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Rambling round the “Croughton balls”, 7 Oct 06

Simon | 07.10.2006 19:43 | Anti-militarism | Oxford

Around fifty peace campaigners today took a walk around the perimeter fence of “RAF” Croughton, finishing with a picnic, entertainment from the Oxford Sea Green Singers and others, and speeches from Felicity Arbuthnot, John McDonnell MP and the Rev David Platt. RAF Croughton is a little known but essential component of the US communications and spy network which includes other bases on UK soil such as Menwith Hill.

The “Croughton balls” or radomes
The “Croughton balls” or radomes

Helpful signs pointed the way
Helpful signs pointed the way

Another view of the radomes
Another view of the radomes

A bridleway runs part way along the perimeter fence
A bridleway runs part way along the perimeter fence

A friendly police officer introduces himself
A friendly police officer introduces himself

Posing for a photo
Posing for a photo

Posing for another photo
Posing for another photo

Satellite dish
Satellite dish

A smaller radome
A smaller radome

Another dish
Another dish

MOD police inside the base
MOD police inside the base

Poster for next year’s event
Poster for next year’s event

Message to Colonel D’Angelo
Message to Colonel D’Angelo

Banners on the fence, visible from the A34
Banners on the fence, visible from the A34

Another banner on the fence
Another banner on the fence

Keep Space for Peace
Keep Space for Peace

Sea Green Singers
Sea Green Singers

Felicity Arbuthnot
Felicity Arbuthnot

John McDonnell
John McDonnell

Rev David Platt
Rev David Platt


Unfortunately this turned out to be a very bad camera day for your humble photojournalist. The stills camera which has served me so well for over four years, on this day steadfastly refused to switch on. Falling back on the (as yet unused) still photo facility offered by my DV camera, I soon found that the paltry 8 meg memory card supplied with it was stuffed full of pointless (and undeletable) graphics, leaving me room for very few photos.

As a result, most of these photos are screengrabs from the video footage I took during the day, hence the poor quality, for which I apologise.

Looking on the bright side though, the police in attendance were very friendly and well-behaved, choosing to appoint only three of their number to accompany the ramble around the perimeter fence – one at the front, one at the back and one somewhere in the middle. This may be because they were from the Northamptonshire force rather than the Thames Valley force, or it may just have been because it was a nice sunny day. I even thought the Forward Intimidation Team had stayed at home, although unfortunately there was one officer with a DV camera at the end of the walk filming everyone as they climbed the stile into the picnic area.

A lovely lunch of soup, French bread, flapjacks and cakes was served, and while this was consumed, the Oxford-based Sea Green Singers performed a few songs, including one called “Rambling round the Croughton balls”, composed especially for this day. The “balls” referred to in the song are the strange objects within the base known as “radomes”, which I believe are actually sensitive satellite dishes enclosed in a spherical casing to protect them from the elements.

There was also some poetry and some adapted Shakespeare (with drum and whistle accompaniment), as well as speeches from Felicity Arbuthnot, Labour leadership candidate John McDonnell, and the Rev David Platt.

The day was attended by people from around the country, including Oxford, Swindon, Faringdon, the West Midlands, Chippenham and Southampton.

Two future events were given a plug.

There will be a national demonstration at RAF Brize Norton, near Carterton in Oxfordshire, on 12th December, called by Swindon, Bristol and Oxford Stop the War Coalitions. Brize Norton is the arrival and departure point for all the UK troops serving in Iraq, and was also recently used as a refuelling point by US transport planes delivering bombs to Israel during the recent massacre in Lebanon.

The next Keep Space For Peace event at RAF Croughton has already been arranged – Saturday 6th October 2007, 12pm to 3pm, and Bruce Kent of CND and the Movement for the Abolition of War will be speaking.

Hopefully some audio and/or video will appear here in the next few days, once I’ve had a chance to edit it.

Simon

Additions

The Brize Norton demo is on 2nd December

07.10.2006 22:53

Some fool who relies on Word to check their spelling wrote:
>There will be a national demonstration at RAF Brize Norton, near Carterton in Oxfordshire, on 12th December



Sorry, contrary to my earlier typo, the demo at Brize Norton will be on the 2nd December, not the 12th.

Simon.

Simon


Audio - songs and speeches

08.10.2006 16:07


Download: We are the Oxford Sea Green Singers (song) - 2:38 - mp3 618K


Download: Reverend David Platt (speech) - 11:03 - mp3 1.3M


Download: Those balls have got to go (song) - 1:27 - mp3 343K


Download: The war machine goes round (song) - 2:26 - mp3 573K


Download: These walls between us (song) - 1:29 - mp3 348K


Download: Deep blue sea (song) - 2:38 - mp3 620K


Download: The wall will come tumbling down (song) - 1:45 - mp3 412K


Download: Both sides (song) - 1:38 - mp3 381K


Download: Felicity Arbuthnot (speech) - 16:47 - mp3 1.9M


Download: John McDonnell (speech) - 9:35 - mp3 1.1M

Here are MP3 files of the songs sung by the Sea Green Singers, and of the speeches made by Felicity Arbuthnot, John McDonnel and David Platt.

Simon


Rambling round the “Croughton balls”, the movie

10.10.2006 23:28

I was planning to make a short film from the footage I shot on the day, but I ended up making quite a long film instead (nearly half an hour).

Here it is. It includes extracts from the speeches and quite a lot of the Sea Green Singers (they were great).

Apologies for the large file size.

Simon


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  1. Brize Norton demonstration — Jennie Chesterton