Who Wants to Evict a Millionaire? On Saturday 13th April UK Uncut led a protest against the benefit cuts and new taxes being brought in that will most severely impact many of the poorest and particularly the disabled in our society with a lively peaceful protest against Tory Peer Lord Freud, one of the millionaire architects of the bedroom tax.
Tories Against the (Bedroom) Tax protester on the Northern Line as UK Uncut travel to Archway
David Freud, a grandson of Sigmund, had made a fortune as a merchant banker before retiring in 2006 when he was asked by New Labour’s Prime Minister Tony Blair to review the UK’s welfare-to-work system. His 2008 report ‘Reducing dependency, increasing opportunity: options for the future of welfare‘ included making use of private companies to help lone parents and people on Incapacity Benefit back into work and for a single working-age benefit payment to replace the whole range of those currently being paid.
Green Party leader Natalie Bennett had come to take part in the protest
Many in the Labour Party found his ideas unpalatable, and Gordon Brown refused as prime minister to cut welfare spending. Freud then switched to supporting the Conservatives and in 2009 was made a life peer and became a Tory shadow minister. After the 2010 election Freud became Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Welfare Reform at the Department for Work and Pensions.
Iain Duncan Smith had become Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and took up Freud’s ideas, working on the introduction of Universal Credit, introducing a new Work Programme under which claimants could be sanctioned, losing benefits for up to three years if they were judged to be failing to cooperate and making real terms cuts in benefits.
The ‘UK Uncut Removals’ van – ‘Millionaire eviction specialists’ – arrived just as we turned off Hillway into Langbourne Ave
Damaging to many as these policies were in principle, they were made much harsher by the sheer incompetence Duncan Smith imposed on the Department of Work and Pensions and his failure to realise or empathise with the very different lives of poorer people. For him or Freud a delay of five weeks in receiving payments would be no problem – their resources would seem them over and they could easily borrow from family or friends – or even banks.
But those on benefits had no resources to fall back on. If payments were delayed or they were sanctioned they would have no money to buy food, heat their homes, pay rent.
Some facts about benefits and the problems caused by cuts
Famously in April 2103 after a claimant had told the BBC he had £53 per week after paying housing costs, Duncan Smith replied that he could live on £53 per week. And in 2015 he “was criticised after the DWP admitted publishing fake testimonies of claimants enjoying their benefits cuts. Later the same month, publication of statistics showed 2,380 people died in a 3-year period shortly after a work capability assessment declared them fit for work.”
The Removal men had come with boxes
It was the policies of Freud and Duncan Smith that led to the huge increase in the need for food banks. In 2010-11 the Trussell Trust distributed 61,000 food parcels. By 2022-3 that annual figure was “close to 3 million, almost a fiftyfold increase.“
But the police were not letting them get on with the job
The protest was particularly directed against the ‘Bedroom Tax’, which penalised tenants in public housing by reducing their Housing Benefit if they were judged to have more rooms than they needed. It was meant to reduce the costs to and encourage council tenants to move to smaller accommodation – but as this was seldom available its result was simply to impoverish them. And it hit some groups particularly the disabled hardest, as they might have to move away from properties that had been suitable and adapted to their needs.
But there were also other measures, including a benefits cap which was being brought in across the country in stages to put a strict limit on the amounts that people may receive. It seemed inevitable that this would lead to many thousands being evicted, particularly in high rent areas such as London, as well as a cut in legal aid and council tax benefits and an end to disability living allowances.
Those benefits which remain will rise by less than inflation – a cut in real terms. And these cuts were taking place at the same time as the 50p tax rate was being abolished, saving the UK’s 13,000 millionaires around £100,000 each.
I went with the largest group of the protesters, who met at King’s Cross to travel to an undisclosed location, which turned out to be the Highgate home of Tory Peer Lord Freud.
Owen Jones
Outside his home there were a number of performances and speeches which you can read more about at the link below to My London Diary. And the protesters gave a huge cheer when it was announced that disabled activists from DPAC (Disabled Persons Against Cuts) had visited the home of Ian Duncan Smith and also delivered an eviction notice there.
Junior Doctors and Student Nurse Bursaries: On Wednesday 6th of April 2016 I photographed a picket and rally against the imposition of new contracts on junior doctors – hospital doctors now renamed to resident doctors to better reflect their status and then a march rally and die-in against the axing of NHS Student Bursaries.
The NHS was under attack from the Conservatives in various ways throughout their time in government from 2010 to 2024 and its hard to find any rational explanation of most of their policies other than a desire to bring in increasing privatisation. A desire perhaps largely driven by MPs financial interests in health companies as well as by the donations they receive.
Although the Labour Government quickly solved some of the outstanding pay issues in the NHS, research reveals that “Starmer’s cabinet received more than £500,000 in donations alone from lobbyists, hedge funds and private equity firms connected to the private healthcare sector since 2023.”
The Good Law Project gives more details on some of these donations to Wes Streeting. They say that “60% of the registered donations accepted by the health secretary come from people and companies linked to private health“, amounting to a total of £311,400 since 2015. Streeting has been one of the most vigorous advocates of private health company involvements in the NHS.
Support for Junior Doctor’s Picket – St Thomas’ Hospital
New contracts being imposed by Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Jeremy Hunt were described as sexist, racist and classist, and as aimed at easing the takeover of the NHS by private healthcare companies which is currently taking place. The doctors say the contract will reduce safety in hospitals, removing safeguards on overwork and unsocial hours. They claim the contract will particularly affect the disabled and women in general, both as workers in the NHS and as users of its services.
There were speeches at a rally next to the picket line at St Thomas’ Hospital and supporters, including Sisters Uncut, trade unionists, students, student nurses, medical professionals and DPAC members had come to support the doctors.
As well as some junior doctors, other speakers included Sara Tomlinson of Lambeth Teachers Association who announced that the NUT would be coordinating its strikes with further actions by the doctors, Danielle Tiplady, an organiser of the ‘Bursary or Bust’ campaign against the government’s intention to axe NHS student bursaries, Paula Peters of DPAC and a speaker for Sisters Uncut.
Danielle Tiplady of Bursary Or Bust leads the march in front of Florence Nightingale over Westminster Bridge
As the picket outside St Thomas’ Hospital was about to come to an end most of those who had taken part in the rally marched the short distance across Westminster Bridge to a rally in Whitehall outside Richmond House, then the headquarters of the Department for Health and Social Security.
The march was led by DPAC and student nurses from the ‘Bursaries or Bust’ campaign included Sisters Uncut, trade unionists, students, medical professionals and DPAC members. They were followed a few minutes later by junior doctors at the end of their picket.
Bursary or Bust Die-In & Rally – Dept of Health, Whitehall
It was hard to see the axing of bursaries for student nurses which eventually happened in 2017 as anything more than a direct attack on the NHS, then and now desperately short of nurses. The most recent statistics show 27,000 unfilled nursing positions.
Nurses are required as an integral part of their training to spend long hours working as nurses in hospitals where they are a vital part of the workforce. Along with long hours of study this makes them unable to take the part-time jobs that many students now work.
Axing the bursaries also makes it much for difficult for more mature entrants and those from less affluent backgrounds to train to become nurses and midwives.
Atos Protest & Camden Town: – Monday 24 January 2011
Disability benefits are now under attack by our Labour government, who have insisted they will implement the Tory plans to cut the amount paid in incapacity benefits by £3 billion by 2028. And the House of Lords economic affairs committee a few days ago published a report calling for a fundamental review of the benefits system to tackle the rising social and fiscal costs of disability benefits.
Picket at the Archway Job Centre Plus Atos test centre
Also last week the High Court ruled that the previous government’s consultation on changing incapacity benefits was unlawful as “it presented the changes as a way of supporting disabled people into work but failed to make clear that 424,000 vulnerable claimants would see their benefits cut by £416 a month.”
When the Tory coalition government came into power in 2010 it picked on the disabled who it thought would be an easy target for the cuts it was making to support the bankers. Protests such as this on Monday January 24th 2001 showed how wrong they were, with determined opposition to the unfairness of their cost-cutting reforms from disabled groups including Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) and the Black Triangle Campaign.
Protesters meet up in Triton Square
One part of the campaign by successive governments has been to give huge publicity and priority to benefit fraud, which according to the national Audit Office only amounts to 0.6% of the DWP budget and is a “drop in the ocean compared to the losses by tax evasion by the super-rich and the amounts lost by them and major corporations exploiting tax loopholes.“
Police try rather ineffectually to stop protesters heading for the Atos offices
In 2011 a major source of unfairness in the system was the attempts to cut costs by the use of computer-based ability to work assessments carried out for the DWP by European IT company Atos. The interviews were administered by ‘healthcare professionals’, often poorly trained and lacking the qualifications and experience to assess many types of disability, particularly mental illness. Almost 70% of those assessed were moved onto the lower benefit rates of the Job Seekers Allowance with some being refused any benefits at all.
An independent review for the DWP made fundamental criticisms of the assessments, and around 40% of those who appealed the decisions eventually had their benefits restored to previous levels – but only after months of hardship, and often just in time for their next review when their benefits would again be axed. Part of the problem was the pressure applied on the assessors to meet targets in cutting benefits by the company so they could justify their costs to the DWP.
And there were plenty of true horror stories. People assessed fit for work who died within days of the assessments, those who committed suicide and some who starved to death. Benefit cuts really do kill.
Atos went on to gain other contracts from the DWP until September 2024 when the contract for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and work capability assessment (WCA) were given to Serco. The DWP had acknowledged there were flaw in the Atos assessments but few believe that Serco will be any fairer.
Monday January 24th was a a National Day of Protest Against Benefit Cuts, with actions around the country, including protests in Leeds, Birmingham, Burnley, Hastings, Crawley, Chesterfield, Livingston, near Edinburgh (Atos’s Scotland HQ) and Glasgow. I began by photographing a local protest at Archway in North London before going on to a protest outside the London HQ of Atos Origin in Triton Square close to the Euston Road.
On My London Diary back in 2011 I wrote much more about the Atos tests and also about the details of the two protests. The protest in Triton Square was heavily policed but the organisers and those taking part, including Disabled People Against Cuts, WinVisible (Women with Visible and Invisible Disabilities) and London Coalition Against Poverty were intent on this being a peaceful protest.
Police have problems in dealing with disabled protesters. Many want to treat them carefully and their officers certainly realise that images of them being roughly handled would be terrible PR. But they were annoyed that the protesters decided to protest close to the actual Atos offices rather than in a pen they had set up a short distance away. And when one elderly man walked through the spread out police line he was roughly pushed to the ground and dragged away, though later he was allowed to rejoin the other hundred or so protesters.
The police then brought more barriers and erected them around the protesters, telling them they could only exit the fenced area when they were dispersing at the end of the protest. There seemed to be no real justification for this and they seemed simply to be a simply a matter of pique that the protesters had not followed their instructions.
I had plenty of time to get from Archway to Triton Square and got off the bus in Camden Town for a walk and to make use of one of London’s rapidly disappearing public toilets in the middle of the busy road junction there (but I think closed a few years ago.)
I’d photographed around Camden High Street and Chalk Farm Road quite often in the 1990s, often on my way home from taking pictures elsewhere in North London, and walking from Camden Town station to Chalk Farm. Then the lemon sorbets from Marine Ices were the best in London if not the world. But that’s gone too now, and in January 2011 it wasn’t the weather for it.
Back in the 1990s the streets would have been pretty empty except at weekends, but by 2011 there were plenty of tourists wandering around even on a cold Monday in January, though business was fairly slack. But mainly I pointed my camera up to the decorations above the shops
This the third page of a selection of my work in 2024. Not my “best pictures” but some of my better images, all I think pictures that worked well and told the story I was trying to tell. Captions are those I wrote in haste on the day they were taken.
London, UK. 25 May.A large crowd marched slowly from the Greenwich Islamic Centre to a rally in central Woolwich in one of many local protests across the country calling for an end to the genocide in Gaza and UK arms sales to Israel and for Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions – BDS against Israeli apartheid. They demanded a huge increase in humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza to avoid famine, and called for an end to Israeli apartheid, and freedom and justice for Palestine.London, UK. 1 June 2024. Hundreds meet outside Redbridge Town Hall for a rally before marching to Barking Town Hall, demanding an immediate end to the genocide in Gaza and arms sales to Israel and for international sanctions against Israel and freedom for Palestine. Among speakers were Leanne Mohamad, standing against Wes Streeting in Ilford North and Fiona Lally who ‘destroyed’ Suella Braverman in a TV interview. London, UK. 8 June 2024. Jewish Bloc anti-Zionist Jews. 150,000 march through London to a rally in Parliament Square demanding an end to the genocide in Gaza and for UK political parties to pledge to end to arms sales to Israel. They call for the opening of crossings for urgent humanitarian aid to Gaza, and for the release of hostages and Palestinian prisoners in Israel and for negotiations to bring freedom to Palestine and peace to the area.London, UK. 15 June 2024. People met in Gillett Square, Dalston in heavy rain for speeches before marching to the Divest Camp outside Hackney Town Hall. They called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and international action to overcome problems in getting urgently needed humanitarian aid to the people and for divestment by corporations and financial institutions around the world. They demand Hackney end its twinning with Haifa which they say Israel uses for propaganda reasons. London, UK. 6 July 2024. A health worker holds a white smoke flare. Many thousands marched through London to call on the Labour Government to end its support for Israel’s continuing genocide in Gaza and the UK arms sales which support it and to call for an immediate ceasefire and a huge increase in humanitarian aid. They called for a political solution based on international law to with freedom for Palestine. A few counter protesters on Waterloo Bridge were met with angry shouts and derisive gestures. London, UK. 18 July 2024. John McDonnell was among those at the rally Disability rights campaigners came to Parliament Square for ‘Disabled People Demand’, presenting the new Labour government solutions to the many crises faced by disabled people across the UK caused by cuts in resources and services under previous administrations and celebrating the the music, art and poetry of disabled people. London, UK. 20 July 2024. Local protests around the country including this march from Edmonton Green to Silver Street call for the UK to halt arms supplies to Israel which are being used in the genocidal assault on Palestinians which have so far killed over 39,000 people. Yesterday the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel’s presence in the Palestinian occupied territories is “unlawful” and called on it to end as rapidly as possible. London, UK. 27 July 2024. People met at the Cuban Embassy before marching to Oxford Street to protest against collaboration by British banks with the attacks on the Palestinian and Cuban peoples. UK banks such as the HSBC have implemented the US blockade of Cuba for 62 years since the revolution and back the occupation of Palestine by investing in the arms trade and Israeli business deals with the UK. London, UK. 27 July 2024. Thousands met outside the BBC at Langham Place to march to Hyde Park Corner in the sixth Trans Pride March, taking place after a year of increasing anti-trans media campaigns, hate attacks and the Cass report which raised questions about the future of trans healthcare. They called for trans rights and proper healthcare including ending the ban on puberty blockers. London, UK, 3 Aug 2024. A Trans Strike Back rally and march in Parliament Square called for an end to the ban on prescribing puberty blockers to trans kids. Proven safe for kids over many years the ban only applies to trans kids and appears to be the result of an ill-informed transphobic campaign and it will endanger the lives of trans kids. They also call for the rejection of the Cass Report and demand a trans led structure of their healthcare.London, UK, 3 Aug 2024. A rally in Parliament Square by Extinction Rebellion, Defend Our Juries, Just Stop Oil and Fossil Free London called for an end to the jailing of non-violent protesters and an end to the gagging by judges of those who try to argue that the climate crisis is a “lawful excuse” in our courts. Jurors should hear the whole truth of the cases. Around 200 people have been jailed for peaceful protests since 2019 and widely criticised draconian sentences were given to the ‘Whole Truth Five’.London, UK. 3 Aug 2024. Thousands march through London to Downing St calling on Starmer to end arms sales to Israel and for a ceasefire to end the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Schools, hospitals and homes are continually being bombed and people are dying from starvation and a lack of clean water. A Lancet study suggests that by now 180,000 Palestinians may have died in Gaza, far more than the official figures. London, UK. 3 Aug 2024. Thousands march through London to Downing St calling on Starmer to end arms sales to Israel and for a ceasefire to end the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Schools, hospitals and homes are continually being bombed and people are dying from starvation and a lack of clean water. A Lancet study suggests that by now 180,000 Palestinians may have died in Gaza, far more than the official figures. London, UK. 10 Aug 2024. Several thousand crowded the area opposite the Reform Party address in Westminster for a lively rally against the extreme right following the thuggery encouraged and promoted by Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson. Speakers included Weyman Bennett and Louise Raw. They called on everyone to take a stand against racism in workplaces and elsewhere and for politicians to end scapegoating immigrants and their racist anti-migrant speeches and policies which have emboldened the extreme right.
Part 4 follows tomorrow. You can see many more pictures from these and other events in my albums on Facebook.
My 2024 in Photographs – Today I set out on the impossible task of summing up the photographs I took over the year. It’s something I find very hard to do not least because I’ve taken so many pictures. But here is the first of a four-part presentation of some I’ve taken – though on any other day I might have chosen completely different pictures – with the often rather generic captions written in haste on the day they were taken. So its perhaps more a cross-section than a selection.
London, UK. 13 Jan 2024. Hundreds of thousands march in London in a global day of action for a full ceasefire in Gaza, an end to the genocide and a political solution to bring peace and justice to Palestine under international law. Israeli forces have killed over 23,000 people including more than 10,000 children, with many bodies sill under the rubble. Bombing has made humanitarian aid and medical treatment impossible and widespread deaths from disease and starvation now seem inevitable.London, UK. 22 Jan 2024. A large crowd outside Twickenham Rugby Stadium protested against the arms fair attended by companies supplying Israel with armoured vehicles and other weapons used in its devastating assault on Gaza and used to repress, terrorise, abduct and kill civilians and children in Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Yemen and elsewhere around the world. They called on the Rugby Football Union to end hosting arms sales.London, UK. 27 Jan 2024. A march from Edmonton Green to a rally at Silver St demanded Israel ends its genocidal attack on Gaza, calling for an immediate ceasefire and an urgent programme of humanitarian aid to end famine and provide shelter, medicine and water. They praised South Africa for taking Israel to court for genocide and called for a just peace with freedom for Palestine.
Making the selection was a fairly long job. There are a little over 22,000 RAW images stored in my 2024 folder at the moment – those I thought worth saving from the rather more I actually made.
London, UK. 3 Feb 2024. Hundreds of thousands march from the BBC to Downing Street calling for a full ceasefire in Gaza where Israeli forces have now killed over 27,000, mainly women and children, and are ignoring last week’s ICJ ruling to prevent acts of genocide. Humanitarian aid and medical treatment is largely impossible and widespread deaths from disease and starvation are inevitable. They call for restoration of funding to UNRWA and a political solution to bring peace and justice to Palestine.London, UK. 3 Feb 2024. A dove with a key. Hundreds of thousands march from the BBC to Downing Street calling for a full ceasefire in Gaza where Israeli forces have now killed over 27,000, mainly women and children, and are ignoring last week’s ICJ ruling to prevent acts of genocide. Humanitarian aid and medical treatment is largely impossible and widespread deaths from disease and starvation are inevitable. They call for restoration of funding to UNRWA and a political solution.London, UK. 10 Feb 2024. A rally outside Ealing Town hall was one of many local protests around the country calling for an immediate ceasefire and an end to the genocide in Gaza which has now killed 28,000 mainly women and children and severely injured around 68,000. The entire population of Gaza is now living in desperate conditions with constant threat of bombing, shelling, famine and disease. They condemned the failure to respond to the ICJ ruling to prevent acts of genocide. London, UK. 17 Feb 2024. A huge march to the Israeli Embassy demands a full ceasefire in Gaza and an end to genocide. Israeli forces have now killed over 30,000, mainly women and children, are ignoring the ICJ ruling and launching a brutal assault on Rafah. Humanitarian aid and medical supplies are desperately needed to avoid mass deaths from disease and starvation and UNRWA funding is essential. Protesters demand a political solution to bring peace and justice to Palestine. London, UK. 17 Feb 2024. Movement for Justice. A huge march to the Israeli Embassy demands a full ceasefire in Gaza and an end to genocide. Israeli forces have now killed over 30,000, mainly women and children, are ignoring the ICJ ruling and launching a brutal assault on Rafah. Humanitarian aid and medical supplies are desperately needed to avoid mass deaths from disease and starvation and UNRWA funding is essential. Protesters demand a political solution to bring peace and justice to Palestine.London, UK. 24 Feb 2024. Women with flower head dresses leading the march. Two years after the Russian invasion thousands march from Marble Arch to a vigil in Trafalgar Square in solidarity with the Ukrainian resistance and to show opposition to Russian aggression and war crimes. Russia has occupied parts of Ukraine since 2014. The event was organised by the British-Ukrainian community in London and the wider UK.
This is too many for me to look through, so I made this selection to the roughly 2,000 that I posted on Facebook over the year. In the end I gave up trying to cut down my selection to only the dozen or so I could show in a single post here, so this is the first of four daily posts of my pictures from 2024.
London, UK. 28 Feb 2024. Poice arrested one man on the march. Extinction Rebellion protesters marched from Trinity Square to a festival outside the Lloyds insurance building, some in business attire. They demand the insurance industry refuses to provide cover for fossil fuel developments as these are risking our future. 40% of the world’s fossil fuel production is insured by Lloyds. The peaceful protest included music, speeches and dancing. London UK. 29 Feb 2024. Extinction Rebellion artivist troupe Red Rebel Brigade in front of the march to protest for climate justice and solidarity with Palestine at AXA Insurance which is insuring new oil and gas fields and investing in companies creating illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine. They demanded AXA divests from Israel’s genocidal actions and end its investments in new oil and gas. The protest in heavy rain remained entirely peaceful.London, UK. 4 March 2024. Mary Ellen is surrounded by police as they clear wheelchair protesters from DPAC block of Victoria St after protest at the DWP in a National Day of Action before the budget against proposed brutal and horrific social security reforms which will cut benefits for hundreds of thousands of the disabled and give new powers to work coaches in Job Centres. A 2020 UCL report found almost 150,000 had then died as a direct result of Tory cuts and welfare reform policies.
Part 2 follows tomorrow. You can see many more pictures from these and other events in my albums on Facebook.
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
‘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.
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.
A right-wing Brexiteer accuses Steve Bray of getting drunk and asks who is funding him
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
DPAC Court Vigil, a Poet Arrested, Musical Poor Doors & More: Wednesday 22nd October 2014, ten years ago today was a busy day for me. You can read my full accounts of the various events I photographed on the links to My London Diary, along with many more pictures, but here I’ve only space for a short outline. Below is my day more or less in order.
DPAC High Court Vigil for ILF – Royal Courts of Justice,
When disabled people won a court case over withdrawal of the Independent Living Fund the government simply put back the closure of the fund. Today’s protest by Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) supported a second case against the closure. Speakers at the vigil included three MPs, John McDonnell, Andy Slaughter and Jeremy Corbyn, as well as many from various disability groups.
At the end of the protest, DPAC carried out their usual direct action, blocking Strand outside the court with their wheelchairs.
End UK shame over Shaker Aamer – Parliament Square, London
Protesters were continuing their regular vigils opposite Parliament for Shaker Aamer, imprisoned and tortured for over 12 years and cleared for release in 2007. They believe he was still being held because his testimony would embarrass MI6 as well as the US.
I took the tube from Westminster to Canary Wharf to visit the Bridges exhibition at the Museum of London Docklands, later returning to Westminster. I paused in Westminster Station to take some panoramic images of the interior, designed as Piranesian, though sometimes I get more of the feeling of Escher as you seem to walk endlessly up escalators and around the interior.
I found the show a little disappointing, but took advantage of my visit there to take a few more panoramic images.
I made a couple of visits to the Democracy Camp in Parliament Square both before and after going to Canary Wharf. Although the camp had been ejected from the main grass area workshops and rallies were still taking place throughout the day, and Danny, the ‘Plinth Guy‘ was still up there with Churchill since the previous day – and there were cheers when he completed 24 hours.
Earlier someone had been arrested for throwing him a bottle of water, and when performance poet and activist Martin Powell arrived with a plastic tub of food he was warned he would be arrested if he tried to give it to Danny.
He replied it could not possibly be a crime to feed a hungry person and threw it extremely accurately over police heads and into Danny’s waiting hands. Arrested and marched away he loudly recited his poem ‘The Missing Peace’.
Danny was still in place when I returned at 5pm but the police had called in their climbing team. I listened while its leader talked with him, and Danny told him he would not resist arrest if they came to take him down peacefully. But I had to leave before they started to do so.
This was Class War’s 14th weekly protest at the ‘rich door’ of Redrow’s One Commercial St flats and it was a lively affair with the banners dancing to the music of Rhythms of Resistance, a poetic performance and some rousing speeches against social apartheid.
There ws strong police presence but there was no trouble, with a carnival atmosphere and banners dancing up and down the wide pavement in front of the rich door. Most of the police appeared to be enjoying the event too.
As usual after an hour of protesting people dispersed and I went into Aldgate East station to begin my journey home.
No More Benefit Deaths: On Wednesday 7th September 2016, the day of the opening ceremony for the Rio Paralympics, disablement campaigners demanded human rights for all disabled people and an end to the disastrous sanctions regime which has led to many deaths.
They called on Prime Minister Theresa May, newly appointed in July 2016 to make public the findings of the UN investigation into the UK for violations of Deaf and Disabled people’s rights, to scrap the Work Capability Assessment and commit to preventing future benefit-related deaths.
The UN committee on the rights of persons with disabilities published its report in November 2016. It stated that the UK had committed “grave or systematic” violations of UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and in June 2017 the committee clarified the reasons behind their conclusions.
They stated that the breaches of the rights to independent living, work and employment and adequate standard of living under the convention were mainly caused by the policices introduced by Tory ministers at the DWP between 2010 and 2015. Some were grave violations, some systematic and others both grave and systematic.
The UN inquiry had been prompted by the research and lobbying of Disabled People Against Cuts, and the Disability News Service article included this quote from DPAC co-founder Linda Burnip who:
“pointed to actions such as cuts to social care, the impact of the work capability assessment – which has been linked by public health experts from the Universities of Liverpool and Oxford to hundreds of suicides between 2010 and 2013 – the hugely damaging introduction of personal independence payment and consequent cuts to support, the increased use of sanctions and the resulting deaths of benefit claimants, and the introduction of the bedroom tax.”
As Burnip stated, the government’s actions were “based on a deliberate intention to cause harm without any regard to the horrendous consequences for disabled people.”
The day on Wednesday 7th September 2016 began with a huge banner with the message ‘NO MORE BENEFITS DEATHS #DPAC” being displayed on the wall of the River Thames facing the riverside terrace of the Houses of Parliament.
After photographing this I hurried to Downing Street were there was a rally in on the opposite side of the street with speakers from DPAC, Winvisible, the Scottish Black Triangle Campaign and others including John Clark from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty who shared news of similar problems facing disabled people in Canada.
Gill Thompson spoke about her brother David Clapson, a diabetic ex-soldier died after his benefit was cut as he could not afford food or electricity to keep his insulin cool was there with a banner covered with the names and some photographs of around a hundred of the many who had died because of the DWP’s sanctions, cuts and scapegoating.
The protesters then lifted up the black coffin with white wreaths they had brought and began a march towards the Houses of Parliament.
As they came to Bridge Street the marchers took the police by surprise by turning towards the bridge. The giant banner which had earlier been displayed facing Parliament was now stretched across the road, blocking the bridge in both directions.
After several minutes police began trying to get people to move off the road warning them they are committing an offence and may be arrested. I was also threatened with arrest, despite showing my Press card. One carer who refused to move away from the wheelchair user he was looking after was arrested and taken to a police van.
Most of those in wheelchairs and mobility scooters refused to move or did so only after a long series of threats by police, who eventually managed to clear one carraigeway to allow traffic to move out of Westminster. But a group remained blocking traffic in the other direction until after almost two hours Paula Peters triumphantly announced the protest was ending and everyone left.
Brexit, Inclusion London & Fracking: Protests in Westminster I photographed on Monday 5th September 2016 were for and against Brexit, Disabled People Against Cuts who had been lobbying at Parliament over the Inclusion London report and a vigil by pagans against fracking.
Rival Brexit protests at Parliament
Parliament was debating a petition on the EU referendum signed by over 4 million people calling for a second referendum as there had only been a 52% vote in favour of leaving Europe, with 48% voting against. They argued that this was far too close for such a major constitutional change and at least a 60% vote should have been required for the referedum to be decisive.
Spiked magazine had organsed a protest by pro-Brexit campaigners in Old Palace Yard and they shouted loudly for Theresa May to ‘Invoke Article 50 Now!
A small group who wanted us to stay in Europe had come to Parliament Square where they held flags and banners.
Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) had come to Parliament to lobby MPs and to present the Inclusion London report which had highlighted the disastrous effects of cutting care and support funding for personal assistance by the closure of the Independent Living Fund in 2015.
After the lobby they posed on the pavement outside Parliament for photographs and then on the road opposite.
before marching to Downing St.
In front of Downing Street the march came to a halt on the roadway.
Police directed traffic around them as they held a ‘Pop-Up Street theatre‘ performance there.
There were short speeches, poetry and songs from some of the DPAC members, showcasing the creativity of disabled people and the contribution they can make to society with proper support.
Others talked about their physical and mental health problems and the difficulties that they had suffered because of the closure of the Independent Living Fund.
DPAC were supported by other groups and individuals including Winvisible.
The protest was part of a series of protests at the same time as the Rio Paralympics, and a large banner read ‘Rights Not Games’.
On the other side of Whitehall opposite Downing Street pagans were staging a 24 hour vigil against fracking.
Pagans believe that nature is sacred and find spiritual meanings in natural cycles of birth, growth and death and Druidic and other rituals are linked to the seasons. Humans, animals, trees, plants and all of the earth are part of nature, and fracking disrupts the natural order.
A banner with a tree had the message ‘Druids against Fracking – One (heart) for Mother Earth‘ while another had more esoteric symbols with the message ‘We are Nature protecting ourselves‘. One of the Druids was wearing a t-shirt with the sigil ‘The Warriors Call‘, a magic symbol widely adopted as an anti-fracking device.
