UK Newswire Archive
Earth First! Winter Moot, what to expect
22-01-2012 15:15
This years Earth First! Winter Moot takes place in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. In a months time environmentalists from across the UK and beyond will converge to discuss and debate. Below is an update from the organising collective who are working on the program.A short analysis of the Cretan Independence Movement
22-01-2012 14:52
A warning for all independence movements.Times are a changin’ - a look back over 2011
22-01-2012 13:34
Nottingham City Council plans more cuts
22-01-2012 12:55
Nottingham City Council has announced its proposals for the 2012-13 budget, these include extensive cuts to jobs and services as well as a council tax hike. Notts SOS has begun a campaign against the planned cuts and urged supporters to attend council consultation events around the city in order to challenge councillors.
On the newswire: Notts SOS protest city council cuts budget | Nottingham City Council Budget Consultations | Cuts and tax rises at Nottingham City Council | Notts SOS Indymedia group
Previous features: No Cuts in Nottingham! | Resistance to Nottingham City Cuts
The council is planning to
- increase council tax by 3.49%
- encourage staff to volunteer to reduce their hours from 37 to 35 hours a week
- realign management and cut 195 jobs while also reducing redundancy payments for laid-off workers to the legal minimum (this will be the third time redundancy payments at the authority have been attacked
- close the Museum of Nottingham Life (Brewhouse Yard), except for group and school visits
- close two centres for older people, Marlstones Elderly Person’s Home in Bulwell and the Willows Centre in Beechdale
- sell-off Portland Leisure Centre
- cut food waste collection and close nine recycling sites
- reduce funding to Connexions, a support service for young people
The proposals will be voted on by a full council meeting on 5th March.
The council has also said that this would not be the end to the cuts, with an additional £24m of cutbacks required by the end of the spring 2015.
In total the council hope to save £20m to cover a shortfall arising from reduced government funding as a result of the coalition government’s austerity drive.
Notts SOS believe that the cuts agenda is ideologically driven and are urging councillors to stand-up to central government.
Claire Taylor from Notts SOS said, "Council Leader Jon Collins and Deputy Leader Graham Chapman have been vocally critical of central government and often with good reason. Now it’s time for them to put their money where their mouth is and refuse to pass the cuts onto the people of Nottingham. Even a single council refusing to implement a cuts budget would shake the coalition government."
Rosemary Muge from the group added, "The same week the council announced it’s planned cuts, Goldman Sachs revealed an £8 billion pay and bonus bill for UK staff in 2011 – equating to £238,832 for every worker. The bankers who caused this crisis have avoided paying for it and instead the cost is being borne by ordinary people. Nottingham is already a deprived city it needs investment not further cutbacks."
Maude's staff in Clarkson-style 'joke' about attacking trade unionists
22-01-2012 12:25
TORIES at cabinet minister Francis Maude’s Horsham constituency offices seem to be taking ‘union-bashing’ rather too literally.Kurdish activists in sentenced to death by Iran's islamic regime
22-01-2012 10:17
http://kurdishrights.org/2012/01/18/kurdish-activists-in-iran-sentenced-to-death/
Censorship: Britain bans Press TV
21-01-2012 20:56
Notts SOS protest city council cuts budget
21-01-2012 18:55
Anti-cuts campaigners protest Nottingham City Council cuts budget
Anti-cuts campaigners today (Saturday 21st January) launched a campaign calling on city councillors to vote against Nottingham City Council's proposed budget for 2013-14.
Nottinghamshire Save Our Services (Notts SOS) held a stall in the Market Square to raise awareness of what the council is planning and collect signatures for a petition calling on the council not to impose further cuts.
Notts SOS is also calling on people concerned about the impact of the cuts to attend consultation sessions being run by the council to challenge councillors to reject the proposals.
Earlier this week, Nottingham City Council announced budget proposals which foresee a 3.49% council tax increase alongside 195 job cuts.
The council are looking at selling-off Portland Leisure Centre; closing two centres for older people, Marlstones Elderly Person’s Home in Bulwell and the Willows Centre in Beechdale; closing the Museum of Nottingham Life at Brewhouse Yard; cutting food waste collections and closing nine recycling centres; reducing funding to Connexions, a support service for young people; and reducing redundancy payments for laid-off staff to the legal minimum.
In total the council hope to save £20m to cover a shortfall arising from reduced government funding as a result of the coalition government's austerity drive.
The council has also said that this would not be the end to the cuts, with an additional £24m of cutbacks required by the end of the spring 2015.
Notts SOS believe that the cuts agenda is ideologically driven and are urging councillors to stand-up to central government.
Claire Taylor from Notts SOS said, "Council Leader Jon Collins and Deputy Leader Graham Chapman have been vocally critical of central government and often with good reason. Now it's time for them to put their money where their mouth is and refuse to pass the cuts onto the people of Nottingham. Even a single council refusing to implement a cuts budget would shake the coalition government."
Rosemary Muge from the group added, "The same week the council announced it's planned cuts, Goldman Sachs revealed an £8 billion pay and bonus bill for UK staff in 2011 - equating to £238,832 for every worker. The bankers who caused this crisis have avoided paying for it and instead the cost is being borne by ordinary people. Nottingham is already a deprived city it needs investment not further cutbacks."
Notes for editors
1. Notts SOS was launched in September 2010. They oppose cuts to services, job losses and cuts in benefits and aim to support workers organisations, service users, community groups in fighting cuts in Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire. They hope to inspire confidence to think, meet and act. And to be inspired.
2. Last year Notts SOS held a demonstration when the city council met to set its budget. A petition was presented to Deputy Leader Graham Chapman. Councillors were later heckled from the public gallery and Jon Collins was challenged by protesters while he was being interviewed for the BBC.
ENDS
30 Days of Actions at Faslane
21-01-2012 18:37
Sat 9th June 2012 will see the beginning of a 30 day campaign of direct actions against the Faslane Naval Base to commemorate 30 years of nuclear resistance at Faslane Peace CampR v Lindis Percy: Judge calls CPS behaviour "wholly, wholly unacceptable"
21-01-2012 18:31
On 18 January 2012, the trial of R v Lindis Percy briefly got underway at Harrogate Magistrates' Court before being adjourned yet again following failure by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to comply with various court Directions. Lindis has been charged under s 89(2) Police Act 1996 with allegedly obstructing three Ministry of Defence Police Agency (MDPA) officers on 16 August 2011. The alleged offence took place during the weekly Tuesday evening demonstration at the American (NSA) Menwith Hill base near Harrogate, North Yorkshire. Since then there have been no fewer than five previous court appearances for a summary only case – cases which stay and are heard in a Magistrates’ court. The hearing on 18 January was the sixth.
Defend Free Press In The UK - Reinstate Press TV!
21-01-2012 17:34
Press TV has been removed from UK television by Ofcom. The guys and girls at Occupy Finsbury Square London have organised a protest against this blatant act of censorship.Occupy Sheffield's Rally for the 99%
21-01-2012 15:17
Glasgow Picket Against Adecco Supplying scabs at ABB Factory Spain
21-01-2012 14:31
Red and black flags waved as a dozen people from the Anarchist Federation, Industrial Workers of the World, the Scottish Socialist Party, the Solidarity Federation and other individuals took part in a picket of the Glasgow premises of Adecco for one hour between 4 and 5pm on Friday 20th January.
Montgomery Primary School Strike
21-01-2012 13:10
Montgomery Primary school is being forced to become an academy, a move which both teachers and parents are opposed to. In December, all staff went on strike, and were joined by parents on the picket line. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/birmingham/2011/12/490171.html They will be on strike again on the 25th January.
Notre-Dame-des-Landes, France - In case of eviction : Demonstration and Re-Occup
21-01-2012 12:52
It's about the fight against Vinci and the Airport of Notre Dames Des Landes, you're welcome !Occupy London publicly repossesses empty nine-storey building in the Barbican
21-01-2012 10:42
A Tank of an Idea (Part 2)
20-01-2012 20:51
Heh - in Tank of an Idea (Part 1) we told you there was more to come on the dodgy relationship between Occupy Justice and Mastcraft Limited. Our friends at Corporate Watch have been digging about and what they have found, leads them to ask What would Mastcraft gain from agreement with Occupy Justice?
It seems that ideas of turning the old court house into a centre known as the Community Courthouse Iniative, ran into trouble when Hackney Council applied strict planning conditions on the listed building. The project felt it could only attempt to meet these restrictions, which added to already costs, if they were given a written commitment by the Metropolitan Police Authority to sell them the building should they clear Hackney's hurdles. The MPA refused to play and the innovative scheme was duly scuttled. This lead to the building being placed on the market, and duly snapped up by Mastcraft, with plans to turn it into a luxury hotel.
Lab Animal Trade Sinks as SeaFrance Liquidates
20-01-2012 19:16
