Given recent developments following the election, I figured it was about time I posted this image that I took on Sunday 2nd May, less than a week before Britain went to the polls. I’d been invited down to take some shots for Chuka Umunna, Labour’s (eventually successful) PPC for Streatham, for what was a bit of a surprise visit – I had my suspicions, but they weren’t confirmed until I arrived at the New Testament Church of God in Brixton  and saw all the live transmission vans outside.

While I don’t want this blog to be about anything more than my photography (I have other places to discuss my opinions on other matters), I will say this: the Prime Minister, as he was then, gave a thoroughly impassioned speech about his core values. Referencing the parable of the Good Samaritan and other biblical stories, he made the case for not passing by on the other side when we should be doing all we can to help others less fortunate than ourselves in this world. The next day he gave his speech to Citizens UK, and it was that Gordon Brown that I saw in Brixton.

Plus, it was quite fun to be in there with the couple of press photographers, being ushered to the front by aides and being let into the inner circle of what’s going on. That, and hearing people afterwards making sure they’d got the radio mic off him as he left for the car…

(On a technical note, I shot this event at ISO 3200, and the shots look like they’re at about 200. I haven’t even applied noise reduction in Lightroom. The 5D mkII still amazes me, even after a two months now.)

Having two PPCs in one room isn’t particularly remarkable, especially as we draw ever closer to the much-expected May 6th general election date, but when one of them is the drummer from Blur, and the other has been described as ‘Britain’s Obama’, it becomes something a little more interesting.

This wasn’t the first time I’d come across Chuka Umunna, the Labour PPC for Streatham, and I doubt it’ll be the last, as he’s asked me several times recently to do some photography for him, but this time he had Dave Rowntree with him – who’s the Labour PPC in Westminster.

Both seem equally passionate about Labour, but Chuka comes across as – not unsurprisingly – more of a politician. Rowntree struck me as much more subdued (perhaps because he knows how hard it would be to win in his chosen constituency!), taking some time to become animated and engage with the audience as naturally as Chuka seems to.

The talk itself was interesting – taking place over lunchtime it was short, but the small lecture theatre made it something of an intimate setting. Both talked about their view of politics briefly, before spending the rest of the hour taking questions. Entertaining, informative and a britpop star. What more could you want from a Wednesday lunchtime?

Anyway, you can find more photos from the event in this Flickr set.

(The title of the post comes from the awful pun Chuka made in reply to one of Rowntree’s comments…)

It’s a little bit late, but I’ve been quite busy and haven’t had time to post this (as simple as it is to do). In the past few days I’ve been photographing sports and treasure hunts, hosting a barbeque and generally getting some rest before I start work.

Anyway, these lovely people pictured here in the UCL main quad on Gower Street are supporting the Hope Not Hate campaign, fighting to prevent a certain political party to gain representation in the European Parliament. Although nationally 2 members of said party were elected, the great work of campaigners like these stopped any being elected for the London region.

Last week I went to another event organised by UCL Labour – this time a talk by Chuka Umunna, Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Streatham.

Chuka is a fantastic speaker, and talked on a wide range of issues. I won’t pretend to remember everything he said (it was a few days ago now, and I didn’t take notes) – but he gave good answers to questions on MPs’ expenses (it had to come up!), and the challenges the Labour Party currently faces. He’s certainly one to watch when in the run up to the election.

He’s also incredibly expressive when talking – you can see a few more of his hand movements in this Flickr set. It makes for a difficult job in choosing just a few photos out of the ones I took to illustrate the talk, but I think I managed to pick four good ones – what do you think?

I took time out this evening from revision to pop along to Talking Politics with Eddie Izzard, where the infamous comedian talked for a short while about his own interest in politics – culminating in restating his intention to run for some political office, at least, in the next 10-15 years. Needless to say, the audience was behind him on this.

But the evening wasn’t about Eddie Izzard, for he was there to ask a few gentle questions of MPs Tessa Jowell and Ed Balls, both well-known Labour ministers. There was some talk about whether holding a costly Olympic Games amidst the recession is a good thing – resoundingly yes, Jowell said, when the Olympic site will have employed some 11,000 workers, and created hundreds of new apprenticeships – and also, at the very end, talk about twitter. Read the rest of this entry »

I just happened (honest…) to be in Whitehall this evening, and caught a protest opposite Downing Street against the proposed building of a third runway at London Heathrow airport – check the gallery at the bottom of this post.

Two MPs (Labour’s John McDonnell, and the Lib Dem Susan Kramer) and one MEP (Jean Lambert, the Green Party MEP for London) attended and spoke to the sizeable crowd; a counter-protest was scheduled for the same time down in Parliament Square, but by all accounts it had only about 35 people compared to (at my random estimate) around 150 in Whitehall, so I didn’t bother going down. The crowd on Whitehall provided more than enough interest to shoot for a full two hours, although I’ve only selected about one in ten shots to be shown here.

Read the rest of this entry »