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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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12 Days of Christmas – June

12 Days of Christmas -some of my favourite pictures from those I made in June 2025.

Billionaires Kill - 12 Days of Christmas – June — London, UK. Billionaires Kill. Several thousand march from the BBC to Whitehall against the government spending more on arms while cutting public services, the NHS and benefits for the disabled – they say is a blueprint for arms manufacturers to print money based on a false narrative. They demand Welfare not Warfare and call for taxes on the rich, cutting down tax avoidance and evasion and an end to cuts. Peter Marshall

London, UK. 21 June 2025. Starmer – what a joke. Many thousands including many Jews march to Whitehall calling an end to the war crime of deliberate starvation of Palestinians in Gaza and demanding a ceasefire there and in the war against Iran. The want action to end the genocide and murder of children. They demand the UK ends all arms sales to Israel and call for a ceasefire and negotiations on both Palestine and Iran with the release of all hostages and prisoners. Peter Marshall.

London, UK, 28 June 2025. People march from Islington Green to a rally at Highbury Fields to demand Barclays end funding which supports Israeli genocide in Gaza and continuing apartheid in Palestine as well as environmental destruction by fossil fuel use. Barclays underwrites Israeli ‘was bonds’ and provides billions to support illegal settlements and arms sales to Israel, Palestine Solidarity Campaign was joined by others including CAAT, London Mining Network. Peter Marshall.

London, UK. 28 June 2025. Unite Against Fascism held a rally in Whitehall against the cynical attempt by the far right Football Lads Alliance to spread racism and bigotry on the streets of London by a march and rally “against grooming gangs, knife crime and the sexualisation of children” despite many on the far right having been convicted as sex offenders against children. Police kept the two rallies several hundred yards apart. Peter Marshall.

More pictures from July 2025 tomorrow,

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Anti-Capitalist Carols in the City – 2012

On Tuesday 18th December 2012 I met a small group of anti-capitalist protesters from the St Paul’s Cathedral Occupy London camp at 3pm at Liverpool Street Station.

For the next couple of hours I went with them as they visited businesses and banks around the city to sing anti-capitalist carols against tax avoiders, bailed out banks and others in a peaceful and seasonal protest.

They had a special song for Starbucks – to the tune of ‘Let It Snow’ with the first verse::

Oh the cost of living's frightful
Some relief would be delightful
So don't leave us in the muck
Tax Starbucks, tax Starbucks, tax Starbucks

There were another three verses, reminding us and Starbucks and the customers sitting drinking their coffee that corporate and elite tax evasion costs the nation £33 billion a year.

We walked out onto Bishopsgate and they gave their next performance outside the doors to the bankers offices at 125 Bishopsgate where security were not showing a happy Christmas spirit.

Away in the Caymnans, the Plutocrats wept
Because, we the people
are listing their debts
We're no longer fooled by
Divide and delay, we're planting the seeds,
But they're making hay...

The group moved cross the street to the RBS, reminding them the government supported the banks with an unimaginable £1.162 trillion. The several carols there, included:

Silent debt, holy debt
All is owed, all is wrecked
Round on poor; father, mother and child
public services tendered and priced
sleep in poverty please
sleep in poverty please

There were similar performances outside the various other banks as we made our way through the city towards the Bank of England. There was a another carol for Ramsay Health Care, a company involved in the creeping privatisation of the NHS, on Old Broad Street:

What shall we do with our public services
What shall we do with our public services
Shall we sell off our public services
That's where Thatcher left it!

When we got to HSBC on the corner of Old Broad St and London Wall everyone walked inside to sing, including some of the police who were by now taking part – if silently – in the proceedings. After a couple of carols – and some posed photographs – the group went out.

On Old Broad Street there was another Starbucks – and again the carollers went inside to entertain and inform the customers.

Next it was time to visit another bank – the RBS on Threadneedle St – and by now a few more singers had joined the group.

We walked up to the Guildhall – the medieval centre of the City, which had its own carol, to the tune of Good King Wenceslas:

Bad George Osborne last looked out
In the Autumn budget
Nothing to be proud about
So he had to fudge it
Said though things don't look that great
We are on the right track
Bullshit George, NHS you hate
Now it's time to fight back.

On the way back towards the Royal Exchange there was another Starbucks to enter and treat to a carol and couple more banks to sing outside – Lloyds stopped them from entering.

But the finest performance of the day came inside the grand banking hall of the NatWest on Poultry, where bank staff seemed quite amused by the performance, and some from the upper floors came to the balconies to watch and listen. I’d not been inside the building before and was pleased to be able to see it – and to take a few pictures.

Again after a couple of carols the group left quietly and crossed to the Royal Exchange where they performed on the steps as city workers rushed by to Bank tube station.

By then I was getting a little tired and cold, having been mainly on the street for a couple of hours. The carol singers had decided to split into two groups now their numbers had grown to visit more places, but I decided to get on a bus and start my journey home.

More pictures at Anti-Capitalist Carols in the City.

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People’s Assembly against Austerity 2.0

People’s Assembly against Austerity 2.0: Last Saturday, 7th June 2025 the People’s Assembly had organised what they hoped would be a huge anti-austerity demonstration against Labour’s Austerity 2.0 which seems a return to the policies of the Cameron and other Tory governments, cutting spending on public services while ensuring the rich continue to get richer.

They say:

Austerity is not an inevitability; it is a political choice. By sticking to her arbitrary ‘fiscal rules,’ Rachel Reeves is plunging the country into more crisis.
By choosing to spend money on arms rather than public services, social security and our NHS, this government is actively impoverishing us. We say no – and we mean it.

Recent government announcements of a huge increase in defence spending are based on a return to the worst excesses of the Cold War and a false narrative of Russian invasion of all of Europe – something that the criminal and disastrous invasion of Ukraine when what Putin thought would be over in three days has turned into years of attrition, ruining the Russian economy, actually makes less likely.

Arms manufacturers have always played on our fears to boost their profits – and they are the only people who come out of wars as winners – both the Ukrainian people and the Russian people will end up as losers whatever the final outcome in Ukraine. And it was them and the NATO military hawks who kept up the isolation of Russia and the manipulation of politics in Ukraine and elsewhere after the fall of the USSR rather than welcoming Russia into our fold.

Already our government has drastically cut the aid budget, probably the most important expenditure to promote peace across the world, and is also planning huge cuts in benefits in an attack on the most vulnerable in our society.

It has also continued its attacks on migrants with a new Immigration White Paper which will attack our migrant communities and affect millions of migrants, continuing the racist policies of previous governments. We need migrants, particularly as our population is ageing. Those already here are making a positive contribution to our country – and would do more if we introduced safe ways for them to come here, particularly to join relatives already living here, allowed asylum seekers who can to work, recognised their qualification and made it easier for them to become British citizens. We need a positive approach to migrants rather than the increasingly hostile one.

Many on the protest came to protest about the increasing privatisation of the NHS and the failures to adequately resource it, about the cuts in education and about misguided and inadequate housing policies which have led to huge increases in rents – while making landlords wealthy. About the increases in energy prices and in prices generally which are making many poor. About the failure to abolish to two child cap on benefits which has put so many children into poverty.

*Kid Starver Out – and a cut up Labour Party card.*

We live in a country with massive inequalities and with governments that are inatroducing policies to increase these. The protest called for ‘Welfare not Warfare’, to ‘Tax the Rich’ and ‘Stop the Cuts’.

We would not need to bring in tax increases to greatly increase the amount of tax the country receives but could bring in billions by simply clamping down on tax evasion and tax avoidance. We should outlaw all those schemes that enable companies and individuals who earn money in the UK from not paying taxes. We need to change the law so HMRC would work to a simple rule – if you earn it here, you pay tax on it here – and enforce it. It would probably bring in at least another £20 billion a year.

Saturday’s protest was not the huge demonstration that the People’s Assembly had hoped for, though it was a respectable size, perhaps 3-5,000 people. The drastic and inaccurate weather forecast may have put some people off, but the many groups who backed the event only came in small numbers. Sometimes only just enough to carry their banner.

By far the largest and loudest bloc on the march was that of the Revolutionary Communist Party. Until 2024 called ‘Socialist Appeal’ it was relaunched under this new name. Back around the 1970s it was the Trotskyist Labour group ‘Militant tendency’, set up around the newspaper ‘Militant’ in 1964 and finally proscribed by the Labour Party in 1982.

Many more pictures in my Facebook album Welfare Not Warfare, Stop The Cuts March.

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Lambeth Protests Massive Council Cuts – 2011

Lambeth Protests Massive Council Cuts: it was already half an hour after sunset when I joined several hundred Lambeth residents who had turned up outside Lambeth Town Hall where later that evening on Wednesday 23rd Feb 2011 councillors were set to approve drastic cuts to council services. I took a few pictures without flash but soon realised I would need to use flash for the rest of the event.

Lambeth is a large borough in south London with over 300,000 residents, roughly a third of whom were born outside the UK. It includes some wealthy areas but also had eight areas among the 10% most deprived in the country.

Lambeth Council has been under majority Labour control since 2006 and in the 2010 elections Labour won around 70% of the council seats. One of the councillors who spoke at the protest to loud applause was Kingsley Adams, now a former Labour party councillor after being thrown out of the party for opposing the cuts and is now an Independent Labour councillor.

The council argues that the cuts are an ideological policy forced on them by the Tory-led Coalition Government rather than a real need to make savings, but the protesters from Lambeth Save Our Services say that they are imposing them with a much greater enthusiasm and severity than is necessary. As one banner read, “Labour Cuts in Lambeth? Thatcher would be proud!”

Speakers pointed out that there were many ways that the council could have made the necessary savings without cutting services, including bringing some private services back under council control and ending the expensive use of consultants and high levels of expenses paid to councillors.

They point out that the chief executive’s salary alone at £270,000, which seems quite excessive and is one of the highest in the country is enough to keep a library running, and compared this to the Prime Minister’s salary of £142,500.

The council had large reserves some of which they suggested could be used to keep services running while the council made more sensible plans for long-term savings. The also said that large savings could be made by paying back the council’s pension deficit over a longer period.

The cuts are indeed draconian, expected to result in one quarter of the total staff – around 1000 council workers – losing their jobs. Among those to be lost completely are park rangers and school crossing patrols, many regeneration schemes and cultural events, and the noise nuisance service.

There will be massive cuts in services for children and young people, adult social care and the upkeep of estates – where rents will be raised. Discretionary travel passes for adults with mental health problems will go.

Levels of street cleaning, and the maintenance of roads, cemeteries and parks will be cut. There will be massive cuts in education, including the merging of Lambeth College with Lewisham College. Three of the borough’s four public toilets will close, and drastic cuts in libraries will probably mean at least four closing.

I left as some of those at the protest were going into the council offices to make their case, shortly before the council meeting was scheduled to start, though there were still several hundred on the pavement outside.

Later I heard that the protesters had occupied the meeting room for a couple of hours. But the council simply held the meeting in another room and approved the plans for cuts of £79 million without them being able to make their case.

Many more pictures at Lambeth Protests Massive Council Cuts.

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Jesse Jackson, Cuts & Paris • New York • London Opening 2010

Jesse Jackson, Cuts & Paris • New York • London Opening: Wednesday 20th October 2010 was an unusual day for me. I don’t often photograph conferences, but I started at one where Jesse Jackson was speaking and then went to lobby my MP over tax justice. Kwasi Kwarteng was seldom seen in the constituency but later became notorious when he helped Liz Truss crash the economy. From there I used to cover people marching to Downing Street against the government spending cuts before leaving to go to the Shoreditch Gallery for the opening of a show by three photographers I had organised, ‘Paris – New York – London’ (I was Paris.)

Jesse Jackson & Christian Aid Lobby – Westminster

Jesse Jackson, Cuts & Paris • New York • London Opening 2010

2,500 Christian Aid supporters including my wife had come to Westminster to lobby their MPs on 20.10.2010, asking them to press for transparency and fairness in the global tax system and for action on climate change.

According to campaigners for tax justice various forms of tax dodging by multinational companies was then robbing the global South of more than $160 billion a year. And our high dependence of fossil fuels had led to a climate crisis which impacts these countries far more severely despite their much lower per capita carbon footprints.

The rally took place in the vast Methodist Central Hall, opposite Westminster Abbey, and as we were reminded where the United Nations started. There was a huge ovation for US Civil Rights leader, activist and politician Jesse Jackson, a protégée of Martin Luther King president and founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.

But there were also other distinguished speakers including the then new director of Christian Aid, Loretta Minghella, Suzanne Matale from Zambia and secretary of state for international development and MP for Sutton Coldfield, Rt. Hon Andrew Mitchell MP.

After the rally we met our local MP Kwasi Kwarteng and went with him into a pub opposite Parliament where he he listened to us and basically told us we didn’t understand global finance and climate change, before going outside to pose with for photographs.

Outside there was some street theatre by younger Christian Aid supporters as people queued to meet there MPs and I made a few pictures before rushing away to find people marching to protest against government cuts.

Jesse Jackson & Christian Aid Lobby

March Against Spending Cuts – Malet St & Lincolns Inn Fields

Earlier in the day the government had announced there would be considerable cuts in welfare benefits and the loss of many public sector jobs as services are cut following their comprehensive spending review.

The deficit left by New Labour had given the Tories in the Con-Dem coalition a perfect excuse to slash the public sector and privatise services in a way they would never have dared before. £83 billion to be cut from public services, in a move that the Coalition of Resistance pointed out will mean many workers with less to spend and cause a slump in the economy.

But as I commented “Big business must be rubbing its hands with glee at the thought of the profits it will be able to make in the health service, from so-called ‘free schools’ and elsewhere.”

But for the rest of us the prospect was bleak. More than a million jobs lost – and some would be replaced in the private sector with lower wages, fewer benefits, lower standards of delivery and safety and higher workloads. Profit will come before anything else in the kind of “efficiency” we’ve seen in hospital cleaning – where I found used needles and dressings under my hospital bed as cleaners were not allowed the time to do the job properly.

I went to photograph students setting off from outside the student union in Malet Street for the march to Downing Street, then went to Lincoln’s Inn Fields where trade unionists and more students gathering and there were speeches from an open top bus before they too set off.

But I went in the opposite direction to my opening at the Shoreditch Gallery.

March Against Spending Cuts

Paris • New York • London Opening – Shoreditch Gallery, Hoxton Market

*Me at the opening where I gave a speech – photograph © Paul Baldesare, 2010*

This show contained work by John Benton-Harris from New York, Paul Baldesare from London and myself from Paris and can still be seen online.

*Addicted To Jesus – Arthur Avenue, Bronx NYC – 14th March 2009 © John Benton-Harris*

John Benton Harris (1929-2023), one of the finest photographers to come out of New York, settled in London in 1965 but continued also to photograph his native city and elsewhere. He was long a personal friend and I worked with him on a number of his projects including his Café Royal Zines and his unpublished book on the English.

*Window dresser, Oxford Circus, London © Paul Baldesare, 2010*

Paul Baldesare, another friend of mine with whom I’ve often shown pictures and a former student of John Benton-Harris showed work from one of his many projects on London, He is probably best known for his pictures on the tube.

And I was showing a selection of images made in Paris in 1988 from a book I had also then recently published on Blurb.

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Bonuses are Back Pig Party – 2009

Bonuses are Back Pig Party: I’ve never understood why people who are already paid obscenely high salaries get awarded huge bonuses for the work of people lower down in the organisations they lead. Even less that they still get them when these organisations are obviously failing – as with the water companies. So it was a small piece of good news in February 2024 when the then government announced they would block further bonuses to the water company after they had received £26 million since 2019 despite sewage spills.

Of course many of us felt that they should have been made to repay those bonuses and that the companies that have racked up huge debts while paying out billions to shareholders should be taken into administration to be run to serve the public.

Back in 2008 it was the predatory activities of the banks that led to the financial crash, but in 2009, “Despite everything that has happened over the past year, bankers are still getting bonuses, often at quite obscene levels, far in excess of most people’s annual incomes.”

And on Friday 17th July 2009 ‘The Government of the Dead‘ came to the heart of the City of London to ‘celebrate’ that “City pigs are truly back with their snouts in the trough” with “a ‘Bonuses are Back Pig Party’, wearing pig masks and setting up a trough with ‘Pig Pounds’ mixed with pig swill and getting snouts down and bottoms up to wallow in it.“

The ‘Pig Pounds’ – were deliberately low-tech paper copies of fivers with a pig over the bottom half of the Queen and the pig swill was possibly the real thing but looked like some rather unpleasant and lumpy porridge with cornflakes mixed in.

Some of the protesters had come in fancy dress – city suits – with Chris Knight with his usual top hat and Camilla as Miss Piggy. Many put on latex pig masks and got their heads down in the trough in front of the Royal Exchange, scooping up the swill and the fivers.

More or less together they sang a number of cleverly reworded pig songs “including a number of hits by Miss Piggy, Pinky and Perky, The Simpsons and Piggy Pie“, as will as singing, dancing and miming along with some of the originals between sessions at the trough.

‘Lets Twist Again’, once recorded by Pinky and Perky became
“Come on let’s scam again
Like we did last summer
Come on let’s scam again
Like we did last year
Come on let’s scam again
Scamming time is here.“

“Bonuses Are Back” Chris Knight and the others shouted at City workers on their way home, inviting them to “come and swill in the trough, all provided at the taxpayers expense thanks to Gordon Brown.“

Tourists were bemused, but some stopped to enjoy and photograph the scene, with a few putting on the latex pig masks on offer and joining in.

Even the City of London Police seemed amused rather than worried by the protest, standing back and watching – and without their intervention there was no threat to public order.

After around an hour and a half of watching and taking pictures I decided it was time to go home. I’d taken too many pictures and the fun was wearing off.

Of course the bankers – and other bosses – continued to do well, while the rest of us had to suffer fourteen years of Tory austerity with public services being starved of cash and the NHS, prisons and more deteriorating at pace.

The Labour Party deliberately threw away the chance of getting into government in 2017, when the party under Corbyn got many more votes than in 2024. Starmer didn’t win the election, it was lost by the Tories who were poleaxed by Reform and had become clearly unable to run their own party let alone the country. I have no confidence that our new Labour government will be more than a very slight improvement over their predecessors, though it would be good to be proved wrong.

More at Bonuses are Back Pig Party

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Shaker, Job Centres, Firefighters, Tube, Lambeth

Shaker, Job Centres, Firefighters, Tube, Lambeth – On Wednesday 25th February I photographed a number of protests in London, starting in Westminster with the Free Shaker Aamer campaign, striking firefighters and welfare rights activists, then with tube workers at Edgware Road and finally outside Lambeth Town Hall in Brixton.

Free Shaker Aamer – Parliament Square

A protest opposite Parliament called for the urgent release of London resident Shaker Aamer from Guantanamo, where he has been held and regularly abused for 13 years without charge or trial.

The Free Shaker Aamer Campaign had been holding weekly protests opposite Parliament whenever it was in session to remind government of the need for act over his release. He had long been cleared for release but was still held in the illegal prison camp with both US and UK governments dragging their feet as his testimony would be embarrassing to their security agencies, making clear their involvement in torture.

The protest was longer than usual as an international event was taking place at the nearby QEII centre and they wanted to remind delegates there of Shaker’s torture and imprisonment. Eventually the long campaign of protests by this and other groups led the UK government they needed to back his release in practice and he was finally released on 30th October 2015.

More pictures: Free Shaker Aamer at Parliament

Striking Firefighters block traffic – Westminster

Firefighters in England held a 24 hour strike on 25th Feb 2015 against the unworkable pension scheme the government intended to implement. They say that the devolved governments had recognised the problems in the scheme and made improvements but in England government ministers were refusing to talk with the union, simply ignoring requests for meetings. They accused the government of lies about the union, saying they were being labelled as militants despite them being ready and willing to enter into negotiations at any time.

After a rally in Westminster Central Hall, several thousand striking firefighters protested on the street outside Parliament before marching to Downing St. Their protest brought all traffic in the area to a standstill until they marched away.

They stopped outside Downing Street and refused to move, saying they would wait there until someone came out to talk to them. A senior police officer come to talk with Matt Wrack and the other FBU leaders there and was extrememly politie, taking Wrack’s mobile number before going away to see if anyone could be persuaded to come out from Downing St to meet the protesters.

I left them leaning on the barriers and looking into Downing Street waiting for someone to come and see them, though I doubted if anyone would ever emerge.

The Fire Service has also suffered like other public services from government cuts; in London these led to Mayor Boris Johnson making dangerous reductions, closing some fire stations and reducing equipment and staffing, which left the London Fire Brigade ill-equipped to deal with major disasters such as the Grenfell fire.

The FBU union later won a number of legal cases against the government over the changes that were made to the pensions scheme, leading to significant compensation for some members.

More at Striking Firefighters block traffic.

Welfare Advocacy not a Crime – DWP, Westminster

Welfare activists protested outside the Dept of Work & Pensions in Caxton Street as a part of the national day of action over the arrest of welfare rights activist Tony Cox. He had been arrested when he tried to accompany a vulnerable claimant to her job centre interview to argue for a fairer claimant agreement.

As well as several banners, one man was gagged in protest. By law claimants are allowed to have and adviser present with them at the interview, but when a claimant turned up with Cox, his interview was cancelled.

Cox and the claimant then left the job centre, but later in the day police arrived at his him and arrested him, charging him with threatening behaviour.

Welfare Advocacy not a Crime.

RMT protest Underground Job Cuts – Edgware Road Station (Bakerloo)

Around 20 RMT members handed out fliers at the busy Edgware Road Bakerloo Line station against the proposed 50% cut in station staffing and the closure of the ticket offices which they say will endanger the safety of both passengers and staff.

They got a very positive reception from many of the public going in and out of the station or walking past, although a PCSO came to harass and try to stop their picketing. Most of the public seemed to realise that staff do far more than sell tickets and offer service and protection to the travelling public.

Many promises were made to Underground staff and the public about how they would be protected when cuts were made, but most were later broken.

RMT protest Underground Job Cuts

Lambeth against £90m cuts – Lambeth Town Hall, Brixton

After taking some photographs of the protesting RMT staff I got on the Underground there, changing at Oxford Circus to take me to the end of the Victoria Line at Brixton.

There I walked down to Lambeth Town Hall on the corner of Acre Land to join around a hundred trade unionists, pensioners, library and other council staff, social housing tenants and other residents who were gathering for a lively rally outside Lambeth Town Hall.

A lively rally took place urging councillors who were arriving for the council meeting to reject library closures and other £90 millon cuts which were being passed there by the large Labour majority on the council. Labour then held 59 of the 63 council seats. Among the speakers at the rally was the only Green Party councillor, Scott Ainslie, who was to vote against the cuts. The Green Party gained four more seats in the 2018 council elections but lost three of these in 2022. Right-wing Labour councillors still have an overwheming majority and the council continues its policies which fail the community.

Lambeth’s finances were stretched by the development of a new Town Hall or Civic Centre the cost of which roughly doubled from the original contract of £55 million ot £104 million. Policies such as the closure of libraries and the demolition and sale of popular and well-built council estates like Cressingham Gardens had already produced a great deal of protest in the borough.

The £90 million cuts passed at the council meeting later that evening have had a disproportionate impact on children, old people and the disabled who always rely on local services more than the average person. Council employees at the rally opposed the cuts not only because they feared for their own jobs, but because they knew those that remain in post will not be able to offer the public the same quality of service that they do at present.

Lambeth against £90m cuts

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TUC Pensions March & Corporate Greed – 2011

TUC Pensions March & Corporate Greed – On Wednesday 30th November 2011 public sector workers across the country held a one-day strike against government plans to cut public service pensions with pickets at thousands of workplaces and rallies and marches in towns and cities across the country as well as a South East TUC organised march in Central London which I photographed. Later in the afternoon I went with Occupy London protesters who occupied the offices of the highest paid CEO in the UK to protest against corporate greed.

TUC Nov 30 March – Lincolns Inn Fields to Westminster

It’s always hard to estimate the numbers on very large marches such as this one but it was very large and when I arrived at Lincoln’s Inn Fields the large space already seemed pretty crowded an hour before the march was due to start. Many people gave up trying to get in waited to join the march on Kingsway.

At the front of the march were Frances O’Grady, Deputy General Secretary of the TUC, NASUWT president John Rimmer (below) and other trade unionists. Many other groups had come with banners.

There were many placards suggesting ways to avoid the cuts, including by taxing the mega-rich and cutting the pointless and wasteful expenditure on Trident rather than job’s health and education.

Some of the students on the march felt it was going to slow and began to march in front of the main banner.

Police stopped them and held up the whole of the march at Aldwych but then didn’t seem to know what to do. Eventually they just let things go ahead.

I took a lot of pictures of the Education Activist Network who were the liveliest part of the protest but there were plenty of others to photograph too with many interesting hand-made posters.

I stopped for quite a while to photograph marchers as they went past.

and they were still coming in large numbers an hour after the front of the march had passed me.

I was still on the Embankment with marchers when the rally had begun closer to Parliament and people were still rolling in. I think there were probably between 20 and 30,000 taking part, but it was hard to know and I think many who had been on picket lines early in the morning had left before the rally began. I left too to meet with people from Occupy London.

More pictures on My London Diary at TUC Nov 30 March.

Occupy London Expose Corporate Greed – Piccadilly Circus & Panton House

Occupy London had called people to meet at Piccadilly Circus at 3pm but had not indicated what would be happening next. I arrived to find around a hundred protesters there along with quite a few Greek football supporters and a large number of police standing around watching them.

We stood in the intermittent rain for around half an hour waiting for something to happen. At 3.30pm around 30 people rushed across the road to stand outside a branch of Boots with the ‘Precarious Workers Brigade’ banner, but made no attempt to enter the store which quickly lowered its metal shutters.

Police rushed across the street to surround them, but soon became clear that this had merely been a diversion, as others close to Eros unfolded their long main ‘All Power to the 99%’ banner and rushed down Haymarket with it catching the police by surprise and leaving them behind.

I was running ahead of them, taking pictures over my shoulder and managing to keep ahead, but the police were well behind as we reached Panton St.

Here the protesters set off a bright orange flare, turned down Panton Street and rushed into Panton House. I followed the group with the main banner inside, but stupidly stopped in the foyer to take pictures through the glass frontage of the flares outside.

I was a little behind as the protesters ran up the stairs and rather out of breath after running along the street. By the time I reached the third or fourth landing I had decided to give up and pressed the button for a lift. Police arrived just as the lift came and one officer grabbed me stopping me from getting in.

Police told us all to go downstairs, but around 20 of the protesters and a few press had reached the roof. I made my way down, though it was difficult as more police rushing up pushed those of us going down out of the way.

The police had now surrounded the entrance, preventing any more people entering, but were allowing us to go out. I was pleased to get out because the air inside had been thick with the orange smoke and I had been choking slightly, Smoke flares aren’t intended for indoor use.

A little back on Haymarket by the side of the building protesters outside were taking part in a mike chat group chant to inform passers-by what was going on. From this I learnt that Panton House contains the London offices of the mining company Xstrata, whose CEO Mick Davies they say is the highest paid CEO in the UK, and “is a prime example of the greedy 1% lining their own pockets while denying workers pensions.”

Police began to surround them and I quickly moved away as they kettled the protesters, and also to get a better view of what was happening on the roof. TI had missed seeing the ‘All Power to the 99%’ banner being let down over Haymarket earlier but saw them trying to do so again but being dragged away from the edge. More police vans were now arriving and I decided there would be little else I could see and left.

More at Occupy London Expose Corporate Greed.