On-the-spot fines have become the ‘penalty of choice’ for public authorities including the police, local authorities and schools. Almost unknown a decade ago, these £75 or £80 fines are now issued for a whole range of incidents, some as serious as theft…
Somebody just emailed me this – Birmingham council is charging people to take personal wedding photographs in public parks. “You are welcome to use our parks or green open spaces as backdrops for your wedding photographs and/or film recordings of your Wedding day for personal use only, with prior permission from us. Use service specific Parks form to make your request providing dates, times and the name of the site where you want to take your photographs. There is a charge of £50 for commercial photographs and £25 for non-commercial photographs.” [http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/usingparks] This is very much a sign of the times –…
Post by Manick Govinda, head of the Manifesto Club visiting artists campaign… The myopic immigration cap is still having a damaging effect on the UK’s cultural life, not to mention the economy, people’s personal and social lives. The UK Border Agency’s piecemeal offer to save the UK from cultural and intellectual isolation was to introduce 1,000 visas to award non-European Union nationals with exceptional talent in the arts, sciences and humanities who wish to stay in the UK for 3-5 years. http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/visas-immigration/working/tier1/exceptional-talent/ Professional bodies would assess and endorse applications to this route and in the case of the arts, Arts Council England…
The film-maker Meghan Horvath has written a beautiful and moving testament about the uncertainties of her visa situation – an excellent combination of personal narrative and the de-humanising facts of bureaucratic points-based scoring… You could say exploring the world beyond my own is in my genes. My grandfather, with his mother and his accordion, caught the last open wave of immigration from Eastern Europe to America in the 1920s. His name is engraved on a wall on Ellis Island, New York City, which was once the bustling welcoming centre for all those who braved the journey across the ocean. And so I…
Here is a post from Peter Lloyd, Manifesto Club member and football supporter, on the new phenomenon of ‘bubble matches’ – a ban on fans’ independent travel which amounts to a gross intrusion on freedom of movement… I am a close follower of football and a regular attendee at professional football matches. I have experienced being body searched as an “away” fan at a number of grounds including Brighton and Birmingham, the latter just a few weeks ago. This is an intrusive, excessive, disproportionate and unjustified interference with ordinary people going to a football match. Incidents which could be considered dangerous at…
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 supply teacher was suspended for ‘gross misconduct’ after gave a 17-year-old pupil a lift home. The boy had forgotten his bus fare. The teacher was going the same route and offered him a lift for a favour. This comes in the wake of a woman reported to police for helping a boy down from a tree. These are simple acts of human kindness. That they are punished as unprofessional or risky shows how everyday and normal caring has become contaminated. A golf leader told me that for the first time he is seeing cases of kids left alone at the ground…
We’ve had a few emails about the Guides CRB checking 16 and 17 year-olds – a nasty and suspicious habit, which is going to be outlawed by the upcoming Freedom Bill. A Scout leader just sent us this discussion thread, which discusses the Guides checking their 16 and 17-year-old ‘young leaders’. There is a long-winded discussion about different categories of 16 and 17 year old Guiders (who, let’s face it, must be the lowest-risk group in existence) and the merits or demerits of checking them. All of which shows how guiding leaders are encouraged to be more obsessed with proceedures than with…
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,…
The Manifesto Club was on Radio Wales with the lady who was given a £400 fine for allegedly dropping a cigarette butt – although she claims that she put it out with her foot, then put it in her pocket. What was striking was the lack of public support for her – given that she seemed pretty sincere, and if indeed she was innocent she had had a pretty harsh time of it. Most callers seemed to think that it was good that she was being fined, and perhaps that she should be fined more. It shows the need for more public…
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.