- INTERNATIONAL EXPERTS ADDRESS CULTURE CONFERENCE
TWO of the world's leading artistic directors are to spell out what Liverpool needs to do in its year as European Capital of Culture next week.
Robyn Archer, Artistic Director for Liverpool, European Capital of Culture 2008 and Enrico Da Molo, Managing Director of Genoa, joint Capital of Culture, 2004, are to address a major conference in the city.
The key note speeches held on September 14 will be given to more than 100 communication professionals representing the cultural, public and voluntary sectors are to debate how best to promote the city as European Capital of Culture.
The day long conference, sponsored by the Northwest Regional Development Agency will feature workshops to channel ideas, and a question and answer session featuring key culture leaders such as '08 Artistic Director Robyn Archer. Organisations can question culture chiefs about their plans and explore what they can add to the city's offer.
It will be a rare opportunity for press officers, public relations and marketing professionals in the region's public and cultural sectors to meet and discuss plans for 2008, and help shape them.
The Liverpool Culture Company wants to involve as many people and organisations as possible to communicate Liverpool's success story.
Council leader Mike Storey said:- “We want great ideas from all walks of life and the means to put them into practice. Hopefully this conference will enable people to make a real contribution. It will be important for us to hear new voices. Liverpool '08 is a great success story and we want as people as possible to tell it.
- Wirral Dog Walk Success
A WIRRAL-area dog walk held to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Relief was a huge success.
The walk was organised by Barry Boulton and his team at Larton Livery, based at Frankby and saw a good turnout for the Supa Dog Get Fit Challenge event.
Get fit dog walkers, made their way round Royden Park and there was plenty of fun along the way.
Said Barry:- “Everyone really enjoyed the walk, we were very pleased with the number of people who turned out and there was a constant flow throughout the day with families and their pets making the effort to walk for this very worthwhile charity.”
Throughout 2004, Burgess Supa Dog are raising vital funds for Macmillan Cancer Relief, with the Supa Dog Get Fit Challenge, aimed at helping to improve the nation’s fitness and increasing awareness of the health benefits of owning a dog.
Sarah Riddolls of Burgess Supa Dog said:- “We are delighted that dog walkers in the Wirral area enjoyed the walk and grateful to Larton Livery for organising the event.”
If you want to organise your own walk you can register for the challenge at
www.supadoggetfitchallenge.co.uk
or telephone 01757 618003.
Picture caption:- Barry Boulton (right in pics) with Jamie Duff, Tom Mace and Indie the dog.
- Theatre ship to become Flagship for Liverpool
THE FITZCARRALDO, the UK’s only touring theatre ship, is to berth in Liverpool each winter. It will offer a unique venue for community groups at the heart of the waterfront, providing an exclusive venue for music and theatre, children’s activities and work with young people, and other special events.
The Liverpool Culture Company has awarded £118,000 to the Walk the Plank project to bring the ship to Liverpool. It will provide a memorable venue for many more community events in the run up to European Capital of Culture 2008.
The ship has been re-registered to the Port Of Liverpool, and the new Port of Registry will be welded to the stern, ready for unveiling.
Walk the Plank’s national and international tours offer an opportunity to promote Liverpool – as both a port and as a cultural capital. Over the next three years the ship will be visiting harbours and maritime festivals all around Britain and Ireland, acting as a flagship for Capital of Culture.
Councillor Mike Storey, Leader of Liverpool City Council, said:- “The Fitzcarraldo’s relocation to Liverpool will add to Liverpool’s
reputation as a centre for....." ....continued....
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"....cultural excellence. The theatre ship will be part of a city investing in our maritime future.”
The funding invested by the Liverpool Culture Company will also pay to make the ship’s auditorium weatherproof and the creation of a new post to organise events and activities on board the vessel.
Government support fuels rise in animal experiments...
new figures out today
FIGGERS released this week by the Home Office reveal that animal experimentation has reached its highest level since Tony Blair first came to power.
The National Anti-Vivisection Society, the world's oldest and leading anti-vivisection organisation, fears that support from leading figures within the Labour Party is helping to fuel the rise in animal experiments.
In its first year of Government, 1997, Labour followed through election pledges to reduce animal experimentation, ending a cruel method of antibody production and cosmetics tests on animals. But since then appears to have come increasingly under the influence of lobby groups and individuals promoting animal experimentation.
The figures today reveal that a total of 2.79 million experiments were performed on animals in the UK during 2003. A rise of 60,000 more experiments on the previous year.
The biggest increase was in the creation of genetically modified animals, rising to 764,000 despite considerable disquiet and opposition to these techniques.
Despite trumpeting today a 24 per cent drop in primate experiments since 1995, the government has recently supported moves that will massively increase monkey use.
The NAVS believes that a series of government supported moves have not only hindered progress towards ending animal experimentation but some have actually promoted increased animal use:-
Tony Blair, John Prescott and Lord Sainsbury threw their weight behind a huge new monkey laboratory for Cambridge University. As a consequence Prescott overruled his own Planning Inspector to ensure the laboratory could be built. A case against the Government interference will be heard in the Court of Appeal next week.
The UK already experiments on more monkeys than any other European country, yet the Government continues to support moves to increase primate experiments. The Medical Research Council has set up a new monkey supply and experimentation facility at Porton Down.
The head of the MRC is a leading proponent of animal experimentation, Colin Blakemore. Whilst approximately 98 per cent of UK research does not involve animals, the Head of the MRC rarely appears in the media without advocating animal experimentation.
A call for a National Centre for the Replacement of Animal Experiments was watered down so much that the proposed Government Centre for Refinement, Reduction, and Replacement will focus more on animal experiments than non-animal methods. Anti-vivisectionists and those committed to replacing animal experiments have been deliberately excluded. The NAVS describe the centre as a sham.
Jan Creamer, Chief Executive of the NAVS notes:- "There is no other country in Europe where there is such strong opposition from the public to animal experimentation, yet the UK is now Europe's biggest user of laboratory animals.
With such open support for animal experimentation from figures such as Tony Blair, John Prescott and Lord Sainsbury, it is hard to see how the brakes can be put on animal experimentation in the UK. There is a sense now that animal researchers know that whatever they do, they will get the unquestioning support of the Government.
"It is important to remember that these figures represent over two and half million living animals. Animals that are kept in barren, factory farm like conditions, and given diseases, burned, blinded, force fed chemicals, or genetically modified. It is a horrific death toll."
Tony Blair gave his support to the unregulated Indian vivisection industry, where countless animals suffer and die in shambolic experiments which are often not even completed, in order to justify his interference with the Cambridge monkey lab court process.
Liverpool school receives glowing Ofsted report Praise for "truly inclusive education"
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