Issue 19 - August 1999
Eco-festival is back with a vengeance - and not a Rotarian in
sight!
DEFYING RON'S WRECKERS!
ROTARIAN wreckers are not going to
have the chance to spoil this year's big alternative event in Worthing. Last
year, busybody ex-copper Ron Noakes and his mates tried to get the
Eco-Festival banned at the last minute, as we reported back in
Issue 11. His clownish antics included setting the
health and safety people on the Brighton Anarchist Teapot stall (they promptly
issued it with a certificate to say they could carry on!), and accusing
Friends of the Earth of stealing wheelie bins from his part of the fair (in
fact they had been donated by a council Rotarian). He also famously claimed to
work 24 hours a day, reckoned all FOE-type people were on the dole and, most
entertainingly of all, physically ran away from an irate female organiser he
had woken too early in the morning, thus earning the nickname Rocket
Ron.
Worthing Green Fair
Saturday 4 September
12 noon to 11pm
Field of Hope (next to the Aquarena)
Fun though all this was, the organisers didn't fancy a re-Ron
of all that this year and have arranged a date and venue completely separate
from the Rotarian's bash at Homefield Park. Understandable enough, but it does
mean the Green Fair, as it is now being called, will not be able to draw on
the crowds turning up for the more established event. So do your best to
spread the word near and far to make sure that everyone knows it's on and
turns up. And why not add to the merriment and contribute something yourself -
a stall, a workshop, some music, dancing ... it's down to you!
STOP PRESS: A sponsored 12-mile walk in the South Downs is to be
held in aid of Worthing FOE on Sunday August 22. A £5 entry fee will
include bus transport, drinks and bbq! To ensure a place send a cheque NOW to
"Worthing Friends of the Earth" PO Box 4144, Worthing, West Sussex, BN14 7NZ.
Don't miss it!
UP TO DATE WITH THE RONETTES
BIG news from the Rotarians (Worthing
Herald, July 8) is that they have finally decided to allow females to join
their hallowed ranks (though why any self-respecting woman should want to is
beyond us). Congratulations must be in order to Ron's gang for finally
entering the 20th century - less than six months before it comes to an end!
LODGE-ICAL STEP
GIVEN all the hassle the government has been having
trying to draw up a register of Freemasons in public life, we have had a much
better idea. We are going to draw up a REGISTER OF NON-MASONS for Worthing.
All round worthy Neville Pressley has set the ball rolling (see below) and we'll be inviting others to follow suit. We'll
let you know if they agree to join the Register, in which case they are not a
Mason, or if they decline/don't even reply, in which case you can draw your
own coonclusions. And the August invitation goes to ... 1998-99 Worthing
Mayor, David Chapman!
BOTTOMLEY'S UP FOR DIRECT ACTION
PETER Bottomley, our favourite West
Worthing MP, has been in the media spotlight again. Fresh from being described
in The Times (June 29) as "endearingly strange", he appeared in
The Worthing Herald (July 15) complaining that the Suffragettes
deserved better than "second class" 19p status in a recently released set of
stamps. We didn't realise that Botters was such a keen fan of direct
action. Suffragettes went as far as burning down buildings to get their
way - a lot more destructive than trashing GM crops, for instance. We're all
for it, of course - given that our so-called "democracy" is a sham - but don't
normally expect Tory MPs to see things the same way. We are writing to Botters
at once with a checklist of which modern manifestations of direct action he
considers in the same first-class league as the Suffragettes!
NOW IT'S OFFICIAL: CCTV JUST DOESN'T WORK!
BIG Brother spy cameras
do NOT reduce crime or even make people feel safer in the streets. That
was the finding of "one of the most comprehensive investigations carried out
on the subject" as reported in The Guardian on July 15. The
paper explained: "A report prepared for the Scottish Office concludes that
CCTV has not succeeded in making the streets safer or in making people feel
safer. The results follow similar conclusions by researchers in Wales last
week and cast doubt on the government's decision to spend £170m
extending CCTV across Britain." In-depth research in Glasgow showed that in
the first year after CCTV was introduced, crime actually ROSE in the city by
9% and the crime clear-up rate DROPPED by 4% over the same period! This is, of
course, no surprise to us! Sussex Police figures showed that exactly
the same thing happened in Worthing over the first two years of CCTV
surveillance, as we pointed out last year. It is also no surprise to us that
the Government is completely ignoring the results of all this research and
ploughing ahead regarless with its massive spy camera network. Even quiet
little Steyning has now got CCTV and Storrington
is next in line. Meanwhile, there are particularly dodgy goings-on in
Littlehampton where Tesco is apparently offering £100,000
towards a town CCTV system as a legalised bribe to get planning permission for
an extension to its Wick Farm superstore.
Meanwhile, spy cameras are being inserted into every porkin' nook and
cranny available, from school playgrounds to train carriages and now even
policemen's helmets! Yes, The Big Issue revealed (July 12-18)
that Cleveland Police is to present footage from the pin-hole cameras as
evidence in court for the first time. Meanwhile "a new model featuring an
ndetectable lens" was unveiled at the hightly sinister "International
Police and Security Expo 99" in Manchester. Do you think people who
attended that sort of event give a rasher of bacon whether or not CCTV reduces
crime? Don't you think they maybe just love the gadgetry of control,
the voyeuristic buzz of watching over us all the time, the sadistic
thrill of exercising what is rapidly becoming totalitarian
power?
A couple more steps towards a police state in the UK:
- Babies are to be allocated national insurance numbers at birth "in an
attempt to stamp out welfare fraud" (The Guardian, July 3).
Why not just brand their foreheads with a barcode?
- Supermarket staff are being told to stop and question children seen in
their stores during school hours - even if they are with their parents! What
gives them the right to interfere in this way? Are schools centres of
education or open prisons? It is perfectly legal to educate your child at
home, in your own way (and take them out to the shops when you
fancy!). Contact Education Otherwise (0870 7300074) or
Choice in Education (0171
8135907).
MYSTERY MEN BEHIND THE MONSTER
NEVILLE PRESSLEY is only a front man
for shadowy figures scheming to build over one of Worthing's last open spaces.
That is the main revelation to emerge from the questions put to him by
The Pork-Bolter, as public opinion hardens against the
Monster-gue Place project, which would see shops and offices block off
most of the open area between Montague St and the seafront. Asked about his
role in the unpopular scheme, Mr Pressley told us in an e-mail interview:
"I confirm that my brother and I were the applicants but were so as
trustees and professional ethics prevents me from disclosing the true
ownership. We put forward the Montague Place plan as the trust has an
interest in the land. You described it as a bizzarre land row but it is not
unusual for there to be different interests and I am sure that they will be
sorted out between the parties." More mysterious happenings are also afoot
around Montague Place, with some businesses initially unhappy about the plan
suddenly becoming rather enthusiastic - could it be because their interests in
the earmarked land have been bought off them by the would-be
developers?
In his helpful reply to our queries, Mr Pressley was also able to confirm
that he is not personally a Freemason ("You must be joking! If your research
was any good you would know I am not the freemason type") thus kicking off our
new Register of Non-Masons (see above). He also confirmed to us that he
is the one and same Neville Pressley who is chairman of the board of
privatised Worthing Homes Ltd, a partner in Spofforths
Chartered Accountants, finance director of Pressley's
the jewellers, chair of the management committee of Worthing
MIND and vice-chair of the board of governors at Northbrook
College! And that's not all! He adds: "You do not have a full list of
all my good works. I have been a trustee of Guild Care (formerly
Worthing Area Guild) for 25 years and a former chairman, and a director of
West Sussex Area Enterprise Co Ltd. So I try to spread my
superhuman talents around housing, employment, education, mental health and
social and residential care." Mr Pressley said he has time for all his "good
works" because his partners allow him time in his working day, he gets to work
very early, takes no lunch break and doesn't play golf or go to pubs. "I can
assure you that I spend no time at re-designing Worthing - I'm an
accountant, not an architect." He added: "I used to be a Liberal
councillor in Shoreham and was a member of CND National Executive in the 80s.
Does this make me more politically acceptable to you?" (Now YOU must be
joking Mr P! What has all this erstwhile liberal nicey-niceness got to do with
what you're up to these days?)
Mr Pressley also reckons that "the development will be for the good of the
town", because of the "unattractive wall" on one side of Montague Place.
Perhaps if Mr Pressley was an architect, rather than an accountant, he
would have the imagination and taste to think of "commission a mural"
as the obvious solution to this particular aesthetic problem, rather than
"cram in yet another whopping great mega-bucks shopping complex that nobody
wants".
IT WOULDN'T HAPPEN TO A RHINO!
THE recent debacle over
housing the homeless in George V Avenue was packed full of nauseating
social snobbery - on both sides of the debate. On the one side was certain
residents' poisonous conviction that perfectly ordinary people having problems
sorting out somewhere to live were some kind of criminal
leper-class not fit to breathe the refined air of their
own smug little world. (Imagine for a moment we were talking
about homeless cats, dogs, rabbits or rhinos* - they would have been falling
over backwards to welcome them into the neighbourhood. Other humans is a
different matter!) On the other side, councillors were persuaded to support
the scheme by the threat that "the most undesirable tenants" from places like
"Hackney and Lewisham" might instead be landed on the site if Worthing didn't
take it up. You can almost hear the cogs in their Daily Mail
minds whirring round - Hackney, nasty rough types, black people, oh my god ...
YARDIES!!!
*Worthing's fictitious links with rhinos were documented here last month. In
other words this is a sort of in-joke, all right?
Porky Pie’s Top Tip of the Month!
HOW TO SPOT PETER
BOTTOMLEY, WORTHING'S DIRECT ACTION MP!
- Go to the back door of the Houses of Parliament.
- Make out you are an arms dealer, American millionnaire or prostitute so
that they will let you in on the nod.
- Bottomley will be the bloke either D-locked to the Speaker's chair or
tunnelling under the back benches!
TENANTS ASSURED OF A DODGY DEAL
NOW Worthing's council
housing is privatised, tenants are facing up to the realities of the new
regime. They are being asked to sign a new tenancy agreement and many have at
last smelled a rat. The Citizen's Advice Bureau column in the Worthing
Advertiser (July 14) explained that instead of secure tenants,
people were now to be assured tenants under Worthing Homes Ltd, adding:
"The landlord needs a court order to evict both types of tenant.
However, it is harder to get a court order against a secure tenant than
against an assured tenant." Funny how this vital change was not
prominent in Worthing Homes propaganda dished out before the tenants' ballot.
And even funnier how there was such an apparently high turn-out and approval
in that same poll, when Worthing Homes Ltd is now having to use the bribe of a
"free draw" for £100-worth of M&S vouchers to get its
victims - sorry, tenants - to sign along the dotted line ...
BLOW THE WHISTLE ON YOUR BOSSES!
SOME good news from the
Evening Argus: "Sussex employees who expose cases of wrongdoing
by their bosses will now be granted protection under a new law. The Public
Interest Disclosure Act, which came into force late last week, has been
introduced to protect whistleblowers at work in England,
Scotland and Wales. It means employers risk heavy penalties and media
disclosures if they discourage, ignore or suppress staff warnings of
malpractice. The act also means that gagging clauses in
employment contracts will have no effect." So what are you all waiting for!
Get in touch with us and
dish the dirt!
CRACK IN THE PAVEMENT?
RUMOURS have reached us that Worthing
Borough Coucnil is refusing to re-open the cycle lane on the prom because it
is afraid it will be used as a drugs conduit by Yardies. Meanwhile cyclists
not there is to be a Critical Mass ride on Saturday August 28,
meet 12 noon in Montpelier Crescent, Brighton.
PORK-SCRATCHINGS
TWO years ago local writier and historian
Chris Hare was standing for the Liberal Democrates in the
general election against Peter Bottomley in West Worthing. A wave of optimism
was sweeping the country as the long years of Tory rule crumbled away and a
fresh new caring Government swept into power ... Now he is completely
disillusioned with the whole charade and is chucking it all in. He told the
Worthing Guardian on July 23: "My own opinion is that party
politics is largely discredited. People realise that whoever they vote for,
either locally or nationallyk, nothing really changes. 'Democracy' is
therefore an illusion rather than a reality." Well said, Sir!
* * *
FED up with eating chemicals on your vegetables? Want to eat
locally-grown organic produce and not give all your cash to greedy supermarket
chains? You need to be part of the Organic Vegetable Box Scheme from
Ashurst Organics in Plumpton, East Sussex. Each box costs £6.50 and is
delivered to a local drop-off point on Thursdays. Eggs and bread also
available. Contact Don on 01903-217472 or the farm direct on 01273-891219.
* * *
FREE video nights upstairs at Paiges Bar on Worhting
seafront are still being held on the first Tuesday of each month, at 7.30pm,
by worthing.eco-action, an
umbrella group of local campaigners of which The Pork-Bolter
forms part. Next dates are September 7 (Viva Zapata!, held over from
this month) and October 5.
* * *
A MUST for every free-thinking person's library is the new
SchNews Survival Handbook. The features issues 151-200 of the
inspirational Brighton newsletter, plus cartoons, handy hints, a
Pork-Bolter contribution and a huge database of campaign groups.
£7.20 inc p+p from "Justice?" at PO Box 2600, Brighton, BN2 2DX.
Sow about a subscription?
If you want to make sure of getting
a copy of issue , simply send us a stamped self-addressed envelope. To get the
next six issues send a donation of at least £2 to cover costs. Copies of
back issues are still available. Cheques/postal orders made payable to The
Pork-Bolter. email subscriptions also available. Drop us a line:
porkbolter@eco-action.org or PO
Box 4144, Worthing, West Sussex, BN14 7NZ. website: http://www.eco-action.org/porkbolter
Printed and published by The Pork-Bolter, PO Box 4144, Worthing BN14 7NZ.
No copyright coz information is freedom, innit?
THERE IS NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT
PLEASE note that all
characters mentioned in this bulletin are completely fictitious and any
resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental. Please also
note that there is no such thing as a "Freemason", that all accountants and
businessmen really have the interests of the community at heart and there are
no plans whatsoever to restrict your freedom through the introduction of a
high-tech police state.
and finally ... DON'T BELIEVE A WORD THEY TELL YOU!
