Carnaval, Right To Protest & Tobin – 2005

Carnaval, Right To Protest & Tobin: On Sunday 7th August 2005 I began by photographing London’s Latin Americans getting ready for the Carnaval Del Pueblo procession, then went to Parliament Square for an illegal protest against the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 which had come into force on August 1st and among other things restricted the right to demonstrate within a large area around parliament without prior written notice to the police. Finally another illegal protest on Westminster Bridge expressed support for the Tobin Tax, a low rate of tax on currency conversions with the aim of discouraging short-term currency speculation and so stabilising currency markets. Here is what I wrote about the day in 2005 with some pictures and links to more on My London Diary


Carnaval del Pueblo – Southwark

Carnaval, Right To Protest & Tobin - 2005

Sunday I started off photographing London’s Latin American communities getting ready for the start of their annual Carnaval Del Pueblo procession. This year it was starting from Potters Fields near the GLA headquarters, on an empty site awaiting development, rather than from a street, and this made photography a little more difficult.

Carnaval, Right To Protest & Tobin - 2005

It was good to see so many groups taking part, although I found it very difficult to sort out the different nations, and found myself unable to recognise most of their national flags.

Carnaval, Right To Protest & Tobin - 2005

This procession, making it’s way to Burgess Park where there is a Latin-American Festival, is one of London’s most colourful events, with some costumes to rival those seen at the much larger annual Notting Hill event at the end of the month.

Carnaval, Right To Protest & Tobin - 2005

I was sorry not to be anle to go on to the festival, especially since there was to be a short period of silence to mark the tragic shooting by police of the innocent Brazilian electrician, Jean Charles de Menezes, on a tube train at Stockwell Station the day following the second round of bombings in London.

I followed the procession up to London Bridge Station where I needed to get on a train to get to Westminster.

More pictures


The Right to Protest – Parliament Square

Police arrest a demonstrator in Parliament Square, London. The crime? Holding a protest banner. Welcome to Britain, the police state (not that I think the police particularly welcome it.).

Britain once had a deserved reputation as a haven for free speech and the rights of the citizen. A number of acts by our New Labour government have seriously curtailed these freedoms – including introducing a number of measures that they had opposed before they came to power.

Some of these measures have just been a part of the general trend to central control begun under Thatcher, but others have been brought on by the threat of terrorism and even more by the growth of opposition to government policies, and in particular to the war on Iran.

Formerly a life-long supporter of the party it saddens me, and angers me. One of the signs that Brian Haw holds in a picture is a quotation from a speech by Condoleeza Rice in January 2005, when she said “if a person cannot walk into the middle of the town square and express his or her views without fear of arrest, imprisonment, or physical harm, then that person is living in a fear society, not a free society. We cannot rest until every person living in a ”fear society” has finally won their freedom.”

New restrictions have been brought in that move Britain into that realm of a “fear society”.

This afternoon I saw five people arrested for simply peacefully holding banners supporting the right to protest. It happened on the square opposite our Houses of Parliament, and it made me feel ashamed to be British.

Although the law was passed largely to get rid of Brian Haw, it turns out not to alter his right to be there, as his protest started before the act became law and is thus not covered by it. Rather a lot of egg on government faces there.

[The High Court decision that agreed Haw was not covered by the Act was overturned by the Court of Appeal in an alarming decision in May 2006.]

More pictures


The Westminster Tea Party – Time for Tobin Tax

Holding up tea bags on Westminster Bridge

In 1978, Nobel Prize-winning economist James Tobin proposed a uniform world-wide tax at a very low level – perhaps only 0.2% – on all foreign currency exchange transactions. The aim was to deter speculation on currency movements, thus giving the elected governments greater control over their fiscal and monetary policies, and reducing the power of unelected speculators (who include some of the larger multinational companies) to affect the markets.

Exporters, importers and long-term investors would all benefit from less volatile exchange rates, and the revenue raised by the tax could make a significant contribution both to the revenue of national economies and also for international development projects.

As a small gesture of support for the Tobin Tax, another illegal demonstration took place in Westminster this afternoon, unnoticed by police. A small group of demonstrators, again following an example from Boston – although this time from 1773 – chose tea as a way to symbolise their protest. Each threw a teabag, produced by one of the giant corporations, from the middle of Westminster Bridge into the River Thames below.

A couple more pictures at the bottom of this page on My London Diary.


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London World Naked Bike Ride 2025

London World Naked Bike Ride

Last Saturday I photographed a couple of protests, went to a disappointing photographic exhibition, took a snap of the Red Arrows and found myself with time to spare to go and photograph the 2025 London World Naked Bike Ride at its start and then later on my way to my last protest of the day.

London World Naked Bike Ride 2025
London, UK. 14 June 2025

The first year I photographed this event was in 2006 and I came back to it in almost every year until 2014, then again rather briefly in 2019. Here I’ll post some of what I wrote about it on that first occasion and then my comments on returning to photograph it in 2019, and end with my thoughts about the 2025 ride. All the pictures in this post are from Saturday 14th June 2025.

London World Naked Bike Ride 2025
London, UK. 14 June 2025

Unfortunately Facebook’s “community standards” prevent me from publishing an album of my pictures there, but you can find a selection of images on my Alamy portfolio pages. Though you may have to search or browse a few pages to find them after I upload more work.

2006

People in over 50 cities around the world were taking place in the World Naked Bike Ride as a protest against oil dependency and car culture. In London. over 600 cyclists, along with a few rollerskaters, rollerbladers and others took part.

London World Naked Bike Ride 2025
London, UK. 14 June 2025

As a change, I congratulate the Met police for allowing the event (unlike the Brighton cops.) Police cyclists – looking rather over-dressed in their usual uniform – led the event in its ride around some of the busiest streets in central London, and kept riders safe from traffic. Most of them seemed to be amused by the event.

London World Naked Bike Ride 2025
London, UK. 14 June 2025

So too were the crowds in central London. Many obviously found it hard to believe the evidence of their eyes, but all I saw seemed amused and none offended. Riders handed out a leaflet explaining the purpose of the event and advising “if you don’t wish to see nudity, please avert your gaze – we’ll soon be out of sight,” but I didn’t see anyone following this advice. Indeed it looked like the event should attract even more tourists to the city.

London World Naked Bike Ride 2025
London, UK. 14 June 2025

I don’t have a great problem with nudity. I was brought up told we were created in the image of our maker, so feel it would be blasphemous to object about the display of the naked body, although generally we may find it more prudent to keep it covered, especially in our climate. As my pictures show, not all those taking part rode entirely naked: the invitation was to ride “as bare as you dare!”

London, UK. 14 June 2025

Photographing an event like this could be awkward, but I recognised many of those taking part and they knew me. There were a few conditions, but only one person out of the several hundred made it clear she didn’t want me to take a picture, and of course I didn’t.

London, UK. 14 June 2025

It was an afternoon when it was more comfortable to be without clothes than in them (so long as you had plenty of sun-screen) and it certainly made an interesting spectacle. I had chosen not to ride a bike, and just pretended to be one as I ran up Piccadilly fully dressed with the mass of cyclists. By the time we got to the top of Haymarket I was pretty much whacked, and continued by tube to Waterloo to meet the ride as it came up York Road and get a different viewpoint.

London, UK. 14 June 2025

2019

I’ve never been too impressed by the protest side of this. It’s more a fun ride for people who want to ride around London with no or very few clothes on. For those of us watching on the streets it is certainly unusual and entertaining, and I think very few could be seriously upset by it. The normal response seems to be a lot of pointing and laughing.

London, UK. 14 June 2025

Perhaps if it were more of a protest there would be more women taking part. This year the imbalance seemed even greater than previously, with perhaps 10 or 20 men for every one woman, though I didn’t try to make an accurate count. My pictures do tend to concentrate more on the women than the men for various reasons. To state the obvious, these pictures involve nudity. Please do not click on the link if you may be offended or if you are in a place where others may be offended.

2025

This year there were even fewer women on the ride which now seems to be dominated by male nudists, with some coming from the continent to take part. It has become an event very much more about “body positivity” than a protest about car culture and cycle safety. And it illustrated the huge anatomical variation of male members of our species.

London, UK. 14 June 2025

A mere handful rode with political messages written on their bodies and even fewer with flags or posters on their bikes. There was little of the creative face and body paint and fancy dress which had enlivened earlier years. It’s an event that has lost much of its interest for me and is far more drab than my pictures, which concentrate on the things that still interest me. Perhaps this is an event which has outlived its times.


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Filipino Health Workers, Coal Line, Tax Dodgers, Biafra & National Gallery – 2015

Filipino Health Workers, Coal Line, Tax Dodgers, Biafra & National Gallery: Ten years ago today, Saturday 30th May 2015, I began at the Daily Mail offices in Kensington where Filipino NHS workers were protesting about scandalous insults the rag had made, then went to Peckham to view the proposals for a linear park confusingly named and promoted as the ‘Coal Line’. From there I came back to central London for a UK Uncut banner drop on Westminster Bridge against tax dodgers, a Trafalgar Square protest by Biafrans and finally a rally there by staff on strike at the National Gallery.


Filipino Nurses tell Daily Mail to apologise – Kensington

Filipino health workers came to protest atthe Daily Mail over its reporting of the Victoriano Chua case which insulted Filipino NHS workers as a whole despite the vital contribution they make to the NHS. The demand the Daily Mail apologise for its racist comments and recognise the contribution that they make.

As a patient in intensive care in 2003 I had been very impressed by the care and attention I received from a Filipino nurse, and others when I was on the general ward had all been “competent, committed and caring” – along with those of other nationalities. We should be training more British nurses and improving conditions to keep them working for the NHS, but without staff from abroad at all levels the NHS would have collapsed long ago.

More pictures at Filipino Nurses tell Daily Mail apologise.


Walking the Coal Line – Peckham

The Chelsea Fringe festival began in 2012 as an unofficial fringe, an alternative gardens festival to the annual Chelsea Flower Show and has since become an international event. Anyone can take part so long as “it’s on topic, legal and interesting, it can go in the Fringe, no matter how outlandish or odd it may seem.” It is “unsponsored, unfunded, unbranded and wholly independent, with no medals or judging committees. It relies entirely on volunteer efforts and survives on its registration fees.

Rye Lane – the walk would start here opposite ZA Afro Foods and Peckham Rye Station

The Coal Line project began in 2014 and became a registered charity backed by many local people as well as TfL, Southwark Council, The Peckham Settlement, Sustrans and the Mayor of London for a 900 metre linear park linking Peckham Rye Station on Rye Land with Queens Road Peckham station.

Derek Jarman memorial garden

It seemed a good idea and would provide useful local short cuts for walkers and cyclists as well as a link in longer leisure walks at a relatively low cost. But its advocates over-hyped it tremendously, comparing it to the ‘High Line’ in New York.

Copeland Park

I wrote in 2015:

“More interesting than the Coal Line are both the Bussey Building in the former industrial estate Copeland Park and the multistorey car park. Saved from demolition by a locals, the Bussey Building, reached by an alley between shops in Rye Lane, houses small businesses, artists, faith groups, art spces and a rooftop bar.The multi-storey car park on its upper floors now has a cafe, a local radio performance space and another rooftop bar, next to the Derek Jarman memorial garden, as well as better views than the Bussey across Peckham and to central London.

Cossall Walk

Part of the Coal Line is already open to the public as a small nature reserve, left by the railway line after a scheme for a massive inner-ring road was fortunately abandoned. Its legacy is a hefty wall along part of the edge of the service road by the Cossall Walk line of flats.”

More from along the Coal Line and other parts of Peckham at Walking the Coal Line.


UK Uncut Art Protest – Westminster Bridge

Protesters at Waterloo – Rich get Richer, Poor Get Poor – Osborne and Cameron

UK Uncut supporters marched from Waterloo to Westminster Bridge where they spread a large piece of cloth on the roadway and painted a banner telling Parliament that collecting dodged taxes would bring in more than cutting public services.

Painting the banner on Westminster Bridge
The message on the banner was £12 bn more cuts £120 bn tax dodged – AUSTERITY IS A LIE’.

I had to run to the southern end of the bridge and then rush down the Albert Embankment to photograph the banner hanging from the bridge along with the smoke from flares. It was perhaps the least interesting photograph of the event and it would have been rather better had they put it over the opposite side of the bridge to have the Houses of Parliament as a background.

While this was happening on Westminster Bridge, there was another protest against Tory plans to repeal the Human Rights Act closer to Parliament which I was sorry to have missed, with just a few people still standing on the roadway.

More pictures at UK Uncut Art Protest.


Biafrans demand independence – Trafalgar Square

Biafrans had come to Trafalgar Square on the anniversary of their declaration of independence in 1967 which began a long and bloody civil war in which as well as those killed in fighting many Biafran civilians died of starvation.

Death follows Tony Blair of Britain

Biafrans say that the Igbo Kingdom of Nri lasted from the 10th century until 1911, although it was incorporated into Southern Nigeria by the 1884 Berlin Conference. Britain decided to unite Northern and Southern Nigeria in 1914 as the North was in financial difficulties.

Many at the protest wore t-shirts with Biafran flag and coat of arms and waved Biafran flags, still demanding independence for their country, as well as remembering those who died in the Ngerian-Biafran War.

More pictures at Biafrans demand independence.


Mass rally Supports National Gallery Strikers – Trafalgar Square

Workers at the National Gallery were on strike against plans to privatise staffing at the gallery and were supported at a rally with many trade unionists including speakers and in the body of the square.

They were also demanding the reinstatement of Candy Udwin, a PCS rep at the National Gallery, who had been sacked for her trade union activities over the privatisation. Speakers included PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka and comedian and activist Kate Smurthwaite.

Exhibitions in the Sainsbury wing have already been guarded by privatised staff, and the security there is also run by the private company. At the end of the rally the crowd moved to protest at the Sainsbury Wing. Police stopped them entering the gallery and the doors were locked.

Many more pictures at Mass rally Supports National Gallery strikers.


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Junior Doctors and Student Nurse Bursaries – 2016

Junior Doctors and Student Nurse Bursaries: On Wednesday 6th of April 2016 I photographed a picket and rally against the imposition of new contracts on junior doctors – hospital doctors now renamed to resident doctors to better reflect their status and then a march rally and die-in against the axing of NHS Student Bursaries.

Junior Doctors and Student Nurse Bursaries - 2016

The NHS was under attack from the Conservatives in various ways throughout their time in government from 2010 to 2024 and its hard to find any rational explanation of most of their policies other than a desire to bring in increasing privatisation. A desire perhaps largely driven by MPs financial interests in health companies as well as by the donations they receive.

Junior Doctors and Student Nurse Bursaries - 2016

Although the Labour Government quickly solved some of the outstanding pay issues in the NHS, research reveals that “Starmer’s cabinet received more than £500,000 in donations alone from lobbyists, hedge funds and private equity firms connected to the private healthcare sector since 2023.”

Junior Doctors and Student Nurse Bursaries - 2016

The Good Law Project gives more details on some of these donations to Wes Streeting. They say that “60% of the registered donations accepted by the health secretary come from people and companies linked to private health“, amounting to a total of £311,400 since 2015. Streeting has been one of the most vigorous advocates of private health company involvements in the NHS.


Support for Junior Doctor’s Picket – St Thomas’ Hospital

New contracts being imposed by Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Jeremy Hunt were described as sexist, racist and classist, and as aimed at easing the takeover of the NHS by private healthcare companies which is currently taking place. The doctors say the contract will reduce safety in hospitals, removing safeguards on overwork and unsocial hours. They claim the contract will particularly affect the disabled and women in general, both as workers in the NHS and as users of its services.

Junior Doctors and Student Nurse Bursaries - 2016

There were speeches at a rally next to the picket line at St Thomas’ Hospital and supporters, including Sisters Uncut, trade unionists, students, student nurses, medical professionals and DPAC members had come to support the doctors.

As well as some junior doctors, other speakers included Sara Tomlinson of Lambeth Teachers Association who announced that the NUT would be coordinating its strikes with further actions by the doctors, Danielle Tiplady, an organiser of the ‘Bursary or Bust’ campaign against the government’s intention to axe NHS student bursaries, Paula Peters of DPAC and a speaker for Sisters Uncut.

Support for Junior Doctor’s Picket


Bursary or Bust march to Dept of Health

Danielle Tiplady of Bursary Or Bust leads the march in front of Florence Nightingale over Westminster Bridge

As the picket outside St Thomas’ Hospital was about to come to an end most of those who had taken part in the rally marched the short distance across Westminster Bridge to a rally in Whitehall outside Richmond House, then the headquarters of the Department for Health and Social Security.

The march was led by DPAC and student nurses from the ‘Bursaries or Bust’ campaign included Sisters Uncut, trade unionists, students, medical professionals and DPAC members. They were followed a few minutes later by junior doctors at the end of their picket.

Bursary or Bust march to Dept of Health


Bursary or Bust Die-In & Rally – Dept of Health, Whitehall

It was hard to see the axing of bursaries for student nurses which eventually happened in 2017 as anything more than a direct attack on the NHS, then and now desperately short of nurses. The most recent statistics show 27,000 unfilled nursing positions.

Nurses are required as an integral part of their training to spend long hours working as nurses in hospitals where they are a vital part of the workforce. Along with long hours of study this makes them unable to take the part-time jobs that many students now work.

Axing the bursaries also makes it much for difficult for more mature entrants and those from less affluent backgrounds to train to become nurses and midwives.

Bursary or Bust Die-In & Rally


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Grants Not Debt – 2016

Grants Not Debt Protest Blocks Bridge: The previous week a parliamentary committee had scrapped the means-tested maintenance grants for for students and on Tuesday 19th January 2016 the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC) organised a rally and protest to support that day’s Labour party debate against the action and the government’s flagrant denial of democratic process.

Grants Not Debt

Student maintenance grants to cover living costs were brought in in 1962, nicely in time for me to go to university the following year. Before that students from poorer homes had been reliant on awards by their counties, some more generous than others. UK students then paid no fees for their courses, and though New Labour abolished the grants in 1999 they brought them back in 2006 when they brought in higher course fees.

Grants Not Debt
David Bowie’s lyrics from ‘Changes’: ‘And these children that you spat on As they try to change their worlds Are immune to your consultations, They’re quite aware of what they’re going through’

In his 2015 budget, Tory Chancellor George Osborne had announced the intention to abolish grants and replace them with increased maintenance loans.

Grants Not Debt Clive Lewis
Clive Lewis MP

But the change was only actually brought in by a committee vote under the Education (Student Support) (Amendment) Regulations 2015. The Third Delegated Legislation Committee approved the changes for students beginning their courses in the 2016/17 academic year on Thursday 14 January 2016 by ten votes to eight.

Grants Not Debt

The amount of money students would be eligible to receive would not be changed (it would actually increase by inflation) but it would very nearly double the amount of debt for students from the poorest homes who had qualified for the full grant who would now end a three year course owing around £35,000 extra. Of course these amounts have greatly increased since 2016.

Grants Not Debt

Students living in London – as many of those at this protest were – would in 2025/6 be eligible for a maintenance loan of £13,762 in their first year – and a total well over £40,000 for their 3 year course. With the cost of tuition fees this would bring their total student loan up to around £70,000.

The rally began in Parliament Square and there were a number of speeches including from Labour Shadow Minister in Department of Energy and Climate Change Clive Lewis MP and Shelly Asquith the NUS Vice President (Welfare).

At the end of her speech the students decided it was time to take some action and began to march past the Houses of Parliament onto Westminster Bridge. Some had brought a banner ‘NO GRANTS = NO BRIDGE’.

On the bridge many of them sat down while others remained standing with their banners and traffic was blocked. A police officer tried to persuade Shelly Asquith to get the protesters to move but she ignored him and the protest continued.

Eventually the police managed to clear the north-bound carriage way but the protest continued to block traffic going south.

After an hour or so the protest appeared to be dying down, with some students leaving and although the protest was still continuing I decided to go too.

Many more pictures on My London Diary.


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Extinction Rebellion October Rebellion – 2019

Extinction Rebellion October Rebellion – London 7 Oct 2019

Extinction Rebellion October Rebellion - 2019

Five years ago today Extinction Rebellion began their day of October Rebellion in London by occupying eleven locations at government ministries, Downing St, The Mall, Westminster and Lambeth bridges, bringing traffic in the centre of London to a halt.

Extinction Rebellion October Rebellion - 2019

The action was billed as an International Rebellion and there were other actions taking place in New York, Sydney and possibly elsewhere and you can read much more about them on the XR web site.

Extinction Rebellion October Rebellion - 2019

XR demand the government tell the truth about the climate and ecological emergency, act to halt biodiversity loss, reduce emissions to net zero and create and be led by a Citizens Assembly.

Extinction Rebellion October Rebellion - 2019

I managed to get to some but not quite all of these 11 locations during the day and take pictures. Police hindered movement around the city to some extent, making me have to walk rather further than I wanted when they completely closed Lambeth Bridge to all pedestrians after XR had closed both ends to traffic.

Extinction Rebellion October Rebellion - 2019

Police made a few arrests here and there but it was hard to see any logic in their actions. Some people had locked themselves together but generally I think the police were simply overwhelmed by the large number of protesters.

As before XR’s ‘Red Brigade’ made a colourful splash and like most photographers I took too many pictures of them.

As a part of the protest two XR rebels Tamsin and Melissa were married on Westminster Bridge.

Everything was ready, the clergy had arrived, but only one of the two people being married – and she had gone to look for the other who was taking part in a protest at BEIS in Victoria St. So we had to wait – and the jazz band entertained us.

Eventually Tamsin comes and tells the band to stop playing as the couple are ready to start the wedding.

And the ceremony begins.

The couple kiss and make promises.

A young boy comes forward with a ring

Melissa gives Tamsin a ring and then Tamsin places a ring on Melissa’s finger

And they kiss again.

More pictures on My London Diary:
XR Rebels marry on Westminster Bridge
Extinction Rebellion occupy Westminster


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No More Benefit Deaths – 2016

No More Benefit Deaths: On Wednesday 7th September 2016, the day of the opening ceremony for the Rio Paralympics, disablement campaigners demanded human rights for all disabled people and an end to the disastrous sanctions regime which has led to many deaths.

No More Benefit Deaths

They called on Prime Minister Theresa May, newly appointed in July 2016 to make public the findings of the UN investigation into the UK for violations of Deaf and Disabled people’s rights, to scrap the Work Capability Assessment and commit to preventing future benefit-related deaths.

No More Benefit Deaths

The UN committee on the rights of persons with disabilities published its report in November 2016. It stated that the UK had committed “grave or systematic” violations of UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and in June 2017 the committee clarified the reasons behind their conclusions.

No More Benefit Deaths

They stated that the breaches of the rights to independent living, work and employment and adequate standard of living under the convention were mainly caused by the policices introduced by Tory ministers at the DWP between 2010 and 2015. Some were grave violations, some systematic and others both grave and systematic.

No More Benefit Deaths

The UN inquiry had been prompted by the research and lobbying of Disabled People Against Cuts, and the Disability News Service article included this quote from DPAC co-founder Linda Burnip who:

“pointed to actions such as cuts to social care, the impact of the work capability assessment – which has been linked by public health experts from the Universities of Liverpool and Oxford to hundreds of suicides between 2010 and 2013 – the hugely damaging introduction of personal independence payment and consequent cuts to support, the increased use of sanctions and the resulting deaths of benefit claimants, and the introduction of the bedroom tax.”

As Burnip stated, the government’s actions were “based on a deliberate intention to cause harm without any regard to the horrendous consequences for disabled people.”

The day on Wednesday 7th September 2016 began with a huge banner with the message ‘NO MORE BENEFITS DEATHS #DPAC” being displayed on the wall of the River Thames facing the riverside terrace of the Houses of Parliament.

After photographing this I hurried to Downing Street were there was a rally in on the opposite side of the street with speakers from DPAC, Winvisible, the Scottish Black Triangle Campaign and others including John Clark from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty who shared news of similar problems facing disabled people in Canada.

Gill Thompson spoke about her brother David Clapson, a diabetic ex-soldier died after his benefit was cut as he could not afford food or electricity to keep his insulin cool was there with a banner covered with the names and some photographs of around a hundred of the many who had died because of the DWP’s sanctions, cuts and scapegoating.

The protesters then lifted up the black coffin with white wreaths they had brought and began a march towards the Houses of Parliament.

As they came to Bridge Street the marchers took the police by surprise by turning towards the bridge. The giant banner which had earlier been displayed facing Parliament was now stretched across the road, blocking the bridge in both directions.

After several minutes police began trying to get people to move off the road warning them they are committing an offence and may be arrested. I was also threatened with arrest, despite showing my Press card. One carer who refused to move away from the wheelchair user he was looking after was arrested and taken to a police van.

Most of those in wheelchairs and mobility scooters refused to move or did so only after a long series of threats by police, who eventually managed to clear one carraigeway to allow traffic to move out of Westminster. But a group remained blocking traffic in the other direction until after almost two hours Paula Peters triumphantly announced the protest was ending and everyone left.

The new Labour government dropped key disablity rights pledges made by the party for its election manifesto, and since becoming the government has sidelined disabled people in its first King’s Speech. It seems unlikely that there will be any significant improvement for disabled people under Starmer, and further cuts now seem to be coming.

Many more pictures on My London Diary:
Giant Banner ‘No More Benefit Deaths
‘No More Benefit Deaths’ rally
DPAC block bridge over benefit deaths


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Human Chain Around Parliament – Free Assange!

Last Saturday, 8th October 2022, I photographed a protest in London against the imprisonment and possible extradition of Julian Assange, currrently held in the UK’s maximum security jail at Belmarsh.

Human Chain Around Parliament - Free Assange!

Assange’s “crime” was to publish documents about US war crimes in Afghanistan, Iraq and elswhere, making documents downloaded by Chelsea Manning, making them available after suitable redaction to protect the individuals concerned to the world’s press and to the public on WikiLeaks. Wikipedia has a good and fairly detailed entry on him which most of the details here come from.

Human Chain Around Parliament - Free Assange!

If extradited to the US he would be put on trial in a area where the jury would be composed of people from an area with strong connections to the US security services who will already have pre-judged him as guilty. His sentence is likely to amount to 175 years in a US maximum security jail, probably in isolation and never to be freed.

Human Chain Around Parliament - Free Assange!

In 2010 Sweden issued an extradition warrant for him on allegations of sexual misconduct, which were widely seen as a pretext to enable him to be extradited from Sweden to face criminal charges in the USA. When in 2012 he lost his fight against extradition to Sweden he jumped bail to take refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he lived in highly restricted accomodation until 2019.

A new government in Ecuador decided to end his asylum in the embassy and invited police in to arrest him in April 2019; he was then sentenced to 50 weeks in jail for breaching his bail. The Swedish sexual charges against him were dropped later in the year, but the USA immediately began proceedings to extradite him to face trial under the US 1917 Espionage Act.

The decision to use this Act has been widely criticised in the press and elsewhere as being an attack on the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guarantees press freedom. And if Assange is guilty then it seems clear that the editors of the newspapers that published the revelations he made in publising the Baghdad airstrike Collateral Murder video, the Afghanistan war logs, the Iraq war logs and other material could also be prosecuted. Even my publishing the link to the video could be a crime.

Assange’s sentence was completed in September 2019, but he was kept in jail because of the US extradition claim. He had been visited earlier by Nils Melzer, the United Nations special rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, who, as quoted on Wikipedia found “in addition to physical ailments, Mr Assange showed all symptoms typical for prolonged exposure to psychological torture, including extreme stress, chronic anxiety and intense psychological trauma.”

After a protracted hearing including much medical evidence, a judge on 4 January 2021 ruled that Assange could not be extradited to the USA on grounds of mental health and the suicide risk in a US prison cell. The USA appealed the decision, and Assange remained in jail. The High Court rejected much of the medical evidence, believed the US lies of fair treatment made and found in favour of the USA on 10 December 2021.

In April his extradition was formally approved in court and referred to Home Secretary Priti Patel, who approved it in June. But the legal battle continues with a new appeal. Essentially Assange has now been locked up for 10 years. Wikileaks has continued his work in releasing information in his absence. The continuing persecution by both the UK and USA for revealing their war crimes seems spiteful and malicious.

On Saturday 8th October I photographed a protest in London by around 10,000 people who formed a human chain calling for Assange to be freed and not to be extradited around the Houses of Parliament, crossing the river on Westminster Bridge and returning across Lambeth Bridge, a distance of a little over two kilometres.

It’s difficult to know how many took part, but there seemed to be enough people to join hands, with quite a few to spare in some parts where people were shoulder to shoulder and some to spare. The organisers had thought they would need around 5,000 so I think it was probably rather more than that; estimates I’ve seen range from 3,000 to 12,000. But as well as those present in person, many unable to get to Londonwere represented by yellow sashes with their names on them.

When I arrived people were tying these to the railings around the Houses of Parliament, but police came to remove them, handing them back to the protesters. They said nothing was allowed to be fixed to the railings. Many of the protesters held or wore the sashes for the protest, and although I don’t often take part in the protests I’m photographing, most of these pictures were taken by me with a sash reading ‘#Free Assange Monique Dits Belgium‘ around my neck.

At around 1.30, rather later than planned people were told to link hands and they chanted ‘Free Assange’ and other slogans for a few minutes. I’d chosen to be on Lambeth Bridge for this as I could then take photographs with the Houses of Parliament seen across the Thames in the backgound.

After taking some there I made my way along the rest of the chain back to Parliament, on my way passing John McDonnell being interviewed by a videographer. Normally I would have stopped to talk to him, but by now I was rather tired, still suffering a little from my booster jab the previous day and I carried on, past a small crowd of people with video and still cameras three or four deep around Jeremy Corbyn. But I’d decided he wasn’t really the story and carried on. I’ve photographed him enough times over the many years I’ve known him.

You can see more of the pictures I made in the album Human Chain Around Parliament Says Free Assange.


Migrant Rights, XR, Prefabs or Football Lads?

Most days when I come to write a post for >Re-PHOTO I start by searching for what photographs I took on the same day in previous years. My London Diary has almost 20 years of work online, so usually there is something from at least one year to chose, though if I don’t find that interesting enough I’ll instead write a post continuing the series on my walks in the 1980s.

But often I have the opposite problem, with events from several years to chose between, and I can sit for ages trying to decide which to write about. And for October 7th I simply can’t make up my mind. So for today I’ll show you the options and you can chose which if any you want to find out more about. I’ll present them briefly in date order.


March for Migrant Rights – London, Saturday 7 Oct, 2006

Migrant Rights, XR, Prefabs or Football Lads?

The march for migrant rights was a little unusual in taking place entirely south of the river, from the Imperial War Museum in Lambeth to Tanner Street Park in Bermondsey. The day was the third International Day Of Action On Migrant Rights, and there were events in various cities across Europe and in Africa.

It was a reasonably large march, involving groups including ‘Barbed Wire Britain’, ‘No-Borders’, ‘No One Is Illegal, the ‘Latin American Workers Assocation’ and other national groups of migrant workers, as well as some trade union branches. But the streets along which it marched were largely empty.

The marchers demanded an amnesty for migrants living in the UK, the right for migrants to work, the closure of detention centres, and for social justice and secure work conditions for all. They called for the UK to sign up to the Un International Convention On The Protection Of The Rights Of All Migrant Workers.

More at March for Migrant Rights.


Excalibur Estate – Downham, Catford. Thursday 7 Oct 2010

I put my bike on the train to Waterloo and cycled to Downham to photograph the Excalibur estate is the only substantial example remaining of a number of pre-fab estates constructed as the Second World War ended for returning soldiers and their family. Erected by prisoners of war it was only intended as temporary housing, expected to last 10 years.

The prefabs were well-made with fitted kitchens, refrigerators, built-in cupboards and heated towel rails, but Lewisham council has allowed them to deteriorate, having decided years ago it wanted to demolish the whole estate.

I made my visit – the second or thrid time I’d photographed the estate – after hearing that following a small majority of residents voting for a regeneration plan the council was transferring the estate to a housing association to carry this out. Some residents were keeping up a fight to save the estate and had managed to get a small group of six prefabs Grade II listing.

In a longer article on >Re:PHOTO I suggested that people who wanted to see the estate should go down and visit it without delay. Twelve years later you still have time to do so, and can also see the new housing on the northern part of the estate. Some of the remaining properties are now empty, but others are still occupied, though I think most of the tidy gardens in my 2010 pictures are rather less well-kept.

More at Excalibur Estate.


Elephants & Rhinos, Football Lads Alliance & Stand Up To Racism – Saturday 7th October 2017

My working day started in Parliament Square where as a part of the Global March for Elephants and Rhinos (GMFER) taking place around the world people stood in a half hour long silent protest holding mock elephant tusks or rhino horns. The speeches after this were continuing when I left for Park Lane.

A crowd of perhaps 5,000 were at the Football Lads Alliance Rally, with speakers from an open-top bus protesting against the recent terror attacks in the UK and Europe, remembering the victims and calling on government to take decisive action against the extremist threat, including locking up all terrorist suspects and deporting those of foreign origin.

It was at times an angry crowd, with many responding to the clearly racist and Islamophobic remarks from some speakers, with suggesters that many thousands of Muslims were Islamist extremists and should be locked up, and there was a huge angry outcry when the name of Diane Abbott was mentioned, with a loud shout from behind me that she should be raped. I recognised some who I’d photographed on EDL marches and made clear they thought I should not be there.

Eventually the march set off and made its way along Piccadilly in silence but by the time it reached Trafalgar Square it had become very noisy. It was joined there by a group of a couple of hundred Gurkhas, many wearing their medals, who led the march for a few yards at the top of Whitehall.

The march organisers and fans then overtook them to take the march down Whitehall. Opposite Downing Street it went past a group of supporters of Stand Up to Racism who were calling for everyone to Stand together and say ‘No to racism & Islamophobia, Football for All’.

Some stood on the edge of the pavement to hand out leaflets to the marchers through a loose line of police. Although some of the marchers took the leaflet with its heading ‘Some questions for the leaders of the FLA‘ there were many angry shouted insults and threats. Some marchers tried to hold back others who tried to attack the people handing out leaflets and eventually a large block of police had to come in and push angry FLA marchers away and down towards Westminster Bridge.

By this time I’d had enough of the FLA and their threats and didn’t bother to try to photograph them laying the football club wreaths on Westminster Bridge, but sat down in Parliament Square to have a rather late lunch.

Stand Up To Racism and the FLA
Football Lads Alliance March
Football Lads Alliance Rally
Silent Vigil for Elephants and Rhinos


Extinction Rebellion – And A Wedding

Extinction Rebellion began their International Rebellion by occupying eleven locations at government ministries, Downing St, The Mall, Westminster and Lambeth bridges, bringing traffic to a halt.

I made my way to most of these sites and took pictures, including some of the Red Rebels on Westminster Bridge. Getting around London was difficult, with the police blocking some roads including Lambeth Bridge adding to the traffic chaos and making me walk much further than I wanted. It was generally a colourful protest and I saw few arrests.

On Westminster Bridge I recorded the wedding of XR rebels Tamsin and Melissa in the middle of the protest. I’m not a wedding photographer but this was a little different.

XR Rebels marry on Westminster Bridge
Extinction Rebellion occupy Westminster


No More Benefit Deaths – 2016

No More Benefit Deaths – 2016 The action on Wednesday 7th September 2016 began with a huge banner being displayed over the river wall on the Albert Embankment so it could be seen clearly be any MPs and others on the river terrace outside the houses of Parliament with the message ‘NO MORE BENEFIT DEATHS #DPAC’

The date was the opening day for the Paralympics in Rio, and protesters held a rally outside Downing Street to call on Theresa May to pay attention to human rights and to make public the findings of the UN investigation into the UK for violations of Deaf and Disabled people’s rights, to scrap the Work Capability Assessment and commit to preventing future benefit-related deaths.

From Downing Street they marched behind a coffin towards Parliament Square.

But on reaching Bridge Street they surprised police by turning on to Westminster Bridge

where they blocked the road on both carriageways with banners, a floral sign and the coffin.

The giant banner that had previously been displayed on the embankment was now stretched across the road.

Protesters sat in wheelchairs or stood holding posters and banners and there were some speeches about why the protest was taking place.

Police at first asked them politely to leave, then began to threaten protesters and journalists covering the event with arrest if they remained on the highway.

Most of those in wheelchairs refused to move. One carer who was looking after a disabled person was arrested and taken to a police van.

I think those arrested were later released without charge – arrest was being used in an abuse of process to harass protesters

Many of DPAC’s disabled protesters refused to move and a few remained blocking the roadway almost two hours after the protest began.

Eventually Paula Peters decided that the protest had gone on for long enough and triumphantly called a halt to the protest.

DPAC block bridge over benefit deaths
‘No More Benefit Deaths’ rally
Giant Banner ‘No More Benefit Deaths