SODEM | >Re-PHOTO

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.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.

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

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.

Cuts Kill, Turban Traveller & Brexit Bullies – 2018

Cuts Kill, Turban Traveller & Brexit Bullies – The area outside the Houses of Parliament was busy on Wednesday 19th December 2018 with a protest by Disabled People Against Cuts, a welcome for a driver who had come from Delhi and arguments between remainers and Brexiteers. But the most newsworthy event was when a small group of extreme right Brexiteers spotted MP Anna Soubry walking to Parliament and went to harass her. By then other photographers had drifted off and I was the only photographer on the scene. It made the news headlines and though the the press accounts were laughably inaccurate, some of my pictures did get used even if my story filed with them was ignored.

As usual you can read more about all of these events and see more pictures by following the links to My London Diary below.

Cuts kill disabled people say protesters – Old Palace Yard

Cuts Kill, Turban Traveller & Brexit Bullies - 2018 — *‘Tory Cuts Kill’ say DPAC and another banner has the names of a hundred who have died*

Disability groups DPAC (Disabled People Against Cuts) and MHRN (Mental Health Resistance Network) together with WOW campaign protested in support of the parliamentary debate due later in the day on the cumulative impact of the cuts on the lives of disabled people.

Laura Pidcock, then Labour MP for North West Durham and Lib-Dem peer Lord Roberts of Llandudno came out to talk with and support the protesters who said the the changes in benefits and inappropriate use of sanctions were resulting in great hardship, denying people their rights and causing many deaths. Labour MP for Ealing Virendra Sharma, there for another event also had a lengthy talk with the protesters.

Cuts kill disabled people say protesters

MP welcomes Delhi to London driver

British-Indian Labour MP for Ealing Southall Virendra Sharma whose constituency includes very many Sikhs and those from other Indian communities had come out to to welcome The ‘Turban Traveller‘, a Sikh with a film crew from Creative Concept Films in Delhi who arrived in London today after driving overland from Delhi.

MP welcomes Delhi to London driver

Extreme Brexiteers Clash with SODEM

A small group of extreme right-wing pro-Brexit protesters had come to shout and argue with protesters from SODEM (Stand of Defiance European Movement) and to shout personal insults at Steven Bray who had founded SODEM in September 2017.

They accused Bray of being a drunk and asked “Who funds Drunk Steve“, a question that was rather redundant as two large banners were covered with logos of organisations supporting SODEM’s daily pickets.

Police warned the Brexiteers about the language they were using and were accused of taking sides, but the SODEM people were not shouting and using offensive language. Eventually the Brexiteers moved away to continue their protest on the pavement in front of the Houses of Parliament.

Extremist Brexiteers clash with SODEM

Extremist Brexiteers at Parliament

A small group of extreme right Brexiteers wearing high-viz vests with Union flags and the message ‘Justice for Our Boys’ protested outside parliament calling for an immediate Brexit and attempted to stop vehicles leaving parliament but were moved away by police.

I recognised many of them; some from the video of an attack on the socialist bookshop Bookmarks earlier in the year and others from protests by the EDL and other extreme right groups.

Some of them then went to try and enter the by the visitors entrance and I went with them and took more pictures. But most soon left, probably to a nearby pub.

Extremist Brexiteers at parliament

Anna Soubry MP Harassed by Extremists

I hung around watching the few who remained when all the other photographers had moved away to file their pictures of the protest at the gates to parliament, wondering what they might do next.

One of them shouted to the others as he recognised Conservative MP Anna Soubry walking along the pavement to go into the House of Commons, and they met her and began calling her a traitor and asking her way she was suggesting there might be a second referendum. She clearly knew the man leading the group, addressing him by name.

She tried to walk away along the pavement, but they followed, some standing in her way (and in mine) and after another in the group shouted at her ‘You fucking traitor!’ she turned to one of the several police officers around and complained to him that this was an offence, and remained standing close to him.

Other officers came across to help and quickly escorted her away and into Parliament. There were no immediate arrests, but the incident later became subject to an inquiry by the speaker of the house, who extended his sympathy to Ms Soubry.

In later interviews she complained that she had been compared to the Nazis, but I had not heard this at any point in the exchanges. Though as I wrote. “I was busy moving backwards in a fairly confined space while trying to keep her in shot while she was walking briskly away, with one of the protesters who was filming on his phone in my way.”

It was certainly an unpleasant incident but perhaps one that became rather exaggerated. She was never in any real danger and although the questioning was certainly loud and aggresive she responded to it in a similarly forceful manner. Something that might be described by that old cliché as the “rough and tumble of politics”. I was rather surprised that she had not earlier simply asked one of the many police standing around for assistance or that none of them had seen and heard as I had and come to help.

I rushed away to file my pictures, and while one or two of these were fairly widely used I was never contacted about what happened despite being the only real witness to the event.

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

MP Threatened Over Brexit

Anna Soubry MP harassed by extremists

On December 19th 2018, tempers were still running high over Brexit, and I had been photographing extreme Brexiteers shouting at and threatening Steven Bray and other pro-Europeans as they continued their daily vigil outside parliament.

The protests across lunchtime seemed to be drawing to a close when I noticed the small group of extremists interviewing a bizarrely-dressed blogger outside the public entrance to the Houses of Parliament and went across to take some pictures.

Then they saw Anna Soubry, then the Conservative MP for Broxtowe, on the west edge of Nottingham and a vocal pro-European walking past and confronted her. She stopped to talk and argue with them, and they angrily shouted at her. She called to a police officer nearby for support, but he simply told the protesters to stop and ignored them when they failed to do so. Eventually after a minute or so she managed to turn away and walk past more police into Parliament, and officers then prevented the Brexiteers from following her.

I filed the pictures rather more rapidly than usual to meet deadlines as I realised that I was the only photographer present (though at least one of the extremists was filming the confrontation) and was pleased to see a few of them in the papers later. Though had I been with a more active agency I would have made much more from the set.

Extremist Brexiteers at parliament

Here are a couple of the pictures from a few minutes earlier outside the gates of Parliament.

Police were holding them back as they tried to stop cars leaving through the gates.

Extreme Brexiteers clash with SODEM

Earlier the group of extremist Brexiteers had been harassing Steven Bray and the supporters of SODEM, (Stand of Defiance European Movement) the group he founded in 2017 and which was holding daily vigils whenever Parliament was in session.

They accused Bray of being a drunk and asked “Who funds Drunk Steve”, a question that was rather redundant as two large banners were covered with logos of a wide range of organisations supporting SODEM’s daily pickets. There was a lot of shouting, threats and aggressive gestures, but no actual violence with police trying with little success to separate the two groups.

I’d photographed both groups on previous occasions, and had given up on going specially to photograph them, but was still taking pictures when I had gone up to cover other events – as on this Wednesday. SODEM were always pleased to be photographed, but their opposition at times objected to my presence.

MP welcomes Delhi to London driver

Another event that happened while I was there was the arrival of The Turban Traveller, a Sikh with a film crew from Creative Concept Films in Delhi who arrived in London today after driving overland from Delhi and was greeted by Virendra Sharma, Labour MP for Ealing Southall.

Cuts kill disabled people say protesters

But I had come to Parliament to photograph disability groups DPAC (Disabled People Against Cuts) and MHRN (Mental Health Resistance Network) who together with WOW campaign were protesting against the cumulative impact of the cuts on the lives of disabled people.

The War on Welfare campaign attracted over 200,000 signatures to its petitions against welfare cuts, and the protest was in support of a debate due later in the day on the cumulative impact of the cuts on the lives of disabled people.

Among those who came to speak with the protesters was Virendra Sharma MP, who had come out to meet the Sikh overland traveller and although showing an interest seemed to be unaware of the problems the cuts had caused the disabled, Laura Pidcock (then MP for North West Durham) and Lib-Dem peer Lord Roberts of Llandudno. Both the latter seemed very concerned about the terrible effect the various cuts falling particularly on the disabled.

Anna Soubry MP harassed by extremists
Extremist Brexiteers at parliament
Extremist Brexiteers clash with SODEM
MP welcomes Delhi to London driver
Cuts kill disabled people say protesters

Parliament Square

While I used to think of Trafalgar Square as being the centre of protests in London, and it still is a place where protests take place, over the years there does seem to have been a shift towards Parliament Square (and the nearby Old Palace Yard), largely I think after the years of vigil there by Brian Haw and supporters. And often when I’m in the area for one or two events I’ll come across others that I’d not known about it advance.

Of course Steve Bray and his SODEM campaigners against Brexit are always around when Parliament is sitting, day in day out – and even during the recent recess they only moved as far as the Cabinet Office. But today was a special day for them, marking the number 50. Not the number of years they have been protesting, but the fiftieth birthday of their founder.

There was so much else going on that I managed to miss the peak of the celebrations, arriving back just as they were finishing. But though I try, you just can’t be everywhere all of the time. I should have asked them when I walked past earlier about their plans, but I was in a hurry to get elsewhere.

And that elsewhere was in front of the gates to Parliament, where Operation Shutdown , a group of families and friends bereaved by knife crimes were calling for urgent action by government over knife crimes. I don’t share their faith that a meeting of the government’s emergency response committee COBRA would do much to help – or that tougher sentences for carrying and using knives and guns would have any real impact on knife crime, but there is clearly a need for action.

Clearly a starting point should be to reverse the government cuts to youth services and family support and to look at programmes to work with young people. London Mayor Sadiq Khan has come in for a great deal of criticism, but has set some reasonable policies in this area, but it really needs a reversal of the harmful policies imposed on local councils by the Coalition and Tory governments. So Operation Shutdown were clearly demonstrating in the right place, and of course their pain and grief is only too clear. Though they were I’m afraid talking to a government with little idea of how most people live and close to zero concern so long as they and their friends are getting richer.

Sometimes I have a problem with cropping. Often there is a tension between making an image visually strong and the text which locates and explains what the picture is about, and perhaps this image is a good example, where I think I have cropped just slightly too tightly. It’s often a good idea to give the reader some slight puzzle, but it’s hard to know if most people on seeing this will actually decipher ‘Stop the Mass Slaughter Of a Generation Now!’ Another inch or two at the left would have helped.

On the Olympus camera which has now become a part of my standard outfit, I work with the camera set on RAW and the aspect ratio as 3:2. But when working with raw images, the camera actually always records the whole sensor, with a roughly 4:3 ratio, which includes a small strip on top and below the 3:2 frame. When editing the pictures I do sometimes find that including some or all of this improves the images. Just a pity that there isn’t any similar leeway at the picture edges!

Just across the street, on the pavement in front of the grassed centre area, there was another protest, by the UK Chapter of the Free Balochistan Movement. It was the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, and they were calling for an end to the large-scale disappearances, arrests and torture of anyone suspected of having links to the Baloch nationalist movement by Pakistan military forces and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

My day which had begun with the mass lobby, hadn’t ended, and I returned just a little too late to SODEM, before going on to photograph two other protests, to which I’ll refer in a later post.

More pictures from these three protests at:

SODEM Steve’s 50th Birthday
Operation Shutdown against Knife Crime
End torture in Balochistan

All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.

There are no adverts on this site and it receives no sponsorship, and I like to keep it that way. But it does take a considerable amount of my time and thought, and if you enjoy reading it, please share on social media.
And small donations via Paypal – perhaps the cost of a beer – would be appreciated.