Hi friends, the trial of the Stansted activists starts next Monday 1 Oct. We stopped a deportation plane which would have deported people to places where they faced persecution and harm. As a direct result of the action 11 people remain in the country fighting their cases. Pls come to the solidarity demo at 8.30am at Chelmsford Crown Court & share our messages far and wide. @EDeportations X
Today's Solidarity vigil for activist who died during the fight to protect Hambacher Forest is now at 17.15pm RWE Offices, 60 Threadneedle St, EC2R 8HP. Bring candles, love and rage. Hambi bleibt!
From left: A “Pussy Hat,” an Afghan war rug and a papier-mâché puppet of a factory owner from a Mexican Day of the Dead festival. All are featured in “I object” at the British Museum.CreditCreditTrustees of British Museum
LONDON — There have been exhibitions of protest art and satire, but the British Museum’s “I object,” running through Jan. 20, tells the history of political anger somewhat differently — by tracing the history of dissent right back, not just to the ’60s, or the French Revolution, but to the ancient Egyptians.
“I wanted the exhibition to be as broad as possible,” Ian Hislop, its curator, said while touring it recently. “I wanted to be able to include every gesture from writing your own name over the king’s on a Babylonian brick, to an intricate Chinese silk screen. I didn’t want to restrict it to placards and badges.”
Image
Ian Hislop, who organized the exhibition, has been the editor of the satirical magazine Private Eye for more than 30 years.CreditTrustees of the British Museum
Mr. Hislop’s curation is a coup for the museum. In Britain, his name is almost a byword for giving the finger to authority. For more than 30 years he’s been editor of Private Eye, Britain’s most prominent satirical magazine, which sells more than 230,000 copies each issue.
ADVERTISEMENT
But delving into the British Museum’s collections taught even him a few things about protest. “I always assumed that in ancient civilizations there wasn’t any — you dissent, you die,” Mr. Hislop said. “Actually that wasn’t true at all.” Well, he added, people did die, but only if they got caught.
Touring the exhibition, Mr. Hislop and Tom Hockenhull, a curator at the British Museum who collaborated with Mr. Hislop on the show — offered insight into some of their favorite items, including the fake ancient rock that the artist Banksy once hung in the museum. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.
Ian Hislop: “You carve ‘Hang the Pope’ into a coin, spend it, and it’s gone.”CreditTrustees of British Museum
IAN HISLOP The first thing Tom said to me was the easiest way to get your message into circulation is to use what the authorities already have: money, coins, bank notes. It’s quick, and it’s fantastically efficient and it’s also pretty safe. You carve “Hang the Pope” into a coin, spend it, and it’s gone.
TOM HOCKENHULL There’s a symbolic gesture as well to defacing a coin of the realm as it’s effectively government property. It’s a bit like graffitiing Parliament.
**TONIGHT 18th September ** Community night @ good as gold social plc. 35 Bow Road , E3 2AD . From 6pm-10pm .Join us for food , music jammin and a random movie of somebody's choice. We have board games. Bring yours along if you want and come play. Friendly dogs welcome.
Enter your postcode to see news and information near youCommunity updates, Crime Statistics, Local News & Events and much more...
(Image: Darren Cullen)
As Daily Mail Editor, the controversial Paul Dacre leaves his post, thousands of copies of a miniature "tribute" newspaper parodying the Daily Mail have been released.
The parody newspaper will be handed out at various locations across Liverpool this week.
Darren Cullen, the man who famously created the Pocket Money Loans installation at Banksy’s Dismaland in 2015, has hand drawn a fun sized version of the UK’s second biggest selling paper.
The chill of the fluid flows through Iona's arm as the DMT - N,N-Dimethyltryptamine- is pumped into her bloodstream.
She is in a treatment room at the Imperial College Clinical Research Facility in London, taking part in a scientific study into the effects of illegal hallucinogen DMT. She's in a chair, eye mask on, cannula poking out of her forearm. The lights are dimmed and a specially commissioned ambient soundtrack plays in the background. Chris Timmermann, a psychologist and neuroscientist who researches psychedelic drugs, stands nearby.
Inside Iona’s brain, enzymes work like cleaners mopping up a monsoon to break down the drug flooding her system. The hallucinations hit her like a hurricane. A sense of dread envelops her.
“My eyes were closed but there was so much going on that it was really hard to focus," Iona says afterwards. "The one image I remember was lots of books opening and rainbows shooting out of them."
An anti-fracking campaigner, dressed as a riot policeman, takes part in a protest march near to the Barton Moss fracking exploration rig in January 2014. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Police are being accused of trying to muzzle protest movements as figures obtained by the Guardian reveal the widespread use of bail to ban hundreds of innocent people from attending lawful demonstrations.
The data shows that around 85% of those barred from protesting when bailed have not been subsequently charged with any crime. Civil liberties and protest groups accused police of dealing out their own justice and called for a change in the law.
The figures show that a least 732 people have been banned by police forces in England and Wales since 2008 but then never charged. They come as the government confirms it is considering overhauling the police bail rules.
“Bail is becoming an instrument that is being used by people without recourse to the judicial process. It is to essentially punish protesters and curb their right to demonstrate,” said Rachel Harger of leading human rights law firm Bindmans.
