Yesterday I was up at 05:30. Nothing odd about that, I’m a dawn animal. But on this grey morn my conscience bothered me. I’d meant to drive to the capital the evening before, then overnight on one of those North London streets known to the rubber tramp cognoscenti, catch bus rides to Embankment Station in the morning and take my place in the first major demo since Yvette Cooper became Britain’s first ever home secretary to place a non violent direct action group on the list of proscribed terrorist orgs.
Tell me we’re not sliding down a very slippery slope to a dark abyss.
Severe weather warnings deterred me. I watched telly instead, then went to bed. But at 05:30 the next day I had to ask myself what kind of faintheart prioritises comfort over mass murder? Twenty minutes later, showered and dressed but neither fed nor caffeinated, I hit the road. By 10:30 I was parked in Muswell Hill and boarding a 134 for Camden Town, where I flagged down a 29 for Trafalgar Square which, thanks to me and a few hundred thousand kindred souls, had to terminate half a mile short on Tottenham Court Road. There I donned cagoule and leggings for a rainswept stroll down Charing Cross Road to where I belonged.
In the souped up acoustic below Hungerford Bridge, where we took copiously leaking shelter to await the stewards’ go-ahead, the drum-fuelled adrenaline would have roused the dead.
The route was the one we’d taken two months ago to the day – south along the Embankment, over the river on Westminster Bridge, swing north to Waterloo, tramp across that bridge then a south-west and south to Downing Street …
… where, I speak quite literally under international law, war criminals reside.
Even so, the authorities at home were thoughtfully issuing reminders of the new legal status quo here, courtesy my Labour Friends of Israel-funded, expenses-cheating wife to rottweiler-for-Israel Ed Balls of a home secretary.
Where are the Apostrophe Taliban when you need ’em?
But neither heavy rain (which gave way to drizzle, then dry but cloudy, and finally to gloriously sunlit) nor Yvette Cooper could dampen things.
As a photographer I’m of course drawn to the strikingly eye-catching …
… but mostly I’m impressed by the sheer numbers of regular, ordinary humanity. What could be more normal than being sickened to every fibre of your being by a genocide to which your own government is, with a hypocrisy that beggars belief, a fully signed up party?
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I love your photos Phil. They really capture the essence of yesterday. The colour and character of the best of humanity. Wish I’d noticed you when I briefly sheltered under the bridge.
I was hard to spot Geoff. As far as I know we haven’t met, and with cag hood up and eye glued to viewfinder, you’d have been hard put to match me to the pic on my “about” page – though the cag is the same!
Shame: it would have been good to shake hands, eyeball to eyeball. Who knows, we may have been shoulder to shoulder – literally as well as metaphorically – under that bridge, which, you likely noticed, afforded about as much shelter as a giant tea strainer. But the way that echo chamber amplified the drums and chants was something else!
Firstly, did the dog make it unmolested by the police?
Secondly, some more reports:
Skwawkbox:
https://skwawkbox.org/2025/07/20/former-head-teacher-arrested-under-terror-laws-for-holding-up-private-eye-article/
“……one man [apparently a former headteacher from Leeds] was arrested for holding up an article from Private Eye, often described as the most establishment ‘anti-establishment’ publication in the UK and certainly no particular friend of the left.
The magazine section in question was a page titled ‘Palestine Action explained’, with an ‘x’ on a red background for PA’s vandalism of privately-owned ‘RAF’ planes accused of helping Israel against the Palestinians and a tick on a green background for ‘Shooting Palestinians queuing for food – a critique of the Starmer government’s priorities and failure to do anything to oppose or end Israel’s genocide in Gaza…..
……..Police reportedly also told protesters that even the separate words ‘Palestine’ and ‘Action’ now banned in the same sentence, even if the sentence is not referring to PA. ”
The Bolton News:
https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/25326786.manchester-protesters-arrested-palestine-action-demo/
“Nearly 20 people have been arrested by Greater Manchester Police at a protest in support of the banned Palestine Action group……..”
Manchester Evening News:
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/uk-news/dozens-palestine-action-protesters-arrested-32094660?service=responsive
“Dozens have been detained across the UK during rallies backing the outlawed group Palestine Action.
Cities including London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Bristol, and Truro saw protests on Saturday, orchestrated by Defend Our Juries.”
Stay safe.
Alas, no. I saw it apprehended on suspicion of supporting a proscribed organisation – last known whereabouts, Battersea Dog Remand Centre.
The Met. employ interpreters who can speak canine? Whatever next!
Meanwhile, today’s Guardian reports………
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/20/two-uk-pro-palestine-organisations-have-bank-accounts-frozen-gmfp-psc
“…….Greater Manchester Friends for Palestine (GMFP) and Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), which both organise peaceful protests and vigils, have had access to their funds cut off indefinitely by Virgin Money and Unity Trust bank respectively. The Guardian understands a local PSC branch in England has also had its bank account frozen but was unable to confirm it directly……
…..the freeze meant that GMFP could not send money to Gaza and the West Bank to help those in need. “They’re actually preventing aid and support going into Gaza, and it’s going in for food and medical supplies,”
At Assistant Commander level and above, it’s mandatory.
As for Virgin Money and UTB, a boycott and mass withdrawal might prove salutory for them!
Latest from Liverpool (with videos)
https://skwawkbox.org/2025/07/20/video-liverpool-legend-audrey-white-her-brother-and-local-priest-arrested-on-terror-charges/
“Legendary Liverpool left-winger Audrey White is one of four people arrested, at today’s anti-genocide march in the city, under the Terrorism Act for carrying signs supporting Palestine Action (PA) against the direct action group’s ‘proscription’ designation as ISIS-like terrorists.
White’s brother Mark Holt, a young woman believed to be named Billie Jo, and the local Unitarian priest are believed to be the others arrested.”
I’ll be posting on the criminalising of dissent later today or tomorrow.