Aftermath of the Blockade
Just caught up with the Basingstoke Gazette that flutters through our letterbox twice a week. I was pleased that the recent blockade at AWE was mentioned, although the article was very succinct.
A journalist was present at the site for a considerable time, approaching both activists and the police, but her short account left the reader confused. It mentioned briefly that new building work under way at AWE is claimed by protesters to ‘lead to a new generation of nuclear weapons’ then went on to describe the arrests and alleged offenses at length. It finished with a quote from Thames Valley Police hailing the operation a success as everybody at AWE was able to get to work on time. I would not have thought otherwise with a scant dozen demonstrators sitting peacefully in front of the gate surrounded by three times the number of police. The point was to stage a perfunctory protest to raise public awareness about Britain’s involvement in the development of new nuclear weapons. It was all that we could do and a the time I thought that we had at least been partly successful in this. But if we were, the Basingstoke Gazette didn’t get it.
I might not have expected the paper to be sympathetic, but I had hoped for a more informative article when the BG bothered reporting the incident at all. It might well be that the journalist got out of bed too early and on the wrong foot but, needless to say, they didn’t print my letter either. —Again. Why all the secretiveness? The days of the Cold War are past and with this country’s recent involvement in an illegal war and the general election just over it is high time to call for an open debate. Even in a local free-sheet. The BG is proud of their worthy campaign to keep rural post offices open but blind to the more sinister goings-on on our very doorstep.
Tags: Tadley Times, Tag Index
Denni