Space Hijackers: Tank Update

You might remember the Space Hijackers and their quest for a tank, which I flagged up earlier in the summer. Well, they did it!



The Saracen Mk 1 was delivered last week and received its number plates from the DVLA on Friday. Apparently the owners of the venue where it was initially parked were put under a certain amount of pressure by the authorities - and the hijacker team has spent the rest of the weekend playing cat and mouse with the Met.

According to their press release, the plan is to drive the tank to the DSEi Arms Fair - taking place, rather tastefully, on September 11th - and auction it to the highest bidder:

If this so happens to be an angry teenager in a balaclava, then so be it. We don't see how destruction caused with our tank can possibly be our responsibility.

Several people have got in touch with us claiming that this kind of behavior is slightly reckless "what if someone drives over a police car in your tank?" Our response is simple: we are simply looking to make a profit, it's just business transaction. As with the arms dealers and their weapons, once the goods are out of our hands, how can we be held accountable for how they are used?

It's the kind of stunt that's bound to draw a certain amount of criticism - and given the trigger-happy track record of London's finest, I'd personally think twice about playing with military equipment in their vicinity...

But with organisers Reed Elsevier already quitting the arms fair business as a result of some impressive campaigning, it feels like, if enough attention is drawn to this year's event, there's just the scent of a chance that local politicians will decide it's more trouble than it's worth - and we could see this festival of death kicked out of London for good.

Sheffield becomes first City of Sanctuary

I fully intend to carry on the conversation I've been having with Tim on my previous post, but meanwhile I just wanted to share some good news.

City of Sanctuary is a movement started by a friend of mine, Craig Barnett, to build a "culture of hospitality" for refugees and asylum-seekers. The idea is to work below the (often toxic) national debate, at a level which is closer to people's everyday lives, to change the conversation about asylum. It's modelled on the Fairtrade City movement, which has been extremely effective at raising awareness and changing behaviour by working at the level of the town or city and gaining commitments from all kinds of groups and organisations, with the goal of persuading local politicians to join them.

Well, the good news is that, at the start of this year's Refugee Week, the Mayor of Sheffield has announced the council's support for the campaign - making us the first city in the UK to make a public commitment to welcome asylum seekers and refugees. This reflects a lot of hard work by Craig and others.

In his speech, the Mayor said, 'I'm pleased to announce today that the City Council declares its support for City of Sanctuary, this means that the City Council is now publicly committed to working with others to promote a welcoming city for asylum-seekers and refugees.'

There is still plenty of work to be done in encouraging other local organisations to become involved, and in working with the City Council and others on finding ways to translate this commitment into practice.

But it is a major landmark in the movement to create a culture of hospitality for asylum-seekers and refugees, and we would like to express our thanks to all of our supporters for making it possible. We hope soon to begin discussions with groups in other cities to try to create Cities of Sanctuary around the UK.

Why not come and celebrate this success with us at the City of Sanctuary Ceilidh on Saturday 23rd June, 7-10pm at Croft House Settlement, Garden Street, off Broad Lane S1. Admission free!

If you have the opportunity, please spread this idea - it would be great to see other cities follow suit.