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Focus E15 Occupy Police Station – 2016

East Ham. Sunday 10th July 2016

Housing Activists Focus E15 get their name from a hostel for young single mothers in Stratford, in the London postcode area E15. In September 2013 they were given notice of eviction from the hostel by by East Thames Housing Association after Newham Labour Council cut the funding. They were told they would have to move to private rented accommodation scattered around distant low-rent areas of the country if they wanted to be rehoused.

*Focus E15 protesters set up on Barking Rd, outside Newham Town Hall, with posters on its fence about Newham Mayor Robin Wales.*

Instead they decided to stick together and fight to remain in London where they had families, friends and support networks. Their campaign, supported by friends and family members as well as some members of the Revolutionary Communist Group, involving various direct actions including a party in the housing association offices, large marches, an occupation of Newham Council’s housing office, and of long-term empty council flats on a Stratford estate gained a great deal of local and national publicity. I was pleased to have photographed some of these events and you can find more about them on My London Dairy.

*Jasmin Stone holds up a RCG poster – ‘Newham residents suffer £50million cuts. Robin Wales gets £100,000 + £80,000 expenses’*

It was a successful campaign, but the group did not stop there, but widened into a much wider ‘Housing For All’ campaign, linking with other housing activists around the country and pushing housing for ordinary people higher up the national agenda.

*Focus E15 move towards the former police station*

They continue to fight Newham Council to meet their obligations towards local people, still in 2026 going to oppose evictions in the area, still accompanying people to support them at the housing office and still holding a weekly Saturday protest and advice stall on the pavement in the centre of Stratford on Stratford Broadway and an open meeting every Saturday afternoon in a former corner shop, Sylvia’s Corner.

*Some of the protesters had used ladders to climb onto the balconies and hang banners*

Their campaign brought them into conflict with Newham’s then Mayor, the abrasive Robin Wales, which at times became highly personal, with the mayor attacking them when they protested against him and his policies. The council’s actions against the group included the ludicrous ‘arrest’ of a table at their stall, arrests of Jasmin Stone, physical assaults and various attempts at intimidation.

The protest took place on the second day of the annual Newham Show, a PR exercise for the Mayor. For the previous two years the group had been physically prevented from handing out leaflets at the show, so in 2016 they set up a stall on the main Barking Road a short distance from the show to hand out their housing information leaflets to the crowds making their way to it.

The Grade II listed former East Ham police station on the corner of High Street South, opposite Newham Town Hall had closed two years earlier and was then empty. [The Met sold it in 2018 for £3.4million.] After a few speeches and handing out leaflets for around an hour on Barking Road, the protesters picked everything up and walked the few yards to the police station where some had already used a ladder to climb onto the two balconies and hang banners.

*A protester holds a ‘Robin Wales’ selfie-stick*

The protest continued there, with more speeches. One woman on her way to the show stopped and spoke on the open mike and demonstrated how she thought people should kick Mayor Wales out of Newham – and in 2018, at least partly as a result of demonstrations like these, the Labour Party managed to do so, despite what had seemed his iron hold on the party machine.

Other housing activists came to speak and the rally continued. A police car stopped and the officers came to talk with the protesters. They claimed to be worried that the balconies could be dangerous – but they look pretty solid and sound to me and the protesters and the rally continued.

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NHS at 70 – Save St Helier Hospital – 2018

NHS at 70 – Save St Helier Hospital: On Saturday 7th July 2018 I went with campaigners from Keep Our St Helier Hospital on what seemed a long hot march from Sutton to a rally in front of St Helier Hospital.

The Epsom and St Helier Trust planned to close A&E, Maternity, Paediatrics, Emergency Medicine and Surgery, Intensive Care, Coronary Care and the Cancer Centre at one or both Epsom or St Helier Hospital and sell off much of the sites.

The march celebrated the 70th anniversary of the founding of our National Health Service and marchers signed a giant birthday card at the start of the march in a park in the centre of Sutton and many had had posters and placards for the 70th birthday of the NHS.

But there were also plenty of placards calling for the local hospitals – St Helier, Queen Mary’s and Epsom to remain open and offering a full range of services.

There was a great deal of support shown for the march as it went through the long Sutton High Street, with many shoppers stopping to applaud, and a few joining in the march, at least for a short distance.

The march stopped at several places in the High Street for short speeches about the plans and the need to oppose them.

Many on the street seemed surprised to learn their local hospitals were under threat. The death of so many local newspapers – and few of those left are still truly local, publishing largely material unconnected with their local areas, owned by a couple of large national companies – has led to a real lack of reporting of local issues, and many people are now ill-informed on them.

The march continued through the huge 1930s estates in the area until finally we were in sight of St Helier Hospital.

It was a hot day and there was little shade on the route and although it was only around a two mile walk it felt much more.

As we arrived for a rally on the large grass open space in front of the hospital we were greeted by others who had come there, including the National Health Singers who were waiting to sing for us in front of a tent with the message ‘The Clock Is Ticking For Your Hospital’

There were free buns to celebrate NHS 70 and of course speeches by campaigners and people staged a die-in to represent the deaths that would result from the closure of the hospital,

Closure of vital services here or at Epson would leave around half a million south Londoners with much poorer access to NHS services. As I noted, “People would have to travel longer distances through increasingly congested roads to reach full hospital services at St Georges Tooting and elsewhere, a journey which might take 20 minutes when traffic was light but much longer when roads were congested; even in ambulances there would be more dead on arrival or whose condition had seriously deteriorated.”

The plans are a part of a long-term campaign by successive governments to reduce NHS spending and to hand over much of the NHS to private health providers, which is continuing under the current Labour government, many of whose members receive considerable funding from such companies. In February 2026 the BMJ published an article which included the estimate from the Good Law Foundation that then Health Secreatry Wes Streeting “had accepted a total of £372,000 of donations from donors linked to private health between 2015 and 2025.“

Despite their long campaign, more services are being removed or under threat of removal from both hospitals as a part of a plan to reduce the number of major acute hospitals in the country. In 2020 the trust was still planning to sell off around two thirds of the current St Helier site, including the Queen Marys Childrens Hospital, Furguson House, the Maternity Unit, Womens’ Health, the renal unit, the teaching block and the large car park.

This year the trust was awarded £57m to improve its emergency ward and is to “temporarily relocate the women’s health block at St Helier” but there are fears locally that maternity services will not return to the hospital.

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No M11 Link – Leyton 1994

No M11 Link: Although this was one of the major environmental direct action campaigns of the 1990s it was one I did not cover for several reasons. Protests were only a small part of my photography back then and Leyton was an inconvenient journey across London from my home. It was also a campaign which was being documented by a number of dedicated photographers on a largely full-time basis, while I was still working a full-time teaching job a two-hour journey away. But I did visit Claremont Road in Leyton and take a few pictures.

M11 Link Campaign, Claremont Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-902-56

The M11 Link was first planned as a part of the grandiose London Ringways scheme of the 1960s but fortunately most of this was abandoned after the disastrous effects of relatively short sections such as the Westway in North Kensington became clear in the 1970s. But the ‘A12 Hackney to M11 link road‘ remained on the table despite various public inquiries from 1976 on, where local activists were vigorous in their opposition. It was a Tory government in 1989 with their ‘The Roads for Prosperity’ white paper that put it firmly back on the table and preparations for its construction began in 1993.

M11 Link Campaign, Claremont Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-902-41

These involved the demolition of 263 properties along the route, some occupied by long-term residents but others by a wide range of newcomers who had moved in during the 1980s as planning blight affected the area – including many artists and squatters. When the campaign began in 1993, they were joined by “large numbers of anti-road campaigners from around the UK and beyond, attracted by the availability of free housing along the route” where properties had been compulsorily purchased and were empty.

M11 Link Campaign, Claremont Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-902-42

The protesters made use of a wide variety of direct action methods to make construction more difficult, including sit-ins, sabotaging of equipment and materials, concreting themselves in tunnels and a fantastic network of actual nets in the sky between houses.

M11 Link Campaign, Claremont Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-902-43

Police and security staff had to be employed in large numbers and had a very difficult job. The protesters also made great use of then new technology including Desktop Publishing and Fax machines to promote their activities, and achieved considerable news coverage in both the national newspapers and TV.

M11 Link Campaign, Claremont Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-902-46

The main centre of the protest in 1994 was a small street in Leyton, Claremont Road, where all the houses were to be demolished and all but one of the original residents had been moved out and the houses were squatted by protesters who formed a vibrant community. As Wikipedia states, “The houses were painted with extravagant designs, both internally and externally, and sculptures erected in the road; the road became an artistic spectacle that one said “had to be seen to be believed”.

M11 Link Campaign, Claremont Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-902-31

And it was this that I went to photograph in September 1994 and can be seen in the pictures here and on Flickr.

M11 Link Campaign, Claremont Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-902-35

Two months later around 700 bailiffs and police in riot gear arrived on 28th November to evict the protesters. It took them several days due to the various obstacles – and a secret tunnel that enabled evicted protesters to return to the street. The bill for the police needed to protect the bailiffs came to over a million pounds. The total cost of evicting protesters along the whole route was £6 million.

M11 Link Campaign, Claremont Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-903-51

M11 Link Campaign, Claremont Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-903-53

Protests continued against the link road and slowed its progress and doubled its cost. You can read a good account of the Claremont Road eviction and the later ‘Battle of George Green’ on the green fuse web site.

The road was only finally opened in October 1999 as part of the A12. By this time it was an anachronism, partly because the M12 motorway scheme had been scrapped in 1994, but also because of the overall increase in traffic levels meant it was congested from the start. ” By 2014, the road had become the ninth most congested in the entire country.”

M11 Link Campaign, Claremont Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1994, 94-903-55

There are quite a few more pictures on Flickr – click on any of the above images and you can then go through the whole set. There are also eight panoramas from the site beginning here.

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Heathrow, Pendragon & Brexit – 2018

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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Budget Day – 2010

Budget Day: Tuesday 22nd June 2010 came after the May general election which had resulted in a hung Parliament, with the Tories winning 306 votes, 20 short of the number needed to for a majority. It had been a defeat for New Labour, in power since 1997, who only achieved 258 MPs. The Lib-Dems were the third party with 57 seats. Theoretically an anti-Tory coalition might have achieved a small but workable majority, but instead Nick Clegg decided to join a coalition government with the Tories which would have a clear majority – and lasted until the 2015 General Election.

Their decision resulted in a programme of austerity and cuts along with increases in tax which began with George Osborne’s budget on 22nd June. This included a rise in VAT from 17.5% to 20%, cuts in public services and a 2 year pay freeze for workers in the public sector, freezing of child benefit for 3 years, pegging state benefits and public service pensions to a lower price index, capping of housing benefit , cutting research and development and more.

Most of these changes had been widely signposted before the budget speech and opponents had made clear that they were likely to stifle growth and to have a disproportionate effect on the poor, women, disabled people and ethnic minorities. It was the most controversial budget in recent history and so it was unsurprising that so many came out to protest. And later the changes it introduced were probably a major factor in both the disastrous Brexit vote and the succession of hopeless Tory governments that led to the 2024 Labour landslide.

Brian Haw’s Parliament Square Peace Campaign was also still in Parliament Square, although Brian himself was in court on the morning of the budget. But they had been joined there at the start of the previous month by the Democracy Village who were still camping there, and though relations between the two groups were not positive, both were still protesting, and on Budget Day others including the PCS union, ‘Can’t Pay Won’t Pay’, Stop the War and CND also came to protest at Westminster too.

I missed what was probably the largest protest of the day opposite Downing Street, having been held up photographing the Democracy Camp calling for an end to the war in Afghanistan.

The PCS were protesting outside the Treasury. Democracy campers went with their banner to the media village. ‘Can’t Pay Won’t Pay’ campaigners arrived with a coffin and a little street theatre (it even got them a short mention on the BBC) and I followed them back to Parliament Square, missing two attempts to make citizens arrests on Labour politicians.

You can read more about the events on My London Diary, as well as a police incident involving gun violence campaigner ‘King David’ who was holding a brass ornamental pistol – clearly not a weapon – but was stopped and searched under terrorist legislation.

*King David was searched under the Terrorism act for holding this brass ornament*

More protesters arrived with placards and masks protesting about the housing crisis and the lack of affordable homes, and there was a man with a megaphone lampooning the whole thing and getting some attention from the police who today seemed clearly did not want to make arrests.

The final event I photographed before leaving Parliament Square was by Stop the War and CND, pointing out that the war in Afghanistan had cost more than £20 billion, and that a large saving could be made by deferring or cancelling the replacement of our Trident nuclear deterrent, for which there was no longer any possible military justification.

More on My London Diary: Budget Day in Westminster

Admiral of the Port’s Challenge

*The race starts in several waves from outside the Houses of Parliament*

As I walked back across Westminster Bridge towards Waterloo Station I noticed a number of boats being rowed upriver in what appeared to be a race.

The Admiral of the Port’s Challenge, a “historic tradition”, appears to have started around 2008 by the London livery companies, liverymen rowing “traditional” Thames Waterman’s Cutters, 34 feet long and 4 feet 6 inches wide, with fixed seats for 4 rowers and a canopy over 2 passengers, to the rear of which the cox sits. The boats start in waves from outside the Hoses of Parliament and row around a mile and a third to a boat club in Pimlico.

These boats, though based on those shown in 18th century paintings, are actually a modern design, adapted and built to be fast and stable for modern use for the Thames ‘Great River Race’ which started in the 1980s. Unlike modern racing craft they can cope with choppy waters on the river or even in coastal waters. And at the end of the race there is a champagne reception for those taking part.

More about this race at Admiral of the Port’s Challenge.

And more about the budget protests at Budget Day in Westminster.

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End Austerity Now & Class War – 2015

End Austerity Now & Class War: On Saturday 20th June 2015 I sent to photograph the march organised by the People’s Assembly Against Austerity from the Bank of England to Parliament Square. Class War came to protest calling for direct action rather than marches which changed nothing and after photographing them in the City I went with them to Downing Street – and they paused for a brief protest at the Savoy on the way.

End Austerity Now at Bank

Bank

Large crowds gathered around the Bank of England for the start of a massive march against austerity organised by the People’s Assembly Against Austerity and supported by many groups including CND, the Green Party, People’s March for the NHS, Global Women’s Strike, Basic Income, Revolutionary Communist Group, Clapton Ultras and many other groups and individuals from around the country.

So many were being affected by the cuts which had forced down incomes, cut benefits and the welfare state, cut education, destroyed youth services, made massive cuts to the NHS and public services while supporting the bankers whose actions had led to the crisis.

The programme of austerity introduced by the coalition government and continued under the Tories had seriously harmed the country and slowed its recovery from the financial crisis and seemed to be a punishment for the crimes of others, which had been made possible by the changes to the banking system introduced under Thatcher in 1986.

As usual estimates of the number of marchers varied hugely, with the organisers claiming a quarter of a million, while the BBC contented itself with ‘”thousands”. From the time it took and the density of the crowds I think it was at least a hundred thousand. Parliament Square was well filled with others still arriving, but like many others I went home rather than listen to the speeches.

More pictures of the marchers at End Austerity Now at Bank and in Class War and End Austerity Now.

Class War at End Austerity Now

Queen Victoria St

Class War had come to the protest to call for end of A to B marches to rallies and call for direct action. They succeeded in diverting several hundred of the marchers to make their way to protest at a squatted pub near the Elephant which Foxtons want to open as an estate agents.

Class War had brought several banners including the ‘Political Leaders’, a new version of that seized by police at a ‘Poor Doors’ protest, the ‘Lucy Parsons banner with its quote “We must devastate the avenues where the wealthy live” and ‘We have found new homes for the rich‘, with its rows of crosses on graves extending into the distance which police were then still pressing charges against Lisa McKenzie over.

Lisa was there along with the others including Adam Clifford who stood for Class War in the Westminster constituency, today wearing a top with fake exposed breasts and holding a fairly lifelike looking baby. As well as those above the protest others protested on the side of the street below.

Many marchers raised fists and shouted in solidarity with Class War as they passed, though some shook their heads, while others tried to ignore them. This wasn’t easy as they made a fair amount of noise and let off several smoke flares.

Around 30 police gathered around them at one point and it looked very much if they were going into action, but after a discussion between several senior officers on the scene, most rapidly walked away.

I stayed in the area either with them above the march or down below on the densely crowded wide street for around an hour, making many pictures both of Class War and the marchers.

*They sit in the pub and police wait for them outside*

When the end of the march appeared to reach them they joined in for a couple of hundred yards then peeled off to go to the Olde London pub on Ludgate Hill

More pictures at Class War and End Austerity Now.

Class War at the Savoy

Strand

*Class War insist on the right to protest outside the Savoy*

After a rest in the pub Class War walked down towards Westminster with their police escort to carry out more protests.

Approaching the Savoy Hotel some broke out into a run to get ahead of their escorts but found that there were more police already waiting there.

But they unrolled their banners again and briefly blocked the entrance with ‘New Homes for the Rich’ and ‘Lucy Parsons’ banners. After minor scuffles and arguments with police they marched on.

More pictures at Class War at the Savoy.

Class War in Whitehall

Whitehall

*A woman talks to Adam Clifford of Class War holding a baby and a banner outside the gates of Downing St*

Class War continued their protests in Whitehall, displaying their banners, setting off flares and dancing with others to a sound system which joined them briefly.

They then moved off towards Downing Street where they posed for photographs with all three banners – and threw a flare over the gate.

Their protest continued there with short speeches and more dancing. People were still coming down the street to join the People’s Assembly Against Austerity protest in Parliament Square and some stopped briefly to join in.

Eventually Class War decided it was time to roll up the banners and leave before police intervened – and it was time to go to the pub again. But for me it was time to go home.

Many more pictures on My London Diary: Class War in Whitehall.

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Shaker Aamer, Raif Badawi & Climate Change – 2015

Shaker Aamer, Raif Badawi & Climate Change: On Wednesday 17 June 2015 the weekly ‘Stand with Shaker’ vigil outside Parliament was visited by two of the new intake of MPs. Outside Downing Street human rights organisations took part in a national day of action calling for the release of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi. A mass lobby on climate change brought around 250 MPs out of Parliament to meet voters who were urging them to persuade our government to take a leading role in the forthcoming Paris climate talks and after the lobby there was a large rally on Millbank.

New MPs Stand with Shaker

Parliament Square

Shaker Aamer, Raif Badawi & Climate Change - 2015

In 2015 the Free Shaker Aamer campaign was holding a lunchtime vigil on the pavement opposite Parliament every Wednesday when it was in session, calling for our government to urge the US authorities to release London resident Shaker Aamer still held in the illegal Guantanamo torture camp. Two newly elected MPs came to support the campaign.

Aamer was one of the original residents brought to the camp in 2002 after being sold to the US Army by bandits in Afghanistan where he was working for a Muslim charity,. He was first cleared for release in 2007.

He remained held there years later, probably because he would be able to give evidence about his torture at Bagram and Guantanamo which would embarrass both US and UK security services. He was finally released in September 2015.

New MPs Stand with Shaker

Support Saudi blogger Raif Badawi

Downing St

Human rights organisations including Index on Censorship, English Pen and the Peter Tatchell Foundation held a rally and handed in a letter to PM David Cameron calling on him to urge the Saudi government to release Saudi Blogger Raif Badawi.

Badawi was arrested in 2012 and convicted for founding a liberal web site which was alleged to be insluting Islam. Hia sentence was increased in 2013 to a 1 million riyals (£175,000) fine, ten-year in prison and 1000 lashes, a punishment he was unlikely to survive.

Badawi was flogged 50 times on 9 January 2015 and was due to be given another 50 lashes every Friday until the total was reached. But further floggings had been postponed so far as he had not recovered sufficiently.

Threats of flogging continued until at least 2016, but were delayed on health grounds sometimes only hours before they were to be carried out in what seems to have been a deliberate psychological torture. Finally he was released in 2022 but with a ban on travelling abroad until 2032. His wife and children fled the country and were granted political asylum in Canada in 2013.

Support Saudi blogger Raif Bad a wi

Climate Coalition Mass Lobby on Climate Change

Westminster & Lambeth

*Labour’s Rupa Huq, MP for Ealing Central and Acton in the centre of a large group from her constituency*

Thousands came to lobby their MPs, who met constituency groups either inside the Houses of Parliament or in a series of meetings spread out in Victoria Gardens, across Lambeth Bridge and on along the Albert Embankment.

*Some, like Tooting MP Sadiq Khan took advantage of the bicycle rickshaws to ferry them to the meetings*

I listened in briefly to a number of these meetings as I was walking around to take pictures. Most MPs seemed aware of the need for action, but too many were making excuses for not being able to take the kind of urgent action needed, and some seemed to me to have a have a patronising attitude that would certainly have lost them my vote.

The only heated argument I saw was with Neil Coyle, MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark. After talking with him on climate change, the conversation moved on to housing, with Coyle defending the indefensible actions of the Labour local authority in emptying out their council estates and handing them over to be developed for private sale.

Climate Coalition Mass Lobby

Climate Coalition Rally

Millbank

*No to Austerity – Yes to a million climate jobs!’ is the message from the Trade Union Group of the Campaign against Climate Change*

After the lobby, the crowds moved on to Millbank for a rally, though many who had come from more distant parts of the country had instead begun their long journeys home. As well as filling Millbank, others sat on the grass in Victoria Gardens, where they could hear the many speakers, though not see them or the giant screen on which they and some short films were shown.

*Surfers Against Sewage stand with their boards*

With more than a hundred organisations taking part in the lobby, there were rather too many speakers for me, along with a number of celebrities, some of whom had very little of substance to contribute.

But there were others certainly worth listening to – and I name some and there are some photographs on My London Diary. But for me it was only the closing speech by Asad Rehman of Friends of the Earth which made a real attempt to tackle the political issues that are central to any effective action on climate.

Many more photographs on My London Diary at Climate Coalition Rally.

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Brexit, Fair Tips & Deported Cleaners – 2018

Brexit, Fair Tips & Deported Cleaners: On Tuesday 12 June 2018 after photographing the Stand of Defiance European Movement continuing protest outside Parliament I went on to a protest at the Business ministry calling for restaurant staff to receive all of the tips that clients add to their bills. Finally I went to SOAS where a rally was taking place on the 9th anniversary of the management conspiring with the Border Agency in a despicable anti-union move to deport nine of the cleaners who worked there.

Stop Brexit ‘Pies Not Lies’

Old Palace Yard, Westminster

Brexit, Fair Tips & Deported Cleaners - 2018

Steven Bray’s Stand of Defiance European Movement, SODEM, were continuing their protests outside Parliament every day it was in session.

This protest was a part of their ‘Pies Not Lies Remainathon‘ and was taking place as parliament were debating the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill.

They continue to point out that he public was misled by deliberate lies and say that Brexit does not reflect the will of the people as few if any of the 52% actually voted for the kind of hard Brexit that the government is pursuing.

Stop Brexit ‘Pies Not Lies’

Unite TGI Fridays demand Fair Tips & Fair Pay

Dept of Business etc, Victoria St

Striking Unite members from TGI Fridays along with others from the Unite Restaurant, Catering and Bar Workers Branch and Unite Community came to the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy to protest against restaurant owners taking part of the tips that customers give to staff on their credit cards.

The workers say TGI Fridays use the tips to drive down the pay of staff in kitchens, and demand to keep the tips they have earned and for proper pay for all restaurant staff.

One of the protesters was dressed as a giant burger. After half an hour of noisy protest, a deputation tried to go in to deliver a letter to business secretary Greg Clark, but were stopped at the door, where their letter was taken with a promise it would be delivered to him.

Two years earlier then then Business minister Sajid Javid had promised to take action to end this malpractice but had done nothing. Five years later The Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023 made it law that all tips should go to the workers and a code of practice for this was issued in July 2024.

I left as the protest at the ministry was ending and the group were going on to protest outside branches of TGI Fridays.

TGI Fridays demand Fair Tips & Fair Pay

‘SOAS 9’ deported cleaners remembered

SOAS University of London

On 12th June 2009, after the cleaners at SOAS had begun to campaign for the London Living Wage, SOAS managers called them to an ’emergency meeting’ at 6:30am.

*Consuela, one of the cleaner’s shop stewards*

A few minutes after the start of the ‘meeting’, agents of the UK Border Agency rushed in, handcuffed all the cleaners and held them for questioning. Nine were then deported.

The was part of the despicable ‘hostile environment’ for migrant workers, begun by the Labour government, but severely ratcheted up by Theresa May as Home Secretary.

People stood at the rally in front of SOAS holding the names of the 9 deported cleaners – Alberto, Carlos, Heidy, Laura, Lucia, Manuel, Marina, Milton and Rosa – while people told the story of that grim day and about the long fight by cleaners to get a Living Wage, decent conditions of service and to be treated with dignity and respect.

*Sandy Nicoll, SOAS Unison Branch Secretary*

In 2018 that ten year ‘one workplace, one workforce’ struggle to bring the cleaners ‘in house’, directly employed by the university, had just been won in principle and negotiations were continuing on its implementation.

After the rally there was to be a showing of the documentary film ‘Limpiadores’ about the SOAS cleaners and the Borders Agency raid with a panel discussion, but I couldn’t stay. I don’t think the film is still available.

‘SOAS 9’ deported cleaners remembered

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News of the World & Police Forest Gate Raid – 2006

News of the World & Police Forest Gate Raid: On Sunday 11th June 2006 a protest took place outside the News International printing works in Wapping a week after its staff had tricked migrants in East London by making fake job promises and then transporting them by bus to an immigration detention centre. This was one of many outrages by the newspaper, which was finally forced to close in 2011 by the many revelations about its involvement in illegal phone hacking.

Later in the day there was a larger protest at New Scotland Yard against a massive police raid by 250 police on a home in Forest Gate in which one of two men arrested was shot and wounded by police. Police also forcefully raided a neighbouring house, and the whole local area was shut down for several days. Police were acting on a rumour that this was a terrorist bomb factory but no chemical materials were found and the two men were released seven days later without charge.

Here is what I wrote back in 2006 about these with some pictures from the protests.

No Borders Protest at Wapping

News of the World, Wapping

News of the World & Police Forest Gate Raid - 2006 — *Demonstrators outside the gate to Fortress Wapping*

Last Sunday the ‘News Of The World’ bragged about how a team of its staff had made fake offers of work to migrants, picking on the weakest and most exploited people living here with us. They had then picked them up in a bus and taken them without their consent to the Colnbrook Detention Centre, where they were handed over to immigration officers and detained.

I hope their actions will be condemned by my union (the NUJ) as a disgrace to journalism, and endangering relations between genuine reporters and migrants. Such deception should not be tolerated by anyone, and the would seem to amount to kidnapping.

All of us should be appalled that this was allowed to happen – and that apparently the authorities connived in it rather than turning the buses away as they should have done.

Colnbrook detainees made their feelings about the person who organised the scam clear “You are a gutless, incompetent, bully” and pointed out that it was such “unfair ill-informed reporting” that was responsible for the adoption of inhuman policies that led to migrants not claiming asylum and hiding from the authorities, which left them open to exploitation by unscrupulous employers, with long hours, low pay and poor and dangerous working conditions.

A few more pictures

Rally For Justice – Forest Gate Raid

New Scotland Yard, Victoria St

A crowd of several hundred demonstrators, mainly Muslim, gathered outside New Scotland Yard on Sunday afternoon, 11th June 2006, to voice their disquiet at the June 2nd police raid in Forest Gate.

Speakers from across the Muslim community as well as Respect MP George Galloway and Lindsey German of ‘Stop The War’ expressed their misgivings at the heavy-handed approach of the police and the targeting of Muslims. There were calls for the resignation of the Metropolitan Police chief, Sir Ian Blair. Many also called for Tony Blair to go.

Certainly there should be some rapid re-thinking of how (and why) any further such raids are carried out. I’d always assumed that when the police kicked down my front door at 4 am they would at least shout out something like ‘Police – get on the floor’ as they stormed in rather than leave me to think they were an armed criminal gang. And while I might expect them to restrain me, shooting me or and kicking me in the head without very good reason surely should result in a criminal conviction?

A rather grudging apology dragged out over a week after the event isn’t good enough. Of course there are enquiries going on, but the police have to show some sensitivity. [Later the officers concerned were cleared of any “criminal or disciplinary offence“.]

Several speakers made the point that ‘police intelligence’ was in almost all respects woefully lacking. All of us are put at danger – as last year’s London bombings showed – because police waste time and resources on false rumours such as those behind this raid. One speaker went through a long, long list of such happenings around the country, including some the police still persist in believing despite having cases thrown out by the courts.

The event attracted major media attention; it was hard to get an accurate estimate of the number of demonstrators because there were so many reporters and photographers etc present. Along with a core of 250, representing the number of police involved in the raid, there were probably a hundred or more others.

More pictures begin here.

Wikipedia states: “The Metropolitan Police revealed under freedom of information legislation that what was known as Operation Volga had cost £2,211,600, including £864,300 on overtime payments for the dozens of police officers involved, £90,000 on hotel bills, and £120,000 for repairs to the damage caused to the houses by the police.”

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Gravesend and Northfleet, Kent – 2006

Gravesend and Northfleet, Kent: Twenty years ago on Thursday 8th June 2006 I took my folding bike by train to Gravesend and spent an afternoon cycling through the area on the Kent bank of the River Thames, long home to the cement industry – the manufacture of ‘Portland Cement’ began here in 1834.

I’d long had an interest in the area, both for its industrial history and for its sometimes spectacular landscapes created by this. I was first inspired when I borrowed an old book from my local library, Donald Maxwell’s ‘A Pilgrimage of the Thames‘, published in 1932. His accounts and sketches, some first published earlier in the Church Times present an interesting and romantic view of places and people along the river beginning at Gravesend and ending at Oxford.

Maxwell (1877-1936) reports a Thames pilot telling him as he sketched on a jetty, “The principal products of Gravesend are paper, cement and smoke – especially smoke.”

Later, writing about Northfleet he muses prophetically “One day, when the cement industry has left this valley, and centres of population have shifted, this district will be called the Switzerland of England, and weekend châlets, each with its aeroplane-landing on the cliff, will look down once again upon green shores and tree-embowered banks.”

It hasn’t happened quite like that, though the cement industry has gone and there are some luxury riverside flats and the new town of Ebbsfleet developing around a new station on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (which Eurostar trains whizz through non-stop at around the same speed as aircraft when Maxwell wrote.)

Of course Maxwell’s book was not my only source for information about the area. Particularly useful was the 1971 geography text ‘Lower Thameside‘ by Roy Millward & Adrian Robinson with its chapter ‘The Cement Industry of Lower Thameside‘ which gave some rather more precise information and a suggested itinerary which informed my first actual visits to the area in the 1980s.

A few years after I took these pictures in 2006 the vast cement works at Northfleet had gone.

The photographs on My London Diary are not captioned (and I wrote nothing about them) but a they are in order of my ride beginning in Gravesend and moving west, with views across the Thames to Tilbury. From Rosherville I moved on to Northfleet (where Gravesend & Northfleet FC is now Ebbsfleet United) and then on to take the train home from Swanscombe.

More pictures on My London Diary

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