UK Newswire Archive
Oxford antiCuts protestors close Vodaphone and Banks
27-11-2010 14:31
A piggy is for life, not just for dinner
27-11-2010 14:23
As the meat trade prepares for its annual frenzy of eviscerating millions of turkeys, Nottingham's Veggies crew rolled into Sheffield on November 25th, 2010, with Animal Aid's Friend or Food campaign.
The Friend not Food Campaign, based around a redesigned Veggies catering trailer, pretends to be selling labrador steaks, collie burgers and dachshund sausages, asking "why not ... you ear pigs and cows, and ostriches and deer, don't you?"
Following a clear run around the UK, including Southampton, Bristol, Glasgow, Leeds, Derby and Nottingham (twice), the trailer rolled into Sheffield, pitching up on the monthly farmer's market, right by the City Hall.
Possibly on request from the ostrich / buffalo meat stall, the market manager bimbled over to ask if we had applied for a market pitch. It was explained that nothing was being sold and that the stall was just 'surveying public perceptions of meat products'. Having lent over to stick his head inside the stall, he accepted that nothing was being sold and so we could totally carry on.
20mins later, possibly on request from the ‘Fresh -N- local' dead pig stall, (complete with pretty pig pictures), he was back, together with a couple of ‘City Ambassadors'. A long, polite (and slow) discussion followed. No we weren't blocking any access, yes we had liability insurance, no we don't consider the stall to be a ‘vehicle', yes we have a right to politically protest the meat trade, no we really are not trading.
The banter clearly wasn't getting through so, moving to the empty taxi bay 5 yards away, far more productive conversations continued with the public. No for long though. In less time than it takes to read a hundred and one dalmatian recipes, a traffic warden arrived, so after a good hour and more, off we set off for the relative warmth of the Sumac Centre, discretion being the better part of valour!
Many of the questions raise by the appearance of the Friend or Food Stall have been addressed by the care2.com article 10 Arguments Against A Vegan Lifestyle, Including:
ARGUMENT #7: Animals don't have feelings.
Professor Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson said in an article about research done for his book, The Pig Who Sang To The Moon, "A pig could be as devoted, as affectionate, as good a companion, as a dog, given half a chance. Chickens, like many birds, could form close bonds with a human who took the time to get to know these fascinating animals. Sheep, who had been dismissed as stupid animals, turned out to have remarkable discriminating powers, allowing them to recognize, know and have feelings about two hundred other sheep. Goats were as individualistic and as mysterious and complex as cats, and when permitted could live in delightful harmony with humans."
Buy Nothing Day 2010
27-11-2010 14:22
Saturday 27th November 2010 saw several actions taking place in the centre of Bradford to mark Buy Nothing Day, a global day of action to raise awareness of the dangers and pitfalls of rampant consumerism. The premise is a simple one and one that has now spread across the globe: go an entire day without buying anything.
Deliberately timed to occur as the pre-christmas panic march to the shops is just getting into full swing, the event is designed to make people think about the things they consume, and the wider damage that consumption without thought for where the goods they are buying are coming from, and where they will likely end up can cause.
Latest from Cambridge occupation & solidarity
27-11-2010 14:07
Proof police did not abandon van for fear of safety
27-11-2010 13:44
Here is a video(unfortunately from Sky News) that shows the police had abandoned the van in the middle of a peaceful crowd.London, 27 November: Thessaloniki Solidarity Campaign Benefit, DJs, projections
27-11-2010 13:17
Thessaloniki Solidarity Campaign BenefitVenue to be confirmed, call info-line on the night after 7pm, 07572 626 859... "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", a benefit in an autonomous occupied London venue. Dub, bass, reggae, hip hop, techno, noise, electronica, bar and projections :: Megabitch, Dub Mark, DJ Deadlybuzz, Walid & Krank, Prisce de Cockroach; Ryan Jordan, Tonesucker, Ed Kelly, Litter Shitter
Short Video of Student Protest in Sheffield on 24th November
27-11-2010 12:28
EDL Planning Demonstration TODAY in East London at 5:30pm
27-11-2010 11:02
The hate filled racist and fascist thugs of the English Defense League are planning to demonstrate in Whitechapel from 5:30pm tonight outside the "Islamic Revival 2010" being held until 10pm at the Water Lily Business Center, 10 Cleveland Way, E1 4UF.Wikileaks: UK issues DA-Notice as US briefs allies on fresh leak
27-11-2010 09:24
As Wikileaks prepares to expose [1] a huge cache of classified diplomatic communications, the US has warned allies that new revelations may lead to public embarrassment. The cables are expected to expose sensitive foreign policy issues including corruption allegations against foreign governments and leaders, and clandestine US support for terrorism. The leak is expected to contain seven times more data than the infamous Iraq War Diaries released earlier this year.
OZ Catholic Workers Object to Cardinal Appointing General Chancellor of A.C.U.!
27-11-2010 07:51
SUNDAY NOV 28th 10.30am-1pm *Join the Catholic Worker Anti-War Vigil Outside the Brisbane Catholic Cathedral in Opposition to the Appointment of Gen.Cosgrove as Chancellor of Australian Catholic UniversityMore info Contact Sean
Occupation Pictures...
27-11-2010 02:18
Anti Cuts Media Explosion -cutz posters and film
27-11-2010 01:23
The Office for enjoyment of resistance against the cutz are loving that the local kids are doing it for themselves so they have made a special set of commemorative posters to celebrate the youth and their tenacity on the anti fees and cuts demos, check them out here and print out and distribute far and wide.
sometimes photoshop tells the truth
27-11-2010 00:22
mind you, the original sign said 'no left turn' which wasn't far from the truth either!
copyleft, so liberate freely
nb, in case you haven't discovered, on london indymedia if you click on a photo you get to a larger sized image
THE CUTZ:this week in Bristol and beyond ...
27-11-2010 00:22
"The game has changed ... And we're winning!"[most links removed]
P R O T E S T
BRISTOL
Around 4,000 students took to the streets of Bristol on Wednesday to protest tuition fee rises and government cuts. Students from the University of Bristol and UWE were involved although it's thought the majority of the protestors came from the City of Bristol FE College and sixth forms. The protest has been widely acclaimed as a success.
N30/dayx2
Another student protest has been called for this Tuesday 30 November. Be there.
http://anticuts.com/2010/11/25/30-november-second-day-o...tion/
COPS WITH NO NUMBERS
Both video and photographic evidence has emerged of police officers at Wednesday's demo in Bristol not displaying their numbers. Parents should note the reason for this is so that certain police officers are able to beat, kick, punch, injure, maim or - potentially - kill your children and not be held accountable. This is clearly a criminal act.
AVON & SOMERSET ALREADY A DEFEATED RABBLE
Is Avon & Somerset Police morale already at rock bottom? In Bristol on Wednesday they appeared an ill-disciplined defeated rabble ready to sound the retreat. Disorganised, unable to control crowds, fist fighting with protestors and refusing to wear id, it's unlikely this lot are anything like fit-for-purpose in what promises to be a tough new year for any organisation having to defend the bankrupt corporates and their political friends' interests.
OCCUPATION
The University of the West of England remains occupied by students fighting fee increases and cuts. They've been there since Monday and say they intend to stay. Support them.
GLOUCESTER DEMO
Despite rain and the biting cold, four hundred people marched to the Shire Hall, Gloucester last Saturday to protest about cuts. Activists also visited the local Vodaphone and Boots stores to highlight massive corporate tax avoidance. Police even shut down the Vodaphone store for us.
BUST CARDS
Bust cards, telling you what to do (and what not to do) if you are arrested while demonstrating are available from the Green and Black Cross.
http://london.indymedia.org/system/file_upload/2010/11/...d.pdf
THE BEST CUT OF ALL
The Anarchist Media Project will produce 'Best Cut of All' posters (pictured on Bristol Indymedia) to order with your organisation's contact and branding included. Contact: yorkshire.anarchist@gmail.com
http://anarchistmedia.wordpress.com/2010/11/17/the-best...inks/
FOREST OF DEAN
As the ‘greenest government ever’ sets out to save a few tens of millions of quid in the UN’s International Year of the Forest in 2011, more than 60,000 signatures have been collected against the sell-off of the Forest of Dean and Forestry Commission property across the UK.
The Dean's 'Hands off our forest' campaign now has a website.
http://www.handsoffourforest.org/indexnew.html
BRISTOL DEMO ARRESTS
One of the people arrested at the Bristol anti-cuts demo on Oct 23 has been cautioned. Inquiries are still
pending on the other but it seem most likely he will also receive a caution too.
MILLBANK LEGAL HELP
Following victimisation of students involved in the Millbank protest, youth fight for jobs has set up student defence campaign and a legal defence fund to try to help students with legal costs and to find sympathetic barristers and solicitors. For those in need email youthfightforjobs@googlemail.com for more info.
THE CUTZ POSTERS
Out now.
E V E N T S
CUT CAMERON FESTIVAL
One for the diary ... Punk all-dayer featuring 20 bands. Saturday 29 January 2011 at the Winchester Arms, Taunton. All proceeds to Anarchists Against The Cuts (Bristol & Bath) and to support Millbank protesters.
RADICAL HISTORY
It's the last week of Bristol Radical History Group's 'Life Before Thatcher' on the 1970s.
U N I O N S
ANTI-CUTS ALLIANCE
Disquiet is growing among rank and file Unison members about a document allegedly emanating from union's head office that prevents branches affiliating to the Anti-cuts Alliance. One member says, "this undermines the democratic process. National and regional conference motions were passed allowing Unison branches to work and affiliate with local anti cuts movements."
The matter was raised at the Bristol Trades Council last week and Unite, the GMB and Unison all appear to be blocking branch affiliation to the Bristol Anti-cuts Alliance. Some rank and file Unison members in Bristol are calling for a picket of Unison's south west HQ at Vintry House in Bristol.
JERRY HICKS
Jerry Hicks, the former Amicus convenor at Rolls Royce, Filton has come second in the election for General Secretary of the Unite union. Hicks, the only rank and file member in the race, beat off two highly-paid career union bureaucrats - Les Bayliss and Gail Cartmail - but was defeated by a third careerist, Len McCluskey. Well done to Jerry anyway. The sheer level of work required to achieve this result with no money and no establishment backing is impressive. Turnout was just sixteen per cent. Jerry says the low figure shows how disillusioned members are with the union. History may judge this result a missed opportunity.
B R I S T O L
MEALS ON WHEELS
Bristol's yellow Tories are raising the cost of meals-on-wheels by over 33 per cent from 3 January 2011. A lunchtime meal will rise from £3.60 to £4.80 per meal while a tea meal will increase from £2.09 to £2.85 per meal. A pensioner in receipt of five lunchtime meals will be expected to pay out an extra six per cent of their basic pension to continue receiving the service. The total cost of the lunchtime service is now equivalent to about a quarter of a single person's pension.
CARE
After years of complaints, Bristol City Council's private sector 'partner' Mimosa Healthcare's care home in Southmead, Sunnymead Manor, has finally been threatened with legal action as a result of an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). This is the care home Yellow Tory council leader Janke was photographed outside of alongside her social services cabinet member Bev Knott last year. Residents "seem contented enough" said the duo before claiming "improvements were visible".
WORLD CUP
Former-England keeper, David James, now at Bristol City, says England's 2018 World Cup bid "makes no sense". The Green-supporting goalie wonders why we would let FIFA use this country to accrue £2bn worth of profits while we are selling off playing fields and cutting sports budgets in schools and at the grassroots. James says, "the message going out to the public is: you can be fit if you can afford to pay for it".
Bristol, which is bidding to be a host city in 2018, will have to spend in excess of £30m to be part of FIFA's money-machine for a few weeks. So far, there's no indication where this money might come from - apart from the council taxpayer - and absolutely no chance of it ever being recouped.
A FIFA Evaluation report on the England bid published last week listed a further €13m of costs that Bristol City Council will need to find to take part. This has - so far - elicited no response or explanation whatsoever from Bristol's bid team.
ROK
Building firm Rok announced another round of redundancies late last week. Only 200 of their 2,800 staff now remain. The firm's two Bristol depots in St Werburgh's and Pill are have been permanently closed and all staff laid-off with no hope of returning. There's no word on what is happening with Bristol City Council's £35m contract with the firm at present.
EDUCATION
Former Hengrove School, now the Oasis Academy John Williams, will be making support staff redundant to save money despite having just moved into a new £20m building. The academy are blaming it on an "inherited deficit" from the old comprehensive school and a surplus of secondary school places in Bristol. A member of staff says, "The atmosphere is not very pleasant at the moment."
HOUSING BENEFIT
Bristol City Council's crisis-ridden housing benefit department is heading for a £1M plus overspend this year. Meanwhile, benefit processing times stand at 27.8 days up from around 16 days. This is a result of cost reductions in agency staff after they were all fired to save money in June. A 'Benefits Improvement Board' has now been established and their first action was to bring in a 'benefits expert' from Birmingham.
LEADERSHIP NEWS
It's not yet Christmas and two headteachers at South Bristol primaries are already on long term sick leave. These heads both earn over £50,000 plus a year - around three times the average wage in South Bristol. One has failed to appear at work since Ofsted put the school into special measures this summer while the other only started in the summer and had bailed out - on full pay - by half term
CHILDCARE
Hillcrest Primary School in Totterdown, Bristol have closed their after-school club with immediate effect.
WHAT A GAS
Bristol City Council's unelected officers have been quietly attempting to spend £200,000 next year on a six month hydrogen ferry experiment for Bristol docks. The “risky experimental project” was spotted by Tory and Labour councillors and was referred to the city's yellow Tory cabinet for a decision. Councillors have questioned the wisdom of this level of expenditure, in the current financial climate, and claim the officers' experimental ferry does not contribute anything to the public transport challenges in the city. Council leader, the yellow Tory Janke says, "Bristol is getting left behind in the rapidly growing hydrogen economy" and has refused to cancel the project.
HYDROGEN VS FOOD
The money for a £200,000 experimental hydrogen ferry would fund the proposed increase on 160,000 meals-on-wheels for a year. That's over 3,000 meals a week.
HOUSE PRICES
House prices in Bristol have seen their biggest fall in two years according to findaproperty.com. The cost of the average house in Bristol fell by 2.3 per cent in October.The average price for a house in Bristol is now £198,927, which is £4,700 lower than the previous month.
LIBRARIES
Bristol West's Labour candidate, Paul Smith, has proposed library services could be jointly managed between the city council, Bristol University and the City of Bristol College to save money.
MONEY FOR NOTHING AND YOUR STAFF FOR FREE
Bristol City Museum hosted a "Big Society debate" on Wednesday evening to encourage volunteers to take on work previously done by paid staff before they were sacked to pay for the overspend on the council's new fashionable dockside 'people's museum'.
B A T H
CASH FOR PEERAGE?
Bath resident, Paul Strasburger, who has donated £765,626.96 in cash to the Liberal Democrats has been made made a peer.
S O U T H G L O U C E S T E R S H I R E
LANGUAGE
Kingswood's new Tory MP, Chris Skidmore, has called on councils to stop producing leaflets in multiple languages. Batook Pandya, director of Sari (Support Against Racist Incidents), says councils might save money in the short-term but it would cost them much more in the long-term if they do not provide advice and information in different languages.
FOREST OF DEAN
Skidmore has also said he understands people's concerns about the Government's proposed sell-off of England's forests but hopes that the plans will allow Britain's woodlands to be better looked after.
N O R T H S O M E S E T
LOCAL AUTHORITY
Street lights could be turned off at night, grass verges may not get mown and volunteers could be asked to run libraries and youth clubs to help North Somerset Council make budget cuts of more than £40 million.
EDUCATION
North Somerset's Backwell School's governing body will apply to the Department of Education to become an academy from April 2011.
EMPLOYMENT NEWS
North Somerset Council are looking to recruit a new manager – at a salary of £60,000 - to save them money.
S O M E R S E T
LOCAL AUTHORITY
Somerset county councillors who have already slashed their budget by £43m have been warned that more cuts are needed for the council to balance its books. Chief executive Sheila Wheeler has told councilors that the authority still faces a black hole in its finances of up to £30m.
ARTS
The 'This Christmas give Somerset back its Arts Funding' campaign aims to get at least 5,000 Somerset people to sign a petition to force a debate at a full county council meeting in early 2011 about the county council's 100 per cent cuts to the arts budget.
www.gopetition.com/petition/40729.html or visit the Take Art website.
FROME
Frome Town Council has been asked to take over the running of services from Somerset County Council. A letter was sent to the town council by the county council's chief executive, Sheila Wheeler. Mrs Wheeler explained that local government finances looked bleak and that the county council could no longer afford to run all the services it has done such as street lighting, maintenance of footpaths and leisure and tourism. Mrs Wheeler offered no funding to Frome to take on her services.
MENDIPS
Staff working at Mendip District Council in Shepton Mallet have received e-mails offering them voluntary redundancy.
RECYCLING
Four recycling centres will close as part of Somerset County Council's cuts. The Middlezoy, Dulverton, Coleford and Crewkerne centres will close after consultation, saving around £314,000 a year. Centres confirmed for closure will cease operations by April 1, 2011. Viridor, the sites' private operator, will decide how many staff are re-deployed or made redundant.
G L O U C E S T E R S H I R E
LIBRARIES
Eleven libraries are to be shut by Gloucester County Council. Additionally, there will be seven 'Library Link' libraries reduced to just three hours per week - effectively closures - and all five mobile libraries will be taken off the road. That's a total loss of 23 libraries out of the current 43. These cuts will reduce the current library service budget by 43 per cent.
EDUCATION
Special schools and poorly-performing mainstream primaries and secondaries are being encouraged to apply for academy status by Gloucester County Council. Already, Balcarras School will become Cheltenham's first academy in February 2011.
MATERNITY
NHS bosses in Gloucestershire claim recent investment in maternity services in the county will protect mothers and babies. Critics say the Royal College of Midwives recommends a ratio of 1:28 (28 births per midwife) and claim that ratios in Gloucestershire Hospitals operate at 1:42. From January 15 2011 there will be only 4 maternity beds left in Cheltenham.
AGE
Council workers in Gloucester aged over 55 have been asked to quit in a bid to save money. Gloucester City Council has been getting senior managers to sit down with the employees and "invite" them to retire.
GLOUCESTER FIRST
Gloucester County Council is cutting Gloucestershire First's budget from £1.4 million to £700,000 next year. Gloucestershire First employs 40 people and is a private-public partnership that promotes the county and attracts investment to the area.
C S R
RAIL
As we told you a month ago, the electrication of the London - Swansea rail line has been canceled or put “on hold” in Whitehall parlance.
LEGAL AID
Lawyers and law centre workers from Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire have warned in a letter to the Times that local, community-based advice agencies may have up to a third of their funding cut. "This will mean that thousands of poor, vulnerable and destitute people will not be able to gain access to justice,' they say.
TOP PAY
Local Government Group chief executive John Ransford has been forced to take a £200,000 a year pay cut following pressure from government. Ransford recently appeared on BBC TV’s Newsnight justifying his £300k plus salary package and council chief executive pay in general. His interview was widely regarded as a car crash moment.
SICKNESS BENEFITS
An academic says a new work test that could force almost 30,000 people off sickness benefits in Bristol is unfair. Professor Malcolm Harrington says work capability assessments (WCA) do not work and the system is "impersonal and mechanistic". His independent review of the system discovered major weaknesses, including a failure to properly understand and measure mental health problems.
E C O N O M Y
IMPENDING FINANCIAL MELTDOWN UPDATE
Our man at the Treasury has been visiting city merchant bankers at Kleinwort Benson this week. "They're shitting themselves," he says using official Treasury jargon. Over the last year UK banks have bought over £500bn of US Treasury bonds - £120bn in August alone after Boy George Osborne's emergency budget he says. "They're getting their money out of the country."
Then there's the small matter of the £250bn of debt UK banks need to refinance next year. "The bankers know damn well it can't be done," he says. Irish-style austerity is the only possible outcome, apparently.
NEW TAX
Plans to reclassify the River Severn as coastline will mean council taxpayers in North Somerset, Bristol, South Gloucestershire and Gloucestershire are forced to pay a levy to the Fisheries and Conservation Authority (IFCA.) The IFCA manages the exploitation of sea fisheries and says part of the Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary is designated as "seashore" so should be included.
NEW TAX ON WORK
New reforms will allow social housing landlords to review tenants' finances after two years in a property. Tenants could be evicted if their financial situation is deemed to have improved enough.
RAIL FARES
Rail fares are to rise by an average of 6.2 per cent from January with many commuters facing double digit increases on some popular routes. The Association of Train Operating Companies (Atoc) says the median price increase will be five times greater than the 2010 increase of 1.1 per cent.
FARMING
Profits for poultry farmers and egg producers in the West are collapsing as the cost of feed soars. Sixty per cent of poultry feed is wheat, which has risen in price by £50 per tonne in recent months. Egg producers are facing extra costs of 5p per dozen eggs and chicken producers more than 12p per bird while supermarket retailers continue to squeeze prices.
B U S I N E S S
DODGY DEALERS
Senior executives at Rok, the South West's Exeter-based bankrupt builders, were warned in August that the company’s public statements were misleading investors. According to the Financial Times, the board of directors was told by the firm's finance director Ashley Martin - who was suspended at the time - that a trading statement published in August, stating the firm was “confident about the outlook” for its core business risked misleading investors. Mr Martin told the board it was failing to inform investors about the real performance of the group and risked creating a false market in Rok’s shares.
MITIE
Profits have risen by more than 12 per cent in the last six months at Bristol-based government outsource contractors, Mitie. The company will now focus on work in justice, health and education as it looks to pick up even more government work out of the spending cuts. The firm has recently signed deals with Rolls-Royce, Manchester Airport and the Royal Opera House, as well as with Vodafone.
Chief executive Ruby McGregor-Smith says, "Overall, market conditions in the medium term remain positive for outsourcing."
Despite the big rise in profits, around 30 staff are being made redundant at the firm's Exeter offices.
CONCORDE
Airbus say Concorde will never again open to the public at their Filton site. The company say they have taken the decision on cost grounds.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
A chain of care homes that operates in the South West is saving money this Christmas by refusing to pay its staff overtime on the basis it would discriminate against other religions. Guinness Care and Support said it had an "ethical belief in equality", which means it cannot recognise Christmas over other religious festivals.
CORPORATE TAX SCAM LATEST
J Sainsbury have launched a Channel Islands-based VAT-dodging CD and DVD website to cash in on online sales. They join Amazon, HMV, Tesco, Play.com and Asda who are all already using the Channel Islands scam.
SCUMWATCH
A reader says they recently telephoned the "ethical" Co-Op bank asking if they could reduce their loan repayments, which they are struggling to meet, by extending the term of their loan. "Yes," came the reply, "if you borrow at least another £2,000."
In other words, solve your debt problems by taking on more unsustainable debt! Another reader says every time they phone their bank they're asked if they would like to borrow between five and fifteen thousand pounds.
L O O N I E S
STUDENTS
"Students have joined forces with French communists to picket England's secondary schools urging pupils as young as 15 to walk out over university tuition fees," the Daily Mail's This Is Money website assures us.
NUS President, Aaron Porter, meanwhile, obviously hasn't heard about the French commies yet as he's still selling the old anarchist infiltration line, "[some students] attempt, naively and opportunistically, to align themselves with the anarchists - careful to distance themselves from human violence only when pushed, but revealing an appetite for other forms of violence when invited to."
What a nob.
S T U F F
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Inside the Cambridge University occupation
26-11-2010 23:25
Tomorrow (Saturday 27 Nov) a solidarity demonstration is scheduled at 12 noon in solidarity with the occupation and against all cuts and fees -- meet at Great St Mary's.
The Frowning Motorcycle Presents The First Eviction Party
26-11-2010 23:22
Benefit gig for 'Stop Hinkley C' and 'Bristol Against Arms Trade' as well as 'Save Classics' campaigns!Saturday 27th November @ The Frowning motorcycle
27 Stokes Croft
Doors 9pm - 5am
£3 suggested donation
The Bailiffs are coming!....So get down to what could be one of the last nights at The Frowning Motorcycle and show your support for the space and the 3 campaigns supported by the benefit! Bands from 9.45pm followed by hip hop, ragga, jungle and dnb dj mash up into the wee small hours.
This is the first of 3 consecutive events over the weekend, with a 'Queer and Greasy Wrestling' knock out tournament on Sunday from 8pm and then the 'Resistmas Market' on Monday morning....bailiffs are due @ 11.30am so be there early!
When you threaten one, you threaten all
Eviction solidarity
Vaizey Vanishes
26-11-2010 22:23
"Internet minister" and public schoolboy Ed Vaizey was in Notttingham today, but managed to avoid protesters eager to challenge him about the Coalition government's cuts.
"The Honourable" Edward Vaizey (his full moniker by virtue of being the offspring of a peer) is the "Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries," which covers arts, media, museums and galleries, libraries, the intranet and that sort of thing. In recent weeks it is his interest in teh interwebs which has attracted particular attention following his suggestion that the UK might abandon the principle of "net neutrality," but this doesn't seem to have had anything to do with his visit today.
Vaizey joined anti-piracy figurhead and Undertone Feargal Sharkey to open a new rehearsal space in Nottingham. The associated press release describes this as "a great example of the Big Society in action" despite the fact it has been funded by a £500,000 grant from the Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS). Confirming once again that the Big Society means just about whatever you want it to.
According to his underwhelming Twitter page, Vaizey also visited "Antenna" (a quick web search reveals that this is "a new Creative Industries Business Hub," no I don't know either) and the Nottingham Contemporary art gallery.
His day also included a trip to the Nottingham Playhouse (one of the institutions hit by County Council cuts earlier this year). Local anti-cuts campaigners had got wind of this appearance and turned up to challenge him about government policy. Unfortunately, despite keeping an eye on the various entrances and exits he seems to have slipped the noose. Whether he came earlier or found another way to leave isn't clear.
Campaigners hang around for sometime hoping for the opportunity to have a full and frank exchange of views with the Minister, but were denied the opportunity. No doubt this was an entirely accidental oversight on Vaizey's part and one I'm sure he'll take immediate steps to correct.
Calder High School Walkout Demo
26-11-2010 22:22
250-300 School Students Walk out and Demonstrate in Hebden Bridge, Calderdale Wed 24 November
After a small demo at 8.00m hundreds of Calder High school students walked out of school at 11.00 am and marched 1 mile to Hebden bridge town centre for a lively demo in the centre of town. With big cheers in response to many honking motorists, Students protested for a couple of hours. Many returned for more protesting at 3.30.
Organised by 6th formers first in line for the 300% fee hike, students of all ages joined the demo, for a day of accelerated learning on the streets about self-organising and the capital crisis.
More legal advice for student occupations
26-11-2010 22:22
Advice from GBCLegal Team relating to possestion orders and injuntions for univeristy occupations.
Please fwd
To all the university occupations
Some basic advice on Injunctions and Possession orders.
Possession Orders
are served by the court and applied for by the owners of the property. They give the police and high court bailiffs power to evict you using reasonable force, this extends to the use of force in order to gain entry to the space you are in.
The method in which the Order is served will be that it is pasted up onto the property. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO HAVE READ THE ORDER FOR IT TO TAKE EFFECT.
Yesterday the Oxford occupation was evicted by a Possession Order. They refused to leave one by one and were taken out physically on mass by police. However no arrests were made.
Injunctions
are orders not to do something made by the court and applied for by your uni. If you do the said thing then your in contempt of court and can be arrested or/and removed. In some rare circumstances this can give rise to criminal or civil action after the occupation has been evicted. THE MAIN DEFENSE AGAINST AN INJUNCTION IS THAT YOU WEREN'T AWARE OF IT.
At Oxford solicitors were serving the IPO but the people in occupation chose to ignore it, thinking it might be an Injunction. They sang well it was being read, closed the curtains when it was put at the window and pushed it back when it came under the door. It turned out to be a
Possession Order but if it was an Injunction then their defense, during or later in court, would have been that they were not aware of its terms.
For other legal info see our bust card available here:
london.indymedia.org/articles/6069
Green and Black Cross legal team is a support group set up using the infrastructure, skills and experience in the climate movement. We are based in London at the moment but are happy to support people across the UK when possible.
Solidarity with the occupations, solidarity with the arrested!
GBCLegal@riseup.net
