Disable People Against Cuts

Cuts Kill, Turban Traveller & Brexit Bullies – 2018

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

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

Cuts kill disabled people say protesters – Old Palace Yard

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

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

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

Cuts kill disabled people say protesters

MP welcomes Delhi to London driver

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

MP welcomes Delhi to London driver

Extreme Brexiteers Clash with SODEM

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

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

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

Extremist Brexiteers clash with SODEM

Extremist Brexiteers at Parliament

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

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

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

Extremist Brexiteers at parliament

Anna Soubry MP Harassed by Extremists

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
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Press Inquiry & Cold Homes Kill – 2012

Press Inquiry & Cold Homes Kill: On Thursday 29th November 2012 people protested outside the QEII centre as part 1 of the Leveson inquiry into the general culture and ethics of the British media was being published. Later there was a protest outside the Treasury and Parliament against government cuts in benefits and services that were leading to 24,000 extra winter deaths.

Leveson Comes Out

The Leveson inquiry had been set up in 2011 following the News International phone hacking scandal and after a long series of public hearings came to the obvious conclusion the existing Press Complaints Commission was a total failure – and praised Private Eye for refusing to join it. A subscription to that magazine and the many articles it had published over the years could have saved the £5.4 million that Leveson cost.

Leveson was not of course set up to address the overriding problem of the UK media which is the narrow range of its ownership. As the Media Reform Coalition argued “we couldn’t just rely on better press regulation to improve standards are newspapers – we also had to challenge the disproportionate power these corporations held because they so much of our news media.”

The MRC stated in 2023 “Just three companies—DMG Media, News UK and Reach—dominate 90% of the national newspaper market” and go on to show similar resticted ownership of local newspapers and online news platforms.

The news which almost all of us are allowed to hear is controlled by a very few companies and their billionaire owners such as Rupert Murdoch, and Avaaz had brought to the protest large puppet heads of Murdoch and a gagged Prime Minster Cameron with placards ‘End the Murdoch Mafia‘ with a flaming dustbin into which Murdoch lowered the Leveson report.

The industry response to Leveson was to establish in place of the Press Complaints Commission the almost equally toothless Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) which my union, the NUJ labelled a “pointless so-called regulator” and the Hacked Off campaign described as a sham “owned and controlled by the very newspapers it is supposed to regulate” which does nothing to stop them.

The Press Recognition Panel (PRP) was set up by Royal Charter in 2014 with the duty to establish whether any press regulator met the standards set by Leveson. IPSO declined to apply for recognition but an independent body IMPRESS founded in 2016 has gained recognition.

IMPRESS thas been rejected by all the major national papers and most regional and local papers but now regulates “more than 100 publishers, publishing over 200 publications across the UK.” Most of these are small and local independent print or on-line publishers including many on the left. Among them are Novara Media, Skwawkbox and The Canary.

As well as failing to legislate on setting up the independent regulatory body which Leveson concluded was needed, the Tories later quietly shelved the second part of the inquiry into extent of unlawful or improper conduct within news organisations and the extent of police complicity. It was a clear demonstration of the power held by Mudoch over our government.

Leveson Comes Out

Cold Homes Kill Treasury Protest

Over 50 people turned up outside Parliament and the Treasury to protest against the cuts made by George Osborne and the government’s energy policies which are leading to 24,000 extra winter deaths.

The protest on the day that Energy Secretary, Ed Davey, was introduing the Energy Bill to Parliament was organised by Fuel Poverty Action along with Disabled People Against Cuts and the Greater London Pensioners’ Association.

Other organisations taking part include Single Mothers’ Self-Defence, Southwark Pensioners’ Action Group and WinVisible (women with visible and invisible disabilities).

Many came with plastic silver reflective coated ‘space blankets’ to wear, and there were three ‘tombstones’ with the messages ‘George Osborne Your Cuts KILL’, ‘Gas Power = Killer Bills’ and ‘24,000 Winter Deaths – Big Six Profits up 700%’.

As speakers at the open mike in front of the Treasury on Horse Guards Road said, many were now having to choose between keeping warm and eating – heat or food – and could not afford to do both adequately. Food banks were now common but often unable to keep up with demand, and libraries where many went to keep warm were being closed.

Hypothermia, even among children, was on the increase, had doubled among pensioners and many disabled people had special needs for heating – and some were suffering from having their benefits removed by unfair Atos work capability tests – often to have them eventually restored on appeal, but with no or inadequate means for months before this happened.

Police tried to keep them off the steps of the Treasury but they declined to move and eventually police came and pushed them down, sometimes with rather more than necessary force, but the rally continued on the pavement. Among the speakers was Green Party leader Natalie Bennett.

There were some further confrontations with police as the protesters moved around the area and protested on the pavement in front of parliament, where there was some hilarity as police came to tell them there has to move as “a Royal movement” was about to take place (they didn’t) and the protest ended with photographs on the grass of Parliament Square with the House of Commons and Big Ben as background.

More pictures on My London Diary at Cold Homes Kill Treasury Protest.

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All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
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DPAC 4th July Tea Party 2014

DPAC 4th July Tea Party: One of the many strange questions that Americans ask on Quora (a web site I occasionally waste some time on and usually regret) is why we British don’t celebrate the 4th of July. It’s actually a rather better question than most – perhaps we should celebrate when we got rid of a nation that can produce Trump and Biden, one of whom still seems likely to be the next president when clearly neither is suitable.

Of course, here in the UK we have our own contest today between Sunak and Starmer, neither of whom in my estimation fit to govern, and, as in the USA elected by an archaic system designed to frustrate rather than provide democracy. If you were unfortunate not to have heard the late David Graeber speaking in person about US Democracy (and haven’t read his book on the subject) you can hear him talking on video (and read a transcript) on The Lost Byway, the site on which more usually John Rogers publishes the videos of his remarkably upbeat walks around London.

Of course I don’t believe that there are Americans dumb enough to write most of the stupid questions that are posted on Quora, which must surely employ a whole squad of AI-driven bots to generate and post them.

Should we need an excuse for a party in the first half of July we would of course do better to wait 10 days and celebrate with the French (also this year embroiled in election madness.) That would almost certainly be far more fun and a good excuse to drink wine, though I might draw the line at accordions. Its 58 years since I found myself in the square in front of the Mairie in a small French municipality a few mile south of Paris and I haven’t forgotten it.

But I have photographed at protests over the years which have deliberately been timed for various reasons for US Independence Day as well as rather more that totally ignored any significance the day might have.

On Friday 4th of July 2014 Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) celebrated Independent Living Day with an Independent Living Tea Party at the Dept of Work & Pensions, calling for a stop to the removal of the Independent Living Fund which provides funding, education and transport that enables disabled people to live in the community.

The chose American Independence Day stating “The famous Boston teaparty led to a revolution against the British government let’s see where our teaparty leads….”

It wasn’t a huge protest but “Fifteen or so people in wheelchairs along with around as many walking but with other disabilities along with carers and supporters filled the pavement in front of the DWP in Caxton St, and at times made a considerable noise. As well as their voices and a megaphone, some had brought whistles and other musical instruments (and some less musical) to liven up the event. For those with hearing difficulties there was a BSL signer.“

The future looked desperate for the almost 18,000 who then received support through the fund, and they were engaged in a long fight to try to prevent it being closed. In 2013 the government had lost a court case over its closure, but four months later the government had decided to go ahead and close it anyway in 2015. A fresh legal challenge failed.

Responsibility for supporting disabled people being passed to local authorities who were given funding roughly 12% less than the ILF – and this was not ring-fenced. DPAC said that given councils were having already to make massive cuts it seems unlikely that all of this will make its way to the disabled and that councils will largely be unable to find the staff to properly implement fair schemes. They point out that the ILF is a well organised and cost-effective scheme and any replacement is almost certain to be less efficient and to severely impacting the quality of life of severely disabled people.

DPAC fear that many currently usefully employed disabled people will have to give up work and will no longer be able to live independently but will have to go into residential care – at much greater cost.

Protests that are well-behaved and follow the rules seldom get coverage in the media – as last weekends massive Restore Nature Now showed – 60,000 people supported by a huge range of groups marching through London was not ‘news’ for BBC Radio 4, and there has been a huge news blackout on all the many peaceful marches calling for a ceasefire in Palestine.

So DPAC always like to end their events with a little disruptive action, usually in the form of a road block, although despite this their protests are still ignored by the mass media. Around half of those taking part decided to take part and blocked busy Victoria St by stopping their wheelchairs and holding banners on the pedestrian crossing.

Police arrived a few minutes later and tried to persuade them to move, getting a little firmer and eventually threatening protesters with the possibility of arrest for obstructing the highway.

“Before long there were around four times as many police as protesters and when it began to look as if the police might carry out their threat of arrest, the protesters who had been receiving a great deal of support from tourists and others – even including some in the traffic being held up or diverted away down Great Smith St – decided it was time to end the protest and wheeled their chairs away.”

Despite this action I don’t think the event received any publicity outside some specialist print and online media. There were a couple of celebrity weddings, another getting sentenced for indecently assaulting girls, a hurricane in the US, an underpass collapse in Brazil – and some celebrations in the USA and many other stories.

More at Independent Living Tea party.

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16th January 2013

Probably the best way to describe my work on Wednesday 16th January would be varied, and that’s one of the things that attracts me to photographing protests on the streets of London. I was never quite sure what I would find or what would happen, and every protest brought its own problems in terms of photography, and also sometimes in how to write about them.

I started the day with Pussy Riot, or rather with protesters in solidarity with them on an International Day of Solidarity with Maria Alyokhina, attending a court hearing today over her plea for her sentence to be suspended so she can raise her son until he is 14. She was one of three members of Russian punk band Pussy Riot sentenced for their performance of an anti-Putin “punk anthem” in a Moscow Orthodox cathedral in February, and was sent to a prison camp in Siberia for two years.

I had expected rather more protesters than the small group I found there, as the case had attracted considerable publicity, but perhaps it was too early on a cold January morning to attract many. It isn’t either a very good place to protest, as the actual embassy is hidden away a few yards down a private road roughly opposite where protests (and photographer) are strictly forbidden. But I also left fairly promptly after the time set for the start of a protest, and numbers may have grown later.

Pussy Riot London Solidarity Demonstration

There were more people, including quite a few that I knew, at a rally outside the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand. Many were disabled, with a few in wheelchairs, but more who have mental health conditions, along with a number of pensioners, trade unionists from the court branch of the PCS and other supporters and the protest was organised by disabled activist groups including DPAC and the Mental Health Resistance Network.

Inside the court a tribunal was hearing a judicial review into Work Capablility Assessments on the grounds they violate the Equality Act, not being accessible for those with mental health conditions, and several of those speaking at the rally had personal stories to tell of how they had suffered as a result.

Mental health conditions are often spasmodic, which may result in claimants on a good day not seeming very ill and on a bad day being unable to attend an assessment – which results in them being automatically judged fit for work. Few of those carrying out the tests had sufficient knowledge and experience in the area of mental health to be able to sensibly conduct the assessment, and medical records were often not taken into consideration.

It seems totally ridiculous for benefits which people need because of their medical conditions not to be assessed on the basis of reports by the doctors who have examined and know their patients, but we have a system that instead tries to deny benefits on the basis of often arbitrary ‘tests’ by unqualified staff.

Equality Protest Against ATOS Work Assessments

Another protest was taking place outside the courts, which I hadn’t been aware of, and it had a very different atmosphere which I found rather chilling.

There was something very organised about it, with people dressed in red and all the placards carefully printed and it lacked the kind of spontaneity. Although it was a protest against the use of drugs to treat mental illness, some of those taking part gave the impression that they had been drugged.

Drugs are certainly misused in the treatment of people with mental health issues, though I think there are occasions when they are an important part in improving people’s health. And certainly they are over-used as a way to avoid treating the real causes of some people’s problems which come largely from poverty, lousy housing and terrible jobs. But there seemed to be something very wrong in some of the assertions that were being made.

I hadn’t heard of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, and was not really surprised when I looked it up on the web and found it described on Wikipedia as ‘a Scientology front group which campaigns against psychiatry and psychiatrists‘ established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology.

And as I wrote when I put these pictures on line:

it seems unfair to dismiss all of psychiatry as their banner did as ‘Junk Science and Dangerous Drugs‘ and I find it impossible from personal experience to deny the existence of medical conditions such as depression – or to dismiss the utility of some drugs in the treatment of mental conditions.
Stop Psychiatry Drugging Kids