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Furious parents occupy the lobby of venture capitalist firm.

Guido | 14.03.2008 21:56 | Education | Social Struggles | London

On Wednesday parents from Pimlico School decided that petitioning and letter writing just was not getting them anywhere. For months they have been campaigning against the take over of their school by Venture Capitalist firm John Nash. Their views have been ignored by Westiminster council so they decided to occupy the offices of Mr Nash instead. The lone security guard made a pretty halfhearted attempt at trying to remove them and their banner from the building. An unbelievably smarmy executive from the firm by the name of David Johnson came out and tried to reason with the protesters with some of the weakest arguments in the history of debate. Having achieved nothing other than making a tit of himself on camera he scuttled back to hide in his office. At this point one of the neighbours who was unconnected to the firm or indeed the building tried to intervene by attacking a woman by the door and then my camera. Fortunately for him there was no damage thus negating the need to take retaliatory action on his front teeth. Then the cops showed up and were informed by the protesters that this was a simple case of trespass and therefore a civil matter. After consulting the regular occupants of the office the Police listened to the protesters concerns and then left them to it. Mr Nash must have wisely decided that getting parents from the school he is trying to acquire arrested was a PR disaster too far. So a successful occupation, no arrests and serious cause for concern for an office located on the ground floor of number 25 Buckingham Gate….oops.

Its very well handing out leaflets in the rain...
Its very well handing out leaflets in the rain...

...but its warmer inside and there is only one security guard.
...but its warmer inside and there is only one security guard.

Nauseating suit Mr David Johnson intervenes...
Nauseating suit Mr David Johnson intervenes...

...and completely fails to win hearts and minds.
...and completely fails to win hearts and minds.

Then Mr Haveagohero shows up....
Then Mr Haveagohero shows up....

...and assaults a woman by the door before attacking yours-truly.
...and assaults a woman by the door before attacking yours-truly.

This prick has serious issues to deal with.
This prick has serious issues to deal with.

The Police show up....
The Police show up....

...and listen to the parents concerns...
...and listen to the parents concerns...

...before leaving them to it. Result!
...before leaving them to it. Result!


TEXT FROM PROTESTERS CAMPAIGN LEAFLET:

Despite overwhelming opposition by parents, students and staff, Westminster is pushing ahead with its plans to turn Pimlico into a City Academy. Westminster plans to hand the school to a sponsor called Future, a charity set up by venture capitalist John Nash. In return for an investment of only 2 million pounds Westminster intends to sell Future a brand new 35 million pound school and a site worth many millions, on a 125-year lease!

The Academy can:
a) Impose a new head teacher without consultation with parents and staff.
b) Change (i.e. worsen) the pay and conditions of teaching and non-teaching staff.
c) Appoint the governing body with only token parent and staff representation.
d) As a result all democratic accountability is lost.
e) Change future admissions criteria.
f) Operate outside the education law.
g) Opt out of key aspects of the national curriculum.

Academies in Westminster have been a disaster, consistently failing to live up to any of their promises. They have seen 70% of staff leave, and experienced (“expensive”) replaced by inexperienced staff on short-term contracts.

JOHN NASH and FUTURE
In his bid to take over Pimlico School, John Nash appears to be making use of his close links with the Conservative group that controls Westminster council. He is a party donor and has sat on various policy review bodies with Westminster Councillors.

FUTURE gives grants to organizations involved in supplementary extra-curricular activities.

FUTURE has no experience of running a large inner city comprehensive secondary school.

The Save Pimlico School Campaign intends to fight these plans at every opportunity.

We need your help to defeat them. Our website is: www.pimlicopsa.org.uk

Guido
- e-mail: guidoreports@riseup.net

Additions

gender bias?

15.03.2008 11:34

for some indication of where John Nash is coming from its worth having a look at this link to the website of his company Sovereign Capital. if you scroll right down to the bottom there is actually a woman in the team- classic!

 http://www.sovereigncapital.co.uk/team.html

Sovereign Capital are also involved in funding firms that want to bid for NHS contracts

hildy

More

15.03.2008 17:27

A film of the above action and the wider issues will be released soon on the next issue of Reel News. The previous issue also carried a short film on the subject. You can see the trailer here:

 http://www.reelnews.co.uk/

Guido
mail e-mail: guidoreports@riseup.net

Comments

Display the following 2 comments

  1. Cor blimey, nice one, what a sexy copper,whoes the idiot in the red? — green syndicalist
  2. Padraic Finn — Padraic Finn