stop Trident, Troops out of Iraq – Stop the War/CND/BMI Demo

I’ve for many years been opposed to the so-called independent British nuclear weapons. Even at the height of the Cold War they were never credible as an independent deterrent. If they have ever had any justification it was that they made the USA feel less guilty, although American guilt at its huge nuclear arsenal and at being the only country ever to have used nuclear weapons has always been an incredibly stunted growth.

I was also firmly against the invasion of Iraq. It was always clear to those who didn’t want to be deluded that the so-called ‘intelligence’ on weapons of mass destruction was laughable.

*A cheaper alternative to Trident, and at least as effective. The bicycle & trailer costs rather less than a nuclear sub too.*

Blair was either a liar or a fool as he misled a minority of the British people and a majority of their MPs. Or most probably both. (Saddam may also have been deluded and certainly was an evil dictator, but we had long failed those who tried to oppose him.) The invasion was criminal, but the lack of planning for the occupation that inevitably followed even more so.

So Saturday’s march, organised by Stop The War, The Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament and The British Muslim Initiative against both of these had my whole-hearted support (although i would have photographed it anyway.)

It is hard to be sure of numbers on events such as this, but the police estimate is laughable (the first figure they gave to the press, of 4000, was totally ludicrous.)

It took around 90 minutes for the march to pass me in Park Lane, and although there were a few short gaps, there were plenty of times when the wide street was too crowded to really take pictures. My estimate of the average number of people passing me per minute is 200-600, giving a total of 18,000-50,000 marchers from Hyde Park.

You can add to these figures perhaps another 10-20% who for various reasons go direct to the rally or join the march closer to Trafalgar Square, giving a total that could be between 20,000 and 60,000.

After photographing the marchers, I took the tube to get to the rally in time to hear some of the speeches (marchers were still arriving almost up to the end of the rally.) As I arrived, there were many people already leaving, and the square was filled, with people spilling out at both the northeast and northwest corners.

*So where are the Weapons of Mass Destruction? In the American arsenals of course.*

I wasn’t there in time to hear Ken Livingstone, MPs John Mcdonnell and John Trickett, MEPs Caroline Lucas and Jill Evans, playwright David Edgar, Paul Mackney of the University & College Union or some of the other speakers, but I did hear the co-chair of the US ‘United For Peace And Justice’ Judith Leblanc, Lindsey German, George Galloway, and Augusto Montiel, a Venezuelan MP, as well as several Muslim speakers, trade unionists and singers including Julie Felix. I didn’t catch all of their names.

For me the most moving speech was from Rose Gentle, whose son Gordon was killed in Iraq. Together with others from ‘military families against the war’ she is camping out over the weekend opposite Downing Street.

Six of her colleagues stood with her as a group while she addressed the crowd, lending their support. She was simple, direct, emotional.

The final speaker (I think) was Jeremy Corbyn, MP, and it started to rain again as he began speaking, so I headed for the Underground and home.

Many – too many – more pictures on My London Diary.

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My 2024 in Photographs – Part 2

What you see here is just the second page of a selection of my work in 2024. Not particularly my “best pictures” but all I think pictures that worked well and told the story I was trying to tell. Despite getting out rather less often than in some previous years, particularly pre-Covid, I think it has been quite a good year for my photography even though I’m getting older, lacking stamina and generally taking things much easier.

Most of my pictures have been from protests over the genocide being carried out by Israel in Gaza but other campaigns have continued, and I’ve been able to photograph some of their action. You can see more pictures from all the events I’ve photographed in around 70 albums from 2024 on Facebook – together with a few from my summer holiday in Wales. They are here in roughly the order they were taken – those from January and February are in the previous post.

My 2024 in Photographs — London, UK. 9 Mar 2024. A huge peaceful march to the US Embassy demands a full ceasefire in Gaza and an end to Israeli genocide. The IDF has now killed over 30,000 people, mainly women and children, continue to ignore the ICJ ruling to avoid genocide and preparing a brutal assault on Rafah. Israel continues to stop the humanitarian aid and medical supplies needed to avoid mass deaths from disease and starvation and spread lies about UNRWA whose funding is essential. Protesters demand a political solution.

London, UK. 20 April 2024. Witnesses call for the man to be released as they say the police officer was accidentally hit.A funeral procession in Ilford carries small coffins mourning the death of over 34,000 Palestinians, more than 13,000 children, with over 8,000 missing probably buried under rubble in Gaza. It ended with a rally outside Barclays Bank which campaigners say funds Israel’s genocidal assault on Palestinians.

London, UK. 20 April 2024. Piers Corbyn hands out leaflets for his London Mayoral campaign. People march to a rally in the centre of Lewisham to demand an immediate ceasefire and an end to UK arms sales to Israel. This was one of many local actions around the country.

London, UK. 27 April 2024. Latin Americans stand with Palestine. Many thousands march peacefully through London from Parliament Square to Hyde Park in another huge protest demanding an immediate permanent ceasefire and an end to British arms sales to Israel, calling for a free Palestine. Many carried posters identifying themselves as Jewish. Israel is using British weapons, surveillance technology and military equipment in the attacks which have devastated Gaza and killed over 34,000, including more than 14,500 children.

London, UK. 27 April 2024. Many thousands march peacefully through London from Parliament Square to Hyde Park in another huge protest demanding an immediate permanent ceasefire and an end to British arms sales to Israel, calling for a free Palestine. Many carried posters identifying themselves as Jewish. Israel is using British weapons, surveillance technology and military equipment in the attacks which have devastated Gaza and killed over 34,000, including more than 14,500 children since October 7th.

London, UK. 1 May 2024. Several thousands met at Clerkenwell Green on May Day for the International Workers Day March to Trafalgar Square. Those taking part included many from London’s various ethnic communities – Turkish, Kurdish, Latin American, Phillipine, West Indian, Indian, Sri Lankan, Tamil, Iraqi, Iranian and more as well as many from UK trade unions, communist and anarchist groups. Many showed their support for Palestine and other international issues.

London, UK. 11 May 2024. London CND supporters protest at the US Embassy in Nine Elms as part of a national day of action against US nuclear weapons coming to Britain which would make us a target for nuclear attacks. Many sat well back under trees in the shade to listen to speakers and singers.

London, UK. 18 May 2024. People pose with giant keys. Many thousands march through London on the 76th anniversary of the ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians by Israel. Marchers demanded an end to the current genocide, an end to arms sales to Israel and the apartheid regime and for the opening of crossings for urgent humanitarian aid to Gaza. Many carried large keys symbolising the right for Palestinians to return to their homes.

London, UK. 25 May. Poppies labelled with the names of children killed. People meet in Peckham to march to a rally in Camberwell as part of a weekend of local protests across the country calling for an end to the genocide in Gaza and UK arms sales to Israel which make our government complicit in Israel’s war crimes. They demand a huge increase in humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza to avoid famine, and call for an end to Israeli apartheid, and freedom and justice for Palestine.

Part 3 follows tomorrow. You can see many more pictures from these and other events in my albums on Facebook.

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National March for Palestine 30 Nov 2024

National March for Palestine: On 30th November 2024 I photographed yet another large march through London calling for an end to the continuing attacks by Israel in Gaza, Lebanon and the occupied West Bank.

As usual there was a strong Jewish presence on the march – and it was opposed by a much smaller counter-demonstration by largely Jewish protesters, many calling for the release of the hostages still held in Gaza.

Many of those on the main march also want the hostages to be released, but see the only way to acheive this is not to continue the devastation and genocide in Gaza, but a ceasefire with serious negotiations towards a long-term peace in Palestine and Israel.

Last week over 200 Israelis living in the UK signed a letter to Keir Starmer and David Lammy urging them to impose sanctions on Israeli ministers Itamar Ben Gvit and Bezalel Smotrich, asking others living in the UK with Israeli citizenship to add their signatures.

In part this stated their opposition to the hateful and dangerous rhetoric of these two miniters which they say “endangers lives, obstructs the possibility of a hostage deal , and endorses calls for ethnic cleansing.”

Reported here in the Jewish press but I think ignored by the BBC and the rest of the UK press, the letter accuses the two ministers of “doing all they can to prevent a hostage and ceasefire deal and instead focusing their entire energies on their messianic aims: annexing the West Bank and settling the Gaza strip.”

The letter makes clear that the two “do not speak for us” and that opinion “polls in Israel reveal that the majority of the public supports a hostage deal and seeks an end to the war.”

Earlier the Jewish News had reported on a campaign by British Jewish organisation “Yachad, who advocate for peace and equality for Israelis and Palestinans“, also calling for sanctions against the two men, and the media more widely covered both David Cameron stating his government had been planning sanctions against these ministers and on Starmer and Lammy “mulling over” sanctions. By now these seem well overmulled.

As with all the previous marches and events calling for an end to the attacks on Gaza, the protest was entirely peaceful, with a complete absence of any antisemitism – unless you define calling for freedom for Palestine and Palestinians as antisemitic.

I wrote in my captions “As the death toll from Israel’s attacks in Gaza is now over 43,000 and many now face starvation with every hospital having been bombed and with virtually no medical supplies, and the UK is still complicit in the genocide, thousands including many Jews, marched in yet another entirely peaceful mass protest in solidarity. They call for an immediate ceasefire with the release of hostages and prisoners and for negotiations to secure a long-term just peace in the area.“

That figure of 43,000 is sadly out of date and the true figure is now considerably higher, with many bodies still buried under rubble and an increasing number of deaths from the disease and starvation caused by the continuing attacks and the deliberate denial of food, fuel and medicine. Israeli forces have destroyed much of the infrastructure as well as the organisation of society which was of course largely provided by Hamas.

We are witnessing – despite the banning of the international press from any effective access to Gaza – the large scale collective punishment of the entire population of Gaza. And the detailed reported and conclusion “that following 7 October 2023, Israel committed and is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza” by Amnesty International confirms what has been clear to almost everyone for many months

All the pictures here are from the march through London on 30th November 2024. You can see many more here in my album on the event.

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Inequality, Democracy Camp & the Blessed Sacrament – 2014

Inequality, Democracy Camp & the Blessed Sacrament – On Saturday 18th October 2014 over 80,000 people marched in London to call for workers to share in the economic recovery which has seen a great increase in wages of chief executives while workers have lost out. Later I went to Parliament Square where the Democracy Camp finally took over the area. When police left, I left to photograph a Catholic religious procession.

Britain Needs A Pay Rise – Embankment

I walked along the Embankment a couple of hours before the march was due to start and already it was beginning to fill up with marchers, and I returned later from photographing Democracy Camp protesters in Parliament Square just in time to catch the end of a photocall with TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady in front of a bus covered with a green banner with the message ‘Britain Needs a Pay Rise’ and people holding large white numbers 1,7 and 5.

The gap between rich and poor is widening in the UK, with company chief executives in 2014 getting 175 times the pay of the average worker. Wealth is also hugely unequally divided, with the “the richest 50 families in the UK held more wealth than half of the UK population” by 2023. Only 8 of the 37 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries are now less equal than the UK.

Eventually the march set off, and after photographing the start of the march I stayed in place to photograph the rest of the march as it came past me.

Matt Wrack, FBU

“At the front were the major unions, the health workers and the teachers, the firefighters and more, a reminder of how much we still depend on unionised workers despite the largely successful attacks by Thatcher and later governments which have almost eliminated the unions in many areas.”

“Further back the marchers were more varied, and I met rather more people I knew, including those with CND, Focus E15, Occupy London and other radical movements.”

I kept taking pictures as people came past me for around an hour and a quarter, when people were still coming past but it was close to the end. Rather than continue with them to Hyde Park where the final rally would be starting I considered taking the Underground – it would probably be over before those marchers arrived. But I decided I had enough pictures of the event and went instead to Parliament Square to see what was happening at the Democracy Camp.

Many more pictures at Britain Needs A Pay Rise.

Democracy Camp Takes the Square – Parliament Square

When I arrived the tense standoff between police and protesters around the edges of the grassed area was continuing. Many of the protesters had temporarily left the square to join in with the TUC march but were beginning to arrive back.

One group “from UK Uncut came into the square dancing to the sound of a music centre on a shopping trolley. As they danced on the pavement in front of the statue of Churchill, Westminster Council officials prompted police into action and together with one of the Heritage Wardens the police moved to attempt to seize the sound system.”

“Democracy campers linked arms to make it difficult for the warden and police to reach the system” but eventually the group were surrounded and “Martin Tuohy showed his ID as Senior Westminster Warden at Westminster City Council and together with another employee grabbed the system with police looking on.”

After some tense argument the UK Uncut group were allowed to leave the square along with their sound equipment with the warning that unless they took it away from Parliament Square it would be taken from them.

More people arrived from the TUC march, where some had carried “two large wood and fabric towers, one with the words POWER and OCCUPY and the other the word DEMOCRACY. Together with other protesters they ran onto the grass square and raised the towers“

Others joined them including some carrying a long ‘Real Democracy Now!’ banner and the rally began.

The first speaker was “Labour MP John McDonnell. Among the other speakers were Occupy’s George Barda, environmentalist Donnachadh McCarthy and Russell Brand, who after speaking posed for photographs together with many of those present. “

The sudden invasion of the grass had taken the police and Heritage Wardens by surprise, and they had been unable to do anything to prevent it. But during the rally police began “massing around the square in blocks of around 20, obviously posed in a military looking formations ready to run onto the square.” As well as perhaps 200 ordinary police, reinforcements arrived “arrived with two larger groups of blue-capped TSGs obviously spoiling for a fight.”

“Then the police suddenly started to disappear while Brand was speaking. Perhaps someone had realised that with Russell Brand talking, any attack on the protesters would have generated massive and largely negative media coverage. Much better to come back late at night and do it after the mass media had left (which they did.)”

Nothing seemed likely to happen until much later, so I left for another event.

More at Democracy Camp takes the Square.

Procession of the Blessed Sacrament – Westminster Cathedral to Southwark Cathedral

I arrived just in time to see the procession emerge from Westminster Cathedral – no photography was allowed inside.

I followed it down the road to Lambeth Bridge where they stopped for a change of dress as Auxiliary Bishop Paul Hendricks put on his robe to carry the sacrament in Southwark diocese.

I left the procession at the south end of the bridge to catch a bus back to Waterloo and make my way home.

Procession of the Blessed Sacrament.

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