Newswires: Roma / Traveller

Recent articles from external newswires filtered for the keywords: Roma, traveller, gypsy...

Plane Stupid and AAA crash Virgin Atlantic 25th birthday party

Monday the 22nd of June was Virgin Atlantic's 25th Anniversary. Branson has been pushing the joke that biofuels are the solution to another 25 years of aviation growth, so we decided to team up with Action Against Agrofuels and join in the party. Our tickets must have got lost in the post, but we dressed up and strolled along anyway. The balloon banner rose through the main lobby of Terminal 3, and minutes later Heathrow tube shut. The underground crew got out just as the station was closing, and despite the fact that the area was now full of fluro vests and cop cars, two stewardesses calmly unfolded their collapsible ladder and climbed onto the roof of the porch entrance to departures. Check out the photos on our Flickr photostream. Their escorts unravelled a giant banner, and two more stewardesses emerged from inside the building. They tossed around handfuls of banner confetti that read ‘biofuels, no way out’ and gleefully squirted silly string on the growing group of intrigued travellers. Meanwhile on the roof, our ladies in red were applying their lipstick and arranging thier coconut pillbox hats. The headgear was a reference to Virgin's biofuel experiment last year. The flight from London to Amsterdam contained just 5% coconut oil, yet the journey still required 150,000 coconuts for a one-way flight from London to Amsterdam. Yep, that’s 150,000 thousand coconuts. To cover just 5% of one flight. Across the Channel. To put it into perspective, that's enough coconuts to make 300,000 pina coladas. There’s a farcical discrepancy between how biofuels are dressed up, and what their actual impacts are. The evidence suggests that agro fuels take more carbon to produce than just using kerosene outright, and bring with them the complications of deforestation and mass hunger. After half an hour or so of falling into step with amused Virgin stewardesses and friendly banter with passengers, the police decided that everyone was having far too much fun and proceeded to arrest everyone. Heathrow is covered by SOCPA - the legislation that ‘protects’ parliament from spontaneous protest. 9 people were taken away on suspicion of aggravated trespass and breach of bylaws. Apparently the airport's cherry picker had left from the far side of the runways as soon as it heard of the protest, it’s just not very fast, and Heathrow is very, very big. So the two on the roof held out till 1pm, as the re-enactment of Virgins maiden flight was boarding. Everyone was held without charge till 11 that night and bailed to return. more >>

Fear and loathing in Belfast

Source: Institute of Race Relations

In a personal statement, Phil Scraton sets the recent attacks on Roma in South Belfast in the wider context of persistent anti-Traveller racial violence in the UK. more >>

Gypsies trash £5million police helicopter

Source: Anarchist News Dot Org

From Telegraph.co.uk by Ben Leach The gang used axes to smash five windows - causing thousands of pounds worth of damage to the only police helicopter in the county. The vandalism followed weeks of aerial surveillance on a travellers' site where stolen cars and goods are believed to be being kept. The incident happened at around 10pm after the gipsies climbed a 4ft wall surrounding the police force's helipad at Fairoaks airport, near Woking. They threatened staff in the operations room before trashing the aircraft, which is expected to be sidelined for another two weeks while repairs are made. read more more >>

In Solidarity With Enfield & Basildon Factory Occupations

Source: London Coalition Against Poverty

Support Visteon Factory Occupation in London, Enfield Short Report, 2nd of April 2009 After car parts manufacturer Visteon announced job cuts workers occupied plants in Belfast, Basildon and Enfield. In Enfield about 70 workers - men and women from all kinds of backgrounds - are still inside the plant and on the roof. Last Tuesday the management called [...] more >>

All travel plans to be tracked by Government

Source: No2ID - News

David Millward writes in The Daily Telegraph: The travel plans and personal details of every holidaymaker, business traveller and day-tripper who leaves Britain are to be tracked by the Government, the Daily Telegraph can disclose. Anyone departing the UK by land, sea or air will have their trip recorded and stored on a database for a decade. Passengers [...] more >>