Friday, 16 Sept 2005

Three of us turned up at midday at the Thomas Cook on Queen Street in Oxford town centre and had a demo outside the travel agents for the next hour and half. Though the protest was peaceful, it could not be considered a quite day. However, the activists all thought it was very successful outreach to the public with a large number of people expressing disgust at the company and declining to go any further.

Funnily enough, just as the activists turned up, then so did regular AR protest copper PC John Robert Braithwaite with WPC in toe. He told us that he had seen our demo advertised on the internet – something we really beg to differ on. This time PC Braithwaite did have his uses.

Though they declined to speak to us when we first arrived, the Thomas Cook management were quick to go barreling across to the police and demand that they suppress our right to protest. Their first complaint was about the Thomas Cook logo on our banner being a breach of copyright and that we had to stop displaying it, or so their security people told them.

Er no, it is your lawyers you need to speak to on that one, and we are well aware of Thomas Cook trying to pull fast ones like that at other groups demos. So we politely declined and gave them a short less on fair use and use of logos for non-commercial uses as in our case.

Tails between their legs they gave up and pulled strings in the council next. The very bolshy Mr Warren Tibbetts turned up, flashed his card and started demanding we stop leafleting and that we give him his name and addresses under some byelaw so that we could be prosecuted for soliciting support, or some similar nonsense under s.235.

Mr Tibbetts needs a lesson in manners it seems. First when challenged he bluntly told an activist to shut-up. Eventually he produced a piece of paper which he said that gave him authority to stop us leafleting and to demand our details. On examining the paper it was clear that it said nothing of the sort, and was designed for companies soliciting business by high street leafleting. Certainly there was no power to demand our addresses or stop our human right to leaflet.

When we informed him of these basic facts he started swearing at the protesters, who promptly complained to PC Braithwaite who was nearby videoing everything. Tibbetts was given a section 5 warning under the Public Order Act and told that there was very little chance of getting a prosecution under s.235 for our Gateway To Hell leaflets. So off he went with his tail also between his legs. Funnily enough several other people around Queen Street and High Street were giving out leaflets which did clearly breach s.235 but he did not bother to stop and do anything about them.

At which point we were finally left in peace to get on with our protest successfully encouraging people to boycott Thomas Cook and the trade in primates from Mauritius.

Notes:
1. Mauritius is being targeted by a global campaign against the trade in primates for vivisection laboratories as it is the second biggest exporters of primates for these labs.

2. Animal Rights In Oxford (ARIOX) is joining in with other groups in calling for an international boycott of Mauritius and encouraging companies who do business with the island to withdraw their business from the island on ethical grounds. For more information see the Gateway To Hell Campaign website at www.gatewaytohell.net

3. ARIOX can be contacted by email at  ariox@fsmail.net We are a peaceful and law-abiding grassroots group campaigning for animal rights.

4.If you are outraged by the behaviour of Warren Tibbetts (we think that is the spelling of his name) please contact Oxford Council at

Tel: 01865 249811
Fax: 01865 252256
Email:  complaints@oxford.gov.uk
Address: Oxford City Council, PO Box 10, Oxford, OX1 4EY