No 59, February 2004
‘Threat’ to pool, theatres, museum is all a
ploy
Town hall’s huge con
A MASSIVE con trick has
been inflicted on the Worthing public by the borough council over so-called
threats to the town’s facilities.
Worried citizens have been up in arms over suggestions that
Worthing’s museum, theatres and Aquarena pool could all be closed down.
Petitions have been circulating, letters flooding in to the local press and a
series of protests staged. But the reality is that it is all just a cynical
trick to stop people complaining about another massive rise in council
tax. The council is hoping that by callously playing on ordinary
people’s fears, it can sneak past them another huge hike in council tax
- 14% on top of last year’s total 18.5%.
Of course, we couldn’t possibly suggest that council leader
Sheila Player has been in any way personally involved in
perpetrating this huge and deceitful hoax on the Worthing public. But it is
interesting to note how pleased she seemed about protests aimed at her own
council - even joining in the 1,000 strong march to save the Aquarena! She
told the Worthing Herald on January 8 that she was "delighted"
with the public’s opposition to the cuts. The report added: "Ms Player
said she wished for all the facilities to be retained and that the
consultation document replies would agree with this." She then moved on to
what is clearly the crux of the matter - the council’s proposed 14%
increase in its council tax charge. Sheila insisted: "I think it is worth
it and I hope the residents do, too." Oops, what a giveaway!
Meanwhile, the notion that Worthing Borough Council is suddenly committed
to "democracy" by launching a "consultation" process is rather unconvincing.
Why don’t they carry out the public’s clear wishes over the
proposed Titnore Lane development, for instance? So far, they haven’t
even held the new public meeting they promised months ago. And the idea
that we have a simple choice between coughing up more and more council tax
every year or losing everything worth having in town is nothing more than a
sick joke. Think of all the money that is wasted, locally and nationally,
by the parasitical ‘authorities’ that control our lives. Whether
it’s palm trees on the seafront or occupations of foreign countries; fat
salaries and pensions for bureaucrats or harassment of cannabis cafes;
expensive sham consultation exercises or protecting visiting war criminals -
OUR money always seems to be there when THEY need it. But if we dare to raise
a small voice in protest, they threaten to take away the small number of items
that actually give us some pleasure or benefit - like little children being
punished for answering back to mummy and daddy.
There was a revealing quote from Worthing Borough Council Lib Dem
politician John Lovell in the Worthing Herald on
January 15. Commenting on the council elections coming up in June, he said:
"Whatever the result, I hope more people will turn out to vote. It is very
soul-destroying when only 27 or 28 per cent of the electorate bother to vote.
Even if they vote for someone else, at least you know someone cares." What
he is saying, in other words, is that all the political parties are
essentially the same and it isn’t going to change anything whoever you
vote for. The only way to really get at them is if we all refuse to play their
stupid little political power games and ignore the lot of them. So if you want
to stand up to the liars and con merchants that hold the power and the purse
strings, the message is clear:
* Keep resisting all cuts in the services you actually
appreciate.
* Don’t stop protesting about your council tax bills. Ignore the
spin and take another look at your bank balance. Are you going to let them get
away with daylight robbery year after year?
* Don’t take part in their phoney elections in the sham democracy
they use to take real power away from ordinary people. Let’s let them
know what we really think of them!
Guess who’s footing the bill?
LOCAL councils are
blaming central government cuts for increases in council tax. And UK central
government is spending £5m a DAY on the war on Iraq and continuing
occupation. Any connection, do you think?
Planetary destruction? It’s not the end of the
world!
HERE at The Porkbolter we were really scratching
our heads over this one. What’s more important? The destruction of the
planet or Worthing Borough Council’s budget for 2004-2005? The
mainstream corporate media certainly don’t seem too bothered by the
scientific verdict that global warming is expected to kill off one million
species by 2050, with one in ten of our animals and plants becoming extinct
(Guardian, January 8). After the initial news stories, there has
been complete silence on the issue. None of the follow-ups, features, "what
are we are going to do about it" type of hand-wringing coverage that
always follows everything from the latest murder trial to the state of English
cricket. It was the same story with a second scientific report that said the
effect on ocean currents from global warming will plunge Britain into a new
ice age "within decades" (Independent, January 25). The
powers-that-be (and that includes the media, in case you hadn’t
noticed!) simply don’t want us to think about what is happening and
whose fault it is. They want to be able to carry on pumping greenhouse gases
and all manner of pollutants into the atmosphere to keep the global gravy
train rolling.
Not only are they not doing anything to address this problem, but they are
actively frustrating other people’s efforts to do so, by churning
out corporate propaganda pooh-poohing threats to the environment, ignoring
serious critics of their system and portraying defenders of nature as either
eccentric or dangerous. It is obviously imperative that we do something about
all this. We can’t reverse the damage overnight, but we can at least
begin the task by collectively stating that we value our world and all its
life more than profits and economics and by stating our intent to wind down
industrialism, to step back from the edge of the cliff. It is also about time
we got seriously angry about this. After all, if you can’t get angry
about the destruction of life on the planet, the theft of all our futures, by
a bunch of greedy corporate scumheads, you don’t really deserve to call
yourself a member of the human race.
Titnore - let battle commence!
THE battle for Titnore is on
again! After a long delay, possibly designed to bore away the opposition, the
developers have lodged a new planning application for the West Durrington
scheme. They want to slap 875 homes "and accompanying facilities" on Worthing
borough’s last remaining green lung. Campaigners are urging people to
write in and object (one sentence would do!) to the Town Hall. The reference
number is WB/04/00040/OUT and the deadline is February 27. They are
also asking people to oppose Tesco’s application for outline planning
permission to redevelop their Durrington site - coincidentally next to the
main housing site - and build a new shopping centre complex. Said one
protester: "If the Tesco application slips through then that would mark the
beginning of development of this land, so it is vital we all oppose this as
well as the main housing application." The planning number for this one is
WB/04/00021/OUT.
The main development plan was announced by the developers’ PR firm
Green Issues - a slimy yet incompetent bunch, who even managed
to get the planning number wrong in their publicity, later blaming it on the
council. Their pro-bulldozer drivel makes nauseating claims like: "The
development layout has been further refined to keep as many natural features
of the site as possible." How many natural features are going to survive
the construction of 875 homes? Worthing people are not going to be
hoodwinked by the spin and propaganda from property developers. They know full
well what is happening here. Our countryside is being destroyed under our
noses, against our wishes, in the name of greed and profit. The developers and
council may have imagined that by stalling and delaying the Titnore
application, people would lose interest in the issue and allow it to go ahead
without a struggle. They’d better think again!
* Info: www.protectourwoodland.fsnet.co.uk
Red card for Tetra mast
ANGRY Worthing residents have been up
in arms over the arrival of a potentially dangerous Sussex Police Tetra
mast at Worthing FC in Woodside Road - without planning permission. As
we have reported before, the microwaves emitted by these devices are believed
to cause cancer - and yet are springing up everywhere thanks to the unholy
power block of the police force, the government and the corporate sector in
the shape of 02 Airwave. The Worthing Society has
joined in the protest at the Woodside Road mast, calling on the council to
act. If our "democracy" fails to protect the public, how long before the masts
start being mysteriously vandalised? Illegal of course - but infinitely more
moral than standing back and watching our children’s health being
destroyed.
STOP PRESS: The
Protect Sussex From Tetra campaign will be special guests at worthing
eco-action’s meeting on Tuesday March 2, 7.45pm, upstairs at The
Downview, opposite West Worthing station.
Court takes the peace
A PAIR of Worthing anti-war pranksters
were given ridiculously harsh punishment by a London court on January 2. The
couple were arrested during the massive protests in September against the
DSEi arms fair in the Docklands - where arms dealers were
selling all sorts of innovative devices whose only purpose is to kill and
maim. The Worthing duo committed the horrific crime of going there equipped to
"cause criminal damage" - armed with stinkbombs and a water-based red
dye! For this they were sentenced to 100 hours community service each and
ordered to pay £300 costs each. Said one of the duo: "We went there to
make people call into question their involvement in the arms fair, by making a
stink. We managed to get through the police lines by flashing passes
we’d knocked up off the internet. It wasn’t until we got to the
security gate that we were stopped." Of the sentence passed by Snaresbrook
Crown Court, they commented: "It’s taking the piss, really."
Heil the neo-Labour state
NEO-LABOUR’S nazi-style
police state Civil Contingencies Bill is steaming ahead, as we
predicted last month - under the cover of the hoax "War on Terror". And anyone
who thinks this sort of thing is a short-term measure, and that our liberties
will soon be restored, is in for a rude shock. Senior UK intelligence officer
Superintendent Stuart Harrison warned at a US Government sponsored conference
in Las Vegas that the "War on Terror" could last half a century! (BBC
News website, January 12). He said: "We are in this for the long
run. It will be 35 to 50 years before we get it cracked." In other words,
this is the new Cold War, with the permanent "threat" from an outside enemy
justifying paranoia, suppression of dissent, and redirection of billions of
pounds of our money into the pockets of the industrial military complex that
just happens to be so closely tied in with the political establishment!
The Civil Contingencies Bill includes surreal new powers for government in
the case of a very broadly defined "emergency" such as banning the movement of
people and vehicles in an area, the destruction of property without
compensation, banning "assemblies", shutting down phone lines and websites
and, of course, arresting people who fail to co-operate with the emergency
powers! But even this is not now enough for Home Secretary Adolf Blunkett,
who wants "terrorists" to be put on trial before they even commit a crime!
These trials would held without juries, in secret, and judges (vetted for
the right attitudes by MI5 and MI6) could convict if they thought the
defendant was "probably" guilty (Sky News, February 2).
Defendants’ lawyers would also have to be vetted and they would not even
be able to hear all the evidence against their client for "security" reasons!
* Info:
Statewatch (PO Box 1516, London N16 OEW) and Schnews (PO Box 2600, Brighton BN2 OEF)
News from underground
"FLABBERGASTINGLY
extraordinary!" That’s how our somewhat excitable and eccentric
self-appointed Tunnel Correspondent Teddy Beest describes what
he has discovered about the huge network of wartime tunnels under Field Place
in Durrington. His report (sadly edited for lack of space) states:
"Titillated by the tale of tunneling traumas for the would-be Asda car-buncle,
I took it upon myself to investigate, by way of a malodorous doorway alongside
the embankment of the Southern Railway... and so it was that I encountered
this tribe of deep-buried denizens, who pledged to show me the remarkable
extent of the tunnel network... then in mid-January we walked non-stop for
what I calculate was three dreary days, finally emerging at Morden underground
station in south London... It seems, remarkably, that the Worthing tunnels
were part of a super-secret Anglo-French scheme to link up the London tube
with the Paris Metro... Tomorrow I head south, under the Channel, to see
just how far this perplexingly perturbing project got and what still
survives..." (to be continued, probably).
PORK-SCRATCHINGS
OUR best wishes to Chris
Baldwin, Worthing’s cannabis crusader, ironically thrown in jail
just as the daft laws on the drug are (slightly) liberalised. Even without a
hunger strike (over the jail’s refusal to serve him proper vegan
food), the courage of this disabled man in taking on the wrath of the
police and courts has been an inspiration to so many in Worthing and beyond.
Send letters of support to Chris Baldwin, JC 9521, HMP High Down, Downview
Road, Sutton, Surrey, SM2 5PJ.
* * *
STOP the new generation of nuclear weapons! That’s the call of a big
march being staged by anti-war protesters this Easter - all the way from
London to Aldermaston, where the UK/USA devise new weapons of
mass destruction. The protest runs from Friday April 9 to Mondway April 12 and
Worthing Against War supporters will be taking part. Contact
info@aldermaston2004.net, go to www.aldermaston2004.net or get in touch
with Worthing Against War on worthingagainstwar@yahoo.co.uk or 01903 206588.
* * *
WARNING! Worthing based Southern Water may be about to poison your tap water -
with toxic fluoride. Friends of the Earth are working with the National Pure
Water Association (NPWA) on its campaign to stop compulsory water
fluoridation. The NPWA have produced a Stop Fluoridation postcard to send to
Stuart Derwent, the managing director of Southern Water plc. For copies of the
card ring the NPWA on 01226 360909 - or write direct to Mr Derwent at Southern
Water, Southern House, Yeoman Road, Worthing BN13 3NX.
* * *
YOU won’t find much about the history of anarchist struggles on the
National Curriculum or the TV, but the Kate Sharpley Library (BM Hurricane,
London WC1N 3XX) continues to fill the void. Latest informative booklets
include "Under the Yoke of the State - selected anarchist responses to prisons
and crime, 1886-1929", "Direct Action" by Emile Poget (1907) and "The
Anarchist Response to War and Labor Violence in 1914".
Warning - do nothing!
IT IS completely understandable, says a
spokesman for the Ministry of Contentment, that citizens occasionally feel
frustrated, even in the glorious United Kingdom. He explained: "Brief moments
of mental illness may give people strange delusions and they may find
themselves imagining that they are constantly being lied to and cheated, that
their lives are meaningless drudgery, that the air they breathe and the water
they drink is being poisoned, that their freedom is being gradually stolen
from them, mass murders are being carried out across the world in their name
and at their expense, and so on. While it is acceptable to voice such fears in
private, it is, we stress, very unhealthy to do so in public. And most of
all, no matter how dreadful a situation they feel they are in, responsible
citizens should NEVER EVER attempt to try and do anything about it."
Glimpse behind the whitewash
THE Porkbolter is
a totally independent local newsletter, named after a real historic term for
Worthing people, which tries to scrub away a bit of the official whitewash
hiding the unpleasant reality of a rotten borough in a corrupt state. To get
the next six issues through the post send a donation of at least £3
payable to The Porkbolter. Drop us a line at PO Box 4144, Worthing, West
Sussex BN14 7NZ. Send e-mail to porkbolter@eco-action.org. e-mail
subscriptions are also available.
Printed and published by The Pork-Bolter, PO Box 4144, Worthing BN14 7NZ.
No copyright, no chance of the council closing down Sheila Player?
and finally ...
Reclaim Your Town, Reclaim Your Life!
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