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Maggie’s Hugs & Fortnum & Mason – 2011

Maggie’s Hugs & Fortnum & Mason: On Friday 19 August 2011 I stopped briefly on the Queen’s Walk outside City Hall on the south bank of the Thames close to Tower Bridge to photograph the ‘Hug London‘ event by cancer charity Maggie’s, before going on to a protest outside Westminster Magistrates Court where protesters arrested during a peaceful protest in luxury food shop Fortnum & Mason were facing charges of aggravated trespass.

Maggie’s Charity Hugs London

City Hall

Maggie's Hugs & Fortnum & Mason - 2011 — *Keep calm after the riots and join Maggie’s fund-raising Night Hike was the message*

Maggie’s Centres offer support for anyone affected by cancer and to their family and friends from the time of diagnosis, during and after treatment, to recurrence, end of life or in bereavement.

The cancer care charity was set up by Maggie Jencks after the recurrence of her breast cancer in 1993 and opened the first Maggie’s Centre in Edinburgh shortly after her death in 1995.

There are now in 2026 around 30 centres across the UK and four international centres – considerably more than in 2011. The main fundraising events for the charity are various challenges and the largest of these in 2011 was a London Night Hike, a a 10 or 20 mile adventure held in partnership with Open House London, with hikers getting to visit inside a number of iconic buildings on the route for food and entertainment.

Unfortunately registration for the Night Hike had opened on the day when London’s 2011 riots were taking place and this had led to a great drop in registration – although London would almost certainly be peaceful when the actual event was to take place in September.

Volunteers had come to London to try to get more people to take part , walking around London offering Londoners free hugs and handing out invitations to sign up for the Night Hike.

Maggie’s Hugs London

Support Fortnum & Mason Protesters

Westminster Magistrates Court, 70 Horseferry Road

UK Uncut were one of a number of groups taking action during the massive TUC ‘March For The Alternative‘ on Saturday 26th March 2011. They came to Oxford Street to hold peaceful protests at tax dodging shops and banks around Oxford St and to party at Oxford Circus.

I had photographed some of their protests earlier in the day but went home to change clothes before they got to Fortnum and Mason, having been hit by a paintball from a black bloc protester, possibly aimed at police. Otherwise I would probably have probably have been with them when the went into the luxury shop and might well have been arrested despite having a Press Card.

*Half the protesters went into the public gallery, though they had to change out of white suits to be allowed in*

Fortnum and Mason was occupied because it is ‘a symbol of wealth and greed‘ and made use of a tax avoidance scheme to save £10 million a year. During the protest police praised the protesters for their cooperation with the police in not attempting to leave the premises.

Chief inspector Claire Clark, the senior officer present can be seen and heard on video promising them that they would be free to leave, but apparently she already knew that they would be arrested as they left.

Police held the protesters in the store as there were battles taking place between the black block and police in the area around and the police were unable to control the situation – and there would probably have been unable to make mass arrests. Police also needed time to had made arrangements for a large number of arrests. So officers – in best police tradition – lied to the protesters.

All 145 UK Uncut protesters were arrested as they left the store and charged with the serious offence of aggravated trespass with intent to intimidate. They were then taken to various police stations and held for many hours. Some were turned out in the early hours of the morning only partly dressed, in flimsy white part transparent suits over their underclothes, often many miles from their homes

*A mother of one of those arrested in a plastic suit over underwear as her daughter was turned out by police*

Eventually charges against most were dropped, but 30 were brought to court, divided alphabetically into three groups, A, B and C. All ten in trial A were found guilty but given a conditional discharge and told to pay £1,000 each towards costs, with the judge telling them “History often vindicates those involved in such acts.” Those in Trial B were initially found guilty but five of the nine were acquitted on appeal. All in Trial C were acquitted.

I still find it hard to believe that the CPS decided it was in the public interests to bring these prosecutions having seen the videos and heard much of the evidence. There was little damage in the shop, although some people trapped in there for two and a half hours by the police may have sampled a little food. The main loss to the shop was caused by police as the protesters would have left peacefully after a few minutes of occupation had the police allowed them to do so – and there would have been little loss of business.

Clearly these arrests and trials were politically motivated. It was a peaceful protest and it was the police who closed the shop, not the protesters.

Support Fortnum & Mason Protesters

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Police Prevent Peaceful Protest – 2026

Police Prevent Peaceful Protest: On Thursday 30the July 2026 Defend Our Juries had arranged a static peaceful protest on the wide pavement in front of Westminster Magistrates Court on Marylebone Road. It was to begin at noon with an hour of speeches, music and poetry.

I arrived at the starting time to find several surrounding roads full of police vans and squads of police standing waiting while others were in the crowd making arrests.

There was a large crowd present, perhaps around a thousand demonstrating against the government ban on Palestine Action. They included many who had been arrested at previous events for holding signs in support of Palestine Action.

Over 1500 of these arrestees had earlier received letters from the court stating that their cases would be dealt with on this day – but most at least had been told they need not attend. Clearly magistrates cannot hear that many cases in a day and the intention had been to simply rubber-stamp the great majority without allowing those arrested to make any defence.

Defend Our Juries had in fact been told that because of administrative problems, the ‘non-hearing‘ of these cases would not be going ahead on this day. But they had decided to go ahead with the protest and after the hour of entertainment had invited all those charged – if they wanted – to come up the the small platform they were bringing and make a further statement of their support for Palestine Action and their intention to encourage others also support the banned group.

Most of those previously arrested had been charged under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act, but by making the intended statement would also be in breach of Sections 11 and 12 which carry more serious penalties – and would lead to a jury trial. Defend Our Juries were clearly intending to ramp up their challenge to the authorities in what they called a ‘Graduation Day’ ceremony.

Before I arrived police had already seized the platform and the public address system as well as several protesters – including one who who had been testing the sound system. Perhaps they will now argue that ‘1.2.3.4 …testing‘ is now a terrorist chant.

The Court of Appeal had surprised many by overruling the High Court’s decision that the ban was unlawful. It was was pushed through Parliament by combining them with a genuinely terrorist organisation, and would probably have met with considerable opposition otherwise. As the protest was taking place on Thursday the Supreme Court announced it would hear a further appeal in September which could quash the ban. Andy Burnham could end this nonsense now.

More of my pictures in the Facebook album Defend Our Juries Graduation Day.

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Arms Dealers, Dirty Oil and Pay – 2013

Arms Dealers, Dirty Oil and Pay: On Thursday 13th Jun 2013 a protest in the week before the G8 summit in Ireland targeted the offices of arms manufacturers in London. Unlike the previous day the protesters were not harassed and attacked by police and the protest remained peaceful.

Canadian prime minster Stephen Harper had been invited to address Parliament and there was a noisy protest against him over his support of the environmentally disastrous Canadian tar sands as well as a smaller group of Canadian Foreign Service Workers demanding equal pay with other Canadian government employees.

I also briefly photographed the continuing daily vigil calling for the release of Shaker Aamer from Guantanamo which I had written about earlier.

G8 Protest Against Arms Dealers

West End

Anti-G8 protesters continued their protests with a tour of the offices of companies making armaments in Central London. Today their peaceful protest, unlike yesterday’s, was not attacked by police, and there were no arrests.

As well as a group of protesters in black robes with ghost or skull masks and carrying mock scythes and a black banner with the message ‘Think we’re SCARY? You’ll find ‘ARMS DEALERS INSIDE‘, there were others calling attention to UK based arms companies including BAE and EDO and the huge DSEi arms fair held in London’s Docklands.

Some changed into white plastic overalls suitable for a ‘weapons inspection’ as the protest began outside the offices of UK’s largest arms manufacturer BAE in Carlton Gardens. BAE is the third largest arms company in the world and notable for several corruption cases – and they have been fined £48.7m by the US government for braking their military export laws. Speeches here gave brief details about their immoral and sometimes illegal activities.

The protest moved on to give similar performances outside the offices of other arms companies:

Thales, the world’s 11 largest arms company with a wide range of surveillance equipment, drones, armoured vehicles, missiles and more.

Lockheed Martin UK – the British arm of the world’s largest arms producer, making fighters, bombs, nuclear weapons and involved with the CIA and FBI.

Northrop Grumman UK, one of the world’s largest defence contractors and the largest builder of naval vessels

missile developer MBDA

QinetiQ, a major defence contractor which manufactures drones and armed robots used in Afghanistan and Iraq.

They also protested outside Charing Cross Police Station where those arrested at the previous day’s J11 Carnival against Capitalism had been taken.

More on My London Diary at G8 Protest Against Arms Dealers.

Harper, we don’t want your dirty oil!

Parliament Square

Canadian PM Stephen Harper was invited to address the UK Parliament as he had a special relationship with UK PM David Cameron, both trying with the support of British Oil companies such as Shell and BP to force the EU to accept oil from the Albertan tar sands. And this protest took place as he spoke.

Canadian campaigners say Harper “has spent the last few years promoting the destructive tar sands industry, eroding Indigenous rights, weakening environmental regulations, muzzling scientists, and helping keep the world fixed on a collision course with runaway climate change by pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol.” They say his “government is currently mired in scandal and sleaze” and ask: “What was the UK thinking in extending this invitation?”

The protest was supported by all the leading environmental groups in the UK, and around a hundred protesters came to chanted in protest as this ‘climate criminal, addressed the UK Parliament shouting slogans including “Don’t say no thank you! Say No Tar!” and “Stephen Harper off our soil; We don’t want your dirty oil!”

More at Harper, we don’t want your dirty oil!

Canadian Foreign Service Protest

Abingdon Street

A few yards down the road from Parliament Square a much smaller group of protesters had come to greet the Canadian Prime Minister, mainly dressed in suits.

The Professional Association of Foreign Service Workers representing men and women working for the Canadian Government here and around the world had come to demand demanding equal pay for equal work. They say other Canadian government employees doing the exact same jobs as them are paid up to $14,000 a year more.

Canadian Foreign Service Protest

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May Day 2000 – Anti-capitalist celebrations

May Day 2000 – Anti-capitalist celebrations: May Day has been celebrated in Europe since ancient times as the beginning of Summer, with festivities, dancing and more, but also became International Workers’ Day following the 1889 International Workers Congress, the date marking the start of a general strike in the USA in 1886 which lead to the Haymarket affair three days later.

May 1st is a public holiday in many countries, but only occasionally in the UK when the first Monday in May happens to be on 1st May. The Labour government that eventually brought in the early May Bank Holiday in 1978 chickened out from making it actually May Day. So one of the many advantages of leaving full-time teaching to become a freelance writer and photographer was that I was for the first time able to able to go every year to the May Day events in London.

As it happens, the first May Day after that was Monday May 1st 2000 and the big London event on that day was an anti-capitalist celebration that combined elements of both the traditional events and International Workers Day, beginning with partying and ‘guerrilla gardening’ in the sun in Parliament Square.

I went with the protesters up Whitehall towards Trafalgar Square, and was outside McDonald’s when a handful of protesters began smashing the windows there. Most of the people at the protest stood back and watched. I was a few yards away and the crowd was too dense for me to get close enough to take pictures.

Police clearly made no effort to protect the McDonald’s though it was an obvious target, but stood waiting around the corner until after the damage took place before charging into the protest, herding them into Trafalgar Square where they were kettled for some hours and around 95 people were arrested. It looked as if police had they had planned to let protesters attack the fast-food outlet to justify the use of violence against the large crowd of peaceful protesters.

The BBC report began “Hundreds of demonstrators have been fighting running battles with police during anti-capitalist protests in London” but failed to say that these ‘battles’ were the result of police attacks on largely peaceful protesters – and they also wrongly said the McDonald’s was “in The Strand“. They used the term “defaced‘ for the decoration of Churchill’s statue with a turf ‘Mohican’ which considerably overstated the event, but was also the main preoccupation of the rest of the media. Reading their account I very much get the impression that it was written by someone not there when things were happening.

As you can see from my account at the time below, I was there until I saw the riot police charging the protesters, batoning clearly peaceful protesters offering them flowers, before deciding to go home rather than face possible police violence and detention.

May Day 2000 – Anti-capitalist Celebrations

May in London must mean May Day, and we made the most of this one, dancing around Parliament Square.

I was more or less next to Macdonalds on Whitehall when demonstrators started to break windows and generally smash it up. It was obvious it was going to happen some time before, and the police made no attempt to prevent it, standing back and letting things happen, although they were massed down a nearby side-street.

I could only conclude they wanted some damage to be able to justify their actions that were to follow, as well as the dire warnings their superior officers had spent some time giving on the media.

The damage could easily have been prevented; action by a handful of police would have been enough to have led the demonstrators on into Trafalgar Square.

*A woman harangues demonstrator’s from behind police lines*

When I saw they were letting it happen, I drew back, making my way through the police lines as they prepared for a massive charge. I watched the first few waves go in and belatedly take up positions. They were hyped up for action and one or two stepped out of line to attack a demonstrator who was offering them flowers with their sticks, knocking him flying and leaving blood pouring from his head. I was just too far away on the wrong side of the charging police to get the picture.

One or two photographers who got close to the police received similar treatment. At this point I decided to leave the scene before I was trapped in by the police or assaulted – I had other things I needed to do that evening. If I had left it a few minutes later I would have been among the several thousand confined for hours for little reason in Trafalgar Square. Perhaps I would have got more pictures, but equally likely I would have suffered gratuitous violence. I wasn’t commissioned to be there and decided not to stay.

There are just a few more pictures on My London Diary but quite a few more that I’ve never posted on-line, both black and white and colour. I hope to digitise more later.

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Stop the War – Troops Out – 2008

Stop the War – Troops Out: The protest organised by Stop the War, CND and British Muslim Initiative on Saturday 15th March, 2008 was an impressive one, with around 50,000 marchers calling for the withdrawal of our troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, no attack on Iran and a free Palestine, as well as many other groups drawing attention to other issues around the world including the genocide in Somalia.

It began with a rally in Trafalgar Square where speakers included Tony Benn and Bruce Kent and then took a roundabout route across Westminster Bridge and then back over the Thames on Lambeth Bridge and up Millbank to Parliament Square. Those at the rear of the march were still passing the corner of the square when those at the front arrived back there.

It was an event that included many issues still relevant now, particularly over Iran and Palestine, but also on direct action, with a reminder of the then upcoming trial of the Raytheon 9, anti-war activists who had entered the Raytheon factory in Derry in August 2006 after learning that Raytheon missiles were being used by Israel in their 2006 invasion of Lebanon.

Occupying the offices for eight hours before they were arrested they destroyed computers and documents, and six were tried for criminal damage and affray in May 2008. One man was found guilty of stealing two computer disks but they were all acquitted on all other charges.

The police took a great deal of interest in the protest, with FIT teams who photograph protesters (and journalists, particularly photographers) took an unusual interest in anarchist protesters from Class War, the Anarchist Federation and FITwatch who use their banner to try to prevent the police taking photographs and video.

I missed seeing four of the FITwatch protesters arrested, apparently for intimidating the police. As I commented, “Since a couple of weeks ago one of their photographers and his minder had been seen taking flight and seeking refuge up the steps of the National Gallery when pursued by a polite and always well behaved woman with a shopping trolley and free cakes – much to the amusement of other police present – intimidating the FIT doesn’t seem too difficult.“

But this – like the many large pro-Palestine protests since ‘September 7th’ – was an entirely peaceful protest, calling for peace in many areas around the world and for an end to UK involvement in wars and oppression.

It was a lively protest, with samba band, sound systes, street theatre and dancing. People laid flowers at Nelson Mandela’s statue and Brian Haw – still permanently camped in Parliament Square despite the attempts to remove him by passing SOCPA – joined the protest.

And like all of these marches it also included many Jewish marchers including the Neturei Karta ultra-orthodox anti-Zionists.

You can see many more pictures which also cover other aspects of the march on My London Diary at Stop the War/CND/BMI – Troops out.

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Stop Starving Palestine Pan Protest

Whitehall, London. 25th July 2025

Stop Starving Palestine Pan Protest: Last Friday evening thousands of us came to Whitehall shocked by the news and photographs coming out of Gaza, where much of the population is now suffering from malnutrition and over a thousand have already died of starvation.

The famine there is entirely due to the actions of the Israeli government and their army, the IDF. Over the past months they have denied access to the normal humanitarian supplies of foods and essential items to Gaza.

Israel has also disrupted the well-established channels through which food was distributed in Gaza through the UN and humanitarian agencies. Together with the USA they have set up an alternative way to supply food which has operated at only four centres; the amount of food supplied has been vastly inadequate and over a thousand of those queueing for it have been killed by the IDF.

The world has been shocked by the pictures coming out from Gaza, and by well-documented stories from medical staff that snipers and not only target those queueing for food but ‘gaming’ by targeting different parts of the anatomy on different days. One day hospitals treated many who had been shot in their testicles.

For months we have been appalled by the accounts of the shelling and bombing of hospitals, medical facilities and the arrests and interrogation of medical staff, some of whom have clearly been tortured.

Large areas of Gaza are now covered with the rubble of people’s homes and people forced to flee and living in makeshift tents, often in so-called ‘safe areas’ have been killed by the military.

The attack began after an attack by Hamas across the border into Israel in which over a thousand died – including some by Israeli military fire and hundreds were kidnapped as hostages. But it has continued for over 600 days, with the killing of many, many thousands of innocent Palestinians, men, women and children in what has clearly become a series of war crimes.

Some Israeli ministers have clearly stated their intention to entirely rid Gaza of Palestinians, and Donald Trump has supported them, with plans to turn the area into a holiday resort. Israel clearly wants to settle the area with Israelis.

From the rest of the world we have seen words of condemnation, but little or no real action, with the USA using its veto in the UN. The UK has banned some of its arms exports and is nowmaking plans for air drops of food – but these will only be a small – and dangerous – drop in the ocean of desperate need.

On Friday evening I travelled up to London with my wife – carrying a large pan and a wooden spoon to bang it with in a protest calling on our government to take effective action.

I began by photographing a rally outside the Foreign & Commonwealth office by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network UK who began weekly protests in October 2023 against the Israeli Ambassador to the UK who had called for the illegal annexation of the West Bank and for “every school, every mosque, every second house” in Gaza to be destroyed. Their protests have been hounded by police, banned first from being outside her residence and then from Swiss Cottage.

Among the speakers I photographed there was a woman holocaust survivor who received tremendous support with people banging their pans and was unable to continue for several minutes. This was also one of the few parts of the evening of protest where many people had also come with placards.

A few yards up Whitehall there were crowds of protesters banging pans on both sides of Whitehall. Police tried to keep them on the pavement but when they appeared to be trying to arrest one of those who refused to move, crowds surged around them and occupied the whole of the highway.

There were a couple of speeches from in front of the gates to Downing Street, but many of those present were too far away to hear them and people kept up the banging of pans.

Eventually the organisers asked people to come and leave their pans in front of Downing Street and start moving towards Trafalgar Square. Some did, but many others still needed them to cook with. A thin police line held up the movement towards the square for around ten minutes – though the protesters could easily have broken through they waited patiently and then marched on to the square where I left them.

More pictures on Facebook at Stop Starving Gaza Protest at Downing St and as usual available for publication on Alamy.

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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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Lettings Scam, Bears, Bahrain & John Lewis – 2012

Lettings Scam, Bears, Bahrain & John Lewis: Saturday 14th July 2012 was another day I spent travelling to protests around London. On the Holloway Road Harringey Private Tenants Action Group protested against letting agents who take hundreds of pounds from people looking for homes but do nopthing for them, PETA marched from Waterloo to Marble Arch against bears being killed to make busbys for the guards, a protest at the Bahraini embassy in Belgrave Square against killing and jailing of political prisones. Finally I went to John Lewis in Oxford Street where cleaners were calling to be recognised as partners in the business and to be paid the London Living Wage.

Tenants Protest Letting Agents Scam – Drivers & Norris, Holloway Rd

Lettings Scam, Bears, Bahrain & John Lewis - 2012

I photographed protesters standing in the rain outside letting agents Drivers & Norris on Holloway Road, condemning them for taking over £300 from home seekers and providing nothing return but refusing to return the payment.

Harringey Private Tenants Action Group stated:

Agency ‘fees’, reference ‘checks’, admin ‘fees’, leaving ‘fees’ are all costs that have been created over the past few years by and for Letting Agents like Drivers and Norris, to increase their profits and exploit the basic nee of tenants to find a home. We, as private tenants, will not accept this anymore. We have a right to really affordable, secure and decent housing just like anyone else.

Police came and tried to get the protesters to end their protest, claiming it might distract drivers on the busy main road. The protesters told the police firmly that they were simply trying to suppress lawful protest and if they considered there was any real danger they should divert traffic from the area and that instead of wasting police time here they should be investigating the Drivers & Norris scam rather than harassing protesters.

I commented that there was no real reason for any police presence as there was “unlikely to be any breach of the peace. But I suppose it was an easy number to drink tea in the estate agents“.

On My London Diary I pointed out that agents had profited enormously from high property prices in London, now well above what people on average or lower wages can afford, and that successive governments had weakened the security of private tenants and cut the provision of social housing creating the current dire housing problems. Many new developments were also being aimed at overseas investors to enable them to take advantage of the rapidly rising property prices while often leaving the properties empty.

Tenants Protest Letting Agents Scam

PETA ‘Spare the Bears’ March – Marble Arch

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) had stated:

It can take the entire hide of one Canadian black bear to make just one cap. Bears can be shot several times before they die, and some escape and bleed to death. In some Canadian provinces, there are no restrictions on the shooting of mothers who have nursing cubs, leading to the slaughter of entire families during hunts.

We need to send a clear message to the Ministry of Defence that the slaughter of wildlife for The Queen’s Guards’ ceremonial headwear is unacceptable and that the time has come for them to go fake for the bears’ sake.

I’d called in to the start of the march next to the Shell Centre at Waterloo before going to Haringey, but hadn’t taken any pictures, deciding instead to meet them at the end of the march. It took them much longer than they had expected and I’d almost given up when I saw them coming up Park Lane and rushed to take pictures.

It was perhaps a too regimented protest with so many identical placards and bear masks provided by PETA which made it difficult for me to find anything really different to photograph.

They had also been asked to wear black clothes, but at least had been told to bring their own teddy bears.

More pictures at PETA ‘Spare the Bears’ March

Solidarity with the Bahraini prisoners – Bahraini embassy, Belgrave Square

The Al Khalifa family has ruled Bahrain since the late 1700s and in 1820 made a treaty with Britain – since renewed on various occasions, becoming a British protectorate. The country became independent in 1971 – when the USA took over what had previously been the Royal Navy base – and the family is still in power.

Various attempts to extend democracy in Bahrain led to little change in the ruling family’s control and to an uprising in 2011 with large protests and a brutal crackdown with many protesters tortured and around 120 killed. Mohammad Rahdi Mahfoodh was one of the ‘martyrs’ and was hit by a police vehicle and died from deliberate lack of care in a military hospital and mourners at his funeral were attacked.

Speakers at the protest including Jeremy Corbyn were there and people were still arriving for the protest opposite the embassy which was just beginning when I had to leave for my next event.

More pictures at Solidarity with the Bahraini prisoners.

John Lewis cleaners step up protest – Oxford St

The flagship John Lewis store on Oxford Street is cleaned by people employed by Integrated Cleaning Management (ICM) who employ them on far worse conditions than if they were directly employed by John Lewis, and on the legal minimum wage, then more than two pounds an hour below the London living wage.

Unlike others who work in the store the cleaners do not take part in the bonus scheme in which John Lewis shares its profits with its workers (the ‘partners’) although their work is essential to the operation of the store.

The cleaners also complain about poor management by ICM with discrimination and abuse at work, and are currently threatened by a 50% cut in their hours.

They had been long campaigning for equality of treatment and to be directly employed by the company they actually work for – John Lewis – and had held a one-day strike the previous day which had ended with a rally and a brief invasion of the store, though had caused no damage. But this perhaps explained the large numbers of police present, with small groups around each of the shop entrances.

John Lewis senior management watched the noisy but peaceful protest from inside the store. The management were still refusing to talk with the cleaners Union, and another one-day strike was caused the following week.

Many more pictures on My London Diary at John Lewis cleaners step up protest.

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My 2024 in Photographs – Part4

My 2024 in Photographs: The fourth and final part of my selection of images from 2024.

London, UK. 26 Oct 2024. As the end of the peaceFul march against extreme right hate came into Trafalgar Square, a group behind a black banner ‘NO TO TOMMY ROBINSON – NO TO FASCISM’ turned off the route towards the Mall and made a halfhearted rush towards a police line, with a small group trying to push their way through – most just stood watching. Police pushed back and the two groups faced each other. A few minutes later one man was pushed out of the crowd and through the line by a small police squad.

London, UK. 26th October 2024. The letter to Starmer. The annual remembrance march by the United Families and Friends Campaign (UFFC) from Trafalgar Square could only go a short distance down Whitehall and held their rally at the Cabinet Office. Speakers from families whose relatives killed by police and in penal, mental health and immigration detention called for justice and proper investigations of the officers.

London, UK. 28 Oct 2024. Men in oilskins carry a pink inflatable dinghy. Extinction Rebellion marches to stages theatrical flooding scenes outside insurers in the city to show how insurers are green-lighting fossil fuel crooks to flood our homes and our lands. They hope to stop insurance for new fossil fuel projects; flooding due to global warming is already common and threatens us all.

London, UK. 30 Oct 2024. Reading The Crimes outside insurers MarshMcLennan. Extinction Rebellion ended their 3 days of protests at Insurance Companies in the City with a Zombie protest, predicting the social collapse with wars, famine and floods that will happen if CO2 levels and the climate chaos they cause continue to increase. They protested with zombie dancing, die-ins and speeches outside some of the worlds major insurance companies based in London urging them not to insure fossil fuel projects.

London, UK. 2 Nov 24. Health Care Workers. After a die-in by some at Downing St, many thousands marched in a massive PSC National Demo to a rally close to the US Embassy in Nine Elms calling for urgent action by the international community to end brutal attacks on civilians, hospitals and schools in Gaza and an end the deliberate starvation of Palestinians. All arms supplies to Israel should end, with an immediate permanent ceasefire, the release of hostages and negotiations for a two state solution.

London, UK. 2 Nov 24. Jeremy Corbyn. After a die-in by some at Downing St, many thousands marched in a massive PSC National Demo to a rally close to the US Embassy in Nine Elms calling for urgent action by the international community to end brutal attacks on civilians, hospitals and schools in Gaza and an end the deliberate starvation of Palestinians. All arms supplies to Israel should end, with an immediate permanent ceasefire, the release of hostages and negotiations for a two state solution.

London, UK. 3 Nov 2024. Marches wear blue for water flood the streets from Vauxhall on route to a rally in Parliament Square called by River Action. They demand a review of Ofwat and the Environment Agency, an immediate end to industry polluting our waters for profit and greed – particularly sewage discharges, for laws on water pollution to be enforced and for all industries to invest in better use of water.

London, UK. 30 Nov 2024. 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, with 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.

London, UK. 14 Dec 2024. Hundreds of BMX riders dressed as Santa, Elves, Snowmen, Christmas Trees and Reindeer set off from the graffiti tunnel at Leake Street Waterloo for the 10th annual Santa Cruise around central London, a fund raising event for the charity Evelina Children’s Heart Organisation. BMX Life raises money for ECHO through sponsorship on these rides and two major raffles each year and has so far raised over £180,000 for ECHO.

London, UK. 14 Dec 2024. Tenants organised by the London Renters Union march demanding urgent action on city’s spiralling rents, which are tearing London apart – the average rent of £2,172 is now more than the pay of many vital workers such as teaching assistants and care workers, forcing many into cramped temporary accommodation. The scrapping of rent controls in 1988 and the mass sell-of of council homes have prioritised landlord profits and Labour’s current housing plans are based on private developers profits rather than providing social homes.

You can double-click on any of the images to see them larger and you can see many more pictures from these and other events in 2024 and earlier years in my albums on Facebook.

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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