The Xtra Diary - Squatters move lock, stock and barrel to Black Horse, and getting ready for the 2011 Census
Published: 25 February, 2011
THE squatters who occupied director Guy Ritchie’s house in Fitzroy Square before relocating to the Black Horse pub just off Oxford Street have caused a major stir among their neighbours.
While some have welcomed them, others have branded them “time-wasters” and “clowns”.
Members of the Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Association have ascribed political aims to the Really Free School (RFS), which has been set up by the young men and women. But what do the squatters themselves think, and, most importantly, do they take themselves at all seriously?
“Communiques” from the RFS can be viewed on its website, www.reallyfreeschool.org. One concludes: “Freeskool iz not a zoo. We have unicorns to fly and kingdoms to destroy, and dinosaurs to stroke.”
With titles including “Feminist Porn” and “Quantum Weirdness” for “Non Physicists”, some of the public lectures they have staged read like gifts to the tabloid hacks who could be found snooping around outside Mr Ritchie’s pad and who the free-schoolers take a dim view of.
One RFS workshop, the “Workshop of Nothing”, is described on the website as: “A workshop where nonsense makes sense: becoming animal with Orwell. Eat, drink and play Animal Farm. Come as your favourite character (or non character).”
There have also been more conventionally scholastic sessions teaching foreign languages and useful skills like carpentry.
The free-schoolers have vowed not to speak to the media or explain themselves in the Press, so perhaps they cannot blame onlookers for feeling somewhat confused.
Questions offend census sensibilities of Tory Jean-Paul
NEXT month Westminster residents – along with households up and down the country – will receive their census questionnaires in the post.
City Hall has been encouraging people to fill in theirs – and not just because those who don’t could face a fine of £1,000 and a criminal record.
According to the council’s website: “It is important for the census to be correct as this directly impacts on the resources available for the council and planning for the services we provide.”
Or as council leader Colin Barrow put it: “As councils across the UK struggle to balance their budgets, it’s incredibly important that people complete and send back their census forms.”
However, his Hyde Park ward colleague, Conservative councillor Jean-Paul Floru appears to think otherwise.
“The main reason to oppose the intrusive Census 2011 is not privacy. It is also not the cost. It is the existence of the figures themselves,” Mr Floru wrote this week on the blog of libertarian think-tank The Adam Smith Institute.
“Big Brother,” he warned, wanted to know the answer to “40-odd questions of varying intrusiveness”.
“Why does the government need to know?” he asked. “To justify interfering, nannying, taxing, fining and legislating. The Census is there to help the government regulate. And, as Ronald Reagan taught us: ‘The 10 most dangerous words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help’.”
Don’t let the fear of prosecution put you off, he advised, adding: “Out of the three million people who mislaid the form in 2001, only 38 were successfully prosecuted.”
Westminster Labour leader Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg was up in arms and has written to Cllr Barrow asking him what action he will be taking against Cllr Floru’s “totally irresponsible” behaviour.
Mimi’s song for hero Noor
REGULAR readers will know the affecting story of Noor Inayat Khan, a Muslim Indian woman who spied for the Allies in the Second World War and died in a concentration camp.
Since Diary reported some weeks ago on the campaign by Noor’s biographer, Shrabani Basu, to raise funds for a memorial paying tribute to her, several readers have contributed money.
Now professional singer Mimi Romilly has created her own tribute: a song inspired by a 1980s TV documentary about Noor.
Mimi said: “Like Noor I am half Asian myself, and, having played as a child in and around the area where she had lived, near Gordon Square, I felt a certain empathy with her.”
Noor volunteered to spy for Britain when she was in her mid-20s. She spoke fluent French, and, as France was under Nazi occupation at the time, was dropped behind enemy lines to help aid the Resistance.
She was captured and tortured but refused to give information.
Mimi’s song, Noor Inayat Khan, is now available as a single on iTunes. Half of the proceeds will go towards the Noor Inayat Khan Memorial Trust.