MembersNEWNew in the Members’ Room: James Panton gives talks defending freedom in London and in Edinburgh ; Suzy Dean has a blog on youth engagement; Josie Appleton will be debating booze bans at Sussex University; Michele Ledda's petition against banning of a poem from the school curriculum has more than 100 signatures; Dolan Cummings writes on how anti-smokers are stubbing out liberty; Josie Appleton is discussing cities at a conference in Moscow; Manick Govinda has produced a new London exhibition. New on the Vetting Blog: Tenants turfed out for refusing to fill in forms; CRB checking tooth fairy; Children’s authors under suspicion; Flats halted because balconies have ‘view of school’. Read on… |
Against the London Tube Booze BanI've written a comment against the booze ban, ie on the impending ban on drinking alcohol on public transport in London. A few of us are going along to a party/protest on the Tube on Saturday night (31 May), the last before the ban comes in. Email me if you'd like to join us. Dolan
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The Manifesto Club supports:Historians campaigning against 'memory laws'... 'Enlightenment is humanity's emergence from self-imposed immaturity. Dare to know! Have courage to use your own understanding!' Immanuel Kant 'What characterises man is his extreme abundance of imagination; therefore, that man is a fantastic animal and that universal history is the gigantic, continuous and insistent effort to go, little by little, putting some order into the crazy fantasy.' José Ortega y Gasset |
As planned, a group of
As planned, a group of Manifesto Club members went along to the party on the Tube on the night before the ban, and handed out leaflets to revellers and passers-by. There was a very lively atmosphere - the negative media coverage shouldn't be allowed to obscure the fact that people came together to object to a petty authoritarian measure, and showed a glimpse of genuine public spirit, even if it was a bit rowdy at times.
Of course, this was not a political protest, and most people were just there for the fun of it, but we found people were receptive to our attempts to put the booze ban in context. We'll keep a look out for similar events, with a view to making connections and giving some coherence to what is for now a very inchoate reaction against today's joyless authoritarianism. For more, see Suzy Dean's report on spiked.
You can also hear myself,
You can also hear myself, Michael Portillo and Melanie Phillips debate on drinking here:
www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/religion/moralmaze.shtml
The Moral Maze kicked off their new series on the subject.