Life is too short to be controlled

'Life is too short to be controlled' was a protest in London on Saturday (23/01/2010) against the increasing control over our lives through increased police powers to stop and search, increased surveillance and controls on freedom of movement. Over 150 people took part in a march, organised by 'London NoBorders', from St Pancras where the Border Authority detains migrants arriving by Eurostar to Piccadilly Circus where Westminster's CCTV HQ keeps a watch on you on streets across London.

The event started with a rally outside St Pancras, with speeches from people representing various groups concerned with migration issues. One of the speakers was a young man who had stayed in the 'jungle' at Calais and had since managed to get to the UK. He spoke of the dangers he and his fellow travellers had endured hiding on a refrigerated lorry to get across the channel.

Although two police vans were parked a few yards away, police stayed away from the protest, with a solitary officer watching from some distance.

Many of the protesters were wearing attractive pale blue scarves over the lower half of their faces produced for the event, reminding them to smile for the CCTV cameras. They formed up to march through London, starting off along the busy Euston Road. Surprisingly not a single police officer appeared as they marched along busy streets, stopping the traffic for a few minutes as they passed through.

Led by banners 'Life's too short to be controlled' and 'Freedom to Move, Freedom to Stay', there were also other flags and banners, including someone with the message 'Don't border me' and two red flags, one with the message 'We're rude weird We are Forainer' and the other with a simple large '89', perhaps a reference to the year which saw the break-up of the Soviet bloc. More direct was the message from 'Fight Racism Fight Imperialism’, 'Smash Capitalism.' It was a very well-ordered march, and when an ambulance answering and emergency came along, the whole march cleared the road for it with remarkable speed.

At Russell Square, one taxi driver decided to try to force his way through the marchers, but was soon stopped, with several people sitting on the bonnet of his vehicle. Otherwise most people seemed to take the slight delay to their progress well, some taking the leaflets offered to them and expressing support.

Arriving at Piccadilly Circus, the marchers blocked the road for a token five minutes or so before going on to the pavement beside the statue of Eros, where there were some more speeches and some dancing to the bike-powered sound system. Still no police appeared for some time, but a couple of minutes after one of the protesters had climbed up and taped a Palestinian flag to Eros's bow, a Police Community Support Officer appeared. He made an effort to identify and accuse the person concerned but soon gave up and went away.

A few minutes later a single police officer arrived, to be greeted by people offering hugs. He looked rather embarrassed and stood a few yards away watching the protest until I left. Talking to another photographer he confirmed that the police had monitored the progress of the march across London.

St Pancras has detention holding facilities for migrants arriving by Eurostar, and this country has the largest complex of immigration detention centres in Europe, imprisoning 2500 people including children at any one time, with plans to increase the capacity to hold 4500 shortly.

London, sometimes called the "City of CCTV" has over 500,000 CCTV cameras watching us, installed by councils, public bodies, companies and individuals - there are around 4.2 million in the whole of the UK. On a typical day the average person in London will be recorded by 300 of them. The City of Westminster underground CCTV control room is linked, according to a feature in The Guardian to 160 fixed cameras and dozens of mobile ones that can “can pretty much see everything” in the city, and most of the cameras can zoom in and identify people up to 75 metres away.

'Life is too short to be controlled' was a protest in London on Saturday (23/01/2010) against the increasing control over our lives through increased police powers to stop and search, increased surveillance and controls on freedom of movement. Over 150 people took part in a march, organised by 'London NoBorders', from St Pancras where the Border Authority detains migrants arriving by Eurostar to Piccadilly Circus where Westminster's CCTV HQ keeps a watch on you on streets across London.

The event started with a rally outside St Pancras, with speeches from people representing various groups concerned with migration issues. One of the speakers was a young man who had stayed in the 'jungle' at Calais and had since managed to get to the UK. He spoke of the dangers he and his fellow travellers had endured hiding on a refrigerated lorry to get across the channel.

Although two police vans were parked a few yards away, police stayed away from the protest, with a solitary officer watching from some distance.

Many of the protesters were wearing attractive pale blue scarves over the lower half of their faces produced for the event, reminding them to smile for the CCTV cameras. They formed up to march through London, starting off along the busy Euston Road. Surprisingly not a single police officer appeared as they marched along busy streets, stopping the traffic for a few minutes as they passed through.

Led by banners 'Life's too short to be controlled' and 'Freedom to Move, Freedom to Stay', there were also other flags and banners, including someone with the message 'Don't border me' and two red flags, one with the message 'We're rude weird We are Forainer' and the other with a simple large '89', perhaps a reference to the year which saw the break-up of the Soviet bloc. More direct was the message from 'Fight Racism Fight Imperialism’, 'Smash Capitalism.' It was a very well-ordered march, and when an ambulance answering and emergency came along, the whole march cleared the road for it with remarkable speed.

At Russell Square, one taxi driver decided to try to force his way through the marchers, but was soon stopped, with several people sitting on the bonnet of his vehicle. Otherwise most people seemed to take the slight delay to their progress well, some taking the leaflets offered to them and expressing support.

Arriving at Piccadilly Circus, the marchers blocked the road for a token five minutes or so before going on to the pavement beside the statue of Eros, where there were some more speeches and some dancing to the bike-powered sound system. Still no police appeared for some time, but a couple of minutes after one of the protesters had climbed up and taped a Palestinian flag to Eros's bow, a Police Community Support Officer appeared. He made an effort to identify and accuse the person concerned but soon gave up and went away.

A few minutes later a single police officer arrived, to be greeted by people offering hugs. He looked rather embarrassed and stood a few yards away watching the protest until I left. Talking to another photographer he confirmed that the police had monitored the progress of the march across London.

St Pancras has detention holding facilities for migrants arriving by Eurostar, and this country has the largest complex of immigration detention centres in Europe, imprisoning 2500 people including children at any one time, with plans to increase the capacity to hold 4500 shortly.

London, sometimes called the "City of CCTV" has over 500,000 CCTV cameras watching us, installed by councils, public bodies, companies and individuals - there are around 4.2 million in the whole of the UK. On a typical day the average person in London will be recorded by 300 of them. The City of Westminster underground CCTV control room is linked, according to a feature in The Guardian to 160 fixed cameras and dozens of mobile ones that can “can pretty much see everything” in the city, and most of the cameras can zoom in and identify people up to 75 metres away.

'Life is too short to be controlled' was a protest in London on Saturday (23/01/2010) against the increasing control over our lives through increased police powers to stop and search, increased surveillance and controls on freedom of movement. Over 150 people took part in a march, organised by 'London NoBorders', from St Pancras where the Border Authority detains migrants arriving by Eurostar to Piccadilly Circus where Westminster's CCTV HQ keeps a watch on you on streets across London.

The event started with a rally outside St Pancras, with speeches from people representing various groups concerned with migration issues. One of the speakers was a young man who had stayed in the 'jungle' at Calais and had since managed to get to the UK. He spoke of the dangers he and his fellow travellers had endured hiding on a refrigerated lorry to get across the channel.

Although two police vans were parked a few yards away, police stayed away from the protest, with a solitary officer watching from some distance.

Many of the protesters were wearing attractive pale blue scarves over the lower half of their faces produced for the event, reminding them to smile for the CCTV cameras. They formed up to march through London, starting off along the busy Euston Road. Surprisingly not a single police officer appeared as they marched along busy streets, stopping the traffic for a few minutes as they passed through.

Led by banners 'Life's too short to be controlled' and 'Freedom to Move, Freedom to Stay', there were also other flags and banners, including someone with the message 'Don't border me' and two red flags, one with the message 'We're rude weird We are Forainer' and the other with a simple large '89', perhaps a reference to the year which saw the break-up of the Soviet bloc. More direct was the message from 'Fight Racism Fight Imperialism’, 'Smash Capitalism.' It was a very well-ordered march, and when an ambulance answering and emergency came along, the whole march cleared the road for it with remarkable speed.

At Russell Square, one taxi driver decided to try to force his way through the marchers, but was soon stopped, with several people sitting on the bonnet of his vehicle. Otherwise most people seemed to take the slight delay to their progress well, some taking the leaflets offered to them and expressing support.

Arriving at Piccadilly Circus, the marchers blocked the road for a token five minutes or so before going on to the pavement beside the statue of Eros, where there were some more speeches and some dancing to the bike-powered sound system. Still no police appeared for some time, but a couple of minutes after one of the protesters had climbed up and taped a Palestinian flag to Eros's bow, a Police Community Support Officer appeared. He made an effort to identify and accuse the person concerned but soon gave up and went away.

A few minutes later a single police officer arrived, to be greeted by people offering hugs. He looked rather embarrassed and stood a few yards away watching the protest until I left. Talking to another photographer he confirmed that the police had monitored the progress of the march across London.

St Pancras has detention holding facilities for migrants arriving by Eurostar, and this country has the largest complex of immigration detention centres in Europe, imprisoning 2500 people including children at any one time, with plans to increase the capacity to hold 4500 shortly.

London, sometimes called the "City of CCTV" has over 500,000 CCTV cameras watching us, installed by councils, public bodies, companies and individuals - there are around 4.2 million in the whole of the UK. On a typical day the average person in London will be recorded by 300 of them. The City of Westminster underground CCTV control room is linked, according to a feature in The Guardian to 160 fixed cameras and dozens of mobile ones that can “can pretty much see everything” in the city, and most of the cameras can zoom in and identify people up to 75 metres away.

'Life is too short to be controlled' was a protest in London on Saturday (23/01/2010) against the increasing control over our lives through increased police powers to stop and search, increased surveillance and controls on freedom of movement. Over 150 people took part in a march, organised by 'London NoBorders', from St Pancras where the Border Authority detains migrants arriving by Eurostar to Piccadilly Circus where Westminster's CCTV HQ keeps a watch on you on streets across London.

The event started with a rally outside St Pancras, with speeches from people representing various groups concerned with migration issues. One of the speakers was a young man who had stayed in the 'jungle' at Calais and had since managed to get to the UK. He spoke of the dangers he and his fellow travellers had endured hiding on a refrigerated lorry to get across the channel.

Although two police vans were parked a few yards away, police stayed away from the protest, with a solitary officer watching from some distance.

Many of the protesters were wearing attractive pale blue scarves over the lower half of their faces produced for the event, reminding them to smile for the CCTV cameras. They formed up to march through London, starting off along the busy Euston Road. Surprisingly not a single police officer appeared as they marched along busy streets, stopping the traffic for a few minutes as they passed through.

Led by banners 'Life's too short to be controlled' and 'Freedom to Move, Freedom to Stay', there were also other flags and banners, including someone with the message 'Don't border me' and two red flags, one with the message 'We're rude weird We are Forainer' and the other with a simple large '89', perhaps a reference to the year which saw the break-up of the Soviet bloc. More direct was the message from 'Fight Racism Fight Imperialism’, 'Smash Capitalism.' It was a very well-ordered march, and when an ambulance answering and emergency came along, the whole march cleared the road for it with remarkable speed.

At Russell Square, one taxi driver decided to try to force his way through the marchers, but was soon stopped, with several people sitting on the bonnet of his vehicle. Otherwise most people seemed to take the slight delay to their progress well, some taking the leaflets offered to them and expressing support.

Arriving at Piccadilly Circus, the marchers blocked the road for a token five minutes or so before going on to the pavement beside the statue of Eros, where there were some more speeches and some dancing to the bike-powered sound system. Still no police appeared for some time, but a couple of minutes after one of the protesters had climbed up and taped a Palestinian flag to Eros's bow, a Police Community Support Officer appeared. He made an effort to identify and accuse the person concerned but soon gave up and went away.

A few minutes later a single police officer arrived, to be greeted by people offering hugs. He looked rather embarrassed and stood a few yards away watching the protest until I left. Talking to another photographer he confirmed that the police had monitored the progress of the march across London.

St Pancras has detention holding facilities for migrants arriving by Eurostar, and this country has the largest complex of immigration detention centres in Europe, imprisoning 2500 people including children at any one time, with plans to increase the capacity to hold 4500 shortly.

London, sometimes called the "City of CCTV" has over 500,000 CCTV cameras watching us, installed by councils, public bodies, companies and individuals - there are around 4.2 million in the whole of the UK. On a typical day the average person in London will be recorded by 300 of them. The City of Westminster underground CCTV control room is linked, according to a feature in The Guardian to 160 fixed cameras and dozens of mobile ones that can “can pretty much see everything” in the city, and most of the cameras can zoom in and identify people up to 75 metres away.

'Life is too short to be controlled' was a protest in London on Saturday (23/01/2010) against the increasing control over our lives through increased police powers to stop and search, increased surveillance and controls on freedom of movement. Over 150 people took part in a march, organised by 'London NoBorders', from St Pancras where the Border Authority detains migrants arriving by Eurostar to Piccadilly Circus where Westminster's CCTV HQ keeps a watch on you on streets across London.

The event started with a rally outside St Pancras, with speeches from people representing various groups concerned with migration issues. One of the speakers was a young man who had stayed in the 'jungle' at Calais and had since managed to get to the UK. He spoke of the dangers he and his fellow travellers had endured hiding on a refrigerated lorry to get across the channel.

Although two police vans were parked a few yards away, police stayed away from the protest, with a solitary officer watching from some distance.

Many of the protesters were wearing attractive pale blue scarves over the lower half of their faces produced for the event, reminding them to smile for the CCTV cameras. They formed up to march through London, starting off along the busy Euston Road. Surprisingly not a single police officer appeared as they marched along busy streets, stopping the traffic for a few minutes as they passed through.

Led by banners 'Life's too short to be controlled' and 'Freedom to Move, Freedom to Stay', there were also other flags and banners, including someone with the message 'Don't border me' and two red flags, one with the message 'We're rude weird We are Forainer' and the other with a simple large '89', perhaps a reference to the year which saw the break-up of the Soviet bloc. More direct was the message from 'Fight Racism Fight Imperialism’, 'Smash Capitalism.' It was a very well-ordered march, and when an ambulance answering and emergency came along, the whole march cleared the road for it with remarkable speed.

At Russell Square, one taxi driver decided to try to force his way through the marchers, but was soon stopped, with several people sitting on the bonnet of his vehicle. Otherwise most people seemed to take the slight delay to their progress well, some taking the leaflets offered to them and expressing support.

Arriving at Piccadilly Circus, the marchers blocked the road for a token five minutes or so before going on to the pavement beside the statue of Eros, where there were some more speeches and some dancing to the bike-powered sound system. Still no police appeared for some time, but a couple of minutes after one of the protesters had climbed up and taped a Palestinian flag to Eros's bow, a Police Community Support Officer appeared. He made an effort to identify and accuse the person concerned but soon gave up and went away.

A few minutes later a single police officer arrived, to be greeted by people offering hugs. He looked rather embarrassed and stood a few yards away watching the protest until I left. Talking to another photographer he confirmed that the police had monitored the progress of the march across London.

St Pancras has detention holding facilities for migrants arriving by Eurostar, and this country has the largest complex of immigration detention centres in Europe, imprisoning 2500 people including children at any one time, with plans to increase the capacity to hold 4500 shortly.

London, sometimes called the "City of CCTV" has over 500,000 CCTV cameras watching us, installed by councils, public bodies, companies and individuals - there are around 4.2 million in the whole of the UK. On a typical day the average person in London will be recorded by 300 of them. The City of Westminster underground CCTV control room is linked, according to a feature in The Guardian to 160 fixed cameras and dozens of mobile ones that can “can pretty much see everything” in the city, and most of the cameras can zoom in and identify people up to 75 metres away.

'Life is too short to be controlled' was a protest in London on Saturday (23/01/2010) against the increasing control over our lives through increased police powers to stop and search, increased surveillance and controls on freedom of movement. Over 150 people took part in a march, organised by 'London NoBorders', from St Pancras where the Border Authority detains migrants arriving by Eurostar to Piccadilly Circus where Westminster's CCTV HQ keeps a watch on you on streets across London.

The event started with a rally outside St Pancras, with speeches from people representing various groups concerned with migration issues. One of the speakers was a young man who had stayed in the 'jungle' at Calais and had since managed to get to the UK. He spoke of the dangers he and his fellow travellers had endured hiding on a refrigerated lorry to get across the channel.

Although two police vans were parked a few yards away, police stayed away from the protest, with a solitary officer watching from some distance.

Many of the protesters were wearing attractive pale blue scarves over the lower half of their faces produced for the event, reminding them to smile for the CCTV cameras. They formed up to march through London, starting off along the busy Euston Road. Surprisingly not a single police officer appeared as they marched along busy streets, stopping the traffic for a few minutes as they passed through.

Led by banners 'Life's too short to be controlled' and 'Freedom to Move, Freedom to Stay', there were also other flags and banners, including someone with the message 'Don't border me' and two red flags, one with the message 'We're rude weird We are Forainer' and the other with a simple large '89', perhaps a reference to the year which saw the break-up of the Soviet bloc. More direct was the message from 'Fight Racism Fight Imperialism’, 'Smash Capitalism.' It was a very well-ordered march, and when an ambulance answering and emergency came along, the whole march cleared the road for it with remarkable speed.

At Russell Square, one taxi driver decided to try to force his way through the marchers, but was soon stopped, with several people sitting on the bonnet of his vehicle. Otherwise most people seemed to take the slight delay to their progress well, some taking the leaflets offered to them and expressing support.

Arriving at Piccadilly Circus, the marchers blocked the road for a token five minutes or so before going on to the pavement beside the statue of Eros, where there were some more speeches and some dancing to the bike-powered sound system. Still no police appeared for some time, but a couple of minutes after one of the protesters had climbed up and taped a Palestinian flag to Eros's bow, a Police Community Support Officer appeared. He made an effort to identify and accuse the person concerned but soon gave up and went away.

A few minutes later a single police officer arrived, to be greeted by people offering hugs. He looked rather embarrassed and stood a few yards away watching the protest until I left. Talking to another photographer he confirmed that the police had monitored the progress of the march across London.

St Pancras has detention holding facilities for migrants arriving by Eurostar, and this country has the largest complex of immigration detention centres in Europe, imprisoning 2500 people including children at any one time, with plans to increase the capacity to hold 4500 shortly.

London, sometimes called the "City of CCTV" has over 500,000 CCTV cameras watching us, installed by councils, public bodies, companies and individuals - there are around 4.2 million in the whole of the UK. On a typical day the average person in London will be recorded by 300 of them. The City of Westminster underground CCTV control room is linked, according to a feature in The Guardian to 160 fixed cameras and dozens of mobile ones that can “can pretty much see everything” in the city, and most of the cameras can zoom in and identify people up to 75 metres away.

'Life is too short to be controlled' was a protest in London on Saturday (23/01/2010) against the increasing control over our lives through increased police powers to stop and search, increased surveillance and controls on freedom of movement. Over 150 people took part in a march, organised by 'London NoBorders', from St Pancras where the Border Authority detains migrants arriving by Eurostar to Piccadilly Circus where Westminster's CCTV HQ keeps a watch on you on streets across London.

The event started with a rally outside St Pancras, with speeches from people representing various groups concerned with migration issues. One of the speakers was a young man who had stayed in the 'jungle' at Calais and had since managed to get to the UK. He spoke of the dangers he and his fellow travellers had endured hiding on a refrigerated lorry to get across the channel.

Although two police vans were parked a few yards away, police stayed away from the protest, with a solitary officer watching from some distance.

Many of the protesters were wearing attractive pale blue scarves over the lower half of their faces produced for the event, reminding them to smile for the CCTV cameras. They formed up to march through London, starting off along the busy Euston Road. Surprisingly not a single police officer appeared as they marched along busy streets, stopping the traffic for a few minutes as they passed through.

Led by banners 'Life's too short to be controlled' and 'Freedom to Move, Freedom to Stay', there were also other flags and banners, including someone with the message 'Don't border me' and two red flags, one with the message 'We're rude weird We are Forainer' and the other with a simple large '89', perhaps a reference to the year which saw the break-up of the Soviet bloc. More direct was the message from 'Fight Racism Fight Imperialism’, 'Smash Capitalism.' It was a very well-ordered march, and when an ambulance answering and emergency came along, the whole march cleared the road for it with remarkable speed.

At Russell Square, one taxi driver decided to try to force his way through the marchers, but was soon stopped, with several people sitting on the bonnet of his vehicle. Otherwise most people seemed to take the slight delay to their progress well, some taking the leaflets offered to them and expressing support.

Arriving at Piccadilly Circus, the marchers blocked the road for a token five minutes or so before going on to the pavement beside the statue of Eros, where there were some more speeches and some dancing to the bike-powered sound system. Still no police appeared for some time, but a couple of minutes after one of the protesters had climbed up and taped a Palestinian flag to Eros's bow, a Police Community Support Officer appeared. He made an effort to identify and accuse the person concerned but soon gave up and went away.

A few minutes later a single police officer arrived, to be greeted by people offering hugs. He looked rather embarrassed and stood a few yards away watching the protest until I left. Talking to another photographer he confirmed that the police had monitored the progress of the march across London.

St Pancras has detention holding facilities for migrants arriving by Eurostar, and this country has the largest complex of immigration detention centres in Europe, imprisoning 2500 people including children at any one time, with plans to increase the capacity to hold 4500 shortly.

London, sometimes called the "City of CCTV" has over 500,000 CCTV cameras watching us, installed by councils, public bodies, companies and individuals - there are around 4.2 million in the whole of the UK. On a typical day the average person in London will be recorded by 300 of them. The City of Westminster underground CCTV control room is linked, according to a feature in The Guardian to 160 fixed cameras and dozens of mobile ones that can “can pretty much see everything” in the city, and most of the cameras can zoom in and identify people up to 75 metres away.

'Life is too short to be controlled' was a protest in London on Saturday (23/01/2010) against the increasing control over our lives through increased police powers to stop and search, increased surveillance and controls on freedom of movement. Over 150 people took part in a march, organised by 'London NoBorders', from St Pancras where the Border Authority detains migrants arriving by Eurostar to Piccadilly Circus where Westminster's CCTV HQ keeps a watch on you on streets across London.

The event started with a rally outside St Pancras, with speeches from people representing various groups concerned with migration issues. One of the speakers was a young man who had stayed in the 'jungle' at Calais and had since managed to get to the UK. He spoke of the dangers he and his fellow travellers had endured hiding on a refrigerated lorry to get across the channel.

Although two police vans were parked a few yards away, police stayed away from the protest, with a solitary officer watching from some distance.

Many of the protesters were wearing attractive pale blue scarves over the lower half of their faces produced for the event, reminding them to smile for the CCTV cameras. They formed up to march through London, starting off along the busy Euston Road. Surprisingly not a single police officer appeared as they marched along busy streets, stopping the traffic for a few minutes as they passed through.

Led by banners 'Life's too short to be controlled' and 'Freedom to Move, Freedom to Stay', there were also other flags and banners, including someone with the message 'Don't border me' and two red flags, one with the message 'We're rude weird We are Forainer' and the other with a simple large '89', perhaps a reference to the year which saw the break-up of the Soviet bloc. More direct was the message from 'Fight Racism Fight Imperialism’, 'Smash Capitalism.' It was a very well-ordered march, and when an ambulance answering and emergency came along, the whole march cleared the road for it with remarkable speed.

At Russell Square, one taxi driver decided to try to force his way through the marchers, but was soon stopped, with several people sitting on the bonnet of his vehicle. Otherwise most people seemed to take the slight delay to their progress well, some taking the leaflets offered to them and expressing support.

Arriving at Piccadilly Circus, the marchers blocked the road for a token five minutes or so before going on to the pavement beside the statue of Eros, where there were some more speeches and some dancing to the bike-powered sound system. Still no police appeared for some time, but a couple of minutes after one of the protesters had climbed up and taped a Palestinian flag to Eros's bow, a Police Community Support Officer appeared. He made an effort to identify and accuse the person concerned but soon gave up and went away.

A few minutes later a single police officer arrived, to be greeted by people offering hugs. He looked rather embarrassed and stood a few yards away watching the protest until I left. Talking to another photographer he confirmed that the police had monitored the progress of the march across London.

St Pancras has detention holding facilities for migrants arriving by Eurostar, and this country has the largest complex of immigration detention centres in Europe, imprisoning 2500 people including children at any one time, with plans to increase the capacity to hold 4500 shortly.

London, sometimes called the "City of CCTV" has over 500,000 CCTV cameras watching us, installed by councils, public bodies, companies and individuals - there are around 4.2 million in the whole of the UK. On a typical day the average person in London will be recorded by 300 of them. The City of Westminster underground CCTV control room is linked, according to a feature in The Guardian to 160 fixed cameras and dozens of mobile ones that can “can pretty much see everything” in the city, and most of the cameras can zoom in and identify people up to 75 metres away.