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Pride, Paedos & Class War – 2015

Pride, Paedos & Class War: Saturday 27th June 2015 I photographed the London Pride Parade and a protest at it by Class War, as well as a protest at Downing Street against paedophiles in high positions and the activities of the family courts. Of course we now know that the main witness behind the Met’s Operation Midland was a “liar, fraudster and paedophile” who was later sentenced to “to 18 years in prison, having been found guilty of 12 counts of perverting the course of justice, one of fraud, and several child sexual offences.” Even back in 2015 it was hard to understand why the Met police took his fantastic allegations so seriously.

Pride Parade – Baker Street

I photographed people getting ready for the parade in Baker Street, and had a particular interest in Pride 2015 as this was the 30th anniversary of the support that Pride had then given to the Miners Strike.

Because of this there was more interest in the event by trade unions and political groups giving the event a more radical nature than the commercial festival it has now become.

But Pride 2015 was still “dominated by large commercial groups, who also provide large amounts of sponsorship to enable the event as a whole to be dominated by commercial interests. It seems a long way from the event when I first photographed it in the early 90s when Pride was a protest.”

Of course there are still things apart from the large corporate groups and it was these and the more political aspects that I was interested in photographing as you can see from the many pictures on My London Diary.

And as usual, Peter Tatchell was still there with supporters to uphold the radical past of the event, this time marching with posters against the Northern Ireland same-sex marriage ban and the homophobis of the Democratic Unionist Party.

Much more on My London Diary at Pride Parade.

Class War protest ‘corporate pinkwashing’ – Piccadilly Circus and Pall Mall

Class War had come to Piccadilly Circus with a new banner, ‘POOR IS THE NEW QUEER‘
against the corporate sponsorship and takeover of Pride in London. Below was the message ‘F**k the Pink Pound, F**k Corporate Pinkwashing!’ and half a dozen of them held it up in front of Barclay’s at Piccadilly Circus.

Before that some of them, suitably attired, had posed for photos on the street, and then posed and danced with some of those who had come to watch the parade.

They then moved down to Pall Mall where they found a spot where the crowd waiting for the parade was much thinner and leaned on the barriers until the front of the parade had almost reached them. They lifted up the barriers and took to the street walking a few yards in front of it with their bannner for around 50 yards. A smoke flare drew attention to their protest, while Pride stewards and police tried to get them to leave and they were forced back behind the barriers.

The stood behind the barriers holding the banner as the front of the parade moved past, watched closely by police, but then saw a larger group of police approaching and decided “it was time to disappear, running towards Trafalgar Square. I followed half of them down into the subway where they lost the police, emerging from one of the other subway entrances. Most if not all had evaded the police and were meeting up to decide on any further action, but I’d followed them enough and left.”

More at Class War protest ‘corporate pinkwashing’.

Victims & Survivors call for Justice – Downing St,

An angry rally opposite Downing St called for an end to the covering up of paedophilia, particularly the 76 allegations against MPs, as well as others in high positions protected by the establishment whose investigation has been shelved.

Although few outside of the Met Police believed the claims made by “Nick” about MPs, even the wildest allegations may have some truth behind them, and after the rumours and allegations against Jimmy Saville were dismissed for so many years by the establishment it is difficult to dismiss everything as wild rumours and conspiracy theories.

Some had come to protest about the secret activities of the family courts, often taking children away from loving parents and in some cases returning them an abusive parent. Some judges were accused of confusing poverty with abuse. Gagging orders prevent many of the facts becoming known. Problems over transparency in these courts have now become officially recognised and there have been pilot schemes to improve this without harming the children involved.

Victims & Survivors call for Justice

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London Pride & Climate Change Rally – 2007

London Pride & Climate Change Rally; My working day on Saturday 30th June 2007 began at a rather damp Baker Street where people were meeting for the London Pride Parade and I was able to wander freely and take photographs. I left before the parade moved off and went to Parliament Square where a rally reminded Gordon Brown – then prime minister for 3 days – that climate change remains the major challenge facing the world – and the new government.

London Pride Parade – Baker Street

There seemed to be only two things that distinguished the 2007 Pride from the previous year’s event. One was the weather and so many of the pictures are of people holding umbrellas.

The second was a large group in the self-styled ‘Bird Parade‘, the ‘Bird Club‘ with their messages including ‘Aren’t Birds Brilliant‘ and ‘Femme Invisibility – So last Year‘.

There were quite a few overhanging shop fronts and other places that people could shelter under but taking pictures mainly involved me staind in the rain and getting rather wet.

I’m not afraid of rain but cameras and lenses need to kept dry. I really needed an assistant with an umbrella but I was working on my own. Its difficult to hold an umbrella and a camera and while I’ve tried various special plastic camera protectors none really solve the problem.

The cameras I use are reasonably water resistant and given he occasional wipe with a cloth and keeping them under my jacket when not in use are fine. But lenses need to have a glass front element to let the light in, and this acts as a powerful magnet for raindrops. Long lenses can have lens hoods which protect them, but when like me you work with wide and ultra-wide lenses they are totally ineffectual, except for allowing me to walk around with a chamois leather balled up into them. But of course I have to hold this clear to frame, focus and take the image, and those raindrops too often manage to sneak their way in that second or so.

I’ve shared too often my thoughts on the presence of corporates and military groups in Pride to bother to say more.

But at least there were some, like Peter Tatchell determined to retain it as a protest, with his wedding cake placard and poster ‘END THE BAN ON GAY MARRIAGE’.

Many more photographs beginning here

Climate Change Rally – Parliament Square

It was still raining for the rally in Parliament Square and my favourite mermaid seemed to be in her natural habitat unless I carefully kept wiping the lens front.

But there was some shelter under the trees and rather fewer people had managed to attend the protest called at short notice by the Campaign Against Climate Change.

Under Blair’s government UK carbon emissions had risen by 2%, but it was now clear to scientists around the world that we needed to drastically cut them. Blair had resigned as New Labour leader on 24 June 2007 and Gordon Brown had become Prime Minister only three days before this protest on 27 June 2007.

Back in 2007 it was clear that climate change remained the major challenge facing the world – and the new government. But in 2008 we had the financial crash and Gordon Brown was diverted into saving the bankers and successive governments since have failed to make the kind of radical changes that are needed to save the planet.

In 2007 I wrote “if you ain’t got a planet, you ain’t in business is the simple message, though some of the speakers had some rather more complex graphs and charts. Blair and Brown were only there in effigy, but we did have a rather more convincing mermaid to warn about the dangers of rising sea levels.” Of course sea levels are only one aspect of the problem with our increasing climate instability and other effects of global heating. The need to take action is even more important for our next government – and for all governments around the world.

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UAF, EDL and Pride – 2013

UAF, EDL and Pride : Ten years ago on Saturday 29th June 2013 my work began in Hyde Park where anti-fascists had gathered to oppose an EDL march – for which very few had arrived. I left to photograph the 2013 Pride London event.

UAF Oppose, EDL Don’t Come – Hyde Park

Police had banned the EDL from marching past the East London Mosque in Whitechapel and from any assembly or procession in Woolwich where Lee Rigby had been cruelly slaughtered under the Public Order Act.

Instead they had allowed a march by the EDL from Hyde Park to a rally near Parliament, and had also allowed Unite Against Fascism to march in protest against the EDL.

But the two EDL leaders, Stephen Lennon and Kevin Carrol had called themselves ‘charity marchers’ and had turned up in Tower Hamlets and been arrested by police. This news was relayed to the UAF supporters in Hyde Park and they gave a loud cheer. There were at most a hundred of them, and they had intended to march to the starting point of the EDL march, but none of the EDL had turned up. I left to photograph Pride.

More at UAF Oppose, EDL Don’t Come.

Pride Celebrates Love and Marriage – Baker St – Trafalgar Square

Over 150 groups had turned up for the 2013 Pride Parade to welcome the equal marriage Bill in England and Wales and celebrate the love that binds the London LGBT+ community together and links it with the wider community.

They included many of the figures I had photographed at previous Prides over the years – such as ‘The Queen’ , including some I had photographed back in the 1990s.

As always, some of the costumes were spectacular, while others were, frankly, just very odd. But variety is of course the spice of life, and there was certainly no shortage of spice.

My pictures show many of the individuals taking part, as well as smaller groups, but no the more commercial aspects of the parade which now tend to dominate. And I also like to show those using the occasion to make a political point. Pride is still for some a protest.

After photographing the marchers at the start – always where the most interesting photographs of the event can be found, I made my way to Trafalgar Square to photograph people arriving at the end of the parade.

By the time the march ended I’d been on my own feet too long and went home.

Many more pictures at Pride Celebrates Love and Marriage.