Day: 15 September 2011

The High Court has rejected claims by three teenagers that their human rights were breached whilst detained during tuition fees protests in Whitehall, London, last year.

Adam Castle, 16, his sister Rosie, 15, and Sam Eaton, 16, were held by police for over six hours without food or water in freezing temperatures during demonstrations on 24th November last year. But their claims for damages have been rejected.

Judges ruled that the action taken by the Metropolitan Police was “necessary, proportionate and lawful”.

Lord Justice Pitchford and Justice Supperstone went also ruled that the Met commissioner at the time, Sir Paul Stevenson, did not act outside of his power in his handling of the protest.

Students were staging a national day of action against tuition fees and education cuts when the incident happened. The protests were organised to build on the momentum created when the building which houses Conservative party headquarters was broken into and vandalised.

Martin Westgate QC, who represented the teenagers at the initial hearing in July, argued that  police had breached section 11 of the Children’s Act because children as young as 11 had been detained in a police “kettle”.

At the initial hearing in July Mr Westgate said: “One 11-year-old was told to ‘get back’ at a fairly late stage in the containment.”

Last year The Mancunion reported that students from Manchester had been left stranded in London after police contained demonstrators outside parliament. The demonstration coincided with the MPs’ vote on tuition fees, and was separate from the incident relating to the human rights claim.

Speaking to the BBC, Adam Castle, from north London, said: “We were punished for protesting and everyone was left demoralised.” He said that he and his friends were held for several hours in freezing conditions which they had not been prepared for.

Ivan Hare, representing the Metropolitan Police, said that front-line officers had removed vulnerable people from the crowd during the kettling. Mr Hare also dismissed claims that children dressed in school uniforms had been held at the protest.

A 72-year-old florist will not be charged with murder for stabbing a burglar at his Old Trafford shop.

Cecil Coley was playing a game of dominos with a friend after closing time when Gary Mulling 30, and three other armed men broke into the shop demanding money.

There was a brief struggle before Mr Coley stabbed Mr Mulling to death. He collapsed outside on the pavement and died later in hospital. Mr Coley received a number of facial injuries and bruising to the body during the struggle.

The chief crown prosecutor Nazir Afzal said that he was satisfied that Mr Coley was acting “in reasonable self defence” and that in light of the evidence he should not be prosecuted.

Mr Afzal said, “It is difficult to envisage a more frightening set of circumstances than these.” The four intruders were armed with guns and a knife.

In a statement, prosecutors said, “Householders, shopkeepers and anyone going about their lawful day to day activities can be reassured that the law will protect them if they use reasonable force to protect themselves, their families and their property”.

Despite the reassurances of the prosecution many defence lawyers have suggested that there needs to be more consistency as to when self defence can be permitted. Some of those are calling for a new justice bill.

Currently, the Criminal Law Act states that a person can use such force as is reasonable in the circumstance in order to prevent a crime.

But there remains some ambiguity and the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act was brought in in 2008 to clarify the issue of self defence and the use of force to prevent an offence.

Under the 2008 Act, homeowners who use “reasonable force” in order to protect themselves against intruders are not prosecuted, providing the force used is deemed to be absolutely necessary.

David Cameron has promised a new justice bill, which he has said will “put beyond doubt that home owners and small shopkeepers who use reasonable force to defend themselves or their properties will not be prosecuted”

The justice secretary Ken Clarke, speaking after the government announced plans to change the law on self defence in the home, said, “It’s quite obvious that people are entitled to use whatever force is necessary to protect themselves and their homes.

“We will make it quite clear you can hit the burglar with the poker if he’s in the house and you have a perfect defence when you do so.”

Civil engineers and those studying Materials and Minerals Technology are the least happy with their courses at Manchester University.

Just under 37 per cent of them said they were dissatisfied with the overall quality of their course.

Students were asked to agree or disagree with statements on, among other things, how good staff were at explaining things, how interesting the course was, library and IT services and feedback. They also said how much advice and support they were getting.

Among Materials and Minerals Technology students, 73 per cent disagreed with the statement, “Feedback has helped me clarify things I did not understand”. Among civil engineers 69 per cent disagreed.

Just more than one in ten civil engineers achieved first class honours last year. The same amount, 12 per cent, only just passed.

Everyone studying Archaeology was happy with their course, according to the survey by the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

Over two thirds of archaeologists said that feedback helped them understand things better.

A quarter of Archaeology students gained first class honours, 55 per cent gained upper second class degrees (2:1) and 20 per cent were awarded lower second class degrees (2:2).

No students gained thirds or passes in Archaeology.

Other courses with high ranking student satisfaction at the University of Manchester were Zoology and Biology with 98 per cent, Dentistry: 97 per cent, Physics and Astronomy: 96 per cent and Electronic and Electrical Engineering with 96 per cent.

As another year begins at the University of Manchester with flyers plastering the streets, aiming to grab students with offers into every bar, pub and club, it is clear that the student economy is buzzing with activity. Living in our Manchester student world however, the economy does not stop there. Steadily over the years another ‘industry’ forming an illicit economy has dug deeper underground and is known as the black market.

High risk drug dealing offers big rewards to students caught in the grip of increasing University fees and student living costs on the one hand and insufficient part time earning opportunities on the other. Whilst to some, such a concept might seem ludicrous – how could one risk a potential 14 year prison sentence and/or an unlimited fine just to cover university costs? The fact that drugs are present and thought to be frequently traded amongst students, suggests that this illicit economy is structured in order to avoid such risks and is solid enough to entice students into its trade year after year.

This is hardly surprising when you begin to consider just how far reaching this black market is. The UNODC estimated the value of the drug trade at $400billion in its 1997 World Drugs Report, leading drugs to be considered one of the world’s largest traded goods (alongside oil). Due to the vast sums of money involved in such an industry, this translates into a global hierarchy of traders, filtering down to different areas and (especially in the UK), to students.

Whilst it is clear that economic factors provide a key reason for involvement in such a market, what is also interesting is how this market is both maintained and structured so it can continue to thrive. Student dealers tend to form the very bottom of the trading hierarchy and like in many licit industries, drug traders focus on increasing margins, they therefore want to cut out the middle men. This leads to constant networking, as a student might begin to meet those local traders higher up in the ‘industry’ and so closer to the source of the drugs, resulting in cheaper and bigger bulk buying.

Such a cycle illustrates the process of this economy, which also fluctuates with peak ‘seasons’ (the end of exams for example) often corresponding with the occasions when student living costs might increase. This economic analysis demonstrates why the black market might be attractive to students who can earn somewhere in the thousands. It is also worth bearing in mind that as these students begin to become increasingly involved in the trade, they start to no longer cover university debts, but are instead funding an ever demanding habit of their own. Despite the risks and the tarnish such activity could leave record, the trade keeps speeding along, forming another world of business.