The Manifesto Club Campaign Against Leafleting Bans has achieved significant protections for small groups and events, in new statutory guidance published today by Defra. In our report, Leafleting – A liberty lost? we showed how large numbers of city centres were now…
On Armistice day there was the depressingly familiar story of the banning of poppy wearers – most prominently including footballers, but also in a Blackpool shop, and in Derry airport. Yet in another case, two youths were charged with incitement to hatred, for allegedly burning a poppy and posting a video of the event on Facebook. So one cannot be for poppies – and what they represent – or against them. It seems that what is banned is not a particular opinion, but any expression of views at all. The only inoffensive person is one who keeps their opinions to themselves.
Teacher and Manifesto Club member, Michele Ledda, launched a petition against the banning of Carol Ann Duffy’s poem, ‘Education for Leisure’. The exam board AQA has removed the poem from its GCSE anthology, and has asked schools to destroy old copies containing…