Free London – Saturday 27th – Sunday 28th September

You’ll have to go over to the all time-consuming other site for yer free London round up this weekend.  the void be back in full effect next week – promise.

http://www.freelondonlistings.co.uk/

Spirit Evicted!

TODAY, 25th SEPT, the court ruled NOT to grant Spirit more time to pay off the remaining money he owes his landlords.

Bailiffs are authorized to come and EVICT Spirit from his shop and home AS OF TODAY!

This is despite the fact that Spirit is up to date with his current rent and in addition has paid off over £28,000 since October 2005. This is the sum total of all his existing rent arrears.

The remaining amount, which forms the basis of the landlord’s successful application for a bailiffs eviction warrant, is a far lesser amount equaling the landlord’s legal costs, resulting from Spirit contesting the 2005 possession order in his fight for his shop and home, prior to receiving legal aid for his case.

Today’s ruling did not take into account that Spirits rent arrears and associated court costs were incurred as a result of Spirit’s landlord increasing his rent by over 700% after acquiring the building from Hackney Council and that the circumstances surrounding the sale are still disputed.

SPIRIT VS. HACKNEY COUNCIL

Spirit is taking Hackney Council to court over the sale of his premises hours AFTER SPIRIT HAD ALREADY PUT DOWN A CHEQUE DEPOSIT for the building.*

Spirit has now been granted legal aid to bring this case.

The Council has filed a Defence denying his claim and if no out-of-court settlement is reached, the case will be heard by a court in several months time.

We hope that the judge will find that Hackney Council sold Spirit’s property unlawfully.

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WHAT NEXT?

It is disgraceful that Spirit is about to be thrown out of his shop and home! We need to let Hackney Council know that we will not allow this to happen.

Over the coming days we will be protesting outside Spirit’s shop and handing out leaflets and collecting donations on Saturday’s market.

We are also in the process of setting up a new mailing list/website to extend our our campaign network, and redouble our efforts to win justice for Spirit.

We will be organizing another fundraising party and a public meeting very soon!

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* Spirit has been living and working at the premises at 71 Broadway Market since 1993.
When he first rented the building from Hackney council it was derelict and Spirit has invested £52,500 of his own money and six year of his own labour to turn it into a thriving business, selling fresh food and fish at affordable prices.

When Hackney Council auctioned off many of its commercial properties in 2000-2003 it should have given Spirit, the long-term lease holder first option to buy his property. At the time Spirit made it clear to all parties involved with the sales that he was determined to buy 71 Broadway Market.

Spirit went to the Council’s auctioneers on the morning of the auction and signed a document that he believed was a contract of sale. He handed over a cheque for £10,000 as a deposit to buy the property for £100,000.

Just hours later the Council’s auctioneers sold the building to an offshore investment company based in the Bahamas for £85,000 – £15,000 LESS than what Spirit had offered to pay for it!

Six days later the auctioneers, Nelson Bakewell, returned Spirit’s cheque to him without explanation. Hackney Council has never been able to explain why this happened.

http://spirit.hackneysolidarity.info/

Free London – Saturday 20th – Sunday 21st September

Yeah, we know, things in the void have been sparse.  The other largely reformist, potentially money grabbing and very time consuming website has been sapping most of the energy and what follows is a blatant repost of this weekend’s free stuff.

the void will be back, Grumpy Old Anarchist is threatening to make an appearance this week (we’ve hidden the ketamine) and the void will return to normality soon.  In the meantime here’s a shameless plug for Free London Listings.

“Well, Free London Listings has survived it’s first week and with over 500 events now listed we don’t think we’ve done that bad.

The post events feature is acting a bit wobbly, i.e. it don’t work, but it will.  We are still in Beta after all.

In the meantime you can email us details of events using the contact form or for a limited period post details of your event in this forum.  All events will be copied into the main listings as soon as we get a chance.  This is a bit of a stop-gap solution, so don’t get used to it folks.

As for this weekend, it’s not too late in the year to be getting down to some fine tunes in the open air.  Leytonstone Car Free Day on Sunday 21st sees the mighty Geno Washington and The Ram Jam Band plus Pauline Black formally of ska legends The Selector playing in the road along with kids stuff, stalls and art exhibits.

Not to be outdone Islingtonians also have a car free day on Saturday when Liverpool Road will be turned into a ‘park’ for the day with an open air cinema featuring films like ‘Cinema Paradiso’ and ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’.

Meanwhile the noble proletarians of the People’s Republic of Peckham host Canal Bridge Green Fayre on Saturday, now in it’s 15th year with local performers, stalls and green info .

Also on Saturday in South London, Stockwell Community Festival has performers, bands, stalls and the famous Pineapple Carnival Parade celebrating Stockwell’s botanical history.  Join in the parade as it weaves through Stockwell to Larkhall Park led by Lady Pineapple and her young pineapples

West Londoners can head to Yellow Umbrella Day, Chiswick’s largest annual charity festival held in Chiswick Park on Saturday.

Foody types could do worse than visit the Southbank Festival of Food which begins on Thursday and promises over 40 slow food stalls, along with music and kids entertainment until Sunday.

Finally Saturday sees an all day event at the  Lord Hood Public House in Greenwich as part of the Riverfront Jazz Festival and there’s more free jazz in Fulham at the Imperial Wharf Jazz Festival.

That’s all for now folks, check back often, new events are posted every day.”

Wankers!

“Your chance to name the new Party blog

We are making some major changes to Conservatives.com – and over the coming weeks, you and other newsletter subscribers will receive exclusive previews of the improvements in the pipeline.

One feature we’re adding is a blog which the entire Party, from David Cameron and the Shadow Cabinet through to grassroots Conservatives, will post on – and we want you to help us name it.

The blog will be a place for thought-pieces and lively debates, and the name should reflect this.

So please send us an e-mail and let us know what you think it should be called.

Make sure you get your suggestions in by lunchtime on Wednesday, September 10th. We’ll be emailing round a shortlist for everyone to vote on shortly afterwards.”

We still don’t know how we found ourselves on the Tories mailing list but we’re always glad to help out.  In fact we’ve even set up the blog for them.

http://torywankers.blogspot.com/

Free London – Saturday 13th to Sunday 14th September

It may have been quiet in the void but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been busy.  the void is moderately proud to announce http://freelondonlistings.co.uk is now live.

Ever since the sad demise of londonfreelist.com we’ve been crying into our nicked organic cornflakes over the lack of any decent list of free stuff to do in the Capital.  So a bunch of us have got together to provide just that.

With over 400 events listed already it’s top and we hope you like it.  It’s still in Beta, but you can post events, chat in the forums or register a profile so get over there, kick it about, slag us off and tell us what you think.

And now for the last time and shamelessly c&p’d from the other place here’s some free stuff to do in London over the next weekend.

And we can get back to smashing the state.

Welcome to Free London Listings, the most comprehensive guide to free and nearly free things to do in London.

With 400 events listed already we aim to be a credit crunch busting guide to the Capital with many new features in the pipeline.  If you have an event then please register and post up details – this is a site by Londoners for Londonders and we reckon the more exposure for free events the better.

Every week we’ll be providing a summary of some of the best events over the coming weekend so check back often for details of free festivals, gigs, performances and much more.

Hurricanes may be on the way but you can’t kill the spirit.  Summer’s perhaps gone but the festival season is not yet over and this weekend sees the Thames Festival taking place on the South Bank.

Musicians and performers will be playing on 12 stages and the party finishes with a huge Night Carnival featuring over 2000 performers followed by a spectacular firework display.

Whilst you’re down by the river watch out for the Great River Race where 200 boating crews will be racing down the Thames from Richmond to Greenwich.

Also South of the river is what promises to be London’s Kitchiest Country Fayre held in Lewisham.  The legendary Chas’n'Dave will be in attendance alongside local musicians, stalls, kids activies, seed swaps and cookery competitions.

The Spitalfields Show and Green Fair returns for another year with stalls, a healthy living area with nutritional advice and alternative therapies, info on recycling, composting and growing your own food, workshops; a market selling arts and crafts, plants and home-made cakes.

Other local events include Leyton Day in, you guessed it, Leyton and and Gillespie Park Festival in Islington which is now in it’s 22nd year.

Finally it’s the last week of Portobello Film Festival with free screenings at various various venues around Portobello Road.  We’d particularly recommend “A Fête Worse Than Death” held at the Inn on the Green which features a film screening followed by live music and performances on Wednesday 10th.

That’s all till next week; we like feedback, talk to us in the forums or drop us a line.

Free London Listings supports the 5 for Free Campaign.