MembersNEWNew in the Members’ Room: Suzy Dean writes on The government's misogynistic attitude towards women and booze. Dolan Cummings debates Islamists on free speech. Manick Govinda draws attention to UK Home Office curbs on non-EU artists, and suggests a campaign to defend artists' freedom to work across borders. Mark Harrop is organising VIP Nights in pubs across the north of England to protest against the smoking ban. Michele Ledda's petition against banning of a poem from the school curriculum has been widely covered, and he has also argued on radio against the removal of Gary Glitter from the music curriculum. James Panton gives a talk defending freedom in Edinburgh, and Frank Furedi will give a lecture in London on The Political Significance of the Economic Crisis. 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… |
Flats halted because balconies have ‘view of school’The sight and sound of children playing could be delightful or irritating, depending on your point of view. Yet now a school has blocked a planning application for new flats in Hornsey, north London, on the basis that the flats’ balconies will overlook a children’s playground. Chairman of the school governors said that these properties overlooking the playground could be bait to paeodphiles. ‘We've all read of cases where there have been examples of parents, families, fathers who are involved with child pornography regardless of whether they have got their own children or not. It's not acceptable’, he said. The chairman conjured up the possibility of people snapping playground images, and using them for seedy purposes. ‘In particular these days where you've got increased zoom lenses on mobile phones that people can take pictures.’ Which raises some questions: what about flats overlooking streets where children play? This approach to planning could make building houses quite tricky... |
The Manifesto Club supports:'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 |
