torture | >Re-PHOTO

London University & Israeli Prisons – 2014

London University & Israeli Prisons: On Friday 28th February 2014 I went with students as they hunted in and around Senate House for a meeting of University of London Vice Chancellors to protest against the attacks on students and the idea of a university as these managers have called in police onto the campus rather than engage with students and staff.

From there I went to a protest outside the London offices of security firm G4S who supply services to Israels notorious prisons where many Palestinians have been tortured and prisoners including many children are kept under inhumane conditions.

Students tell Vice Chancellor to Resign

Senate House

London University & Israeli Prisons - 2014

Students and many academic staff have been appalled by the actions of London University (UoL) managers under Vice Chancellor Professor Sir Adrian Smith who have called in police to subdue student protests, and were calling on him to resign.

This has led to mass arrests, injuries and blood on the streets. The UoL was shutting down its student union, exploiting and intimidating low-paid staff, leading the lobby for a huge fees increase fees and attempting to prevent protests, taking out an injunction against any student occupation of the University.

One student earlier in the week had been convicted of criminal damage for chalking “sick pay, holiday, pensions now” on a foundation stone at a protest in support of low paid staff last July. She was was ordered to pay £200 towards prosecution costs and £810 to cover the cost of repairs to the stone – almost certainly the most expensive wipe with a damp cloth in history. Fortunately a video of her arrest made clear that police were lying when they accused her of assaulting an officer when she was arrested.

The protesters met outside the University of London Union (ULU) and then walked towards Senate House, where security guards locked the gates to the area under the building in front of the entrance.

After a short and noisy protest there, they decided to walk to the pavement outside the south side of Senate House as they thought the meeting would be taking place in one of the rooms there. After another short protest there they walked back to the east side of Senate House where again the gates were locked.

A few students were inside the building and they managed to unlock one of the side doors into the building and I went inside with some of the students.

We wandered around the corridors without finding the Vice Chancellors, although the building was in use for various other meetings and events. Eventually the protesters came to the balconies above the Crush Hall where some other conference delegates were taking lunch and explained to them from above why they were taking action.

Security were standing in front of the Vice Chancellor’s Office, possibly the most likely location for the Vice Chancellors to be meeting. One of the security men assured them it wasn’t there and they did not try to push past.

They went down the the lobby in front of the main entrance and managed to hold the gates open as security officers tried to close them so more of the protesters could come inside, managing to push their way back into the building for another tour. But again they could not find the meeting.

Some students climbed through a window to a balcony at first floor level around the side of the building; I didn’t go with them but made my way out of the building. The main entrance was closed and anyone wanted to leave had to make a long detour through a basement corridor to neighbouring Stewart House.

Students were still walking along the balcony when I arrived at street level outside, and were walking back into the building through an open window that I was told led into one of the Vice Chancellor’s rooms.

It seemed unlikely I would be able to get inside the building to take more pictures and I left to photograph another event.

More about the protest and many more pictures on My London Diary: Students tell Vice Chancellor to Resign.

G4S & Israeli Prison Torture

Victoria St

It was International Israeli Apartheid Week and Inminds Human Rights Group were protesting outside the offices of G4S, the worlds largest security firm, complicit in Israel’s violations of international law and gross human rights abuses, including torture of men, women and children.

One of their banners gave details of the tiny cells in which child prisoners are held, about 2 metres by 1 metre, with a just a mattress and behind a low concrete wall a hole in the ground toilet. There are no windows, and food is delivered through a flap in the door. The light is kept on 24 hours a day and the walls have sharp protrusions to prevent them being leaned on.

Children as young as 12 have been kept in solitary confinement in these cells for up to 65 days, being taken out only to be interrogated while shackled hand and foot for up to 6 hours at a time. Some complain of having been sexually assaulted.

This mistreatment is continued until they confess to such crimes of throwing stones at Israeli army vehicles – for which they can be sentenced to 20 years in jail.

Placards showed the five Hares boys, and leaflets were handed out telling their story. After Israelis from an illegal settlement complained that stones had been thrown at them when they stopped their car to change a tyre, 50 children from Hares were arrested by Israeli soldiers with attack dogs, and 19 of them taken to the G4S secured children’s dungeons at Al Jalame, locked in solitary for up to 2 weeks.

There they were violently tortured and threats made against female members of their families to force confessions from them. Five of the boys were then each charged with 25 counts of attempted murder, despite the occupants of the car being unharmed. At the time of the protest their trial by military court had been postponed month by month, probably because of a lack of any evidence.

In January 2016 the five Hares boys were each sentenced to 15 years in prison following a plea deal “that involved ‘fines’ of NIS 30,000 (appr. €7,100 or $7,750) per boy to be paid to the settler driver as ‘compensation’” Otherwise they would have received longer sentences despite the only evidence against them being their ‘confessions’ extracted under extreme torture.

More at G4S & Israeli Prison Torture.

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Global Divestment, Guantanamo & Venus – 2015

Global Divestment, Guantanamo & Venus: Saturday 14th February 2015 was Global Divestment Day, designed by the UN to “to draw attention to the importance of divesting from fossil fuels, which are the main cause of global warming.” But of course it was also St Valentine’s Day, and two events reflected this.

‘Bad Boy Borises’ in Global Divestment Day

London City Hall

Global Divestment, Guantanamo & Venus - 2015 — *One of the Boris bloc at the rally in front of City Hall and Tower Bridge*

The protest at London City Hall, then at More London close to Tower Bridge, called on the Mayor and London Assembly to end their pension fund investments in climate wrecking fossil fuels and lead a fossil-free London.

The event began with a nightmare vision as multiple Mayor Borises arrived, revelling in dirty fuel. They were greeted by a choir singing songs specially written for the occasion and fed with some disgusting looking things supposed to be dirty fuel.

After several speeches the protesters split up around 3 metre tall letters which they eventually lifted up to spell out the word ‘DIVEST’.

They called for an end to investment in fossil fuels which are causing catastrophic climate change.

Two dressed as bishops called on the Church of England to get its act together and take its investments out of fossil fuels. Many churches have already divested, and campaigners were pressing others including the Church of England to do so.

More pictures at ‘BadBoy Borises’ in Global Divestment Day.

Valentine Day – 13 years for Shaker Aamer

Westminster

*A person in an Obama mask has a message for the President, ‘Free Shaker – Yes YOU Can’*

A march from Parliament Square to a rally opposite Downing Street called for the urgent release of London resident Shaker Aamer from Guantanamo, where he arrived has been held and regularly abused for 13 years without charge or trial.

Aamer had been in Afghanistan helping to build a school for an Islamic charity when he was captured by an Afghan militia and sold to US forces for a £5,000 reward. After the US and tortured him, aided by MI5, in Bagram Air Base they illegally rendered him to Guantanamo, on Feb 14, 2002.

*Joy Hurcome holds a Valentine for David Cameron asking him to ‘Show your Love – Free Shaker Aamer’*

There his torture continued – and he was lucky to escape death in 2006 when he was one of four prisoners taken to a special secret interrogation site – and the only one to survive the ordeal.

*Bruce Kent – and a large inflatable Shaker Aamer*

Aamer has permanent resident status in the UK and his British wife and family were living in Battersea, but it was not until 2007 that the UK government began to request his release. And despite doing so, the government also spent over a quarter of a million pounds in legal fees to prevent his legal team gaining access to evidence which might prove his innocence.

The years of torture of him and others at the hands of the US military have failed to come up with any evidence against him, and he was twice cleared for release in 2007 and 2009 – but only if he went to his native Saudi Arabia where he would almost certainly disappear without trace. Both UK and US intelligence agencies are thought to have prevented his release to the UK as the evidence he would give about their use of torture would be highly embarrassing.

*Aisha Maniar, London Guantánamo Campaign organiser*

The protest was the start of a new ‘We Stand With Shaker’ campaign bringing together groups including the Free Shaker Aamer Campaign, the London Guantánamo Campaign, Amnesty International and others. Among the long list of speakers at the rally were Joy Hurcombe of the Free Shaker Aamer Campaign, writer Victoria Brittain, Lindsey German of Stop the War, veteran peace campaigner Bruce Kent of CND, Katie Taylor from Reprieve, Yvonne Ridley, Aisha Maniar from the London Guantánamo Campaign, campaigner Andy Worthington and Joanne MacInnes of We Stand With Shaker.

More at Valentine Day – 13 years for Shaker Aamer.

Venus CuMara Reclaim Love 13 at Eros

Piccadilly Circus

*People in the Reclaim Love Meditation Circle in Piccadilly Circys lift up their arms and chant the mantra*

Venus CuMara’s 13th Reclaim Love Valentine Party at Eros in Piccadilly Circus included bands, dancing and a “Massive Healing Reclaim Love Meditation Circle beaming Love and Happiness and our Vision for world peace out into the cosmos“.

As usual there was a great atmosphere as people came together to share in love and party together in opposition the the huge commercialisation of Valentine’s Day and indeed of love itself. It is nothing to do with money, just about people.

Venus speaks to everyone and tells them to form the Massive Healing Reclaim Love Meditation Circle…

beaming Love and Happiness and our Vision for world peace out into the cosmos and together they chant the mantra: “May All The Beings In All The Worlds Be Happy & At Peace“

After which the music and dancing continued, along with hugging and other activities, and was still continuing when I left for home.

More pictures at Venus CuMara Reclaim Love 13 at Eros.

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Close Guantanamo 5th Anniversary Demonstration – 2007

Close Guantanamo 5th Anniversary Demonstration: A protest on Thursday 11th January 2007 outside the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square marked the 5th anniversary of the setting up of the illegal US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay where almost entirely innocent prisoners were held and tortured without trial for many years. Over the years around 780 men were brought to the prison and by 2025 almost all had been released without charge. Around nine have died there, most alleged to have committed suicide, but 15 are thought to still be held there at the end of 2025, largely because there is no country to which they can safely be released.

Every year from 2006 to 2019 I photographed protests against the camp, particularly on 11th January, but also on other occasions through the year, particularly covering the long-term campaigns for the release of those British prisoners held there. Protests here became less regular after the release of Shaker Aamer, the last British resident to be held there on 30 October 2015.

*The flag was flying but American Embassy staff kept hidden away from windows throughout the event*

The protest I photographed on 11th January 2007 was the first I knew about on the actual anniversary of the establishment of the camp, and the pictures here and the text below are from that. Then we naively thought that the USA could sink no further, but current events are proving how wrong we were. As usual I’ve made some minor corrections to the text including restoring normal capitalisation and I’ll give a link to the original post were you can find more pictures

Close guantanamo 5th anniversary demonstration

Amnesty International: US Embassy, London. Thur 11 Jan, 2007

*American guard’, ‘Prisoners’, Police and Embassy.*

*Amani Daghayes, sister of Guantamo captive Oscar Deghayes, a British resident*

Orange seems to be a colour fatally linked to America’s disgrace in the modern world through human rights and related abuses. Agent Orange spread dioxin-related birth defects over the vast tracts of south-east Asia it was used to defoliate, and orange boiler-suits have become the symbol of the fatal American own goal in the fight for freedom, the illegal prison camp at Guantanamo Bay.

Amnesty International marked the fifth anniversary of this blot on the free world with a world-wide series of protests, in New York, Tokyo, Rome, Madrid, Tunis, Tel Aviv and London. I entered Grosvenor Square to see a long line of around three hundred people in orange boiler-suits spreading a quarter of the way around the large square. They were soon formed into groups and marched by those dressed as camp guards into a small pen in the road directly in front of the US Embassy.

In a re-creation of the Guantanamo Bay camp more or less on the embassy doorstep, the ‘guards’ patrolled, issuing arbitrary orders and generally abusing the prisoners, subjecting them to the infamous kneeling ‘submission posture’ with the occasional incident of casual ‘violence’ thrown in for greater authenticity. The hour-long vigil there ended with a display of defiance as the ‘prisoners’ joined together in clapping.

Other amnesty supporters held placards and banners calling for an end to the travesty of justice at Guantanamo Bay and other illegal detention centres and the illegal rendition of prisoners. They called for the release of all those held illegally, and in particular the British residents still in Guantanamo. These included Omar Deghayes, whose sister Amani Deghayes was present at the demonstrations. The lack of any effort by the UK government to press for the release of these British residents is a continuing and senseless disgrace.

*Detainees’ clap at end of demonstration.*

This was a high-profile media event, although I didn’t hear it mentioned on the BBC radio news later in the day, press and TV from London and abroad were covering it. Unlike some earlier events I’ve covered at the same location, the policing was a model of good practice, allowing the press to get on with the job, and proportionate to what was happening.

More pictures on My London Diary.

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12 Days of Christmas – November

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

London, UK. 26 Nov 2025. Unite Community hold a Budget Day protest in Parliament Square as a part of a national day of action to protest against the ongoing cuts and sanctions to people’s benefits. They say sanctions which penalise people already struggling to feed, pay rent and heat homes, particularly the disabled, are now at record levels under this Labour government and are driving working people, disabled people, and children further into poverty. Peter Marshall

London, UK, 26 Nov 2025. Anti-Brexit campaigners including Steve Bray protested at the crossroad leading into Parliament Square with loud music and EU flags, as well as a Brexit elephant. They reminded people of the huge financial impact of Brexit on us all and the failure of any of the promised benefits to materialise – except for some of the super-rich and called for Britain to rejoin Europe. Peter Marshall

London, UK. 29 Nov 2025. Blind wheelchair user Mike Higgins wants to be arrested again. Over two hundred people sat in silence holding placards “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action” outside the Royal Courts of Justice on the opening day of the Judicial Review of the ban on the organisation. They waited patiently for police to arrest them under the Terrorism Act. Many feel the ban is an abuse of law and are concerned at the attempt to scupper the review by appointing judgesfor the case with a clear conflict of interest. Police were slowly arresting people and carrying them away to waiting vans when I left. Peter Marshall.

London, UK. 29 Nov 2025. Charlie X – Only Obeying Orders.Over two hundred people sat in silence holding placards “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action” outside the Royal Courts of Justice on the opening day of the Judicial Review of the ban on the organisation. They waited patiently for police to arrest them under the Terrorism Act. Many feel the ban is an abuse of law and are concerned at the attempt to scupper the review by appointing judgesfor the case with a clear conflict of interest. Police were slowly arresting people and carrying them away to waiting vans when I left. Peter Marshall

November turned out to have been a slighly confusing month for me and I managed to date some of my captions wrongly – thanks to careless “copy and paste”. I think the actual album dates for the Facebook albums are all correct.

Finally the 12 day of Christmas tomorrow – pictures from December 2025.

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End Slave Auctions in Libya – 2017

End Slave Auctions in Libya: On Sunday 26th November 2017 a large protest outside the Libyan Embassy in Knightsbridge called for an end to the slave auctions of Black African migrants in Libya.

The protest came following a number of reports earlier in the year showing migrants being sold as slaves in Libya. The situation had worsened since the EU clampdown on migration across the Mediterranean, working with the Libyan authorities to intercept and tow migrant boats back to be detained in Libya.

This clampdown had resulted in around 20,000 people, mainly from the Afgrican continent being detained in inhumane conditions in Libya, where many were being held with ransom demands being made from their families and others sold into slavery.

As Wikipedia notes, Libya has a history of slavery dating back into antiquity with slaves from across the Sahara being sold there along with Berbers (the pre-Arab residents of the area), Jews and Europeans captured in Barbary slaving raids around the Mediterranean and as far north as Ireland, Scotland and even Iceland.

The slave trade was made illegal by a decree in Tripoli in 1857, but this had little practical effect for many years and it was only under Italian rule in the 1930s that it was largely brought to an end.

As I wrote in 2017, “Many at the protest saw the situation in Libya as part of a continuing neo-colonialist attempt to control Africa’s natural resources which results in the instability and mass migration from African countries, and that the current Libyan regime are western puppets installed though Western intervention to replace the genuinely nationalist Gaddafi regime and are engaged in a process of de-Africanisation and elimination of Black Libyans, of which slave auctions are a logical extension.”

*Glenroy Watson of the Global African Congress and RMT*

As Wikipedia points out, since Gaddafi was brought down in 2011, Libya “has been plagued by disorder, leaving migrants with little cash and no papers vulnerable.“

Slaves in the past were kidnapped by raiders, but now they pay people smugglers to be brought to Libya, lured by the promise of being taken to a new life in Europe, but once in Libya are detained by the smugglers and local militias and subjected to torture, forced labour and sexual violence.

If ransoms are not paid they may be left to starve to death in detention. State security forces are also responsible for similar crimes against humanity for those returned from boats setting out across the Mediterranean, and the EU contributes by giving support to these forces.

Although the fate of migrants has seldom featured in our news media since 2017, little if anything has changed, as the 2025 report, The Scandal of a Slave Market in Libya from the Human Rights Research Center makes clear.

Sukant Chandan, a coordinator at the Malcolm X Movement, speaks from his experience in working with the opposition forces in Libya, and says how those currently in power in Libya have long carried out a policy of getting rid of Black Africans. He calls them a puppet government put into power to protest Western interests in Libya’s mineral wealth.

The area outside the Libyan Embassy soon became very crowded, with people lining the pavement for some distance in each direction and some spilling out onto the busy road. When I had to leave after approaching an hour and a half there were people still arriving and it took me several minutes to make my way through the crowd. I took a final picture of a woman holding a large poster on the edge of the protest on my way to Hyde Park Corner.

On My London Diary you can see more pictures, including some of the other speakers at the event.

End Slave Auctions in Libya

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Sudan & Hong Kong Protests – 8 Nov 2025

Sudan & Hong Kong Protests: Last Saturday, 8th November 2025 I photographed a London rally and march against the horrific killings in Sudan before going to the Chinese Embassy where people were protesting for freedom of expression in Hong Kong, where three pro-democracy advocates were to go on trial this Tuesday for “subversion”.

End the UK-Complicit Genocide in Sudan

Gloucester Road Station

Sudan has been a divided country more or less since it gained independence in 1956, suffering a long civil war which eventually led to independence for South Sudan in 2011 and a brutal 30 year military dictatorship under Omar al-Bashir which included an ethnic genocide in Darfur from 2003 -2020. Al-Bashir was finally ousted by a coup early in 2019 following huge protests. Since 2023 the country has been devastated by a civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The war is partly one over resources and access to the Red Sea, but also has a strong ethnic dimension with the RSF being “violently Arab supremacist or ethno-fascist“. They are backed financially by the United Arab Emirates who also supply them with arms. In return the RSF has taken control of Sudanese gold mines and illegally smuggles gold to Dubai.

The RSF also control the major gum arabic producing areas of the country. Sudan’s acacia trees produce around 80% of the world total of this vital ingredient used in many consumer products from Coca-cola to lipsticks and pet food. The RSF smuggles this out to be sold on world markets.

The war between the RSF and the SAF has resulted in more than 200,000 people being killed, mainly civilians with huge numbers – perhaps 14 million -being displaced and according to the UN, “2025 will see 30.4 million people in Sudan in need of humanitarian aid due to the military conflict in the country.“

Both the RSF and the SAF are reported as carrying out war crimes. The ‘London for Sudan’ leaflet states:

“The RSF are burning villages to the ground, recruiting child soldiers, poisoning water supplies, attacking hospitals & targetting journalists.

“The SAF are carpet bombing indiscriminately, wiping out markets and other vital infrastructure in their bid for control over the region.”

In the continuing El-Fasher massacre by the RSF, “an estimated 2,500 or more civilians have been executed or murdered since 26 October 2025.” though some analysts believe the actual numbers are in the tens of thousands. The RSF are known to use rape as a weapon and have have committed executions, torture, mass displacement and deliberate starvation, armed by weapons sold by the UK to the UAE. In May Sudan took the UAE to the International Court of Justice for complicity in genocide.

The protesters pointed out the British complicity in supporting the RSF by selling arms to the UAE which are then smuggled to the RSF. They demanded that the UK government designate the RSF a terrorist organisation and called on them to impose sanctions on the UAE for their support as well as ending arms sales to them.

After a short rally with several speeches and a moving poem in English by a Sudanese woman poet the march set off along the Cromwell Road heading for a final rally. I left them at South Kensington to go to a protest at the Chinese Embassy.

More pictures in the Facebook album End the UK-Complicit Genocide in Sudan

Free the Hong Kong Alliance Three

Chinese Embassy, Portland Place

Trade unionists protested outside the Chinese Embassy in solidarity with the three Hong Kong pro-democracy leaders charged with inciting subversion under Beijing’s National Security Law for organising protests and vigils whose trial begins on 11 Nov.

They called for Lee Cheuk-yan, Chow Hang-tung, Albert Ho and all political prisoners to be released.

One man who continually tried to disrupt the event by shouting pro-China comments through a megaphone was finally pushed away across the road. Police argued with him and he was later arrested when he refused to obey police requests to stop.

More pictures in the Facebook Album Free the Hong Kong Alliance Three

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Global Human Rights Torch Relay – 2007

Global Human Rights Torch Relay: Thursday 25th October 2007 I photographed this rally in Trafalgar Square and the torchlit march which followed to a protest at the Chinese Embassy.

The 2008 Summer Olympics was to be held in Beijing, China from 8th to 24th August 2008 and the official Summer Olympics Torch Relay – which had been a feature of the Olympics since the 1936 Berlin games – was announced in April 2007, though it was to take place from March 24 until August 8, 2008. This travelled the world in a very roundabout 129-day route from Athens to Beijing and was met with protests in many cities including San Francisco, London and Paris.

The Coalition to Investigate Persecution of the Falun Gong in China (CIPFG) organised a series of torch relays in cities around the world beginning in April 2007 to raise awareness about human rights violations, particularly in China and countries surrounding area and in particular the persecution of crimes including torture and the harvesting of human organs of Falun Gong practitioners.

The policing of the event and the intervention of Westminster Council officials showed that there was huge political pressure in London against protests against China and against the Olympics as London was preparing for the 2012 Olympics here. We saw it again when the official torch relay came to London in April 2008.

Here I’ll post – with minor corrections – my account of the event from 2007 with a few of the pictures – many more on My London Diary.

Global Human Rights Torch Relay – 2007

Trafalgar Square to Chinese Embassy

Thursday was a miserable day, with persistent drizzle or light rain, and Trafalgar Square was clogged up with some computer games fair, so that there was little space left for the Global Human Rights Torch Relay on the North Terrace. Organised by the ‘Coalition To Investigate The Persecution Of The Falun Gong‘ this also highlighted other human rights abuses in China, as well as some in countries within the Chinese sphere of influence, notably Burma (Myanmar.)

This relay had started in Athens in August, with events in several European countries, and it is going on to Australia and North and South America before ending in Asia next year.

The relay points out that the these human rights abuses are at odds with the ideals of the Olympic Movement and calls for the Beijing Games to be moved to one of the previous Olympic venues unless there are dramatic improvements in human rights in China. Among the speakers were a couple of Lords and several ex-Olympic competitors.

Westminster Council officials arrived after an hour or so and tried to stop the event, which thanks to the gaming festival, was indeed blocking the pavement. They made the protestors form a narrow line against the back wall. Then they and the police ruled out the use of the sound system, declaring it was a hazard in the wet conditions. Speakers had to make use of a battery operated megaphone.

Despite this harassment, the protest continued, with a ‘Greek Goddess’ bringing the flame to light the torches of figures representing England, Scotland , Wales and Ireland, and perhaps a couple of hundred marched through the West End to the Chinese Embassy for a candle-lit protest.

Here photographers met with deliberate antagonism from the police. Officers are standing in a line around 2 metres into the road in front of the protest. The area between the police and the demonstration is completely clear, absolutely safe, and it is where we need to be to take pictures or film the protest. Much to our disgust, we are ordered out when we attempt to get on with our work.

Many more pictures on My London Diary at global human rights torch relay.

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Uganda, Green Belt, Olympic Site – 2008

Uganda, Green Belt, Olympic Site: Thursday 9th October 2008 was Uganda Independence Day and I began work at a protest at the Ugandan Embassy in Trafalgar Square against the persecution of gays in that country. In Parliament Square I met protesters who had come from Dorset to bring a petition against a proposed new town on Green Belt land on the outskirts of Bournemouth and Poole. Then as I had a few hours before a meeting it was an opportunity to take another walk to see what I could by then of the fenced off Olympic site.

Demonstration Against Ugandan Human Rights Abuse

Ugandan Embassy, Trafalgar Square

*Peter Tatchell of Outrage! and Davis Makyala of Changing Attitudes in the demo outside Uganda House*

As I wrote in 2008, “October 9 is Uganda Independence Day, but for gay Ugandans in particular there is little to celebrate… “Homosexuality is illegal in Uganda and the penalty can be imprisonment for life, and gay rights campaigners have been imprisoned and subjected to torture. The Ugandan Anglican church is a leading force in anti-gay campaigns.”

The Ugandan government intimidates and tortures gay people and excludes them from healthcare. British arms exports have been used against protests there, killing at least three demonstrators by 2008.

*Kizza Musinguzi who was jailed and tortured in Uganda receives the 2008 Sappho in Paradise book prize*

Ugandans fleeing the country because of persecution and seeking asylum in the UK were among those forcibly sent back to the country without proper consideration of their cases under our “fast-track” process which was later declared unlawful.

*Emma Ginn of https://medicaljustice.org.uk/ Medical Justice*

The LGBTQ rights situation in Uganda is now even worse following the passage of ‘the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023, which prescribes up to twenty years in prison for “promotion of homosexuality”, life imprisonment for “homosexual acts”, and the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality“.’

More on My London Diary at Ugandan Human Rights Abuse.

Green Belt Protest Rally

Westminster

People from villages on the outskirts of Bournemouth and Poole had come to protest against the proposed Lychett New Town on Green Belt land in Dorset.

Apparently Hazel Blears, Secretary of State, had told Dorset County Council it must build a New Town at Lytchett Minster with over 7,250 houses in the Green Belt around Poole & Bournemouth, and local residents had set up a campaign about it.

Octavia Hill had first proposed the idea of green belts in 1875 but it was the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act which allowed local authorities to set them up and they were further encouraged to do so by Tory Housing Minister Duncan Sandys in 1955. The idea was to put an end to the unplanned sprawl of ribbon development along major roads leading out from all our cities and provide areas for local food growing, forestry and outdoor leisure.

As I commented, “it has made a valuable contribution to improving the quality of life in our towns and villages and to conserving the countryside.” But as I also wrote, “Many of us feel that the whole of the current planning structure works against sensible and ecological development, but the answer to this is not to relax planning controls but to bring in improved – and in some respects tighter – controls.”

Unfortunately the changes announced by Labour in 2024 which include some Green Belt being re-classified as ‘Grey Belt’ seem largely intended to make things easier and more profitable for developers.

Consultations took place in 2025 over proposals for Lytchett Minster & Upton in the Dorset local plan which lists opportunity sites for over 5000 new homes – and a new petition was set up opposing them.

Green Belt Protest Rally

Stratford Marsh (Olympic Site) & Hackney Wick

*Looking towards the main stadium in left half of picture, along what was once Marshgate Lane.*

“It has always been an interesting walk through Stratford marsh on top of the Northern Outfall sewer, although rather more so in the past when there were so many places one could leave it to explore further rather than coming up against the big blue fence.”

*Bridge over City Mill River from the Greenway*

I commented back then of my annoyance at the statements made by the Olympic authorities that after the Olympics they would be opening up the previously inaccessible area to the public. In fact they were destroying the area where it had always been interesting to wander along the various largely riverside footpaths – many of which had been cleared to make them easier to walk in the 1990s.

*Work by Hackney Wick’s most prolific artist*

You can see many pictures that I took in the area on my Lea Valley website And as a replacement we now have a park which seems rather arid. Perhaps by 2112 it might look better.

In 2008 most of the Olympic area was fenced off, but I enjoyed the walk along the ‘Greenway’ on top of the Northern Outfall Sewer to Hackney Wick where I dound much to interest me and “taking the train back from Hackney Wick to Stratford there were many signs of fairly frenzied activity visible.”

*Wanted – Laura Norder – $5oo Reward – advertising an art fair at Decima Gallery in Hackney Wick*

Many more pictures, particularly around Hackney Wick at Stratford Marsh (Olympic Site) & Hackney Wick.

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Frack Off, Animal Exports & Hands Off Queers! – 2013

Frack Off, Animal Exports & Hands Off Queers! On Saturday 10th August 2013 I went to Trafalgar Square for a small anti-fracking protest, took a few more pictures there and met a march from Covent Garden against live animal exports which ended with photographs on the Trafalgar Square steps. Then I made a short walk down Whitehall to photograph a protest against the homophobic policies of President Putin.

Frack Off – Trafalgar Square

Frack Off, Animal Exports & Hands Off Queers! - 2013

Protests were continuing at Balcombe, a small village in West Sussex, against test drilling and possible fracking for oil there by Cuadrilla, and a small group had come to Trafalgar Square to support their protests.

I took a few pictures and then wandered around the square a bit and missed them when they left to protest at Downing Street. Although a fracking ban later ended Cuadrilla’s attempts, Balcombe is still under threat from drilling for oil by another company, and legal battles continue.

Frack Off

Also in Trafalgar Square

I took a few pictures as I walked around Trafalgar Square, some including the blue cockerel then standing on the fourth plinth. It was hard to imagine why “Hahn/Cock” by German artist Katharina Fritsch had been selected other than to provide material for jokes, including many about us not needing another massive cock in London as we already had our then Mayor.

Trafalgar Square seems now more often to be used for religious events than political protest, and one of these was just starting, with a white-clad gosspel choir. But as I commented, “Nice hats, but some seem to have taken singing lessons from Florence Foster Jenkins” and I hope they got better after they had warmed up.

Also in Trafalgar Square

Against Live Animal Exports

I was hanging around in Trafalgar Square waiting for a march by Compassion in World Farming against the live export of farm animals. I knew it was starting from Covent Garden but stupidly I hadn’t bothered to find out its route so I could meet it on the way.

Live exports take place under the 1847 UK Harbours, Docks and Piers Clauses Act 1847 which prevents public ports in Britain from refusing to export live animals as a part of the “free trade” in goods.

But EU law has recognised animals as sentient beings rather than “goods” since 1999, and different rules and regulations should apply to them.

In 2012, over 47,000 young sheep and calves were crowded into lorries for long journeys from as far afield as Wales and Lincolnshire across the channel to France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. The journeys inflict great suffering on the animals concerned with animals having no access to water and with temperatures inside the are often 30 degrees or more, and they are sometimes confined for 80 hours or more.

In 2012, 45 sheep died in a lorry at Ramsgate that had previously been declared several times unfit for use.

The marchers defied attempts by the Heritage Wardens to stop them posing on the wide steps in Trafalgar Square for photographs at the end of the march.

Many more pictures at Against Live Animal Exports.

Putin, ‘Hands Off Queers!’ – Downing St

Protesters had come to protest opposite Downing Street against Russian president Putin’s homophobic policies.

They called on the UK government to urge Russia to respect gay rights and for an end to the torture of gay teens in Russia.

*Peter Tatchell with his poster ‘Vladimir Putin Czar of homophobia’*

The protesters called for a boycott of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, the release of Pussy Riot and for freedom of speech in Russia.

*Street theatre called for the release of Pussy Riot*

Many more pictures on My London Diary at Putin, ‘Hands Off Queers!’

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Knife Crime & Sikh Genocide – 2018

Knife Crime & Sikh Genocide: On Saturday 3rd Jun 2018 Anti-Knife UK protested opposite Downing Street calling on Prime Minister Theresa May to take action against knife crime in the UK. From there I went to Hyde Park where several thousand Sikhs were meeting to march through London to Trafalgar Square in memory of the 1984 Indian Army attack on the Golden Temple in Amritsar and the mob killings of Sikhs later in the year encouraged by the Indian government following the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards.

Anti-Knife UK protest – Downing St

Anti-Knife UK had been founded by Danny O’Brien in 2008 to monitor knife crime incidents from across the UK on a daily basis and to campaign for legislation and other actions to reduce them. He announced at the protest that he was stepping down from active leadership because of the strains it had put on his mental health leaving the campaign to be carried forward by others.

Anti-Knife UK had organised this protest by community groups and campaigners from various groups across the country to urge Theresa May to take action against this growing problem. Many at the protest were family and friends of those, mainly young men, who had been killed in knife crimes and wore t-shirts with pictures of the victims.

As well as placards and banners some had brought pairs of empty shoes to remember those killed.

Speakers at the rally called for government support for measures to tackle the problem including tougher sentences, tagging of all knives, knife arches in night clubs, equal rights for victims and families, and a review of the laws governing self-defence and reasonable force as well as more work in schools and communities.

More pictures at Anti-Knife UK protest.

Sikhs remember the 1984 genocide

Several thousands of Sikhs sat in front of a stage on a lorry in Hyde Park for a rally addressed by a succession of Sikh leaders calling for and end to the persecution of Sikhs in the Punjab and for freedom in an independent Sikh state of Khalistan. Sikhs got a raw deal at partition in 1947 and promises made to them at the time were never kept.

They remembered the thousands of Sikhs killed in the 1984 Indian Army attack on the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Operation Blue Star, and more murdered later that year after the assassination of Indira Gandhi when the Indian government encouraged mob killings of Sikhs, crimes for which none have been brought to justice.

Since the 1984 Sikh genocide there has been a continuing program of police arrests, torture and killing of Sikh males in the Punjab and crippling economic and social policies. Many Sikhs demand independence from India and a Sikh state of Khalistan.

The militant Sikh group Babbar Khalsa calling for independence had been formed a few years before 1984 and had been active for some years in the Punjab before they gained international notoriety by planting a bomb in an Air India flight to Canada which killed 329 people in 1985. Some at least of the continuing activities of this group are thought to be financed by Pakistan.

Babbar Khalsa are a proscribed group in the UK and in some earlier years I photographed this event some people were arrested for allegedly promoting this organisation. This year I saw none of this, but Babbar is an Indian family name.

*Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was killed in ‘Operation Blue Star’*

Some did carry placards showing Kulwant Singh Babbar, one of the first members and founders of Babbar Khalsa and a supporter of Khalistan movement, killed by Indian army snipers in Operation Blue Star in 1984.

This was a peaceful protest and I was made to feel welcome as I took pictures – and enjoyed some of the free food being handed out to all at the event before the march.

The start of the march was led by groups from Birmingham and when they reached Marble Arch they were unsure which way to proceed. They decided to go back into Hyde Park and get the police to tell them which way to go, and were led back through a gate a short distance down Park Lane and led across to continue,

I left them at Hyde Park Corner on their way down Piccadilly towards a rally in Trafalgar Square.

More pictures on My London Diary at Sikhs remember the 1984 genocide.

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