United Against the EDL

Yesterday one of Europe’s most controversial politicians, Geert Wilders, visited the House of Lords to show his anti-Islamic film, at the invitation of Lord Pearson and Baroness Cox (both of whom should frankly be ashamed).  Wilders, who leads the Dutch Freedom Party and who has previously been banned from entering the UK, has called for the banning of the Koran and claims that Islam is a fascist religion.  Not surprisingly his visit wasn’t universally welcomed!

As well as being widely condemned for the visit, Wilders was met in London by about 200 protesters from Unite Against Fascism who kept up a vocal protest for most of the day opposite the House of Lords.  One group who did welcome the visit however was the nasty group called the English Defence League – a group even more despicable than the BNP.  The EDL planned to march past Parliament in support of Wilders’ visit.  I popped out from work during my lunch to take some pictures but there was no sign of the EDL just the UAF.

The Guardian have got a video of the protest (watch it here) which focuses on the English Defence League which I would highly recommend as it shows the EDL for the racist bunch of thugs that they truly are.  After watching the video what really intrigued me was one of the EDL idiots talking about defending British Christian values.  I would be willing to bet a lot of money that no one in the Church of England would accept these views as reflective of their religion and would probably be appalled at the suggestion.  I’d be interested to find out as well if any of these guys who claim to be defending Christian values actually bother to go to Church.  My guess would be no, because in reality the EDL is not about religion but simply about intolerance, racism and downright hatred of something different.

Of the two groups protesting in London yesterday only one truly reflects British values, and that was certainly not the EDL.  Unite Against Fascism demonstrated a belief in tolerance, multi-culturalism and decency and I was proud to see them standing against the repellent views of the EDL.

Shooting the Winter Olympics

Tonight, or really very very early tomorrow morning the 2010 Winter Olympics will kick off in Vancouver with the Opening Ceremony.  For the next sixteen days the UK and much of the world will become obsessed with sports they haven’t even thought about since the last time this all happened in Italy (me, i’m looking forward to the Ski Cross event). 

But as well as the world class sport on display we’ll also see some fantastic photography, it’ll be everywhere i’m sure.  To get a taster of what you’ll see I would heartily recommend you check out this short video on the New York Times photojournalism blog – Lens.  The video features the photographer Doug Mills who will be at his seventh Winter Olympics as he talks about what its like to work at the games (and it sounds tough!).  Unfortunately I can’t embed the video here (or if you can I can’t work out how!) so head over to the excellent blog here to have a watch.

The Wave Hits London – Part 2

[Vimeo 8041040]

(To see the video in HD, click on Vimeo)

As promised here is a quick update on my last post about the Wave climate protest in London.  I’ve now had time to go through all the pictures I shot and the audio I recorded (on my iPhone) and I’ve put it all together in the short audio slideshow.  Enjoy.

The Wave Hits London

Anyone who was in Central London this Saturday probably noticed that it was a bit busier than normal, even with all the Christmas shopping.   The reason for all the people – the Wave protest against climate change.  Organised by the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition, some 50,000 protesters marched from the American Embassy to Westminster where they surrounded Parliament to call for tough international action to tackle climate change.

The protest was deliberately timed to coincide with the Copenhagen Climate Summit being organised by the UN.  Many are saying this is the best opportunity for the international community to come together and secure a better future for the environment.  However given that the best people are expecting is a political agreement and not a legally binding treaty hope has been fading for a while over what can really be achieved.

So despite the cold and threat of heavy rain the Wave marched through London demanding to be heard and hoping for the best this week in Copenhagen.   As the protest began to come to an end it was announced that the Prime Minister would welcome a small delegation to Number 10, so it sounds like they certainly got a chance to send a message.  I wanted to get these pictures up today because of the start of the Copenhagen Summit, but when i’ve had more time to process my pictures and audio, i’ll do another post.

Youth March for Jobs

Today about 1,000 students marched through central London calling for greater government action to tackle the increasing problem of youth unemployment.  The group, called Youth Fight for Jobs started off at Malet Street surrounded by the University of London (where I have just finished as it happens) and finished across the river in Lambeth.

Although I knew today’s protest was going on I hadn’t actually planned on shooting it.  I was actually in town to start my Christmas shopping and see a couple of exhibitions.  It was by pure chance that as I left the National Portrait Gallery (where i’d been to see the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize – which is well worth a visit) the protest was heading down Charing Cross Road.

To be honest I probably shouldn’t have tried to photograph the protest with a bag of christmas shopping in one hand  Not the best decision i’ve ever made and I definitely won’t try do it again in the future.