CPNs: 20,000 new ‘busybody ASBOs’ issued in past 4 years
The Community Protection Notice power has been dubbed the ‘new Asbo’, and is used to target everyday acts of perceived anti-social behaviour. This report analyses local authorities’ use of Community Protection Notices, in the period between November 2016 and October 2018. We…
Comment on Birmingham school protests
Birmingham City Council is considering a PSPO to restrict parents protesting outside primary schools, in disagreement with the schools’ teaching on sexuality. Here is the Manifesto Club statement on the issue: PSPOs should not be used to restrict peaceful protest in public places. There are already powers to prosecute acts of intimidation, violence or harassment, but the peaceful expression of opinions should not be criminalised. Indeed, a PSPO exclusion zone could well be illegal: the primary legislation on PSPOs requires councils to ‘have particular regard to the rights of freedom of expression and freedom of assembly’, to ensure that these rights are…
Stop Kensington and Chelsea Council stamping on street entertainment
Kensington and Chelsea Council is planning a wide-ranging crack-down on street entertainment, which will severely limit, and in some areas prevent, busking in the borough. The council has drawn up a ‘voluntary code’, which includes measures such as: limiting performances to 45 minutes; banning busking before 10am or after 7pm; limitation of performers to 6, or in some areas 2 or 3; requiring buskers to have public liability insurance; requiring buskers to limit sound levels. These measures would prevent choirs or larger groups, prevent busking at peak times, and restrict busking slots to an unreasonably short period. Still worse, the council is…
The Silencing of Public Space
Summary 1. This report argues that free speech and association are fundamental freedoms – and that they are also essential for the quality and vibrancy of public spaces, contributing towards spaces in which people feel at home, and where they can…
PSPOs – The ‘Busybodies’ Charter’ in 2018
The Manifesto Club has been campaigning against Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) since the introduction of the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act in 2014. We obtained changes to the Statutory Guidance at the end of 2017, which imposed a number of…
Vetting parents – the growth of mistrust
Summary In 2012, parliament passed measures designed to substantially reduce criminal records checks, and particularly to reduce the burden on volunteers. Yet six years later, this report finds that a particularly trusted cohort of volunteers – parent volunteers in schools – are…
Self-censoring: time to fight back against the culture police
“Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. Don’t let the bastards grind you down.” Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale (1985). (Post by Manick Govinda.) Western civil society prides itself on freedom of speech and free expression, particularly in the creative arts. Writers and artists are…
Richmond Council’s abortion clinic PSPO: Manifesto Club response
Richmond council is planning a PSPO targeting anti-abortion protests outside an abortion clinic on Rosslyn Road. Here is the Manifesto Club response to this proposal. Dear Richmond Council, The Manifesto Club would like to register its opposition to your proposed text for a PSPO, on the grounds that the text is too broad, and fails to target harmful or nuisance detrimental behaviour. We specifically object to the prohibition on Protesting, namely engaging in any act of approval or disapproval or attempted act of approval or disapproval, with respect to issues related to abortion services, by any means, including, without limitation, graphic, verbal…
The idiocy of prison smoking bans – report from the Isle of Man
A guest post by Stuart Hartill: Filming has finished for a TV series (as yet un-named) about life in the Isle of Man prison, due to be screened later this year. It’s the latest PR stunt for a jail which in 2008 proudly announced itself as the first smoke-free prison in Europe. But despite numerous uncritical UK press articles at the time, that wasn’t strictly true. This became obvious in 2011, when a long overdue HM Inspectorate of Prisons visit finally happened. In one press report, for example, Nick Hardwick, Chief Inspector of Prisons said: Many prisoners appeared to be intensively and…
The problems that remain with Nottingham’s PSPO
So far as we know, Nottingham City Council last night rubber stamped a PSPO regulating busking, begging, leafleting, and other activities in the city centre. After fierce opposition and criticism (including from the Manifesto Club, Keep Streets Live and the Musicians’ Union), the council reduced some of the conditions. These changes include – – A removal of the requirement to gain consent before handing out religious, charitable or political leaflets; – A removal of the requirement to busk in designated busking sites. Instead, busking is banned in two small areas, including next to the town hall. Yet significant problems remain with the…
Charity Christmas dinner threatened with fly-posting fine
A Notts lady who put up posters offering a free Christmas dinner for local lonely people has been threatened with a fine for fly-posting. She raised the money for the lunch herself; and then with volunteers would spend Christmas morning cooking and…
Defra cracks down on corrupt litter police
For several years, the Manifesto Club has campaigned against the practice of private companies being paid on commission to issue fines on behalf of public authorities. Normally, the arrangement is that the company receives 50-100% of the fines income. Unsurprisingly, private litter wardens have engaged in corrupt practices, including fining people for non-offences or trivial acts, fining people for litter dropped by accident, and tailing or following people. Our report ‘The Corruption of Punishment‘ – in association with Panorama – found that fines by the private litter police had topped 140,000 a year. Still worse, private companies were moving into the policing…