The last time I saw Mel Broughton protesting the Oxford Animal Lab as part of the SPEAK campaign was at the Martyr’s Memorial in July 2007. By December 2007 Broughton was remanded in custody facing charges of conspiracy to blackmail and the possession of incendiary devices. He faced a series of…

4 years ago / 309 visits

On 25th February the stakes in SPEAK‘s campaign against the building of the new Oxford Animal Lab were raised. Four weeks earlier, 16 year old Laurie Pycroft had been shopping in Oxford when he witnessed a SPEAK protest and decided to stage one of his own in support of the lab with a couple of frien…

4 years ago / 313 visits / 1 comment

This was the second SPEAK protest in Oxford city centre that I documented. A small gathering of people assembled to highlight their feelings that funding given to Oxford University by Vodaphone could help to fund the animal lab. SPEAK had other events planned across the city that day, but despite…

4 years ago / 215 visits

Walking into Oxford city centre in January 2006 I began to notice a heavy police presence, roads had been closed and traffic diverted. Unsure what was going on I continued into town and soon realised that there was a demonstration organised by the animal rights group SPEAK about to begin. Intrigued…

4 years ago / 155 visits

In the wake of Alastair Campbells‘ dodgy dossiers and on the brink of another war in the Persian Gulf, the anti war protest movement mobilised globally culminating in a coordinated day of protests in more than 600 cities across the world on 15th February 2003. It has been described as the “the la…

4 years ago / 133 visits

The 45th President’s state visit to the United Kingdom may have been controversial to many but it was convenient to some. Mixed in with the usual bizarre behaviour and the inevitable pomp and circumstance, the true agenda was never far from the surface. Trump's visit has conici…

5 years ago / 174 visits / 1 person likes

The nature of politics and protest in the UK has changed beyond all recognition in recent years. The sweeping austerity measures presided over by David Cameron altered the face of the country and some might argue reinvigorated the left. Protests against the state of the nation became more commonplac…

5 years ago / 175 visits / 1 comment / 1 person likes

Beacon Hill near Kimble, Buckinghamshire has long been a place of interest for me. On the edge of the Chequers estate, skirted by the ancient Ridgeway, it is surrounded by sites and monuments from the more recent past, as well as those that predate history. Chequers has been a Prime Ministerial retr…

5 years ago / 180 visits / 1 person likes