Lizzie Dearden

Yesterday I travelled to Hackney to investigate the latest development in Occupy London: The Bank of Ideas.

Protesters have moved into a derelict office block owned by bailed-out bank giant UBS. It is being transformed into a squat/community centre/conference centre open to friends and guests to discuss ideas. And banks. And a lot of other things.

Sunday was only the third day in its existence and there were 5 lectures, 4 workshops, a conference of national Occupy protestors and a comedy gig.

Organisers aim to expand through the floors as they find use for all the different spaces. A youth centre has already applied to use some space as a hub since its funding was slashed in austerity cuts.

The ‘bank’ had garnered a lot of press interest when it opened and students, protesters and curious members of the public of all ages were milling around on the inside.

I’m writing a feature on The Bank of Ideas, what it means for the Occupy movement and its future this week. So watch this space.

For details on visiting and what’s happening, go to their site.

I’m calling last week’s events in Norway a terrorist attack because since the revelation that the perpetrator was a white non-Muslim, noone else seems able to. The mass killings in Oslo and Utoya highlighted the long-overlooked dangers of right-wing extremism, but they also exposed the prejudice that we all share in the way we have been conditioned to define terrorism and its perpetrators. ‘They would probably think I was a terrorist, lol’ is a quote from the diary of the mass-murderer Anders Behring Breivik that I took as the title for my article. As I have no papers to write for before my next course starts, I have put it straight into my ‘Unpublished articles’ archive. Please read it and discuss it. Because until we can call a white man a terrorist we have no right to sneer at the values that drove Breivik’s rampage.

The subjects of my most recent three articles are completely separate but equally topical. A satire on our Foreign Secretary’s efforts to take some form of stand against Gaddafi and his inhumane and brutal response to dissent was published today in The Lemon Press. Tomorrow (hopefully), my feature on open prisons and Ford will be published in York Vision. It was delayed because of an editorial changeover. In the next few weeks, University culture magazine The Zahir will be published, including my feature on undercover policing environmental protest groups.

And there’s more to come! I am also in the process of writing a feature for The F Word. It will explore current slang trends such as ‘bromance’ and ‘man-up’ and what this swing towards male-centric language means.

…is the title of a feature that I’ve just had published in York Vision. It explores this history of annual women’s event Reclaim the Night and its transformation over the years. It discusses its relevance today in light of the police response to the murder of Joanna Yeates and the way the event can be used to draw support for many causes. The University of York’s Reclaim the Night event is happening tomorrow night as part of a campaign for better lighting around the campus.

As promised, I have typed up my notes from the student protest in London on 24th November 2010. At points, I’ve had to insert comments in italics to make events clearer, but everything else was written on the day. Unfortunately, the coverage ends quite abruptly as I had to leave to appear on Young Persons’ Question Time for BBC 3. I was only at the protest for about 4 hours, but I’d say it was a defining day in my life.

Look out for the encounter with the injured student at 14.40 and the police medic’s refusal to treat him. See 15.15 for a policeman’s view on journalism and a baton charge.

I’ve also included some pictures I took in a gallery at the bottom.