A follow up post from Manifesto Club member, Peter Lloyd, on the phenomenon of 'bubble football matches' (where away fans are banned from travelling to a match under their own steam, and must instead take approved coaches at defined pickup places and times)...

If you are a Portsmouth Football Club supporter you will probably be aware that you will only be able to see your team play on 7th April at local rivals Southampton if you travel by designated coach from a designated pick up point at a designated time to a designated drop off point. That’s because the fixture is a “Bubble” match. It doesn't sound like fun.

This email came from a political leafleteer, who is increasingly being stopped and asked for a licence. Yet the boroughs concerned have not, so far as we know, enacted a leafleting licence system. The context is growing powers for London councils and PSCOs, to be granted by the London Local Authorities Act. A worrying case, which we will investigate...

'I've leafleted for several years (from a stall) without ever contacting the authorities - under the auspices of the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act (CNEA) 2005 (*) - in Islington and Camden (and Westminster). I've not had any bother from the police, and not much from the Police Community Support Officers.

I just received this email from a Manifesto Club member returning from holiday:

'Just been to Milan by plane and lost a favourite penknife because I forgot to put it in my larger suitcase.
As I normally carry a penknife with me at all times is it worth campaigning against the regulations that take away items from "obvious non-terrorists"? A lady in front of me lost an expensive item and was obviosly distressed. My wife a few years ago lost her complete make-up "set" as she was unaware of the regulations also.'

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.

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 Parisian clubs and others falling foul of similar regulations, and setting up protests in celebration of night life.

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 less, or warning you about dog fouling or bag theft...

Public space seems to be rapidly becoming the private space of officials.

Read on:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-16628232

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]

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/

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.

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=2060...