Blog • Leafleting bans

Brighton and Hove council responds to Manifesto Club petition against leafleting bans

Here is Brighton and Hove council’s woeful response to our Petition Against the Brighton leafleting ban. The requirement that people pay the council before leafleting, apparently, is not a ban but ‘allows flyering in a controlled way’. At the same time – the crackdown on leafleteers is continuing, with at least 4 people given on the spot fines at the weekend for the crime of ‘unlicensed leafleting’. Message to Brighton and Hove council: this debate is to be continued… ‘Thank you for your petition, which was presented to Full Council on 15 December 2011 and which I formally note here. Issuing leaflets…

Blog • Vetting

How unnecessary safeguarding rules sap resources and good will

I just received this email from a trustee of a charity – who wishes to remain anonymous – about the corrosive effect ‘safeguarding’ rules are having on the work of his organisation. Unnecessary proceedures poison the work of the organisation and can absorb scarce resources… “The vetting and barring regime continues to have detrimental effects on the operation of charities. As a trustee I, and others, am faced with re-assuring our staff, officers, and volunteers that the actions they are taking are reasonable in the light of ever increasing fears of the consequences if something goes wrong, especially when volunteers are visiting…

Blog • Vetting

The day your CRB check expires – do you become an instant risk?

I just received this from a university tutor, a case that ‘shows up the absurdity of the CRB system’. ‘Student out on placement, all going ok, manager finds out CRB check due to expire soon. If not resolved student’s placement will terminate then despite all being happy with her performance to date. So on one day she is fine to be out alone with ‘vulnerable’ people, the next day she is deemed so risky that she cannot even enter the workplace! What nonsense.’ Well said. It is strange how the day somebody’s CRB check expires, all hell breaks loose and everybody panics…

Blog • Freedom hotline

Liverpool art gallery gets ‘noise abatement notice’

An art gallery in Liverpool has been served with a ‘noise abatement notice’, prohibiting it from holding live music events. Assuming the music wasn’t that loud – this is yet another sign of the growing regulation of live music. Music is often now classified as ‘noise pollution’, and many live music events have to measure sound levels outside. Of course – not all music is to everyone’s taste, but this uniform definition of music as ‘noise’ is part of the growing official view that sees all social life as messy pollution. It’s a view that comes from the EU too – with…

Blog • Leafleting bans

Islington council warns people not to attach notices to trees – in a notice attached to a tree

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…

Blog • Photo bans

Councils charge for public photography

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 –…

Free movement - visiting artists

Keeping talented artists out of the UK

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…

Free movement - visiting artists

Testimony from film-maker Meghan Horvath

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…

Blog • Football Fans Not Criminals

Against car bans to ‘bubble’ football matches

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…