winter deaths | >Re-PHOTO

Leveson & Cold Homes – 2012

Leveson & Cold Homes: On Thursday 29th November press and protesters were outside the QEII centre waiting for the publication of the Leveson inquiry report, and were joined briefly by people who had been protesting outside the treasury over George Osborne’s cuts and energy policies and later moved to protest outside parliament where Energy Secretary, Ed Davey was to introduce the Energy Bill.

Leveson Comes Out

QEII Centre

Lord Justice Leveson had been appointed in 2011 to lead an inquiry into the culture, practices, and ethics of the British press after the News of the World had been found to have illegally hacked into the phones of celebrities, politicians, royals and others since the 1990s.

Of course the News of the World which had been closed down by Murdoch’s News International in 2011 over this was not the only newspaper to have used illegal hacking. As well as other papers in the Murdoch Press it was said to be fairly widespread across the tabloid papers.

The Leveson Inquiry was to be in two parts and the report on Part 1 was due to be released on 29th November 2012. Part 2 which was to examine the extent of phone hacking in News International and other media as well as the complicity of the police in receiving bribes and other ways was shelved in 2015 and then scrapped in 2018.

Leveson found that the Press Complaints Commission was toothless and ineffective and recommended that a new voluntary independent body be set up. There are now two press regulators; Impress, which largely follows Leveson’s proposals and IPSO, the Independent Press Standards Organisation which as its name says remains independent, and which more publications have signed up to, while others, including The Guardian belong to neither.

This was a small but visually interesting protest, and ss I wrote in 2012:

Avaaz had brought large puppet heads of Murdoch and a gagged Cameron with placards ‘End the Murdoch Mafia’ and a flaming dustbin into which Murdoch lowered the Leveson report.

Political artist Kaya Mar had brought one of his paintings with the judge and a cart-load of people, though I couldn’t recognise them all.

And a protester from Kick Nuclear was walking up and down with his dog which was wearing a poster about Fukushima warning of the dangers of nuclear power.

More pictures at Leveson Comes Out.

Cold Homes Kill Treasury Protest

Westminster

Fuel Poverty Action along with others including Disabled People Against Cuts, the Greater London Pensioners’ Association, Single Mothers’ Self-Defence, Southwark Pensioners’ Action Group and WinVisible (women with visible and invisible disabilities) had come to protest against the cuts to come from George Osborne’s energy bill which they say will cause 24,000 extra winter deaths.

The protest which began outside the Treasury and then moved on pausing briefly at the Leveson protest outside the QEII centre to Parliament Square in front of the House of Commons where Secretary, Ed Davey, was to introduce the Energy Bill later that day.

“The protesters had brought plastic silver reflective coated ‘space blankets’ to wear and had three ‘tombstones’ with the messages ‘George Osborne Your Cuts KILL’, ‘Gas Power = Killer Bills’ and ‘24,000 Winter Deaths – Big Six Profits up 700%’.”

They say that already because of the government cuts many people were going hungry, with food banks being set up and kept busy even in the more prosperous areas of the country, and now with winter coming many have to chose between ‘eating or heating’.

*A protester with a hot water bottle tries to walk into the Treasury but is stopped by the police*

Cuts will mean more people suffering from “hypothermia, and the disabled in particular are hard hit, both because of the ruthless removal of benefits by poorly designed tests adminstered by poorly qualified testers with targets to meet and also because they often have special needs for heating.”

The protesters ignored police requests to leave the steps up to the Treasury and police then pushed them down, “usually with minimum force, but just occasionally rather more than necessary, but both protesters and police generally remained calm.” The rally continued on the pavement with speakers including Green Party leader Natalie Bennett.

After this the group of 50 or so protesters moved to the pavement in front of the Houses of Parliament, pausing briefly on the way for photographs in front of those waiting for the Leveson report.

Police again tried to get them to move on when they stopped in front of the Houses of Parliament, at first telling them they had to move as “a Royal movement” was about to take place, an announcement that cause much hilarity and comment but no movement. A little later they were told they could stay, but decided instead to cross onto the grass in Parliament Square for some final photographs.

More pictures at Cold Homes Kill Treasury Protest.

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Fuel Poverty, NHS Staffing, Zero Hours – 2013

Fuel Poverty, NHS Staffing, Zero Hours – Three protests in London on Tuesday 26th November 2013 about issues that are still very much with us – and which have got worse since ten years ago today.

Justice Not Jumpers at NPower HQ – City

Ten years ago fuel poverty activists were protesting that profiteering by the major energy providers was leading to many people having to chose between eating and keeping warm, causing many unnecessary deaths. They protested to draw attention to the scandal of energy companies making huge profits and avoiding taxes while many died because of their greed.

The protest came on the day that figures were announced for ‘excess winter deaths’, of which at least 30% are due to cold homes. The previous year the figure had been around 24,000 but that announced on the day of the protest came as a shock, having increased by around a third to 31,000.

The protest in London was one of several around the country including at British Gas’s new Oxford HQ, as well as in Lewes and Bristol. NPower had been chosen for the London protest for its poor record of customer complaints and for having made larger price rises in that year than the other Big Six companies – 9.3% electricity and 11.1% gas.

The companies defend the price rises, spreading the lie that ‘green taxes’ were to blame, though these are a relatively minor factor in costs. The real problem is that privatisation means that large amounts are taken from our bills to pay to shareholders on top of the increasing costs of dirty fossil fuels.

NPower takes 5p in every pound we pay as profit and welcomes increasing costs as this adds to their profits which rose by over a third to £413 million in the previous winter when its price hikes pushed an estimate 300,000 more people into fuel poverty. Despite its huge profits the company had managed to avoid paying any corporation tax for the past three years.

Protesters met at Bank for a funeral procession around the City streets to the NPower offices in Throgmorton St with a coffin being carried by pallbears with masks including those of Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor George Osborn and wearing jumpers with the logos of the major energy companies.

At the NPower offices they lowered the coffin in front of the row of police protecting the building and a rally took place on the street. One of the first speakers was Andy Greene of Disabled People Against Cuts, who spoke of the effects the energy price rises were having, causing great hardship to many disabled people. Testimonies were then read from many individuals how they had to choose between heating and eating; many were already cold and dreading the coming winter.

More pictures at Justice Not Jumpers at NPower HQ.

4:1 legal minimum NHS staffing – Dept of Health, Whitehall

Nurses began the 4:1 campaign to draw attention to the crisis of staffing in the NHS where there were then over 20,000 nursing vacancies and to the Department of Health’s decision to downgrade 100 A&E departments, effectively closing them. They called for a mandatory staffing level of one nurse for every 4 patients in the NHS.

The campaign stated “The public have had enough of overworked staff, unprecedented avoidable death rates and negative press about the NHS. The public and nurses alike know the value of the NHS, and want to see it perform to its best, providing the dignified care patients deserve.“

They were joined in the protest outside the Ministry of Health, then in Richmond House in Whitehall, by other groups concerned about the future of the NHS, including those pointing out the threat to the NHS of the EU-US Trade Treaty, which would open up the whole of the NHS to privatisation.

They were joined by campaigners against the planned closure of many A&E units across the country and by those fighting to save hospitals including at Lewisham and King George V in Redbridge, as well as those with more general concerns about the future of the NHS.

4:1 legal minimum NHS staffing

Cultural Workers against Zero Hours – Millennium Bridge

PCS members from national cultural institutions in London staged a protest at Tate Modern and on the Millennium Bridge against zero hour contracts which gave them no guaranteed weekly hours or income, while stopping them taking on other work.

The number of workers on zero hours contracts more than doubled from around 250,000 in 2012 to around 600,000 in 2013, and since then has continued to increase to around 1.18 million in 2023, over 3% of the total workforce. Although legal in the UK, zero hours contracts are inherently unfair on workers and an exploitation of labour. Labour had pledged to outlaw them, but if they get into government with Starmer as leader we are unlikely to get fairer labour laws.

Employers use zero-hour contracts to cut wages, avoid holiday pay, pensions, and ensure the maximum flexibility and profit for themselves. Many on zero hours contracts in 2013 were also prevented from taking on other part-time work, as they were often obliged to be available for work at the whim of the employer.

The law was changed in 2015 to make contracts which stopped workers from having other part-time jobs. But although in theory workers are not obliged to accept any work offered, in practice should they refuse hours offered for any reason they know that they will be treated less favourably by the employer in the future, often severely discriminated against.

Zero hours contracts were initially designed for use in very limited and specific circumstances where there use might be justified but are now a widespread form of exploitation. The PCS (and other trade unions) “believe that guaranteed hours, a living wage, holiday and sick pay, respect for employment rights, and dignity and respect at work should be fundamental entitlements for all workers.”

Cultural Workers against Zero Hours

Ten Years Ago – 3 Dec 2021

City Xmas Celebrations

I thought I’d see how the City of London was celebrating Christmas and took a few pictures of a real life Music Box in front of the Royal Exchange before going inside and being told I couldn’t take photographs. And although I’d been told there were free drinks I think they were only available for the kind of people who looked as if they would spend vast amounts on the luxury items being sold inside. I went out and walked towards St Paul’s Cathedral, pausing briefly to photograph a band and Santa who had come with a couple of reindeer who seemed rather small to me for his lengthy journey.

City Xmas Celebrations

Occupy LSX Climate Justice Workshops

On the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral was a plain coffin with the message ‘25,700 EXCESS WINTER DEATHS’, a rather lower figure than that I photographed at last week’s Fuel Poverty Action protest – last winter the number was 63,000. Of course this can’t all be put down to 10 years of Tory austerity, and Covid will have played a part, though of course flu deaths were down.

Workshops are not generally the most exciting things to photograph, and I only took a few pictures. I left Occupy LSX shortly after they began a ‘Climate Walk of Shame’ around the offices of various climate change villians (‘unsavoury sites of climate criminality’) which began rather later than advertised to make my way to the Climate March (where they were also heading.)

Occupy LSX Climate Justice Workshops

Stand Up For Climate Justice

Ten years ago we had a chance to begin to disastrous climate change, but world leaders failed to lead. The protest was organised by the Campaign Against Climate Change and around a thousand people marched through London calling for Climate Justice, highlighting the fact the 7% of the world’s population cause 50% of the worlds emissions as the Durban climate talks take place. This was COP17 but by the time of COP26 in Glasgow little had changed.

Here’s a few paragraphs from the post I wrote then on My London Dairy:

The 17th UN climate change conference taking place in Durban is widely expected to lead to a breakdown in efforts to combat global climate change, as the US continues to block serious attempts to combat climate change. The continued refusal of the US to accept mandatory limits on carbon emissions seems likely to prevent any progress on global reductions in emissions, and seems certain to lead to catastrophic increases in global temperature. To put it bluntly, our planet is going to fry.
Currently predicted global temperature rises by the end of the century would lead to an environmental crisis that would be expected to lead to huge areas of the world becoming uninhabitable, and billions dying through flood, famine and and other catastrophes. Those who will die will largely be the poor who currently are responsible for only a small proportion of the emissions, while the rich and highly polluting are those who will survive.
There is no longer any serious scientific debate about the reality of climate change, just about the the exact magnitude of the effects and the timescales involved. But all informed opinion agrees that urgent action is needed. We need to make drastic cuts in carbon emissions. The most industrialised countries who have contributed most to the increase in CO2 levels over the past centuries have a particular moral obligation to make drastic cuts.

Deja-vu all over again! Though perhaps now I might have added something about Australia, China and India also heads firmly in the sand, and also about species extinction – including possibly ours.

Stand Up For Climate Justice

Congolese Election Protests Continue

Congolese continued their protests in London against the election fraud, rapes and massacres and called on the British government to withdraw its support from the immoral regime of President Kabila responsible for the atrocities and voted out by the people.

Congolese Protest Against Kabila Vote-Rigging

London Wandering

As often while walking about London between the various events I photographed I took a few pictures, including some in the city centre, and others as I made my way to and from an evening event in North Acton where a photographer friend was appearing. I’ve always meant to take more photographs of London at night, but have never got around to more than the occasional picture like the one above.

And while I’ve taken many thousands of pictures along the River Thames from its source to the estuary, it’s always good to find something just a little different as in this study of bridges.

London Wandering