huge march | >Re-PHOTO

Heathrow, Pendragon & Brexit: On Saturday 23 June 2018 I went to Parliament Square where campaigners against the expansion of Heathrow Airport were holding a rally. While there I also saw a small group of the right-wing fringe activist, the Arthur Pendragons, try without success to deliver letters to Parliament. Later I met a march of around a hundred thousand who had marched to a rally which more than filled Parliament Square calling for a People’s vote before we finally left Europe.

Vote No to Disastrous Heathrow Expansion

*‘Boris’ looks worried by the 3rd runway – and he invented a trip to Afghanistan to avoid the vote*

This protest took place on the Saturday before Parliament was to vote on the expansion of Heathrow on Monday. Prime Minister Boris Johnson who when London Mayor had promised he would lie down in front of the bulldozers to stop the development had conveniently arranged to be out of the country for the vote.

The building of a new runway and associated works would cause years of disruption and even when completed would significantly increase traffic congestion and increased pollution across a wide area around Heathrow as well as under the flight path in a city with already dangerous and often illegal levels of pollution.

*Some of those taking part had been on hunger strike for 14 days outside the Labour Party HQ*

More importantly it would add to the the already growing threat of irreversible climate breakdown that could threaten the future of human life on the earth.

*They stated a vote for the third runway is ‘Voting for Climate Genocide’*

The estimates for the contribution to jobs and the economy by a third runway made by Heathrow and the government were wildly optimistic and after it was completed increased automation and the use of AI were likely to lead to a decline in local jobs.

As I’ve often pointed out, “Almost any other development likely in the area blighted by the expansion would provide more local jobs, and closing Heathrow altogether for a new town development would provide much greater opportunities.“

*It seemed inevitable that the government will win the vote – but still unlikely the runway will be built*

Unsurprisingly Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of expansion on Monday 25 June 2018, though the realities of the situation means that it has not happened yet, and many think it unlikely to ever do so.

Many more pictures on My London Diary at Vote No to Disastrous Heathrow Expansion.

White Pendragons ‘Independence Day’ letters refused

Parliament Square

*Shaun Morris of the Arthur Pendragons argues with police who will not accept their letters*

The Arthur Pendragons take their name from the Anglo-Saxon King Arthur (who modern historians doubt ever existed) and their ideas from a misunderstanding of English Common Law, and in particular of the Magna Carta.

They gained a little publicity when they made an unsuccessful attempt at a ‘citizen’s arrest’ on London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan, claiming he should not be Mayor “because he is a Muslim“. Despite this they claim they are open welcome people of all races and religions including the settled immigrant communities. Some of the group were previous supports of racist far-right organisations but they emphasise a non-violent orientation, with their slogan: “No Loss, No Harm, No Injury.”

*A woman pushes her letter through the fence around the Houses of Parliament*

Their letters stated that they withdrew their support for parliament’s underhand dealings with the EU and demanded the return of all sovereign powers to the individuals and the British people, as well as an end to taxation and other orders and demands. Police at the gates refused to take these letters and in the end they simply pushed them through the railings.

White Pendragon letters refused

Many Thousands March for a People’s Vote

*Parliament Square was full and many watched the rally on a giant screen in Whitehall*

This was one of London’s larger marches and filled Parliament Square for a rally with an overflow in Whitehall while others were reported to still be waiting to leave Pall Mall.

Many of those on the march had posters or placards saying they had been lied to when they voted for Brexit in 2016, though others had voted remain.

*Who needs Airbus when you’ve got Spitfire?’*

*Caroline Lucas among those holding the main banner*

But in 2018 opinion polls suggested than almost two thirds of the British people backed having a final vote on Brexit now that we had a better idea of what it would actually mean.

And last Saturday, 20th June 2026, ten years after the Brexit referendum some of the same people were marching on the streets of London again, calling for us to rejoin Europe. It was a smaller march than in 2018 but the case for Britain moving back closer to Europe even if not actually rejoining has become very much stronger now years after we have actually left and we see its results. You can see some of my pictures from the 2026 march on Facebook.

More from 2018 on My London Diary at Many Thousands March for a People’s Vote.

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Hands Off Iraq, George Galloway & Tony Benn – Saturday 2nd March 2002 saw a huge protest against Britain becoming involved in the US plans to invade Iraq and depose Sadam Hussein.

It’s hard to know how many marched that day, though I think there may have been around half a million of us on the streets of London,but it was certainly a very large march though not quite on the scale of that on 16th February 2003. Unfortunately I had to miss that one as I had only come out of hospital the previous day and could only walk a few yards.

George Galloway, then Labour MP for Glasgow Kelvin, has come back into the news recently by winning the Rochdale by-election. He along with Tony Benn and others was one of the founders of Stop The War following the US invasion of Afghanisatan and the coalition organised this and other protests against the invasions of Iraq then being prepared by the US Miitary. Galloway was and still is a flamboyant figure and a powerful speaker, though I was rather more attracted to others in the movement such as Tony Benn, who appears in more of my pictures.

But then as now, I wasn’t at the protest to photograph celebrities, but to tell the story of the event, mainly through photographs of the ordinary people taking part. Of course my pictures concentrate on those who caught my attention, sometimes by their expressions and actions, but more often through their banners and placards which link them to the cause they were marching for.

Although I’d been photographing protests for some years – occasionally since the 1970s and more intensively since the 1990s, my pictures had simply gone into picture libraries and a few exhibitions and few had been used in the mass media.

Shortly after Indymedia, a global network of independent news media was set up in 1999 I began publishing work on the UK site – and some of it may be still be available on the now archived site. This was of course entirely non-commercial, and had a very limited readership on the left, among anarchists and the security services.

But I also set up a new web site of my own, My London Diary, which is still available online, though its now several years since I have added new work. Although I have unlimited web space there is a limit to the number of files my web server can handle, and I was very close to this. Covid also played its part in various ways.

In the early years of My London Diary I was still working with film and only had a black and white flatbed scanner. So the pictures for Hands Off Iraq online were all in black and white, though I will also have taken some in colour, but so far I’ve digitised few colour images from these years. The 24 black and white images on My London Diary will have been made from 8×10″ black and white press prints submitted to a picture library and scanned on a flatbed scanner. In 2002 although many magazines were printed in colour the main sales for news images were still black and white, though things were rapidly changing, and I was soon to begin moving to working mainly in digital colour.

Here, with a few corrections is the text I put on line back in 2022 with these pictures:

The Stop the War, Hands off Iraq demonstration on 2 march was a large sign of public opinion. people were still leaving Hyde Park at the start of the march when Trafalgar Square was full to overflowing two and a half hours later.

Police estimates of the number were risible as usual – and can only reflect an attempt to marginalise the significant body of opinion opposed to the war or a complete mathematical inability on behalf of the police.

Tony Benn told me and other photographers it wasn’t worth taking his picture – “it won’t get in the papers unless I go and kick a policeman” but he didn’t and he was quite right.

More pictures on My London Diary

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Tag: huge march

Heathrow, Pendragon & Brexit – 2018

Vote No to Disastrous Heathrow Expansion

White Pendragons ‘Independence Day’ letters refused

Many Thousands March for a People’s Vote

Hands Off Iraq, George Galloway & Tony Benn