Issue 34 - February 2001
SCHOOL GETS ITS CASH THANKS TO TV STUNT!
WE TEAM UP WITH MARK THOMAS TO WIN DAY FOR
WORTHING
VICTORY! Our campaign about the insurance firm trying to
cash in on a shortage of funds at a Worthing primary school has proved an
astonishing success! We teamed up with Channel 4’s Mark Thomas
Product to really put Allied Dunbar on the spot over their
involvement with Thomas A Becket First School in Tarring.
And, in the face of an unwelcome publicity spotlight on their schemes, the
insurance giant agreed on the spot to cough up the £500 they had offered
the school as a bribe to make parents listen to their sales pitch. With
another £500 also on its way from Channel 4 itself, if the Government
performs its part of the deal under its Sports Match scheme, the
school should end up with £2,000 - more than enough for the set
of goalposts it was hoping to buy! Regular readers will remember that we
exposed in issue 32 the latest sickening evidence of the commercialisation of
our schools. The headmaster at Thomas A Becket invited parents to attend an
"informative talk" that was in fact nothing more than a sales session from an
Allied Dunbar rep. If 40 households were represented at the meeting, and all
of these agreed to hand over their address and phone number for follow-up
sales calls, the firm said it would oh-so generously donate £500 to the
school, which would attract another £500 from the Government under
Sports Match, one of an increasing number of dodgy schemes aimed at forcing
cash-strapped schools, hospitals etc into selling their souls to Big Business.
The "talk" or hard sales evening was roundly snubbed by parents, with only 16
households signing up, so Allied Dunbar walked away with their details as
potential customers and cancelled the event plus the need to cough up any
cash. Or so they thought. But they had not reckoned with Mark Thomas,
the TV comedian/investigator who last month broke the scandal of Labour
minister Michael Meacher’s secret property empire. He agreed with us
that there was injustice in the air and set off to Allied Dunbar HQ in
Swindon - together with a Welsh Male Voice Choir! In a
priceless scene which has yet to be broadcast, but is scheduled for the show
on Wednesday February 14, the 24 singers went through their repertoire while
Mark argued that they made up the total of 40 people that Allied Dunbar had
demanded in the first place before they would give the school its money. After
a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, the insurance giants backed down. A shock away
win in Swindon for Worthing, thanks to the vocal travelling support! *
There is believed to be no truth in the rumour that a certain educational
establishment in Tarring is now to be renamed Mark Thomas A Becket First
School.
New battle on roads
SUSSEX could be the focus of the next big
anti-roads protest, reviving the battling 1990s spirit of Twyford
Down and Newbury. Campaign group South Coast
Against Roadbuilding and local direct action group The Battle
for Hastings have joined forces to attack the decision by the
Regional Planning Committee of the South East England Regional
Assembly to support building the Hastings bypass. Astonished by the
committee’s decision, SCAR said: "Clearly members of the committee think
they know better than their professional officers, indeed even better than the
specialists consultants appointed by the Government. By adopting this myopic
stance the committee risk hundreds of millions of pounds being spent on a
scheme which will be of dubious benefit to Hastings and may in fact export
jobs out of the area". It added: "Hastings is crying out for a 21st century
rail link to Ashford and Europe more than a bypass to nowhere. Planning
to spend vast millions on a discredited road scheme is wanton and the regional
planning committee should resign en masse". SCAR was formed in 1994 as an
umbrella group for local groups fighting the threat of a Folkestone-Honiton
superhighway. You can contact it via e-mail (info@scar-uk.freeserve.co.uk) or
by writing to SCAR c/o PO Box 4144, Worthing BN14 7NZ.
Stores want the Lyons share
HOW is it that giant
superstore chains have come to think of themselves as Rulers of the
Universe? First of all they demand the god-given right to build their nasty
big shops anywhere they fancy and now they think they have the right to get
their hands on our money even when we’re not buying anything from them!
The case in point concerns Lyons Farm, Worthing, where the likes
of B&Q, Boots and
Sainsbury’s are said to be seeking compensation from the
public purse for the disruption caused by the roadworks on the A27
(Worthing Guardian, December 29). Letter writer Mrs G
Jaeger of Bulkington Avenue put her finger on it in the same paper on
January 19. She said: "Some small stores and proprietors would like
compensation from the retail park for the business which they have drawn
out of Worthing town for their benefit, not to mention the consequent
traffic hold-ups which the Lyons Farm development causes when there are no
road works in progress."
Last Straw for English freedom?
JACK STRAW is well on the way
to bagging the coveted Golden Jackboot Award for Most Authoritarian Home
Secretary in British History. His tolerance levels are now well below zero
and he is fast disappearing off the "Utter Bastard" end of the Pinochet-Stalin
Scale of Firm Government. The true horror was highlighted when his latest
piece of legislation was actually attacked as a threat to civil liberties by
none other than Anne Widdecombe! Much of the publicity
surrounding Herr Straw’s criminal justice and police bill has
concerned its proposed clamp-down on animal rights protesters (now generally
referred to in the media as animal rights extremists or animal
rights terrorists, as part of the softening-up process that always
precedes new assaults on our freedom). While the well-known British love of
animals has not proved a major problem to the state in the past, it has now
reached a point where it is in danger of interfering with the profits of
businesses like Huntingdon Life Sciences and even
Worthing’s own Glaxo SmithKline Beecham, which obviously
cannot be tolerated. Even without the planned add-on measures, the bill makes
scary reading. It includes 20 new powers for the police, including
taking and storing DNA samples and fingerprints from people who have
never been found guilty of a crime, new police powers of seizure and
arrest, extension of child curfew schemes to 15 year olds, and
extension of police powers under the 1984 Police and Criminal Evidence Bill
without parliamentary approval. Liberty, the civil rights
organisation, told The Guardian (January 20) that it amounted to
"the most serious erosion of rights in the criminal justice system that we
have seen for years". Meanwhile, here in West Sussex came a
timely reminder of what police powers are all about, when you are on the
receiving end. Reported The Guardian (January 15): "The police
complaints authority has found Sussex police guilty of ‘systemic’
failure over its handling of the investigation into the murder of a
businessman, Richard Watson." It detailed how the dead man’s grieving
widow and stepdaughter in East Grinstead were wrongly treated as suspects by
the force. They were questioned for days and, over a period of months,
every detail of their private lives was minutely scrutinised. Their
house was bugged by police, they suffered the humiliation of
unnecessary public arrests, were thrown into Holloway prison for
two weeks and were vilified in sections of the media. No policemen have been
disciplined over the case, the force will not discuss any form of redress and
the women will need to bring a civil court case against the police even to get
a copy of the full complaints authority report. Sounds like the police have
got more than enough power as it is, don’t you think Mr Straw?
Hunting for honest MPs
"NEVER trust a politician" is
one of the best pieces of advice anyone could be given in this day and age.
And it’s not just the likes of Peter Mandelson you have to
watch - believe it or not, even our lovely local MPs, though they have NEVER
been known to tell a lie, can from time to time be a little evasive in their
responses to awkward questions... Take Peter Bottomley, MP for
West Worthing. He seemed to be utterly outraged in The Worthing
Guardian on January 19 by the suggestion by a letter-writer that he
had previously voted against the ban on fox hunting. He fumed: "Mr
Allen’s letter implies that I voted against the second reading of the
Bill. He knows, and everyone else know, that I did not." Bumley went on to
boast about all "the animal welfare measures I have campaigned on." How
strange then, that two days before this comment was published, Bottomley was
one of the minority of MPs not to vote for the ban-fox-hunting
option in the House of Commons, along with fellow "animal lover" Tim
Loughton, Tory MP for East Worthing and Shoreham!
Simon Jones - victory!
EXCELLENT news from the Simon
Jones Memorial Campaign over in Brighton. Their direct action approach
to demanding justice for Simon, killed on his first day of work at Shoreham
Docks in 1998, has succeeded where letter-writing and MP-petitioning
invariably fails. The Director of Public Prosecutions has announced that
Richard James Martell, boss of docks firm Euromin, is to be
tried for manslaughter by gross negligence over Simon’s death.
And Euromin itself faces a corporate manslaughter charge. The
authorities were in no hurry to prosecute anyone and campaigners demonstrated
at the Crown Prosecution Service offices in London in September demanding
action. Now we must just hope that justice is done in court - and that tough
action will be taken in future against businesses who place profits before
safety.
More cash for business
IF you rang Worthing Borough
Council to say you were worried about security in your home, they
would probably suggest you go away and get window locks or a burglar alarm
fitted. What they certainly wouldn’t do is cough up £4,000
to pay for an overnight security patrol to guard you as you sleep. But
that is exactly what they are doing for Goring Business Park,
revealed the Worthing Guardian on December 22. Obviously
protecting the property and profits of the god-like Business
Community is so much more important to the Tory-run authority than looking
after the unimportant little people who happen to live here.
Porky Pie’s Top Tip of the Month!
HOW TO SOLVE
OVER-CROWDING ON TRAINS!
- ABOLISH FIRST-CLASS COMPARTMENTS.
- GIVE FIRST-CLASS FARE PAYERS GOLD STICKERS TO WEAR TO SHOW THEY STILL
THINK THEY’RE BETTER THAN THE REST OF US.
- EVERYONE’S HAPPY!
Disgusting of Durrington
A NEW editor is due to take over at
the Worthing Herald this month and we hope he will ensure there
are no repeats of the insulting treatment recently meted out to one of
Worthing’s splendid selfless band of elected representatives. The front
page of the December 21 issue featured a photo of councillor Chris
Sargent standing in a road in Durrington beneath the huge headline
"Sewer filth on street!". Outrageous. Matters were compounded by the picture
caption underneath, which began with the description "DISGUSTING AND
HAZARDOUS". What has poor Mr Sargent done to merit this vitriol, we wonder?
PORK-SCRATCHINGS
WORTHING council is looking at "the
upgrading of seafront shelters with central arms in the benches to prevent
their ‘misuse’," reported The Worthing Guardian on
January 26. We advise readers not to misuse the word shelter. Always
remember that shelters are for casual sheltering and are not
meant for use by people who actually need shelter. And while
Shelter is an organisation that tries to make life easier for
homeless people, Worthing Borough Council isn’t.
* * *
FRIENDS of Bob Baines, the eco-activist and
Pork-Bolter contributor from Goring who died recently, have
decided to plant one or more trees in his memory. Anyone who would like to
contribute to the fund is invited to send cheques payable to Worthing
Green Party to Lucy Colkett at 23 Wallace Avenue, stating what the
donation is for.
* * *
A LOCAL woman is raising a petition against the shocking car parking
charges at Worthing Hospital. Contact Barbara Robinson at 20
Tasman Close, Rustington BN16 2BD if you want to sign or help get signatures.
* * *
ANARCHY will be coming to the next meeting hosted by
worthing.eco-action on February 6. A speaker from Worthing
Anarchist Teapot will be explaining how anarchism isn’t in fact
about chaos and conflict, but about how society would be naturally ordered and
stable if people and communities had real control over their own lives. There
will then be an open discussion. After that, the following meeting will be on
Tuesday March 6, in the same meeting room at 42 Marine Parade, Worthing
seafront (above Paiges), 7.45pm. New faces are always welcome at the meetings.
See you there!
Official warning: Four legs bad
EDUCATING the next generation
about the evil reality behind the cuddly facade of animals is a
key challenge for the Government in the 21st century, the Minister for
Profits has announced. He said: "Over-sentimental treatment of beasts,
ranging from the toddler’s cuddly toy to the cartoon animal hero, has
created an unhelpful climate of sympathy for these parasitical entities, whose
presence on this planet is in fact entirely illegal. Animals do not pay
taxes, are not answerable under law for their many crimes and generally pay
very little part in the general modern prosperity in which they are happy to
share. We must, in future, educate our children to be aware of the dangers to
democracy and progress presented by animals and hope that never
again will the population be tempted to side with the extremists and
terrorists who claim that animals’ so-called ‘lives’ are in
some way more important than the fully authorised requirements of the Business
Community."
Hog-nob with the stars - subscribe!
THE PORK-BOLTER is an
independent newsletter for Worthing with a newly-discovered talent for
fund-raising for local schools in conjunction with TV comedians. If you want
to make sure of getting a copy of issue 35, simply send us a stamped
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least £2 to cover costs. Copies of back issues are still available.
Copies of back issues are still available. You can get issues 1 to 30 under
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Cheques/postal orders made payable to The Pork-Bolter. email
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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. No insurance salesmen, thank you.
and finally ... Be a model citizen - obey, conform, consume!
