Islington council warns people not to attach notices to trees – in a notice attached to a tree. This was was clearly a mistake, the actions of a junior worker without a huge amount of common sense. Yet the incident represents a real trend – which is while community posters are being cracked down on, council posters in public space are growing apace. So while you may be threatened with an on-the-spot fine for putting up a lost cat poster, councils are hanging more and more notices off lampposts, on bins and electricity boxes – urging you to give up smoking, drink…

Pleb’s College is a ‘free university’ in Oxford, and they were reportedly stopped from leafleting outside fresher’s fair. They were told that their event was ‘not political’ and they have to pay £400 to hand out leaflets… ‘It was outside Freshers Fair, we were handing out flyers for our free uni event, there was a debate with the council staff about whether they were political or not, we could have apparently handed out more political leaflets, they were political leaflets, just not party political. They said everyone can leaflet “so long as they’ve paid the £400 license”‘ http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=241219365938327&id=206076249452639

A student at Leeds University has just told us that there is a move afoot to ban leaflets on campus. The motion is discussed here. What is particularly worrying is the support for the ban from some students – who oppose flyering on the basis that they personally find it ‘annoying’ or a ‘waste of time’. As if we should ban everything that annoys us. Civil liberties don’t get a look in. We’d like to hold a meeting in Leeds to discuss this issue, as some student societies are outraged about this. If you are at Leeds and are against the ban,…

Like many other universities, York has strict rules limiting students’ use of posters on campus. This rule is ostensibly to stop litter, but actually is about a generalised hostility of university management towards spontaneous activities on campus. Poster-bans inhibit student societies, since (especially on campuses) posters are one of the main way of getting your event out there. York students have a petition against the ban; we should support them. Sign the petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/university-of-york-repeal-the-ban-on-campus-postering See the Manifesto Club campaign against leafleting bans: http://www.manifestoclub.com/leafletingban

Brick Lane is defined by its touts, who stand outside every restaurant enticing passersby to try ‘the best curry in London’. Yet now this extravagant self-promotion is to be banned. I’ve just received an email from a Manifesto Club supporter, reporting that ‘Tower Hamlets council’s latest initiative is to ban restaurant owners from using touts outside their establishments to entice customers in. An anti-tout pledge will now be added to their licensing conditions. Are touts, with their old world manners and quaint turn of phrases, really a threat to anyone seeking a good curry?’ I don’t imagine anyone has complained about the…