london diary

august 2005

 

my london diary

i went to hayling island for the carnival with paul and michael, and it was a nice day. paul drove us down - it isn't too long a drive from london, really a londoner's day out. hayling seems full of people from london on holiday, some with second homes there, others hiring them, often from family and friends.

despite a longer than usual hold-up at haslemere, we arrived just in time for the official opening. everything was happening on the day, and it started with the crowning of the carnival queen and her retinue, then on to the fancy dress.

then came the baby show, after which we went down to the other end of the town, where the carnival formed up in previous years. it seemed dead there, with more housing and less shops than before, and nothing was happening. people up that end are apparently pretty fed up to lose the carnival, and we were sorry to miss another meeting with the king whose playing had been a major feature of previous years.

we grabbed a meal at a restuarant and then made our way back for the dog show, after which it was time for the parade to form up near the sea front. there were more mermaids than you could ever imagine and everyone seemed to be having fun and i took a lot of pictures.
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the shoreditch festival parade the following saturday appears to be some kind of takeover of the shoreditch parade re-introduced last year. the new management seemed to be rather over-organised and seriously overstaffed, as if the people concerned were doing some rather good business out of government-backed funding, and it lacked some of the spontaneity and community feeling of last year's event - a feeling of something organised for the people rather than by them. the smaller shoreditch parade last month, run by the previous organiser, somehow felt more of a community event. however my view is as an outside observer, and i know nothing about the organisations concerned.

many of the people from last year were there again, showing that shoreditch (or hoxton) is a lively area, with various youth groups and projects taking part. the over-50's were there too, and some pearlies, and the weather was good, but not too hot.

although the parade itself was fun, i certainly could have done without the dire prizegiving ceremony in the park in the end, and left soon after it started
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from shoreditch i took a couple of buses to trafalgar square, but the event i expected there seemed to be starting late. i walked down whitehall to parliament square to see how brian haw was getting on now protest in our capital has been declared illegal. it seemed appropriate to visit the peace camp there as it was the 60th anniversary of hiroshima (there had been a ceremony earlier in tavistock square i'd been unable to attend.) he told me how a number of people had been arrested earlier in the week, but the protest continues - i went away promising to return the next day.
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sunday i started off photographing london's latin american communities getting ready for the start of their 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.

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.

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. i was sorry not to be able to go there, 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.
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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 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 jan 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.
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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.
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the few days i spent away in brussels don't really count in my london diary, though perhaps some time i will put up a page elsewhere, especially for those great art nouveau buildings i photographed there.

back in london, i took another day out to the seaside, to the hastings old town carnival on 20 aug. unlike most seaside carnivals, this one is held on a saturday, presumbably as most visitors to the town are day-trippers (like me) rather than coming to stay for a week.

it was a pleasant day, fine weather but not too hot, and there were plenty of people out to have a good time. in some ways it was a shadow of the old carnivals, but there was still plenty to amuse.

the light was tricky for some of these pictures, working into the sun or bright sky with rather more flare than i like, but i think they still give a good idea of the event.
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some of my work gets put into nice organised websites.

this isn't meant to be like that, but you can see some of the rest at

london pictures
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and you can read what I think about photography at

>Re:PHOTO

All pictures on this section of the site are © Peter Marshall 2005;
to buy prints or for permission to reproduce pictures or to comment on this site, or for any other questions,

contact me

your comments may be added to the site - or not.
Payment may be waived for acceptable non-profit uses.

some of my work gets put into nice organised websites.

this isn't meant to be like that, but you can see some of the rest at

london pictures
londons industrial history

and you can read what I think about photography at

>Re:PHOTO

All pictures on this section of the site are © Peter Marshall 2005;
to but prints or for permission to reproduce pictures or to comment on this site, or for any other questions,

contact me

your comments may be added to the site - or not.
Payment may be waived for acceptable non-profit uses.


Hayling Island Carnival

Hayling Island, Aug 3, 2005


Neptune court - he had plenty to keep him busy.
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Shoreditch Festival Parade

Hoxton, London, August 6, 2005


London - Pearlies and black kids in the Shoreditch Festival Parade, Hoxton, London.
Dancers having fun with some Latin rhythms.
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Brian Haw in Parliament Square

Westminster, London, Aug 6, 2005

Microphones are no longer allowed in Parliament Square, where protest is now illegal.

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Carnaval del Pueblo

Southwark, August 7, 2005

Carnaval del Pueblo outside London Bridge station, Sunday 7 August, 2005
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The Right to Protest

Parliament Square, Westminster, Sunday 7 August, 2005

Police arrest deomonstrator 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.).
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The Westminster Tea Party

Time for Tobin Tax, Westminster Bridge, London, August 7, 2005
Teabags from a mulinational corporation represent corporate interests, currently allowed to dominate governments. Westminster Bridge.

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Brussels pictures to come to another place soon

Hastings Old Town Carnival

Hastings, Kent, 20 Aug, 2005
Some of the kids who loved having their pictures taken at Hastings
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