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Plater College Open Debate

Nick Simpson/Richard Wood | 22.06.2005 20:07 | Education | Social Struggles | Oxford

This short article is to notify the public of an open debate on the issue of the closure of Plater College, Oxford between representative of the Plater College Foundation and the college's current administration.

There will be an open debate between representatives of the Plater College Foundation and the colleg's current administration tomorrow - Thurs 23rd - at 8pm at the East Oxford Community Centre. The community centre is located on the corner of Cowley Road and Princes Street. All are welcome, especially interested media people.

The motion to be debated will be:

"This house believes that the management of Plater College are failing in the mission entrusted to them and, therefore, has called for a vote of no confidence in the present administration"

There will be three representatives from each side.

As a taster there will be absolute proof of illegal behaviour on behalf of the administration of Plater College.

We will post up another article after the debate. Watch this space!

Nick Simpson/Richard Wood
- e-mail: nicholassimpson6@hotmail.co.uk
- Homepage: http://www.plater.info

Comments

Hide the following 9 comments

Please report what happened

24.06.2005 08:16

Please can someone report what happenend the debate.

richarddirecttv


Re: Plater College Oxford

24.06.2005 12:29

Any student who graduated from the above mentioned highly reputable college during the

erstwhile regime of Robert Beckinsale (MA Oxon) Esq will be aware that at the end of the

correspondng academic session, an automatic deduction (without consultation) was made

from each student's refundable caution monies due. This being for membership of the

equally Platerian Association.

More recently, I have been perusing the contents of the most informative webpages of the

newly inaugurated Plater College Foundation. Interestingly, one would also note that names

of the foundation members were all listed. However, as things are, one would have

expected that all fully paid up members of the Platerian Association would automatically

become founder members of the Plater College Foundation; particularly those who

graduated in more recent times - prior to the (ir)reversible decision to close the college.

I do hope that the reason(s) as to why the names of such people (who so desire) were not

included in the roll call of 'foundation members' are purely due to administrative error and/or

oversight. Rather than any deliberate attempt (as usual suspects) to exclude them.

Can any one shed more light on this please?

Long Live Charles Dominic Plater SJ.

The Crown Prince Andrew A. Adegbile
mail e-mail: HRH@London.com


Sex In Three (3) Chapels' in Sex Lies and Videotapes!

30.06.2005 12:05


Admittedly, I have heard of 'Sex in the City'. Thankfully for my person however, this is

something that I have been fortunate in being subjected to view. Sadly however, little did

I realise that I would be viewing 'Live Sex' in Three Chapels'.

And perhaps that further enlightens us as to why:

"It was explained that the Sacrament would be removed from the chapel at the end of the

Summer Term. The Tabernacle would also be removed for security purposes...... .......

The role of Chaplain would finish on 31st July but Fr Noel would be asked to officiate at the

celebration Mass in September 2005".

The Crown Prince Andrew A. Adegbile
mail e-mail: HRH@London.com
- Homepage: http://www.adegbile.com


Results of Open Debate

10.07.2005 10:03

The results of the open debate were posted up on the 'update' section of the newly refurbished Plater College Foundation (PCF) website (www.plater.info).

The debate was attended by a contingent of current students from Plater and a journalist from the Oxford Mail. No opposition speakers turned up - as expected. The PCF team gave a summary of the events surrounding the proposed closure and detailed the unacceptable behaviour of the opposition (promoting the closure in an ethics lecture and a libelous action against a PCF director - proven) and pointed out that obedience to the church hierarchy doesn't cover acting contrary to one's conscience. The floor was then opened to questions and the PCF came under some criticism for its aggressive stance in pursuit of its mission. Then followed a balanced discussion on the issue of respect for church authority against the need for aggressive action against such authority when it blatantly acts against its own self-professed principles. The debate ended, as is customary for debates, with a vote - in this case, of no confidence in the current administration of Plater College. As is also customary, letters notifying the opposition camp of the results were sent to them - in this case, personally delivered by the PCF debate team.

The result: Unanimous in favour of no confidence in current administration with 2 abstensions; one from the floor and one from the journalist who is counted as neutral.

To address the question raised about the lack of Platernian members on the PCF members list on the website: I do not know the answer to this question as I am not a director myself and so havn't been present at the meetings until recently - in my capacity in assisting the directors with web and local publicity. However, I can say that the lack of this action - the automatic inclusion of recent platernians into PCF membership - was possibly an oversight but probably due to the fact that membership of the PCF should be fully voluntary as there appear to be some people involved with Plater who are not prepared to join the PCF and oppose the decision of the administration to close the college. These people should, therefore, have their right in this matter respected and not be automatically included in the PCF.

To finish: appologies for the slow speed of response to the requests and questions on this Indymedia page. As is often the case, the work of the PCF is being done by a core group of highly dedicated individuals who lack resources and time and are working under very difficult circumstances. We will, however, be improving our communications and hope to answer any queries more quickly in future. Information normally goes up on plater.info first. Anyone interested in helping with the campaign can contact me by email or phone Nick Simpson on 07854 154689. We especially need help with collecting signatures for our petition to the Vatican.

Richard Wood

Richard Wood
mail e-mail: mdoscar93@yahoo.co.uk
- Homepage: http://www.plater.info


Founder Members of Plater College

02.08.2005 20:20

I was one of a group of people who attended the public meeting at Oxfordshire County Hall on 11 February 2005, at which I suggested that a Company Limited By Guarantee with charitable status, should be formed to approach the Trustees with a view to its being allowed, subject to approval by the High Court and under the supervision of the Charity Commission and the Department for Education and Skills, to take over the assets and management of Plater College and to thus ensure its survival.

Those present at the meeting were almost unanimously in favour of this proposal. A name was chosen, a board of directors, including representatives from the Platernian Society was elected and I was appointed Secretary of the Foundation. I was then asked by those present to draw up a Constitution and to register the Foundation at Companies House.

Later that evening, I attended Plater College where I addressed the student body and again, the majority of those present voted in favour of the proposed Foundation.

We then invited as many people as we could contact over the following week, to have their names included as "Founder Members." This has no legal significance under Company Law but we thought that people would like to have their names included in the formation documents from a commemorative point of view.

The Foundation was duly incorporated on 18 February 2005. I would have liked to have sent copies of the Memorandum and Articles of Association to each and every one of the Founders but this was going to cost nearly £1,000, which we just did not have.

Subsequently, each of our members was invited to complete a registration form. These forms have been bound together and comprise the Foundation's current Register of Members.

The www.plater.info website is not directly controlled by the Foundation and the list of members there stated may not necessarily be identical to the official Register.

After the Foundation was incorporated, Archbishop Vincent Nichols published a statement in "The Tablet" newspaper, stating that he welcomed the intervention and ideas of the Foundation. However, at the same time, Plater College were instructed by the Catholic Education Service (of which the Archbishop is Chairman) to accelerate the closure process.

By the beginning of March, I was instructed by the Foundation to issue proceedings to legally challenge the conduct of the Trustees and Governing Body of Plater College. On 5 March 2005, I wrote a very personal and confidential letter to Archbishop Nichols, making it clear that this was wholly outside the scope of my professional duties, in which I begged him and the Trustees to reconsider their decision to close the College. For my pains, the Archbishop passed this letter to his lawyer, which I consider to be a vile and despicable act for a priest to do.

On 7 March 2005, David Bramble, Clerk to the Governing Body of the College, was contacted by Martin Bradshaw, a Legal Advisor at the Catholic Education Service regarding my academic record at the College.

The references that I gave prior to my admission as a student of Plater College had been impeccable. My academic record during the period of my study, was among the highest of any student in the entire history of the College and my conduct as a student had been exemplary. None of this was however mentioned by Mr. Bramble. In September 2003, a libellous allegation had been made to the College concerning me from an employee of a company that I later successfully sued on behalf of a client. After investigation by the College, it was accepted that the allegation which had been made was completely unfounded and that it had been maliciously with the express attention by the person making it of embarrassing me. Mr. Bramble knew this but in his letter to Mr. Bradshaw, claimed that "he didn't know the outcome".

The integrity of Messrs. Bradshaw and Bramble can be judged from the following circumstances. At the conclusion of his letter, Mr. Bramble suggested that the information he was supplying from my personal student file was in breach of his obligations under the Data Protection Act. It was. But this is not the point. What is significant is that Bramble had clear misgivings as to whether or not he was breaking the law, yet had no compunction in supplying this information regardless.

Bradshaw also wrote at about this time, to the Institut International des Droits de l'Homme in Strasbourg, asking for information about the Human Rights course which I attended there in July 2003. He could have simply asked for this information but instead pretended that he was a prospective student. Again, this is telling. It shows that he has no compunction about lying, for so long as it serves his immediate purpose.

On 6 June 2005, Bradshaw attended the High Court in Birmingham and attempted to discredit me with these various documents. He did not of course exhibit any of the documents from my student file that were unhelpful to his argument, by which he clearly intended to mislead the court. Mr. Bradshaw is apparently a former solicitor and should have known better.

Needless to say, I was granted permission by the Court to represent the Foundation in its proceedings and there will now be a full day preliminary hearing in November.

Now that the College has officially closed, Bramble is thankfully out of a job, since it has no need of a Governing Body or a Clerk. Bradshaw is a creature of Archbishop Nichols whom I have no hesitation in denouncing, along with the whole of the Catholic Education Service, as a bunch of unprincipled liars and hypocrites with the conscience of thieves and assassins.

John Rhys-Burgess
mail e-mail: JohnRhysBurgess@mail2world.com
- Homepage: http://JohnRhysBurgess@mail2world.com


Why The Vatican ?

06.09.2005 07:26

I cannot understand why a petition to the Vatican is even being considered let alone initiated. Do you not realize that by sending such a document you are infering that the Catholic Church has some legal rights in relation to Plater College and its closure thereof.?
If this idea has been sanctioned by the PCF legal advisors then I suggest that you seek legal advice from another source as quickly as possible before any further damage is done to you're wholly justified cause.

The way forward is to completely refute ANY Catholic Church claims on Plater College at source. This does not include involving the 'head office' of group of people bent on the illegal destruction of the very institution you are trying to save. IF the Vatican, after receiving such a petition, then decided for reasons best known to themselves...saving face etc. to put their resources into opposing the PCF claims how long do you seriously consider you could stand against them? The financial burden alone, setting aside the rights or wrongs aspect of the matter, would bury the PCF claim in a very short period of time with claims and counter claim ad infinitum. The Church have done this before and would have no trouble in doing so again.

Joseph Hall


Petition the Vatican! Why?

07.09.2005 11:13

It beggars belief to read that Mr. Wood, ' Result of open debate' 10-7-2005 ', is even considering petitioning the Vatican, on behalf of the Plater College Foundation, let alone asking for volunteers to aid him in doing so. The argument has been that it was due to the Catholic Church's mal-administration and very dubious business practice, not to say down-right dis-regard of the law in the administration of Plater College by the odius Catholic Clergy Trustee's et al, that has brought this worthwhile institution to the position it is now in.

Does Mr. Wood really expect any help from the 'Head-office' of the very people who have been instumental in the Colleges demise?. Does he further realize that by offering such a petition it could conceivably lead to 'head-office' getting fully behind the Trustee's et al if for no other reason than as a face saving excersize, after all you are accusing prominent members of the British Catholic Church hierachy of fraud, in their fight for the closure to remain with all the legal might at their disposal. Claim and counter-claim, appeal upon appeal, could leave this case in the Law Courts for decades to come. The monetary costs alone to the Plater College Foundation would be astronomical even if it had the financial resources to continue with their cause which I seriously doubt. You would not ask an Arsonist, who had deliberatly set fire to your house, to help you to put out the flames would you?

I would urge the Plater College Foundation to urgently seek qualified legal advice before going down this road if this course of action has been sanctioned by their present legal advisors. What little I have been able to glean of the on-going struggle faced by the PCF leads me to strongly urge that this matter be left to those well versed in the Law required to mount a viable case rather than to un-qualified lay-men however well intentioned. This is too important an issue to be left to chance and while the stakes for success amount to millions of pounds in College assets there will be a vigorous opposition to the PCF cause.

Joseph Hall...A former Student of Plater.

Joseph Hall


Legal Minds

10.09.2005 11:38

I have been reading Joe Hall's (legal) assertion and argument with great interest. Had I

not known whom this gentleman was, I would, no doubt have described his ruminations as

akin to that of a legal icon and quite possibly a QC. In particular, his suggestions about the

involevement (or lack of it) of the Vatican in the on-going debate is full of wisdom.

On a personal note, in fact, that explains why I became even more confused in deciding

whether or not to put forward my name (as stipulated) in order to become a member of

the Plater College Foundation. Whose mission, as Joe Hall agrees, is most admirable.

Nevertheless, on seeing the name of a particular member of (the adminstrative) staff of the

College who had earlier told me that (s)he does not go to church as a prominent Director of

the 'august' Foundation; the alarm bells immediately began to ring. To my dismay, the said

director had, in fact (unknown to my person) been secretly writing to the Interim principal of

the College as well as to the most admirable Acting Head of the highly reputable College -

requesting for me to be banned from the College!

And all this from a person who claims to be a believer in what Charles Dominic Plater SJ

of blessed memory stood for. Long Live this jesuit - who was always ahead of his time.

Amen.




The Crown Prince Andrew A. Adegbile
mail e-mail: HRH@London.com
- Homepage: http://www.adegbile.com


Justice Is Ready To End The Ancient War

07.11.2005 09:59

.

I always know when I am tempted to tell a lie. I know that my conscience will eventually make me tired and weary, if I waste my energy guarding my own little ‘national security’ judgment-escaping cover-up plans. My conscience will haunt me even in my dreams.

I have the same conscience as every other human being, but it is up to me how I will deal with mine. Will I ignore my conscience, or will I keep my conscience without guile?

I know that I should not tell lies, because I know that I do not like being lied to.

I need to abide by the golden rule, but sometimes I feel forced to keep silent about lies that others tell and propagate. I hate appearing compliant with serpents, but even God would not suppress the serpent. The rule must be golden in every realm of communication within heaven and earth – here, now and beyond.

I know just as well as every other human being knows, if we all continue going around and lying to each other, we will again see our worldly tower of Babylon fall into dark despair. Suppression of others, communication breakdown, confusion, anger, violence and death are the fruits of ignoring the golden rule. These are the fruits of suppression, and so is terrorism.

People in high places always know when they are tempted to tell a lie. The laws will be judged when the multitudes no longer tolerate government censorship and the living lies of oppressors that sit in religious high places.

If all tax exempt religious organizations and all of their highly placed individuals would just agree to pay taxes of the same proportion as individual taxpaying citizens, then they would be completely free to speak their vision of policy. Wouldn’t God want them to do this for the betterment of all his creation? By this policy, the religious leaders would have nothing to lose, but their incitement of censorship.

Whether spirituality or community spirit is provable or not, it is the duty of every income of church and state and individual to render unto society, in charity and in equality. How much does the Vatican owe in taxes?

This will be the end of the mystery. The dragon will stop crushing the prophets and the innocent multitudes, and the serpents will no longer profit thereby.

No talking, no justice and NO PEACE? Hey fellow earthlings living under the poverty line and the dwindling middle class, let us all say, “Fall into the sea, you old whore Babylon! God lives in our hearts – not in stone or on paper”.

Gandhi wouldn’t want people worshipping him. People die for each other’s sins all the time. No big deal there – just look at Iraq. The wall separating church and state shall stand - for now.


Open Letter to President G.W. Bush and the Council for National Policy:



You People would have us think that democracy needs to be rescued from the state, but in the interest of the oppressed multitudes, as history can testify, democracy needs to be rescued from theocracy. What has changed in the last two thousand years?



You People hide behind a veil while you chip away at the wall separating church and state. This is why You People gather in some secret “holy place” three times yearly, to devise plans – not to educate the public as a 501 (c) 3 charity.



Your Mother is Babylon. She is a tax shelter. She is a shelter of serpents and the mighty merchants of the Earth. This is why You People keep that Old Whore on life-support.



Through censorship, humiliation, threats of libel, or fear of crucifixion, You People hold back the publicity that would tie a millstone around Her neck and cast Her into Hell. What has changed in the last two thousand years?



To be mightier than the sword, the pen must be mightier than the blue pencil. This is why prophets write riddles, and false prophets like You People at the Council for National Policy are unable to interpret them.



Given the right incentive, You People will back down from your religiously disguised tyranny without raising the sword. Moreover, without raising the sword, the right incentive will appear to You People.



You People cannot come forward and defend your Mother in court, and thereby incriminate yourselves before the world, without a constitutional amendment to protect your sorry souls from judgment.



Libel, from Latin libellus “little book”


~yezbok drahcir

Forced To Use Pseudonym