Reasons to leave England, part 5

Part 5 in an occasional series featuring news stories that just make me want to pack my bags and escape across the Border to a civilised country.

Westminster Council proposes banning “tents and similar structures” and “noise equipment” in crackdown on political protest

Statewatch, 11/01/12

London’s Westminster Council is currently running a consultation on proposed new byelaws that seek to prohibit long-term or noisy political protests. If made law, the draft provisions would ban the erection or keeping of tents “or similar structures”, whether for sleeping in or not, as well as permitting “constables and authorised officers” to seize “noise equipment” being used to cause “annoyance”.

Kettling protesters is lawful, appeal court rules

Guardian 19/1/12

Police tactics of kettling protesters, used extensively during the G20 protests in London three years ago, have been upheld as lawful. The appeal court overturned a previous ruling by the high court on the controversial technique deployed to contain demonstrators during the climate camp sit-in.

UK riots: paratroopers are trained in riot control

Daily Telegraph, 28/1/12

Hundreds of soldiers from 3rd battalion The Parachute Regiment spent last week learning how to contain and arrest “rioters” in a series of exercises mirroring last summers violence. Defence sources have confirmed that if violence were to return to British cities, especially during the Olympic Games, the Paras would be “ideally placed” to provide “short-term” support to police forces around the UK.

Sick and disabled people could be forced to work for nothing

Guardian, 17/2/12

Some long-term sick and disabled people face being forced to work unpaid for an unlimited amount of time or have their benefits cut under plans being drawn up by the Department for Work and Pensions. [...] The policy could mean that those on employment and support allowance who have been placed in the work-related activity group (Wrag) could be compelled to undertake work experience for charities, public bodies and high-street retailers. The Wrag group includes those who have been diagnosed with terminal cancer but have more than six months to live; accident and stroke victims; and some of those with mental health issues.

Now, imagine that you’ve been given, say, a year to live by your doctor. What do you think you should be doing in that time? Having as good a time as you can have with your condition and making the most of what little life you have left, or working in some pointless McJob? No civilised society would make someone with terminal illness work for what remains of their living.

Gunning for Gold

Schnews, 6/1/12

The deployment of up to 13,500 military personnel, two of the navy’s largest warships, unspecified numbers of military attack helicopters staffed by snipers, typhoon fighter jets, surface to air missiles, support from the SAS and Navy Marines 12,000 police officers, 300 MI5 agents, 20,000 private security guards and up to 1000 US agents including 500 FBI. The extension of Section 44 of the Terrorism Act across the whole of Britain. All costing in the region of £6million.

So the invasion of Iran? The military contingent sent to join Arab Spring rebel groups? The recent deployment in Libya? No – it’s a just a few folk running and seeing who can throw something the furthest. In the capital city of a country that according to the Country Risk Index is one of the most stable in the world. East London is set to resemble a warzone (again) as the Olympic Games 2012 rolls into town. [...] All of this set to the background of a city crippled by the economic insanity of the last few decades. With the lottery fiasco of Olympic ticket allocation that has seen, predictably, wealthy and influential applicants cream the best of the seats and over a million ordinary families missing out on even the most obscure of events, this complete suspension of civil liberties and obscenely gross spending of millions of pounds is the final insult. The unprecedented security measures being put in place make a mockery of even the draconian Beijing Olympics in 2008 hosted by the Chinese Communist Party. These are the actions of a government that is very, very scared – not only of the ‘threat of international terrorism’ but also of its own people.

Ryanair don’t care

Here’s another reason to hate Ryanair and its CEO, Michael “Gobshite” O’Leary. Consumers already know that GobshiteAir is a cowboy firm that treats its passengers like shite with ripoff fares, airports hours from the ‘destination’ they’re supposed to serve, and flights cancelled at will leaving passengers stranded hundreds of miles from home. Now there’s a campaign from the worker’s viewpoint, highlighting the seriously dodgy GobshiteAir practice of “recruitment scamming”, and calling for a week of action starting on March 12th. A post on a radical Left blog explains the campaign:

The Ryanair Don’t Care campaign, supported by Liverpool Solidarity Federation, is calling for an international week of action against exploitation and recruitment-scamming by Ryanair starting on March 12th 2012.

The Ryanair Don’t Care Campaign was started by John Foley when his daughter was sacked as a flight attendant mid-flight and abandoned abroad, penniless. This would lead to the exposure of a cynical and highly exploitative recruitment scam by the airline.

Ryanair’s current policy of recruitment-for-termination is part of the massive exploitation of people who apply to work for the company. As it stands potential cabin crew have to pay a fee of 3000 Euro through an agency to undergo training for Ryanair. As many as 60 people are sacked at any one time after this initial training period, up to 200 people a month. Those who survive are put on a 12 month probationary period on a lower rate of pay than normal cabin crew and Ryanair pocket the difference, as much as £20m a year.

Anyone who’s travelled on GobshiteAir, including this author, can see plainly how the cabin crew are treated like the dirt under O’Leary’s shoe, and it’s time punters and workers stood together in solidarity. And the next time you’re on GobshiteAir, be nice to the crew and bear in mind that they have to put up with O’Leary’s exploitation every working day, not just for a flight or two as you’re doing. For those who say vote with your feet and fly another airline, remember that GobshiteAir have monopolies on many routes so you don’t have any choice but to fly with them.

For further information on the campaign, see the RyanAirDontCare blog, and follow it on Facebook and Twitter. For a bit of fun, and a serious, and seriously funny, dig at GobshiteAir, watch “Cheap Flights” by the Irish singing group Fascinating Aida.