Josie Appleton

Free movement - visiting artists

Malaysian photographer refused entry: Testimony from Jemima Yong

Jemima Yong, a talented young photographer and performance maker, was recently detained in London Heathrow Airport, denied entry and sent back to Singapore, 18 hours after arriving in the UK. Jemima is a Malaysian citizen and a permanent resident of Singapore. She studied and lived in the UK for five years. Jemima had not done anything illegal on arrival but the Home Office believed that she might break immigration laws whilst she was here. She reveals to the Manifesto Club the deeply flawed system employed by the UK Home Office to justify a decision made on individual discretion. Her crime? Jemima only…

Blog • On-the-spot fines

Fined for drying a bench in Glasgow

I have just received a letter from an elderly gentleman in Glasgow, who was fined earlier this year while in the process of drying a bench. He has arthritis and wanted to sit down; he had one handkerchief but the bench was still wet, so he left the tissue for a minute to go to a cafe opposite to get some more tissues and finish the job. Yet no sooner had he stepped away from his bench, he was approached by a warden who slapped him with a fine for littering. He explained that he hadn’t left the tissue, he was only…

Blog • Busking

Leicester Sq busking crackdown funded by private company

The band King’s Parade were arrested while busking in Leicester square in May. Reports from a Westminster Council meeting (1) now reveal the context for this arrest. The crackdown on busking in Leicester square is part of Operation Spotlight, which is funded by the private business association the Heart of London. The minutes report: ‘Operation Spotlight is a HoLBA (Heart of London Business Alliance) funded initiative aimed at deterring performers/buskers, pedicabs with amplification, persistent beggars and ticket touts.’ The council minutes reveal that this business association, in effect, bought police time, including a police sergeant, two PCs and a noise officer to…

Blog • On-the-spot fines

Is feeding the birds now a crime in the UK?

Is feeding the birds now a crime in the UK? Judging from the number of recent cases involving crust-scattering pensioners, you would have to conclude, yes. A woman in Blaenau Gwent was fined £125 for throwing a piece of bread roll for the birds out of her car window. In another recent case, a Devon woman was fined for ‘littering peanuts while feeding pigeons’. The Blaenau Gwent fine was issued by private security guards, paid on a commission basis, with a propensity to fine for negligible offences. (This is the company that issued a fine for a thread of cotton falling off…

Blog • On-the-spot fines

Fines for parents who don’t read to their kids

The Ofsted chief has said that schools should have the power to fine parents who don’t read to their children, or who miss school events. This is the latest extension of on-spot fines, which are increasingly seen as the sole form of persuasion or sanction, and the answer to every social problem. The fine is the one way in which a school can communicate with parents, apparently. A school – an institution which is supposed to have a shared interest with parents in the education of their children – increasingly exerts authority through the use of coercive, pecuniary penalties. There are also…

Free movement - visiting artists

Manufactured Britishness

A guest post by artist and Visiting Artist Campaign supporter Kristina Cranfield, about her project Manufactured Britishness. ‘Manufactured Britishness’ is a project derived from the compulsory and very real ‘Life in the UK’ test created to assess individuals’ eligibility for UK citizenship. The project critically explores the government’s program and displays a future manifestation of the test. In this dystopian future, we see immigrants as an exploitable material – a living currency, compelled to sustain national identity in order to maximise profitable agendas. The themes underlying this project were driven by my own experience as a UK immigrant, where, in the final…

Blog • Free movement - visiting artists

Organist deported – problems with visas continue

In spite of the Manifesto Club’s victory in winning reforms to the visa system for visiting artists, it seems that the news hasn’t reached border officials on the ground. Under the permitted paid engagement route artists visiting the UK for a concert or talk are exempt from the heavy-handed ‘points-based visa system’. Yet the star organist Cameron Carpenter – booked to play in Birmingham – was detained for seven hours in an ‘Orwellian’ ordeal, before being deported back to Berlin. Once he found out about the new visa route he was able to return to the UK – with only a short…

Public space • Take action!

Dog owners rebelling against no-dog zones

As I said in a Spectator article, dog owners are rising up across the country in protest against no-dog zones. Here are a few of the groups taking on their council’s zero-tolerance rules… Friends of dogs in parks – Holland Park, London. A group (including vets) taking on Holland Park’s dogs-on-leads orders, which prevent dogs from getting proper exercise in this large central London park. Their petition has 3000 signatures… West Shore Dog walkers – North Wales – a well organised group opposing Conwy council’s ‘bullying and illegal’ enforcement of no-dog zones, carried out through private enforcement officers. Caroline and Tony Costa…

Blog • Busking

Camden buskers defy council ban

Camden buskers took to the streets on the first day of the council’s new licence scheme – under which unlicensed busking becomes a crime, punishable with an £1000 fine. Specifically, percussion and wind instruments – all of them! – are banned, and will not be licensed except in exceptional circumstances. In this video, a protesting unlicensed percussionist ad libs on libertarianism, including the lines ‘I walk within my own authority; nobody stands over me’; and (on bureaucrats’ ‘shite’): ‘when you stand up to it, it’s insubstantial’. Interestingly, there wasn’t a council officer in sight; which was great, and suggests that the council…

Blog • Busking

Camden Council’s war on buskers

The Campaign group Keep Streets Live is challenging Camden Council’s draconian new busking law in the High Court. The new law is extraordinarily severe, anathema to this vibrant and chilled part of London with a lively street music scene. Not only will buskers have to apply in advance and pay for a licence, there are also strict rules and conditions for busking which will make the activity all but impossible. The very notion of a licence undermines the nature of busking which is – in the words of Keep Streets Live director Jonny Walker – ‘an informal and impromptu form of entertainment’.…

Blog • Football Fans Not Criminals

‘Yid Army’ charges should never have been brought

It is good news that charges have been dropped against three Tottenham fans for using the word ‘Yid’. But why was such a case brought in the first place? It was last September that the FA put out a statement warning Spurs fans that their ‘Yid Army’ chants are likely ‘to be considered offensive by the reasonable observer. Use of the term in a public setting could amount to a criminal offence and leave fans liable to prosecution’. Tottenham fans had also been told to ‘drop the Y-word from their songbook’ by lobby groups such as the Community Security Trust and the…

Blog • Freedom hotline • Take action!

No to state parents in Scotland

The Scottish government has passed a bill to appoint a ‘named person’ for every child at birth, with the responsibility of ‘advising, informing or supporting the child or young person’. These parental functions will hitherto be allotted to an employee of a health board or education authority (it is specifically stated that the named person cannot be one of the child’s parents). This extraordinary Children and Young Person’s Act exemplifies a shift within child protection policy, from focusing on children ‘at risk of significant harm’, to the state assuming responsibility for ensuring the ‘wellbeing’ of every child – as if the entire…