2nd July, 2007 – Parliament Square, London
I was taking a friend around London today when we came across a protest in Parliament Square.
It must have been a pretty spontaneous demonstration – police had just started to arrive.
I crossed the road and went into the park to take a look at what was going on.
They were demonstrating against Salman Rushdie’s knighthood, which has already sparked protests in other countries such as Pakistan and Iran.
The man above told me he’d missed a court appearance to take part in the protest. He wouldn’t say why he had to attend court, saying ‘you don’t want to know’. He and others asked where I was from and I told them I don’t work for any media organisation, but that I have a website where I post pictures of protests.
He asked for my site and also gave me his name – Roshan Jat. I have a feeling this isn’t his real name (from the reactions of the others). He wrote down a message he wanted me to display here.
This is what it said:
‘Die muthafucka you deserve to die’ – referring to Salman Rushdie.
One of the group took a video of him writing the message using his mobile phone, and then turned the mobile on me, asking for my name and website. I complied – nothing like a bit of spammage eh!
The man below was being interviewed and although someone told me his name, I didn’t catch it so I’m not entirely sure who he is.
‘We condemn terrorist activities’. Hm. That message is quite a contrast to ‘Die muthafucka you deserve to die’…
Quite a few of the protesters spoke to me asking general questions. I was also stopped by a policeman who quizzed me on why I was taking pictures. It’s funny how much attention you get being the only photographer around. I was being watched like a card counter at the world poker tour. More policemen started to arrive as I left, including one with the huge camera that always makes an appearance at protests.
There was also a protest taking place opposite Downing Street, although I didn’t take any pictures. Hm, I wonder how many demonstrations occur in London each week.
On a side note, walking around today, there was definitely a greater presence of policemen in the capital since the recent attempted car bombs. I noticed policemen stopping and searching vans and cars, and walking around train stations.
When will the madness stop?
30th June 2007 – Gay Pride Parade, London
The weather was awful (as it always seems to be these days), but rain, and all these crazy terror alerts in the city weren’t going to stop these glamorous gays from doin’ their thang!
I got there as preparations were taking place
One word for the guy below – ‘lol’.
This guy was just standing in the street munching on an apple. Quite odd, but funny. Although I was quite close to him when I took this, he didn’t even seem to notice
Hmm, not sure what’s going on here! 
Representing the wonderful National Health Service
Screwed up on focus on this next one – arghhh
This next one needs a full-view. I love it. He had such a snazzy wheelchair – it even had a DVD player in it
It had that awful crazy frog thing on the front though – but it looks cute here eh!
Amusingly, there were Muslims present
Taking pictures of them was a different story – this guy was hiding from my camera so I asked him why he was being shy.
He just laughed and one of their crew said some participants didn’t want to be photographed. I told him it was highly likely people would try to take pictures of them. I mean, come on – it’s a Gay Pride event which Muslims are taking part in – who isn’t going to try to take pictures of them! If you don’t want/expect to be photographed, don’t take part : ) Still, I respected their wishes.
I randomly bumped into Pinky who was stewarding 
How anyone can walk in these without breaking a leg, I have no idea
Hm, I wonder if he works for Fairy Liquid.
More funky shoes
Rarrr
More fancy footwear
Ahem.
I wondered if these guys were models and whether they were even gay.
Before I took this shot the one on the right grabbed my arm and asked me to pose with them for pictures – I resisted and told him I’d ruin the picture. After all, I don’t think the tourists taking the shots would really want me in it. He didn’t care though and carried on insisting so I thought why the hell not! He winked at me and said ‘thanks darling’. 
These guys were very cool as well – I took a whole bunch of shots of them as you’ll see further down. I loved their expressions
Check out this sari!
Love it.
These guys were fab. The following shots are of the actual moving parade, as opposed to when it was stationary during preparations.
Someone was a bit miserable
The person below was posing for me but I must have accidentally hit the timer button on the camera so of course as I tried to click it started the countdown, and I was left wondering why I couldn’t take any pictures. He said he’d wait for me as I figured it out but as you can see, by the time I got around to taking the shot, he was getting kinda bored and had lost the enthusiasm!
The parade was so much fun despite the heavy rain. I’m getting quite tired of all this rain – I went to Amsterdam last week and it poured for more or less the entire time. It was still an amazing and hugely fun experience. Expect a blog soonish.. I have over 500 pictures to look through
