We are co-hosting a meeting as part of The Free Society’s Voices of Freedom June debate series. Our session is on ‘Hyper-regulation and the Bully State’, Thursday June 24, 6-8pm. Chaired by James Panton (Manifesto Club); speakers include Josie Appleton (Manifesto Club),…
The new UK Government has promised to review and scale back plans for the vetting database. As the organisation that has led the campaign against the Vetting Database, the Manifesto Club welcomes this change in political mood – but we want to…
The Manifesto Club, with English PEN, coordinated a letter to the Times today – taking on the points-based visa system, against which we have a long-running campaign. Signatories include Antony Gormley, Baroness Helena Kennedy, and poet Andrew Motion. Read the letter here.
A survey today showed that many private tutors will refuse to register on the vetting database. Three quarters of the tutors interviewed by the website thetutorpages.com said that they wouldn’t register: many said that they didn’t think it would stop paedophiles, and resented the implication that they were ‘assumed guilty until proven innocent’. Henry Fagg, director of www.thetutorpages.com, made the excellent point that tutors have close relationships with the parent of the child; they often go into the family home to give their lessons. ‘This scheme is in danger of undermining that bond of trust as it breeds the suspicion that every…
The Home Office introduced new restrictions on international artists and academics visiting the UK for talks, temporary exhibitions, concerts or artists’ residencies. Visitors now have to submit to a series of arduous and expensive proceedures to get their visa, and then more…
Old political issues, from the economy to foreign policy, have lost their fire: these are no longer the trenches that divide political life. Yet a new political dividing line is growing: between those who support or oppose freedom in practice. Pro- and…
This is an outrageous case: a woman disciplined for helping a young boy down from a tree. Apparently she went against the school’s (Ofsted-approved) child protection guidelines, which recommended that teachers observe children when they are stuck in trees. This shows that child protection rules are all about ticking boxes, observing rules, and nothing to do with actually caring for children and helping when they are in trouble. In fact – these policies are actually about the re-education of adults’ decent and caring instincts, into something quite cold and distant. (Incidentally this woman was disciplined by a CSO, who clearly have the…
The Manifesto Club and English PEN delivering our 10,000-strong petition against points-based visa rules to 10 Downing Street, 2pm 17 March 2010.
On 17 March 2010, we submitted the Manifesto Club petition against the points-based visa system to 10 Downing Street – with over 10,000 signatures, including artists and writers such as Antony Gormley, Jeremy Deller, Maureen Duffy and Anne Fine. To mark the…
The Manifesto Club has made a submission to the Anti-CCTV Strategy of www.no-cctv.org.uk. The submission, by Dolan Cummings, is below. The Manifesto Club is opposed to the use of CCTV in public places, primarily on the grounds that it induces inhibition and undermines the spirit of public space. CCTV is often justified explicitly in terms of preventing not only crime but loosely-defined ‘antisocial behaviour’. Even if successful in its own terms, which is doubtful, this is achieved by replicating the atmosphere of narrowly-defined commercial spaces, so streets and squares begin to resemble outdoor shopping malls. The effect is to limit the public’s…
I just received this email from a Scout leader, who was asked to CRB a serving police officer. A worrying story for the times, showing how old forms of authority (police, politicians) are being replaced with new (child protection coordinators, health and safety advisers). ‘I have just been asked to do a CRB check on a serving police officer so that he can help in his son’s cub scout pack. I thought this had to be an over enthusiastic misinterpretation of the rules, so I queried it with the Scout Association. Amazingly, they have confirmed that indeed they do NOT trust the…
As we’ve highlighted in our Visiting Artists Campaign, the Home Office’s new points-based visa system has meant thousands of international students unable to start their courses on time, cancelled concerts and lecture series, and the growth of suspicion and surveillance on campus.…