Staines & Laleham

Staines & Laleham, Middx. 31 Dec 2014


Boats and houses on the river at Laleham. The houses are 5 miles by road from where I am standing.
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New Year's Eve was dull, and by the time we'd cleared up after lunch it was getting a little late to start the walk, but we went just the same, going down the Thames towards Penton Hook Lock. There we walked across and around the island, parts of which are now rather less overgrown but with extra ditches and channels to act as a nature reserve. Back in the 1980s when our young boys loved to play there it was an overgrown jungle where it was easy to get lost.

Back on the Middlesex bank we walked down into Laleham and then through the churchyard there, pausing briefly to look at Mathew Arnold's grave as it got rather dark and then taking a surprisingly rural route along a footpath to the Laleham estate and back to Staines, where we ended the year with a glass or two of wine.
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Derbyshire Snow

Derbyshire. Mon 29 Dec 2014


Looking down from the bottom of the Middleton Incline
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We made a short visit to the disused railway - now the High Peak Trail which went from Cromford to Whaley Bridge. The railway was built starting around 1830 and used horse-drawn wagons on the flatter sections, with stationery steam engines using a continuous cable to pull the waggons up eight of its nine steep inclines, one of which at Middleton we walked up.

After lunch we caught the train back down south, and I took a few pictures through the window, particularly of the power station near the Trent.
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Belper Walk

Belper, Derbyshire. Sun 28 Dec 2014

There was an inch or so of frozen snow still on the ground a few days after the storm
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We walked down past Strutt's mills - where Courtalds still make stockings - to the River Derwent with my younger son and his daughter. He jumped into the river for his usual moring swim with the current downstream, while we hurried along a footpath to meet him a quarter of a mile or so downstream. We beat him, but only because of the time spent taking off his clothes and packing them in a waterproof bag to tow behind him in the river. The current was flowing quite fast.

After waiting for him to get dressed we continued our walk along by the river to the sewage works, where the access bridge took us back across the river and into Belper for Sunday lunch.
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Boxing Day Walk

Staines to Old Windsor. Fri 26 Dec 2014

Perhaps the ashes of Magna Carta as the UK moves towards a police state?
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I spent the Christmas period with my family, and as usual on either Christmas or Boxing Day three of us walked to my sister's house for a Christmas dinner. This year it was our second such, on Boxing Day. It isn't a huge walk, just under 5 miles, and unlike last year when there was flooding, we were able to take the most direct route, more than three-quarters of it along the Thames path by the side of the river, from Staines to Old Windsor.

This is a route that probably many will take in 2015, as it leads through Runnymede, where in June people will be celebrating the 800th anniversary of the signing of Magna Carta - if we haven't by then got fed up with the extensive media coverage by then.

It was also an opportunity for me to try out one of my new toys, a present to myself of the Fuji 35mm f1.4 standard lens, with which all of these pictures (despite the EXIF information on some - thanks to a faulty camera body) were taken. It replaces the 35mm F1.4 Summilux that I've used on and off since I paid a month's salary for it (secondhand) back in the late 70s.

Near Staines's old Town Hall (disgracefully sold for a pound by Spelthorne Council and now empty) I paused to photograph one of the few half-decent sculptures on the Staines Art Trail, of a swan-upper, moved here recently from where it was hidden on a road leading to the Moormede estate. Passing opposite Staines Lammas, a cyclist on the tow path told me that a rowing race was apporaching, and I photographed two racing eights speeding downriver. Then came the long walk past the water company, now largely hidden behind new narrow link fencing and under the Runnemede Bridges for the M25 and A30 and the ugly hotel next to Bell Weir lock. Past there are houses, many of which over the years have stolen and enfenced sections of the riverbank between the towing path and the river, through a boatyard and on to Runnymede. We were a little late or we might have stopped for a while, as the tea room was open.

No one is quite sure where King John was actually forced by the barons to put his seal on the charter that granted them and all freemen some rights (but nothing for the great majority who were still owned by their masters.) The Thames was probably not confined to its present banks and it could have been anywhere on the flood plain here beneath the tree-covered hills (with the Runnymede eco-camp - aka Magna Carta Memorial Protest Camp - visible in winter perched on them since 2012 also having plans to celebrate the octocentenary) or across the current river at Ankerwyke or Magna Carta Island.

Last year the benches at the 'Bells of Ouzeley' had been seat deep under water; this year they were on dry land, with flower tributes to the dead. Past them one of the many boats with badly punnning titles which too many boat-owners seem to favour, and we were soon at our destination sitting in front of a plate of turkey and all the rather more interesting things that come with a Christmas dinner.
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Don't Buy Israeli 'Blood Diamonds'

Bond St, London. Sat 20 Dec 2014

The money from diamond sales funds the Israel attacks on Gaza - campaigners urge a boycott
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A protest in Old Bond St urged people not to buy diamonds cut and polished in Israel, which are the main source of funding for Israeli military attacks on Gaza. Many diamonds cut there come illegally from conflict zones. Palestinians have called for a boycott of all Israeli diamonds.

Israeli attacks on Gaza have led to a decline in exports of goods and services by Israel, with tourism down by 77.5%. But diamonds have helped Israel fill the gap, with diamond sales rising by over 50%; according to some sources diamond sales provide $1 billion a year to the Israeli military.

The protest started outside De Beers, which holds 45% of the world's rough diamonds. They sell these to companies including Israel's Steinmetz Diamonds (now Diacore), Leo Schachter, Niru Diamonds Israel, Yoshfe Diamonds and Rosy Blue for polishing. Diacore has a 50:5-0 partnership with Sotheby's Diamonds and also sponsors the notorious Givati Brigade of the Israeli army, accused of war crimes in Gaza by the UN Human Rights Council and responsible for the Samouni family massacre.

From there the protest moved on to Leviev, said by the New York Times to be "probably Israel’s richest man" and his Israeli company to be "the world’s largest cutter and polisher of diamonds". Leviev is also involved in the construction of illegal Jews-only settlements on the West Bank.

Other targets they intended to visit on the street after I left them included Cartier, which sells jewellery from Israel's leading diamond exporter, and once receiver of Israel's Exporter of the Year Award, Leo Schachter Diamonds and Tiffany & Co which is in close partnership with Israel's Steinmetz Diamond Group.

In between speeches giving details of the various companies involvement in Israel and its military attacks on Palestine, there was a some shouting of slogans as well as some haunting Palestinian music. A high proportion of those passing took the flyers calling for a boycott of Israeli blood diamonds, and many of them expressed their support. There were a few who clearly disapproved of the protest, including just one man who stopped briefly to hurl a few insults while I was there.
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Occupy Democracy Return To Parliament Square

Parliament Square, London. Sat 20 Dec 2014
Dr Shahrar Ali, Deputy Leader of the Green Party, speaking under the statue of Churchill
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Occupy Democracy came back to Parliament Square which was fenced off and guarded by police and private security 'heritage wardens'. They began a series of activities calling for real democracy in a Britain where 3.5 million are living in poverty.

Shahrar Sli Green Party Deputy Leader was the first speaker on the programme, and after speaking led a wide-ranging question and answer session about Green Party policies. After his speech there was to be a performance of the Fossil-Free Nativity which I had photographed two weeks earlier, so I left to go elsewhere, returning briefly on my way home, when activities were still proceeding.

When I arrived then, some people from the Democracy Camp were leaving to see what was happening at the empty bank building being squatted on the Charing Cross Road. When I arrived there was a police van opposite but little seemed to be happening and I didn't have time to stay.
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Dying For Heat

Downing St, London. Sat 20 Dec

Fuel Poverty protesters had been opposite Downing St since 8am and were aiming to stay 24 hrs
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Two half naked men began a 24hr vigil at 8am to draw attention to the impact of fuel poverty which killed more than 10,000 in the UK in 2012/3. Others joined in the protest through the day. Fuel Poverty Action have an 'Energy Bill of Rights' to protect the poor and end these deaths.
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Birthday Vigil for Chelsea Manning

St Martin-in-the-Fields, London. Wed 17 Dec 2014
Santa came along with a Happy Birthday Chelsea card for people to sign
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A silent vigil at St Martin-in-the-Fields marked the 27th birthday of transgender whistleblower Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning, jailed for 35 years in 2013, whose couragious leaks revealed war crimes by US, UK and other governments.

A man dressed as Santa took around a large Birthday card for people to sign, and Bruce Kent was among the Chelsea Manning supporters in London who joined with those in 11 other cities around the world to call for her immediate release.
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Release Shaker Aamer from Guantanamo

Parliament Square, London. Wed 17 Dec 2014

Bruce Kent (left) talks with Free Shaker Aamer protesters & veteran peace campaigner Barbara and her son.
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Protesters continued their regular weekly protests calling for the release of Shaker Aamer, not held in Guantanamo for almost 13 years despite being cleared for release in 2007. Shaker continues to be tortured, beaten over 300 times.

The regular protesters from the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign, including its chair Joy Hurcombe and secretary Ray Silk were joined by veteran peace campaigner Bruce Kent and 88 year old peace campaigner Barbara and her son.

After the protest in Parliament Square, the campaigners were taking a card to 10 Downing St with the names of almost a hundred MPs and former MPs and many others calling for the release of Londoner Shaker Aamer from Guantanamo.

The campaign to release Shaker Aamer has intensified in the last couple of months, particularly with the launch of the 'We Stand With Shaker' campaign in which people including a number of celebrities have been photographed with a sign with that message, sometimes standing with a giant inflatable Shaker Aamer. There are increasing signs too that President Obama would like to fulfill his promise to close down the prison camp, and may be prepared to overule the US and UK security agencies who have been opposing his release because of the embarrassment his evidence of their complicity in torture would cause.
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Father Pleads 'NHS let Baby Olivia Live'

Old Palace Yard, London. Wed 17 Dec 2014

Olivia's father protests at Parliament 'Please Help Us Save our Baby'
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The father of baby Olivia Stanca, born in February 2014 with a kidney cancer but otherwise healthy, protested at Parliament. Her cancer has been treated but the NHS intends to leave her to die because of the cost of treatment of other complications.

The family have set up a Facebook page and a petition in an attempt to get the treatment continued so Olivia can recover.
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Sack Boris over 90% youth & education cuts

City Hall, London. Wed 17 Dec 2014
Student Assembly Against Austerity with 'Sack Boris' placards outside City Hall
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Students protested at City Hall against plans by Boris Johnson to cut Greater London spending on education and youth service from the current £22.6m to only 2.3m by 2017, hitting severely some of London’s most deprived and vulnerable youth.

After their protest outside, most of the students wanted to go in to the Mayor's Question Time to query the huge cuts planned by Boris. At first security stopped them, but after they put down their placards and banner they were eventually admitted. I left to go elsewhere.
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Cleaners Xmas Protest in John Lewis

John Lewis, Oxford St. Sat 13 Dec 2014
Cleaners come down the escalators in John Lewis with banners and flags calling for justice
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The IWGB union and customers protested inside John Lewis's Oxford St store, calling for the London Living Wage for cleaners there and an end to their treatment as second-class citizens. Many of the Christmas shoppers applauded their noisy protest.

I'd met the IWGB protesters an hour or so before the start of the protest and travelled with them to Oxford St on the bus, where I got off and left them. They had told me they would be starting in the restaurant on the 5th floor of John Lewis, and I arrived there shortly after them and began to photograph them as they unpacked their banners and mobile PA system there. John Lewis staff looked on but didn't interfere other than ask them not to block the way of people taking their food to tables, and some of the protesters moved to open a passage.

Once they had unpacked the banners, IWGB leader Alberto Durango gave a brief speech to tell everyone around why the protest was taking place, and people started giving out a flyer which explained that the cleaners who work in the store receive less than the living wage, and are not entitled to the considerable bonus payments that other staff who work in John Lewis receive.

Although the cleaners work in the John Lewis store, they are not directly employed by John Lewis but by a cleaning contractor. Following strikes and a similar demonstration in October 2013, the cleaners gained a wage increase and a promise that over a period of time their wage would be raised to the living wage, which has not been kept. The cleaners have also had to fight against increases in workload.

The cleaner's flyer asked 'If John Lewis are such a great employer, Why are we treated like second class citizens?' and pointed out that 'John Lewis is the UK's leading retailer and last Christmas enjoyed the highest market profits in the retail sector. Directly employed staff received a 14% bonus... There is no reason for cleaners at John Lewis, a hugely profitable company, to be treated like second class citizens.'

Alberto then led the cleaners slowly and directly across the 5th floor to the balcony leading to the down escalator, and they made their way down a level at a time, stopping on each landing to regroup, display the banners and blow their horns before going down to the next level. John Lewis staff had asked them to leave and they were doing so, though slowly and noisily.

By the time they had got to the second floor, there were a few police officers accompanying them. The protesters - who included a group of John Lewis customers as well as members and supporters of the IWGB trade union were trying to keep together and being careful to avoid any damage. Most were holding flags or banners and a number of them blowing horns, with some handing out leaflets.

On the ground floor they turned towards the Oxford Street front entrance to make their way out, and I rushed around by a side aisle to get ahead of them. The shop was crowded and people had stopped to watch what was happening. At the front entrance I turned around and saw two police officers attempting to stop Alberto who was trying to leave the store, but he kept on walking and most of the rest of the protesters followed.

Outside the store the protest regrouped on the pavement, and the two officers came and tried to stop Alberto talking, but the protest continued. Two people from the protest came out of the store and told us that two protesters had been arrested inside, but we were not allowed back inside to see what had happened.

Nothing I had seen during the seventeen minutes that the protesters was taking place in John Lewis had suggested anything other than a noisy but totally non-violent protest, with the only incidents inside I witnessed were a little pushing when police tried to stop Alberto and others leaving. A minute or two later, outside the store, one officer attempted to grab the amplifier he was using and pulled out the leads from it, but Alberto and others grabbed hold of it and the officer backed away and the protest continued.

A few of minutes later, as the protest was ending and I was leaving, four police officers ran down the street carrying a protester who had been arrested, with others following them. The man they were holding was still shouting for the cleaners to be paid the London Living Wage. They put him down on the road and then in the back of van and it drove off.

The police either did not know or would not say why the arrest had been made. Some of the union members including Alberto went to the police station to wait for those arrested to be released - which they were early the following morning. Videos taken by people inside the store on mobile phones seem to show them being assaulted by police while trying to leave.
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Class War: 'Evict Westbrook, Not New Era'

Berkeley Sq, London. Sat 13 Dec 2014
Protesters and police in front of the offices at Berkeley Square House
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Supporters of Class War protested at the Mayfair offices of US property developers Westbrook Partners in solidarity with the tenants of the Hackney New Era Estate who Westbrook are intending to evict by Christmas so they can refurbish these low rent social properties and re-let them at market rents at roughly four times the current rents.

Police had obviously expected a larger and more active protest and had arrived in force by the time I got there along with some of the early arrivals from Class War. The 'Advance to Mayfair' protest had not been very well publicised in the few days leading up to it, perhaps because of the illness of the main organiser, who was unable to attend, as well as an unpleasant dispute between some supporters which had emerged on social media.

The protesters had brought two Class War banners with them, the Lucy Parsons banner with its message 'We must devastate the avenues where the wealthy live!' and the 'Class War Women's Death Brigade' banner, and a couple of placards as well as a Christmas Card for Westbrook Partners, with some far from seasonal greetings. Rather to my surprise, a representative from Westbrook was present to meet the protesters and receive the card.
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'Santa's Naughty List' Living Wage

Brixton, London. Sat 13 Dec 2014

Poundland was one of several shops visited by protesters handing out flyers and union membership forms
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Lambeth Living Wage campaigners, led by an impressive Santa, protested in and outside shops in the centre of Brixton, handing out flyers calling for all workers to be paid a living wage. They urged shop workers to join a union and gave out forms.

The protesters met outside Morleys Stores, and this was the first shop they entered, handing out the flyers to shoppers and union membership forms to shop workers, as well as using a megaphone to call for all workers to be paid a living wage. They left the store when requested and protested for a short while on the busy street outside before going to the next shop on there list.

I was unable to stay very long, and the protesters intended to continue for several hours. While I was with them they also visited Subway and Poundland. The protest was supported by Unite the Resistance, the Socialist Party and Unison (who provided the Santa costume) and also the Fast Food Rights Hungry for Justice campaign supported by the Bakers, Food & Allied Workers Union, BFWAWU, the National Shop Stewards Network and other groups.
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Dickens & Lincoln's Inn

Holborn, London. Thu 10 Dec 2014

Inside Lincoln's Inn, one of London's Inns of Court
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Together with several photographer friends I went on a free tour of Dicken's London, one of a series of free London walks provided by an organisation which is funded by businesses in central London to promote the area, which they call 'Midtown', though Londoners would probably call it Holborn (or in the northern part, Bloomsbury.) Midtown sounds to us like somewhere in New York.

There are many commercial 'walks' in London, though the best way to explore it is on your own - with the aid of various books and downloadable walks which you can take at your own speed. But there are some advantages with going - at least for the first time - with a guide, who may take you into places where you might feel a little intimidated on your own. There are many places in London where it isn't too clear whether you are allowed to go inside or if you can photograph, and the Inns of court are among these. My experience in most of these is that so long as you don't make too much of a fuss about it you will seldom be bothered.

There are also more specialist walks I've been on, led by the real experts on the subjects concerned and organised by various charities and interest groups, which are generally worth paying for. But most commercial walks are about entertainment rather than a real interest in the subject.

This walk had the advantage of being free, and Aly Mir who also leads various commercial walks and has researched and written around 120 in various areas of inner London was certainly full of facts about Charles Dickens and Bleak House, though the walk in some respects reminded me of Dicken's writing. Much better on radio or TV but tedious in text. You could make a good graphic novel of Bleak House that wouldn't send me to sleep.

But we were not students of Dickens (who might well have been a little disappointed) but a group of guys on our way to the pub, and I was pleased when the tour finished and we celebrated in the centre of Lincoln's Inn Fields with some glass-sized bottles of wine that Paul had thoughtfully brought along before adjourning to the The Knights Templar on the corner of Carey St the tour had led us past earlier. The atmosphere was rather better in curiously antique 1920s the Cittie of Yorke on High Holborn , and it was just another short walk to one of our favourite London pubs, the restored Victorian Princess Louise. It was almost Christmas.
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Santacon North London

Gt Portland St-Baker St, London. Sat 6 Dec 2014

A trio of Santas pose for me at Great Portland St
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Thousands in Santa suits and other Xmas deviations, police trying hard to keep smiling, cans of beer, doubtfully soft drinks, just a few Brussel sprouts in the air, crowded bars, sprawling mass of mainly young people having fun on the streets of London. Santacon,
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Fossil Free Nativity - Churches Divest!

Broad Sanctuary, London. Sat 6 Dec 2014

Writer Westley Ingram as the Angel Gabriel with others at Christian Climate Action's Fossil Free nativity

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Christian Climate Action and Occupy organised an entertaining performance of a Fossil Free Nativity Play between Westminster Abbey and Methodist Central Hall, part of a continuing campaign to get churches to disinvest from fossil fuel companies. Among the members of the cast were Westley Ingram who wrote the play and performed as the Angel Gabriel, and George Barda of Occupy who played Joseph with his child as the baby Jesus.
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South London March for Free Education

Lambeth College, Clapham, London. Sat 6 Dec 2014

Marchers set off to go to a rally in Brixton
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Protesters from South London, backed by groups including NCAFC, Lambeth Left Unity and South London Defend Education, took part in the national day of education activism against tuition fees, marching from Clapham Common to a rally at Brixton.

There were rather fewer marchers than expected, perhaps because many students had already left for home and the other events taking place, not to mention Christmas shopping. More were expected to turn up for the rally in Brixton, but I had other things to do.
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Santacon Start in Clapham

Clapham Common, London. Sat 6 Dec 2014
Santas on Clapham Common at the South London start of one of today's three long pre-Christmas crawls
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Around a thousand people in Santa suits, along with the odd elf, reindeer and other Christmas-themed costumes made a start to their day-long alcohol-fuelled crawl through London which would eventually (with a little help from public transport) take those still standing to meet up with the two other groups on similar treks from East and North London at Hyde Park or Marble Arch in the early evening.
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Lewisham Housing Action

Lewisham Council Offices, Catford, London. Thu 4 Dec 2014
Lewisham's CIS Security guards get over-physical stopping Lewisham residents entering the council offices
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Protesters at Lewisham council condemned the large developments of flats for buy-to-let companies and speculators with only a handful for local residents in need, despite a waiting list of 17,000 and 500 families in emergency B&B accomodation.

When I arrived, a group of around 20 protesters were standing outside the council offices in the light rain with banners and placards and were handing out leaflets calling for housing to meet the desperate local needs. They asked for someone from the council to come out and talk with them, but no one was prepared to do so.

A few protesters including women with children in prams went inside the offices, but when more tried to follow them they were stopped and pushed back by security guards. They tried to insist that as Lewisham residents they have a right to enter their council offices and the guards response was to deny them entry and push them back roughly when they tried to enter. Scuffles continued for several minutes in the doorway, with the protesters asking the guards to call the police rather than attack residents.

A woman from the council came to tell the protesters they could not protest inside but were welcome to continue their protest outside, and was met with the same argument. The police didn't turn up while I was there, but in similar events elsewhere have told security they should not stop residents entering council offices. The protesters stopped trying to enter after they were assured that a small group would be admitted to meet with people from the Housing department and discuss the problems.

The protest continued with a few people inside and the majority outside. Although the action by security had prevented access by anyone for a few minutes, the protesters were careful not to stop anyone from entering or leaving the building.

The protesters included members of sang a number of appropriate songs outside the building including one with a verse "With thousands sleeping rough tonight, While buildings lie empty and warm, Housing is a human right, Let's solve it for ourselves one and all". Among the placards about the housing situation in the London Borough of Lewisham were '6 Council Homes Being Built', '17000 Waiting for Homes' and '500 Families in B+Bs' posters and the main banner was 'Homes For People Not for Profit'.
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Students Occupy Universities UK

Woburn House, Tavistock Square, London. Wed 3 Dec 2014

Students already inside welcome those from UCL, while staff try to keep them out
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Students marched from SOAS into Woburn House, for a discussion in Universities UK of the increasing marketisation of universities, the proliferation of senior management, exploitation of graduate students, high course fees & low paid contract staff.

I met the students just as they were setting off from SOAS and walked with them as they marched to an unspecified location behind a Microsoft 'Internal Error' banner with the message 'Marketisation Programme has crashed education' and offering two buttons, 'Free Education' or 'Business as usual'. A second banner, behind the samba band carried the text 'Liberate Education - for a more just and equal society'.

As we made our way through Tavistock Square it became clear that we were heading for the offices of Universities UK, a group which lobbies on behalf of all 133 UK universities, university colleges and colleges of higher education and which has played a leading role in demanding higher student fees and encouraging a market-led higher education sector.

Students pushed past a couple of security guards on the door and made their way into the foyer, a large mainly empty area with a reception desk at one side. The main activity which they disturbed there appeared to be the putting up of Christmas decorations on a large tree, and the students were careful not to disturb this or the boxes of decorations laid out on a table next to it.

They threw large bundles of fake money into the air and sat down in a circle around where they landed on the floor. The pink, white, yellow and green 'Universites UK' bank notes all carried the same message. On one side the average student debt of £44,000 and on the reverse a message headed 'The UK's (fees) system must change' calling for an end to the marketisation of education and pension cuts and 'Yes to education for all!'.

There was then some debate about what they intended to do, and in particular how to behave if police came to evict them, with a demonstration of the advantages of going limp should they be carried out. It seemed to be clear that that any resistance should be non-violent and passive.

The discussion moved on to one about education, to the background of a loud beat from the samba band who were playing outside the windows onto Upper Woburn Place to draw attention to the occupation. It was interrupted by the arrival outside of the chain gang from UCL in Tavistock Square, and people rushed to the windows to greet them. After a few minutes they decided to make their way inside, and there were a few minutes of chaos as three Universities UK security staff attempted to prevent them coming through the sliding doors, while students inside and outside attempted to open the doors. It was a very restrained confrontation, with both students and security avoiding body contact as they struggled with the doors, and ended when a manager called the secuirty guards to move away for safety reasons.

The students outside came in to join the occupation. After a few minutes I left to go elsewhere as the doors were now left open. As I walked away, a police car arrived with sirens screaming and I ran back as two officers emerged and tried to enter the building, only to find the main doors were held shut by the students inside.

More police arrived, and students began to carefully pile up tables and chairs to block the main entrance. It seemed likely that the police would in time discover the other entrance to the building and come in to evict the students, but I didn't stay to watch.
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Student bodies spell out 'NO FEES'

UCL, London. Wed 3 Dec 2014

Students lie down to spell out 'NO FEES' in UCL Main Quad
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On the National Day of Action against Fees and Cuts, students lay down in UCL Main Quad to spell out the message 'NO FEES' before forming into a chain gang and marching around college calling for an end to tuition fees and for justice and democracy in education.

As well as high fees for undergraduate courses, the fees for Masters are staggering, with some courses at UCL costing £23,000 - and almost double for international students, with no consistent financial support.

Postgraduate teaching assistants who provide much of the teaching in our universities are ruthlessly exploited at UCL and elsewhere, with low rates of pay that do not reflect the hours they have to work, often on zero hours contracts. Many are joining together in the 'Fair Play for TAs' campaign.

Students everywhere have problems with accomodation, but these are particularly severe in London where housing costs generally are extremely high. The rents in halls of residence (which are increasingly becoming privatised) have increased far more than loans and stipends, and conditions are worsening. At UCL some students were without hot water and heating for two days and UCL has refused any compensation.

I watched the students as the lay down on the tarmac in the main quad to spell out their message, and there was a brief introduction to the afternoon's protest which was to take them around the campus, with most of them chained together by plastic chains in a 'chain gang'. I left them as they went into an adminstration block, meeting up with them again later in the afternoon at Universities UK.
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Russell Brand marches with New Era

Berkeley Sq to Downing St, London. Mon 1 Jan 2014
Russell Brand and NewEra4All co-founder Lindsey Garrett lead the march
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Russell Brand marched with New Era estate tenants from the offices of the new US owners who want to evict them, refurbish and charge four times the current rents of their Hoxton homes. With several hundred supporters they carried a petition with 293,366 signatures to Downing St.

The New Estate was built as a philanthropic venture in 1933-4 by philanthropist and property developer Arthur Barsht, who died while it was still being built. It was inherited by his wife, and then his two daughters and then until the sale in 2014 was owned by his grandson and granddaughter, who

The estate, in 13 blocks had 12 shops and 96 flats and the rents were deliberately kept well below market rates to provide housing for local low-income workers in teaching, health and construction. 84 flats are on Assured Shorthold tenancies and 12 are still on regulated tenancies protected under the 1977 Rent Act. Average rents for the AST flats at £133 pw (1 bed), £150 pw (2 bed) and £163 per week (3 bed) are far below current market rents in the area, just a mile and a half north of the City of London. The sale prospectus issued when the grandchildren of Barsht decided to sell the estate described it as "offering extensive refurbishment / extension and redevelopment opportunities" and stated that the gross current income was "£754,098 per annum with the opportunity to substantially increase rents through asset management" and suggested it would be possible "to undertake a significant upgrade of the property" to increase the income.

When the residents heard after the sale of the estate that their rents were to increase by a factor of four or more, they began to organise to fight the increase. The publicity their fight generated made one of the new owners, Benyon Estates owned by billionaire Tory MP Richard Benyon decide to pull out, leaving the US company Westbrook in charge. They reneged on promises to the tenants and told them they were to be evicted by Christmas. The residents stepped up their campaign and got the support of Russell Brand who lives not far away, as well as others including their local MP, Hackney Council and London mayor B Johnson, as well as many groups on the left including Class War.

There was a largish crowd already present outside the office building in Berkeley Square where Westbrook have their London offices when I arrived a few minutes before protesters had been expected to arrive, and this slowly grew in the half hour or so before two coaches arrived with residents from the New Era Estate and Russell Brand. There were some short speeches outside the Westbrook offices, including by NewEra4All co-founder Lindsey Garrett (with some prompting by Brand) before the march took off for Downing St, led by Brand, Garrett and others carrying the boxes containing the signed petition.

The march halted briefly when it reached Piccadilly, with the police wanting it to go towards Hyde Park Corner, but Brand and the other leaders decided to go the more direct route, turning up Piccadilly and then going down St James's Sy and Pall Mall to Trafalgar Square and Whitehall. The marchers then went into the area opposite Downing St, while Brand., Garrett and a group of other residents took the petition into Downing St. I decided not to go in with them and went home.

Some days afterwards it was announced that Westbrook had sold the estate to the Dolphin Living, part of the Dolphin Square Foundation, which describes itself as "an independent affordable housing provider and developer". The foundation had its genesis in some very dodgy dealing by Westbrook over the sale of Dolphin Square in Pimlico, which involved Westbrook setting up 625 Jersey based companies to successfully abuse the Leasehold Reform Act to gain the freehold, with the profits of this sale being used to set up the Dolphin Square Foundation.

Although Dolphin have offered New Era tenants a short term rent freeze, if it treats the estate in line with its other properties, they are likely to see very significant rent rises in the next 18 months, perhaps to double the existing levels, which would still only be perhaps only around three-quarters of the 'market rate'. Dolphin are not a social landlard, and any new tenancies in the estate are likely to be at the market rate for the area, so London will lose yet more of its vital social housing.
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All pictures on this section of the site are Copyright © Peter Marshall 2014; to buy prints or for permission to reproduce pictures or to comment on this site, or for any other questions, contact me.

my london diary index
 

Dec 2014

Staines & Laleham
Derbyshire Snow
Belper Walk
Boxing Day Walk
Don't Buy Israeli 'Blood Diamonds'
Occupy Democracy Return To Parliament Square
Dying For Heat
Birthday Vigil for Chelsea Manning
Release Shaker Aamer from Guantanamo
Father Pleads 'NHS let Baby Olivia Live'
Sack Boris over 90% youth & education cuts
Cleaners Xmas Protest in John Lewis
Class War: 'Evict Westbrook, Not New Era'
'Santa's Naughty List' Living Wage
Dickens & Lincoln's Inn
Santacon North London
Fossil Free Nativity - Churches Divest!
South London March for Free Education
Santacon Start in Clapham
Lewisham Housing Action
Students Occupy Universities UK
Student bodies spell out 'NO FEES'
Russell Brand marches with New Era

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may
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All pictures Copyright © Peter Marshall 2014, all rights reserved.
High res images available for reproduction - for licences to reproduce images or buy prints or other questions and comments, contact me. Selected images are also available from Alamy and Photofusion

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