Seagull Weekly Briefing 11/10

Good morning, and welcome to the Brighton Seagull's Weekly Briefing. This is Adam, who does these fun little intros. Apparently we’ve been getting some feedback that there’s “too much weather” in them. Apparently electricity from the sky isn’t exciting enough for some people. Apparently we “might as well be the Met Office”. Well, fine. No comments on the weather from me today. Enjoy your news, you ingrates.

Charity to erect memorial sculpture honouring lives lost to homelessness

A public art installation is coming to Brighthelm Gardens, designed to shine a spotlight on deaths from homelessness.

The sculpture is a joint project between Making It Out, an organisation helping people move forward from prison, homelessness, and addiction through art, and The Passage, a homelessness support group.

We reported on a fundraiser for the sculpture back in May—the fundraiser has since raised £14,083.

The working design shows a stainless steel tree and an abstract human figure, hunched over concrete blocks. The tree is growing across them, with branches wrapping around.

A spokesperson for Making It Out said:

The concrete blocks instead of a traditional plinth represents broken foundations that are often a factor in homelessness. The tree’s delicacy and almost transparency contrasts with its determined effort to survive in a hard, unforgiving, and inhospitable urban environment. The growth over the concrete also gives the impression they have been static for a long time, symbolic of a lack of action on homelessness in the UK.

In 2021, 741 people experiencing homelessness died in England and Wales, a 54% increase since records began in 2013. The average age of death for homeless men is 45, and for women it's 43—more than 30 years younger than that of the general population.

The charity also plans to signpost local resources for shelter, food, and support, 'ensuring that the memorial isn’t just a place for looking back, but also for moving forward'.

New Kemptown and Peacehaven MP makes maiden speech on renters' rights

Chris Ward, MP for Kemptown and Peacehaven, has made his maiden speech in the House of Commons, during the second reading of the Renters' Rights Bill.

The MP, who was elected in May, spoke about housing 'makes up two thirds of the casework' he receives, 'and dominates every constituency surgery'.

In the city, there are 'at least' 7,500 people on the council waiting list, and 1,600 households, half of which have children, are in temporary accommodation.

He also spoke about how the constituency has 'among the highest numbers of high and medium-rise blocks outside London'.

Ward lent his support to the bill, which would end no-fault evictions and provide more protection for renters—especially in Brighton, where 25% of people are in private rented accommodation.

He said:

Behind the picture postcard view—the downs, the pier, the lido—one in four children in my constituency grow up in relative poverty.

Whitehawk, a stone’s throw from the bustle of Kemptown, is in the 10% of most deprived wards in the whole country, and Moulsecoomb—within sight of the riches of the Amex and the excellence of Sussex and Brighton universities—is the second most deprived ward in Sussex.

Children from the poorest parts of my constituency are twice as likely to be excluded from school, three times more likely to be placed outside mainstream schooling, and half as likely to get good GCSE grades. Life expectancy itself varies by seven years between the poorest wards in my constituency and the rest.

🖋 News in Brief 🖋

• The Feminist Bookshop, after closing the physical shop over the summer, has announced that the website will permanently close at the end of this month.
• The Brighton to Eastbourne 701 bus route will be ending from November 17th, due to 'insufficient fares income from users of the service'.
• IKEA opening next year apparently!

What's happening? Barclays is no longer a sponsor of The Great Escape festival.

Big news! Yeah!

Remind me what the problem was? We wrote all about it here. In short: Barclays Bank are a divestment target of the BDS Movement (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions)—a Palestinian-led nonprofit organisation and political movement that aims to put pressure on the Israeli state to end its oppression of Palestinians. BDS claims that Barclays 'holds more than £1 billion in shares of, and provides more than £3bn in loans and underwriting' to defence companies whose technology is used by the Israeli Defence Force.

And Barclays was a sponsor of The Great Escape last year? Barclays was the big sponsor.

How did people respond to that? More than 120 bands dropped out of the festival, an open letter circulated opposing the sponsorship, and some huge names spoke out against it and didn't show up, including Massive Attack, Jarvis Cocker, and of course, us.

What have the results of the Barclays boycott been? Barclays is no longer sponsoring any 2024 Live Nation festivals, including Download, Wireless, Isle of Wight and Reading & Leeds.

What did Barclays say about the boycott? In a statement on their website, they said:

The protestors’ agenda is to have Barclays debank defence companies which is a sector we remain committed to as an essential part of keeping this country and our allies safe. 

The only thing that this small group of activists will achieve is to weaken essential support for cultural events enjoyed by millions. It is time that leaders across politics, business, academia and the arts stand united against this.

What did they say about defence sector links? That they 'do not directly invest' in US, UK and European public companies that supply defence products, but that they 'provide a range of financial services to clients in the defence sector'.