Various things have stopped me getting my pictures from Day X3, the third large student demo organised by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts two weeks ago on My London Diary before now.
It’s only partly sloth and general laziness. Partly Christmas coming and one or two things I had to do for that (including the odd party!) Going away for a few days didn’t help, nor did having a few other events to photograph. But more than anything it was the sheer number of pictures that I took on December 9th and the complexity of the event.
I’ve now put around 150 pictures covering the day from around noon in Malet St to when I left Whitehall and Parliament Square shortly after the vote.
This was one of the few events I’ve covered this year where having a UK Press Card really made a difference. Without it I would not have got back into Parliament Square around 4pm to take more pictures, and had I stayed there from earlier would have been trapped in the kettle with the rest of the protesters, perhaps not getting out until just in time to run for my last train home just before midnight, after having had my photograph taken by police.
Having a press card doesn’t stop you being threatened or assaulted by police, although unlike several of my colleagues on this occasion I only got threats, while they were hit by batons, kicked by police horses and had equipment smashed. At least one was convinced that he was picked out as a target because he was a press photographer. This time I emerged unscathed, partly because I’d earlier got rather badly crushed by the crowd and decided to go somewhere a little less dangerous.
Of course I might have taken some better pictures had I stayed longer, but certainly I would not have managed to get an article on Demotix by around midnight that same day as I did. The text of that article is now (with some slight corrections) on My London Diary, along with the 30 or so pictures I posted with it and quite a few more.