English police bans Magna Carta commemoration

This video series from England says about itself:

PUTNEY DEBATE: Unsettling Debt: What does Debt Resistance mean in the UK

From PFI contracts that make hospitals three times as expensive as public funding would, to the bubble in the housing sector, from graduates’ average debt burdens of £44,000, to unpayable energy bills …debt affects all aspects of our lives.

Be it private, national or local government, debt is one of the neoliberal system’s most powerful tools to discipline us.

But together, we can overcome the shame attached and the idea that you need to be an expert to understand what is happening.

Together we can start building strategies for resistance.

As part of Occupy London’s New Putney Debates, Debt Resistance UK organised an evening of discussion to share informations, hear more from participants on debt and explore possibilities for collective action.

SPEAKERS:

Carl Packman – Payday Loans
Claire Welton – Fuel Poverty
Mary Robertson – Housing Debt
Helen Mercer – NHS Debt
Joel Benjamin – Local Government Debt
Jonathan Stevenson – National Debt
Fanny Malinen – Student Debt

Debt Resistance UK is a London-based group dedicated to challenging the narrative of debt injustice as inevitable and apolitical.

This debate was held on Tuesday 4 November 2014.

By Joana Ramiro in Britain:

Police put a stop to democracy festival

Monday 15th june 2015

Eight arrested at ‘unregulated’ Runnymede Magna Carta event

POLICE besieged a democracy festival and arrested visitors this weekend as the Magna Carta’s 800th anniversary celebrations took place mere steps away from its campsite.

Officers turned away all comers to the Runnymede Festival for Democracy, which took place at a local eco-village, because the event was “unlicensed and unregulated.”

Eight people were also arrested, with activists urging the force to “stop over-reaching powers and respect the law.”

The sustainable community based near the signing site of the Magna Carta hosted a series of workshops on democracy and human rights, with a series of writers, academics and high profile campaigners billed on the programme.

New Putney Debates speaker Julie Timbrell told the Star that police intervention had denied “us our hard-won right of freedom of association.

“Magna Carta was won through protest by the barons and common people against arbitrary abuse by the king.

“We represent the people but, now, as the Queen prepares to celebrate in Runnymede field, the forces of the crown are turning away democracy speakers from our festival in the neighbouring forest.

“It appears that only the barons on the invite of the Queen have the right to celebrate the Magna Carta.”

A spokeswoman for Surrey Police said that “it carefully considered the information and reports received in relation to the proposed activity” before making use of Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act.

The law is usually used to shut down raves and other open-air “amplified music” events that might cause “serious distress to the inhabitants of the locality.”

According to organisers, the “eco-village have met with both representatives of the council and local residents, who were all happy for the event to go ahead.”

They added: “It is particularly sad and inappropriate that the police are choosing to exceed their legal powers to prevent an event celebrating the importance of democracy and the rule of law.”

But police said that a sound system had already been removed from the scene with the compliance of the eco-villagers.

Today marks the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta, a major historical event in the social and political development of England and in the emergence of the rule of law against arbitrary power: here.

The British Library’s Magna Carta exhibition: A vital though flawed presentation: here.