A Very British Coup was a fictional book writen by MP Chris Mullins, which later became a film. It was about how the establishment tried to undermine the Labour Government and Harold Wilson; although as I say, the book is fiction...
I have been photographing protests and demonstrations by all sorts of social movements since the Poll Tax Riots in 1990, they are magnificant and bland, real yet unreal, predictable as well as unpredictable in their nature, some times its hard to belive what happened or how it happened and then there is the intervention by the police. This is where it all changes, the protesters are not always opposing the police, but the police always seem to intervene, even if not needed, as if ordered to stop any challange on the establishment's hold on democracy.
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2009
With the recession hitting hard, the media has dubed this as the 'Summer of Rage' and were reporting of expected violance on the Put People First march as it was close to the G20 protests in London.
I travelled down from Derby on a Unison coach, some people had brought their children and Grandparents, all seemed to have a flask and pikcnick.
During the protest it dawned on me this was a very British protest full of English traditions of marching on parliment, with a hope to change the way the establishment treats its workers. Today the protests have little to do with class of society but more to do with issues, climate change and especially, jobs. But the media hype, the policing of the G20, and the press waiting for the windows at the Royal Bank of Scotland seem to sugest a plot by the establishment, yet they didn't flinch at the £8 million pounds it cost to police, which is odd as the Ministers were meeting to discuss the global recession!
EDL
Towards the end of 2009 The English Defence League seemed to rise up from nowhere and demanded an end to Extremist Islam, backed by the Casuals United, a group of football firms, appearing in cities like they were a rock band on tour. In some cases, they have not liked the publicity they have got and have turned on media workers as well as media unions.
2010
With the global recession biting harder, job losses are starting to appear and firms are tightening their belts. Derby has been hit hard with shop closures and the effects of the global recession are visible to all that walk the main shopping streets. The once thriving market has plenty of empty stalls, but now the shoppers are starting to turn away, due mainly by the lack of shops and stalls to spend their money on.
