{"id":901,"date":"2019-02-01T13:38:49","date_gmt":"2019-02-01T13:38:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/?p=901"},"modified":"2019-02-01T13:44:57","modified_gmt":"2019-02-01T13:44:57","slug":"build-a-bonfire-build-a-bonfire-provided-youve-completed-a-risk-assessment-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2019\/02\/01\/build-a-bonfire-build-a-bonfire-provided-youve-completed-a-risk-assessment-first\/","title":{"rendered":"‘BUILD A BONFIRE, BUILD A BONFIRE…’ (PROVIDED YOU’VE COMPLETED A RISK ASSESSMENT FIRST)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Having said that there’s nothing interesting to be found in Senate agenda papers, we’ll immediately contradict ourselves by examining the proposed Revised Code of Practice on Protests, discussed by the Senate this week. Drafted by the Director of Strategic Planning and Governance, someone who certainly knows how to mediate at a protest (see our Court report from subtext 172<\/a>), it’s due to come into force today, 1 February.<\/span><\/p>\n

What will an official protest now look like? Let’s imagine you’re unhappy because you’ve discovered that someone you really don’t like is coming to campus in a few months time, and you’d like to organise a demonstration…<\/span><\/p>\n

– Obviously you’ll need approval from a designated University officer.<\/span><\/p>\n

– You need to appoint one (just one!) of your number as the principal organiser of the demo, who’ll take responsibility if things kick off. Nothing too scary – just be aware that failing to follow the rules could lead to ‘being subject to action under the relevant disciplinary regulations and, in serious cases, potential legal action.’<\/span><\/p>\n

– It goes without saying that you’re going to need to submit a risk assessment. This will involve ‘responding to the reasonable requests of the Responsible Officer’ as well as providing details about the nature and theme of the event, including how you plan to use banners and megaphones, what route you’ll be taking and whether there’ll be any external speakers.<\/span><\/p>\n

– We need to ensure your protest doesn’t cause any disruption! Nothing too onerous – we’d just like you to guarantee that students, staff and visitors can still move around freely, making sure events can continue unhindered and uninterrupted, ‘including excessive noise in or intruding into buildings.’<\/span><\/p>\n

– In return, the university will endeavour to ensure the protest can go ahead, unless it would be unsafe (fair enough), be illegal (also fair enough), ‘present an unacceptable disruption to business’ (not so sure about that) or cost too much (definitely not sure about that!).<\/span><\/p>\n

– Oh, and we need a week’s notice, in writing. Is that OK?<\/span><\/p>\n

Will the new system be a success? Campus demo organisers are encouraged to share their experiences with subtext at the usual address.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having said that there’s nothing interesting to be found in Senate agenda papers, we’ll immediately contradict ourselves by examining the proposed Revised Code of Practice on Protests, discussed by the Senate this week. Drafted by the Director of Strategic Planning … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[433,452,210,460],"class_list":["post-901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-demonstration","tag-issue-185","tag-protest","tag-risk-assessment"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p99sHo-ex","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":973,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2019\/04\/02\/subtext-187-yet-another-meaningful-subtext\/","url_meta":{"origin":901,"position":0},"title":"subtext 187 – \u2018yet another meaningful subtext\u2019","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"April 2 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Every so often during term time (and sometimes a bit after). Letters, contributions, & comments: subtext-editors@lancaster.ac.uk Back issues & subscription details: http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/about\/ In this issue: editorial, people's vote march, cheat's charter, bailrigg fm, lancaster exchange, where's regev?, widden, no letters. ***************************************************** EDITORIAL How to keep busy in these interesting times\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "editorial"","block_context":{"text":"editorial","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/editorial\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":840,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/11\/23\/demo-report-from-alex-square\/","url_meta":{"origin":901,"position":1},"title":"DEMO REPORT FROM ALEX SQUARE","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 23 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"White t-shirts have been popping up everywhere in recent times. But a group of around 40 protestors who assembled on Alexandra Square Wednesday lunchtime showed that it's possible to wear a white t-shirt with writing on it that does not consist of 'jokes' about killing or raping people. The student-led\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":871,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/12\/17\/apologies-for-disrupting-your-service-we-were-saving-lives\/","url_meta":{"origin":901,"position":2},"title":"APOLOGIES FOR DISRUPTING YOUR SERVICE, WE WERE SAVING LIVES","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"December 17 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The 'Stansted 15', a group of peaceful protesters who include former LUSU President Laura Clayson, have been found guilty by a jury at Chelmsford Crown Court under the little-used Aviation and Maritime Security Act 1990 of disrupting the services of an aerodrome, 'in such a way as to endanger or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":726,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/09\/13\/fascism-on-campus\/","url_meta":{"origin":901,"position":3},"title":"FASCISM ON CAMPUS","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"September 13 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Centralisation and the erosion of accountability somewhat paled into insignificance when we learned that a small but vocal group of students were attempting to set up a society for fascists. *Ahem*, sorry - 'traditionalists.' Their Facebook page is full of the usual witless moaning about 'social justice warriors', complaints about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "history"","block_context":{"text":"history","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/history\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":959,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2019\/04\/02\/has-anyone-seen-an-ambassador\/","url_meta":{"origin":901,"position":4},"title":"HAS ANYONE SEEN AN AMBASSADOR?","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"April 2 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"A group of around 35 activists, some from campus, others from the city, met at 6pm on Wednesday 27 March to protest against the possible appearance of the Israeli ambassador, Mark Regev, on campus. It was never clear whether Mr Regev was actually coming to campus, or whether he had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1077,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2019\/11\/01\/climate-strike-on-campus-a-report\/","url_meta":{"origin":901,"position":5},"title":"CLIMATE STRIKE ON CAMPUS – A REPORT","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 1 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"On Friday 20 September Alexandra Square witnessed that nicest of experiences, an officially-sanctioned protest, as upwards of 300 staff and students congregated at 12 noon to show their support for the 'climate strikes' being organised by school pupils that day. Credit is due to Lancaster's management for allowing its employees\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/568"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=901"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":902,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901\/revisions\/902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}