UK politics

My photos of, and a report about the protest for the closure of Guantánamo that took place in central London on Jan. 8, 2022, with a march of 39 campaigners in orange jumpsuits and hoods, representing the 39 men still held, and speakers in Trafalgar Square.

Linking to, and discussing my recent interview with Chris Cook on his ‘Gorilla Radio’ show in Victoria, British Columbia, in which we spoke about the case of torture victim Abu Zubaydah, the 20th anniversary of the opening of Guantánamo, and the latest dispiriting ruling in the extradition case of Wikileaks’ founder Julian Assange.

Events taking place to mark the 20th anniversary of the opening of the prison at Guantánamo Bay on Jan. 11, 2022, featuring myself and Tom Wilner, with whom I co-founded the Close Guantánamo campaign in 2012. Some of these events are in the US, some are in the UK, and they are mostly online but with a few carefully managed Iive events.

Celebrating 1,700 days since I first began posting photos of London, with accompanying essays, on ‘The State of London’ Facebook page, which I established in May 2017, on the fifth anniversary of when I first started cycling around London’s 120 postcodes taking photos, and which recently reached 5,000 followers.

My review of 2021, in which I assess the last 12 months regarding Covid, corrupt governments, and, overshadowing it all, the climate crisis, the gravest existential threat in our lifetimes. With reference to Adam McKay’s ‘Don’t Look Up’, this New Year’s post is, I hope, something of a call to action.

As the UK High Court allows the extradition to the US of WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange, overturning a lower court’s ruling regarding his suicide risk, I explain my disappointment with the ruling, not only because US assurances regarding his treatment are unreliable, but also because the key element of the case wasn’t under discussion: the US’s reprehensible efforts to prosecute a publisher for making available leaked information that it is in the public interest to know about, which sends a chilling message to the world about the US’s disregard for press freedom.

My response to the shameful deaths of 27 refugees crossing the Channel to the UK, how it reflects appallingly on the Brexit-soaked racism and xenophobia of the Tory government, the right-wing media and far too many of the British people, and how counter-productive it is to be turning away immigrants when, post-Brexit, all manner of British businesses are critically short of workers.

My latest quarterly fundraiser, in which I’m hoping to raise £1,000 to help me continue my photo-journalism project ‘The State of London’, in which I post a photo a day, with detailed accompanying essays, of the changing face of the capital, with the photos taken on bike rides throughout London’s 120 postcodes over the last nine years.

My analysis of the appeal by the US government, heard in the High Court in London this week, against a judge’s refusal in January to allow the extradition to the US of WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange, on the basis that, because of his mental health issues, the risk of him committing suicide if extradited is too severe to allow the extradition to go ahead.

Marking 1,600 days since I began posting a photo a day, with an accompanying essay, on my Facebook page ‘The State of London’, drawn from my daily bike rides though London’s 120 postcodes, which I began in 2012. I also extend my thanks to the nearly 6,000 people following the project on social media.