The land battle that sparked the Pendle Witch trials

Unite’s Charlie Clutterbuck has concocted his own special brew of political and social history by marking out an unofficial trail round the sites relating to the Pendle Witch trials.

These resulted in the largest number of executions in Britain for witchcraft with eight women and two men being hanged. And with the 400^th anniversary occurring smack bang in the middle of this summer’s Olympics Charlie wants those seeking an escape from the most expensive show on earth to consider a trip to his east Lancashire neighbourhood to discover more.

The trials were made famous by the official publication of the proceedings by Thomas Potts, the clerk to the court, in his Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster. Accused of murdering ten people, the ten hung were around 2% of the 500 people executed as witches in Britain from the early 15^th to 18^th century. Six came from two families headed by a female in her eighties. The Demdike’s and Chattox’s, whose livelihoods of healing, begging and extortion depended on competing against one another, each accused the other of wrongdoing.

One of the key witnesses at the trial was Jennet Device, who was just nine years old. Until James I had succeeded in 1603 to the throne, children under 14 were seen as unreliable witnesses. The Protestant King’s book Demonology however changed the justice system to allow the child to give evidence that helped execute all of her own family. Jennet was herself to later suffer because of this when ten-year-old Edmund Robinson made similar allegations against her in 1633 and although acquitted it’s believed she spent the rest of her life in prison.

Witchcraft, the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers, became illegal in 1542 under Henry VIII, and was punishable by death. This was a period of considerable religious tension, with Catholics and Protestants at each other’s throats.

It’s hardly surprising therefore to find many historians seeing this as being behind the events in Pendle four hundred years ago. Charlie doesn’t entirely rule this out but has noted, “The evidence for organised persecution of Catholics is not that strong”.

He wonders therefore if the terrible events were more to do with the countryside’s most contentious issue. Namely, who owns the land? “The records show that much of the land around Burnley was already enclosed, or being so. Not so Pendle Forest, as it was seen as unobstructed hunting land, and some of those made landless moved there. The landowners didn’t like these troublesome characters.”

It’s a powerful narrative, and the visual evidence is pretty strong. Many of the houses of the rich and powerful from those times are still standing, but long gone are any traces of the simple cottages of those who were executed or their neighbours.

You can see all this for yourself by walking the trail that the agricultural scientist has prepared. It takes a day – those with less time and/or energy can do part of it in half a day – and there’s a chance to stop for a decent pint or two at the Four Alls Inn: standing for The King Rules for all, The Priest prays for all, the Soldier fights for all, the Ordinary Man pays for all. Magnificent.

For more details see http://sites.google.com/site/pendlewithtrail/

Landownership in Britain today remains the most unbalanced in the world, with roughly 150,000 individuals – 0.028% of the population – owning 2/3rds of it.

Stoke City - Sunderland

 Stoke according to many commentators have great home
support, well they were totally out-shouted yesterday on a grim
day

Just seventeen - the Super League kicks-off this weekend

The seventeenth Rugby Super League kicks off this weekend [or Friday 3^rd] with all fourteen teams in action. ‘New boys’ Widnes Vikings take on Wakefield Wildcats and last season’s winner’s Leeds Rhinos are at home to Yorkshire rivals Hull Kingston Rovers. After finishing fifth in the League, bringing with it heavy criticism from fans and pundits alike, Leeds squeezed past first-placed Warrington Wolves 26-26 in the semi-final, before comprehensively beating St Helens 32-16 in the Old Trafford final in October. Long-serving scrum half Rob Burrow was outstanding in this game and became the first player to capture the man-of-the-match award by taking the unanimous votes of all 37 judges.

BRADFORD BULLS

Cut-price tickets might have kept the crowds coming into Odsal Stadium last season, but on the pitch the Bulls struggled and failed to make the play-offs. Australian coach Mick Potter has gone Down Under to bring in experienced National Rugby League Aussie professionals Keith Lulia and Adrian Purtell. The new captain is also an Australian, hooker Heath L’Estrange, but the task of leading the Bulls back to the top of the Rugby League tree – they won three World Club Championships between 2002 and 2006 - will be enormous.

 CASTLEFORD TIGERS

If everything goes to plan this will be the Tigers final season at the Jungle, an old style terraced Stadium that creates a great atmosphere and where Cas have played since 1927. The New Castleford Stadium, with a capacity of 13,300, is though costing £15 million and this has left new coach Ian Millward with a limited budget. Much will depend on last seasons Man of Steel winner, New Zealander Rangi Chase, maintaining his outstanding form if Castleford are to squeeze into the play-offs by going one place higher than ninth in 2011.

CATALAN DRAGONS

Sixth placed last season, the Dragons could well threaten the top four after signing Leon Pryce from St Helens and Louis Anderson from Warrington. The Perpignan side already possess a halfback row of great quality and Pryce will add to it. Utility Australian Clint Greenshields will be playing his sixth season in France, the Dragons having first entered the Super League in 2006 and with Crusaders have disbanded they are now the only side represented from outside England.

 HUDDERSFIELD GIANTS

One of the games original 22 clubs who now ground share with the local football club but whose last major honour was the winning of the 1962 Championship. After reaching the Challenge Cup Final under then new coach Nathan Brown in 2009 the Giants finished fourth last season. Brown has been busy over the winter, letting go nine and bringing in seven players including three from Wakefield Wildcats in Luke George, Tommy Lee and Aaron Murphy. The latter is a versatile player tipped for honours in the game, but it’s difficult envisaging the Giants bringing to an end their fifty-year wait for a title success

HULL FC

Another of the 1895 founding members of the Northern Rugby Football Union who ground share the KC Stadium with Hull City Football Club. Just squeezed into the play-offs last season by finishing eighth, only to be immediately eliminated when Leeds Rhinos easily beat them 42-10. New coach Peter Gentle, who turned down Salford in 2001, has been very busy over the winter with ten out and ten in and whilst the loss of Luke Briscoe to Leeds is a blow the arrival of Jamie Ellis, Aaron Heremaia and Brett Seymour should ensure at least another eighth place finish.

HULL KINGSTON ROVERS 

After finishing seventh in the League the Robins were walloped 56-6 by the Catalan Dragons in the play-offs. New coach Australian Craig Sandercock has acted quickly to overhaul the squad, letting go a number of long-serving players and replacing them with three from Huddersfield Giants in David Hodgson, Keal Carlile and Graeme Horne and four from Down Under in Shannon McDonnell, back row forward Con Mika, George Griffin and Mickey Paea. It may take time though for the side to gel together.

LEEDS RHINOS

The Rhinos are the most successful club in the Premier League era with five victories in the Super League Final including in last year’s against St Helens. After winning a thrilling semi-final against Castleford the Rhinos had disappointed their fans by losing against Wigan in the Challenge Cup Final at Wembley last season, but recovered their form to come from fifth place in the League to capture the Super League Trophy in the play-offs. Coach Brian McDermott has kept more or less the same squad but the arrival of Huddersfield Giants prop Darrell Griffin and rising star Luke Briscoe from Hull KR should ensure another exciting season at Headingley.

LONDON BRONCOS

The only English team outside of the M62 corridor, the Broncos play at the Twickenham Stoop Stadium as Rugby League attempts to build a base down south. Having finished third in the second season of Super League in 1997 the Broncos – who started out as Fulham in 1980-81 and have also appeared as London Crusaders and Harlequins - finished twelfth in 2011. Significant investment over the winter should see things improve on the pitch with Antonio Kaufusi, Michael Robertson and Shane Rodney from Down Under hopefully giving London based Rugby League fans something to shout about. 

 ST HELENS

St Helens new Langtree Stadium has cost £25 million and will hold 18,000. It has been constructed on the derelict former United Glass site. Saints fans will be hoping it ushers in a new era of success, starting with victory in this season’s Super League Grand Final where they have lost the last five, including four to Leeds. Aussie coach Royce Simmons has only tinkered with his squad, although the arrival of Lance Hohaia from New Zealand Warriors should bring further pace and power to the half back line that has lost Kyle Eastmonds to rugby union. .

SALFORD CITY REDS

A pre-season thrashing by Leigh in their first match in their new 12,000 capacity Salford City Stadium might mean Red Devil fans having to get used to watching matches in more salubrious surroundings but seeing little better on the pitch. After being relegated in 2007 the Reds were the beneficiaries of rule changes in 2008 that ended automatic promotion and relegation and which saw them awarded a three year Super League license, subsequently extended last year to six. Eleventh place last season and it’s difficult to see much improvement in this, although Joel Moon, an Australian able to play in a number of positions, should prove a useful acquisition. 

WAKEFIELD TRINITY WILDCATS

 Wildcat fans will this season have one eye on the pitch and the other awaiting the outcome of the public inquiry as to whether the club will be allowed to go ahead with the construction of a new Stadium at Stanley.  With Wakefield only having a lease to stay at the Belle Vue Stadium till the end of this season, it was expected that the club would lose its Rugby League license from 2012 but in the event the unexpected decision by Welsh side Crusaders threw Trinity a much needed lifeline.

Former Hull coach Richard has taken charge and in a very short space of time has shipped out, and brought in, virtually a new team including Andy Raleigh, Kyle Wood and Danny Kirmond from Huddersfield Giants.

  

WARRINGTON WOLVES

As the only club to have played every season in Rugby League’s top-flight Warrington thought they had reached last season’s Super League Final when winger Matt King crossed the try line with only nine minutes of the semi-final tie with Leeds remaining. When the effort was disallowed for grounding, Wolves fans suffered further heartbreak when Rhinos captain Kevin Infield kicked a last minute winner.

Head coach Tony Smith had led his charges to top spot in the League and has largely retained the same squad, although the addition of Penrith Panthers forward Trent Waterhouse should prove handy.

  

WIDNES VIKINGS

After being granted a Super League license Widnes are back in the top League after replacing Crusaders. It’s reward for local businessman Steve O’Connor, who when he took over in Nov 2007 dreamed of returning the club to its former glories.

The Chemics though have struggled to get-in big name stars from Down-Under. It’s meant having to largely make do with refashioning their whole squad along British lines with Ben Cross, Ben Davies and Scott Moore arriving from Wigan, Warrington and St Helens respectively.

  

WIGAN WARRIORS

The most successful club in Rugby League history won the Challenge Cup last season but disappointed in the Super League play-offs and were beaten 26-18 by St Helens in the semi-finals. Head coach Michael Maguire has subsequently moved to South Sydney but his replacement, Shaun Warne, has resisted making wholesale changes to a squad left weakened by the retirement of Andy Coley and Ryan Hoffman’s move to Melbourne Storm. 

Leeds Rhinos inspirational Kevin Sinfield on his revolutionary socialist heroes

Reproduced from Big Issue in the North magazine dated January 28th - buy the magazine whenever you see a seller. 

You wouldn’t call it an outburst but for someone as cool as Kevin Sinfield his post-match speech after lifting rugby league’s ultimate prize at old Trafford last October came as something of a surprise.

A slump in form in the early part of last year’s Super League had brought brickbats for Leeds Rhinos from pundits and fans, and resulted in the Headingley side finishing fifth in the League.

So when the captain led his side through the play-offs – including a victory over favourites Warrington Wolves – to a 32-16 defeat of St Helens to win the Engage Super League Grand Final for a record-tying fifth time, he took the chance to vent his feelings.

“To all those people who wrote this team off, to all those people that criticised this team, tonight’s for you” he said passionately over the mic to a 69,000-strong crowd and a TV audience of millions.

Three months later the articulate, unaffected 31-year-old from Oldham – who made his debut for the Rhinos in 1997 – has not regrets.

“I have said a million times before that this Leeds side is at its best in adversity, when people write us off we thrive. I felt some of the criticism was too personal, but as I said at Old Trafford I’d like to thank those who made it as it inspired us to prove them wrong.”

Leeds Rhinos kick off their 2012 campaign on 3 February when they take on Hull KR at their Headingley Carnegie Stadium.  Sinfield knows the sardonic thanks he offered at Old Trafford will count for little if Leeds struggle.

“I guess some of those who were proved wrong are just waiting for us to trip up, but I am proud to lead this team,” he says, laughing.

He’s done that since 2003 season, a year later finishing as Super League’s top scorer with 152 goals and 3-drop goals and leading the side to their first Grand Final victory.

Adept at loose forward, hooker and stand-off, he’s also become – according to Leeds Rhinos chief executive Gary Hetherington – the “finest kicker in the history of rugby”, better even than rugby union’s Jonny Wilkinson.

It was a late Sinfield penalty kick that gave his side a narrow win over Warrington Wolves in the play-off semi-finals last year, and added two more points to a total that was already more than anyone in Super League has scored. And he still has three years of his contract to run.

This year Sinfield – holder of a sport science degree and as inspirational a leader on the field as he is thoughtful and composed off it – knows there’s no room for complacency as the likes of Warrington Wolves, Wigan Warriors and St Helens pursue revenge. There’s also the question of the World Club Challenge against Aussie Champions Manley Sea Eagles at Headingley on 17 February.

Sinfield and the Rhinos, exploiting, home advantage, won the fixture in 2005 and 2008 but face stiff challenge this month, Aussie sides prevailing for the last three years.

“I am really looking forward to it as you always want to pit yourself against the best. Big games attract big crowds, the atmosphere is great and you improve by working hard individually, and as a team, and by learning from previous experiences and mistakes.”

At international level, by his own admission, Sinfield hasn’t always shone, and has endured his fair share of losses to arch-foes Australia. Sinfield will deny hew as tired at the end of a 42-game run – another record – last season but by the time the Four Nations final came around in November, ever hopeful England collapsed in familiar style as the Aussies stepped up a gear and won 30-8.

Nevertheless, Sinfield is optimistic about England’s future and backs the re-structuring programme introduced by coach Steve McNamara that includes training camps at Loughborough University throughout the year and a ‘Knights’ squad to shadow the first team.

“We are getting closer. If we had played like we did against New Zealand in the game before the Final I am convinced we would have beaten Australia. Belief is a big factor and I know we can beat them,” he says determinedly.

A short break in Florida with his wife and two children has helped him recharge his batteries and “reflect on the season that had finished”, that included the bus trip back from the Grand Final to Leeds, which recalls his

favourite film The Shawshank Redemption. Tending to avoid his teammates’ drinking he sat with a “smug satisfied grin on my face, not unlike moments in the film where banker Andy Dufresne is, despite his dire circumstances, totally self-satisfied. That film reminds me of certain aspects of winning and losing and that’s why I like it.”

With Sinfield’s will to win and focus, it’s not surprising the statue he’d like to see erected outside Wembley, planned to commemorate rugby league’s association with the stadium, is the Bradford, Wigan and Leeds great of the 1980s and 1990s Ellery Hanley, Perhaps more surprising - but the product of his parents who were trade union stalwarts and socialists - is that his other heroes are former Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Che Guevara; the man who helped him out during the successful armed revolution on the small Caribbean Island that culminated in the overthrow of American backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959.

“They were revolutionaries and they cared about others before themselves, which I think is an important quality when you hold a position of authority” he says. With his parents having visited Cuba he’d like to follow in their footsteps in the not too distant future.

Sinfield insists he can keep his body at its peak as a player and still improve mentally but when he does retire he wants to be the chief executive of a rugby league club. Few would bet against him being as inspirational an off-filed leader as he is on the pitch. 

Award winning solicitor says all dissent is now seen as a threat

An award-winning solicitor who helped overturn 20 climate change protestors’ convictions for conspiracy to committed aggravated trespass at Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in 2009 is speaking in Liverpool today. [February 1st 2012] 

The cases, and further charges against six for conspiring to take over the power station, collapsed after the Court of Appeal ruled the police had unlawfully used an undercover officer – Mark Kennedy – to spy on protestors and encourage civil disobedience.    

For his role in this, and many other public order and civil demonstration work, Mike Schwarz was last year’s Law Society’s private practice solicitor of the year winner.

Schwarz, who works for London firm Bindmans, will be presenting his views on Latest Themes on Protest Law at the Institute of Employment Rights conference on ‘Human Rights at Work: can the European Convention protect our rights?’ This will be held in the Adelphi Hotel.

 “I am speaking because in the current climate it is vital that bonds are built between everyone affected by the government’s austerity measures and there is sharing of knowledge about how to respond including how to fully exercise the right to protest without being intimidated – if only by lack of knowledge – by the resistance the police may put up” says Schwarz, a solicitor since 1992, and who fears the authorities, government and some sections of the press now see any dissent as a threat. 

“As a result the police, in order to maintain the status quo and control appear to see facilitating the right to protest as being much lower down their agenda. Kettling, surveillance of protestors, and prosecutions for minor public order offences such as aggravated trespass and disorderly conduct are a few examples of this strategy” he warns “

But surely no-one has anything to fear if they engage in peaceful protest? “Sadly, I have to disagree” says Schwarz “as evidence, contrast, the application of the full force of the criminal law to the UK UNCUT protestors - found guilty of aggravated trespass - at Fortnum and Mason in March 2011 to the mainstream political parties’ refusal to tackle the cause of these protests – tax dodging, bankers bonuses and inequitable cuts to public services.”

Schwarz would like to see a public inquiry into the actions of the use of undercover officers by the police. Back in the 1990s he found himself unknowingly representing Met officer Jim Boyling, who used the name Jim Sutton to infiltrate the Reclaim the Streets campaign group that often disrupted London’s roads to highlight the overuse of cars. 

Boyling, who like Kennedy, also started a relationship with one of the women he was surveilling – later marrying her – is accused of gaining access to the privileged legal correspondence of fellow defendants and misleading the court. Boyling is currently on restricted duties and under investigation for a possible breach of professional standards following his marriage. Meanwhile, Kennedy has quit the police.

“The legal process has been institutionally corrupted with the entrapment of protestors, the formation of sexual relationships, the planting of informants within defence legal teams, the failure to disclose key evidence and a readiness to mislead the courts about the true identity of police witnesses and defendants. The response of the establishment, in setting up 12 discrete in-house enquiries, shows they have a pathological aversion to seeing the bigger picture, which is not that of a few apples but the cultivation of an orchard of bad fruit” says Schwarz critically.

Neither is Schwarz too impressed by Prime Minister David Cameron’s regular raising of the possibility of the government replacing the European Convention of Human Rights with a UK one.

“I feel the move fits with one of the rules of bad government such that when difficult questions are being asked then make up your own rules and get your own people to decide the answers. For protestors against government policy, or big business, it can only be a backward step. It’s worth remembering protest is often the best and most immediate way that those without a voice – who can’t pay lobbyists or contribute to party funding – can try to influence government policy” says the 48-year-old.

Chesterfield reach Wembley for third time in their history

Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, Northern Area Final second leg.

Oldham Athletic  0

Chesterfield  1

Lester 89 minutes. 

Aggregate Chesterfield 3 Oldham Athletic 1

Chesterfield made it through to Wembley in the Johnstone Paints Trophy after pinching a late winner to win this tie 3-1 on aggregate. The result was harsh on the home side, who did most of the attacking, only to find the Spireites keeper Tommy Lee in fine form.

Oldham started the game quickly and less than sixty seconds had gone when Shefki Kuqi, fastening on to Robbie Simpson’s long ball, beat Lee only to see his shot cannon back into play off the post. Continuing to play impressively, Simpson then curled a delightful ball to the back post where Filipe Morais had his powerful header well saved by the keeper.

With Chesterfield in the first twenty minutes rarely threatening, Simpson then had a twenty-yard shot well stopped by Lee, and then the keeper was grateful to see Kuqi flash a ten yard shot well wide after Gregor Robertson misjudged his header. Morais then drove a shot wide from a promising position before Drew Talbot hit Chesterfield’s first chance straight at Alex Cisak in the home goal.

The Chesterfield veteran striker Jack Lester had been very quiet, but on 35 minutes he showed a touch of quality to set up Scott Boden whose strong shot was saved by the Oldham keeper at the second attempt. The first booking of the game arrived soon after, when Gregor Robertson brought down Simpson. On the stroke of half-time Lee was down smartly to prevent Diamond from forcing home a bouncing ball.

With the score goalless at the interval it meant Chesterfield were on track to reach Wembley for the first time since 1995, when they beat Bury in the Division Four play offs. This was a year after the Latics had last played at the world famous Stadium, when they lost to Manchester United in the FA Cup semi-final, and buoyed by the prospect of a return they again pushed forward on the restart.

Playing in midfield for the home side was Tom Adeyemi, on loan from Norwich City, a player racially abused when Oldham played at Anfield in the third round of the FA Cup. He had a quiet game, but showed his stamina by getting more involved in it the longer it progressed. He passed the ball well, and shows a nice shimmy to send an opposing player the wrong way, but failed to shoot when well placed to do so.

It was Chesterfield who should have taken the lead, on 48 minutes, when Jamie Lowry’s fine ball sent Drew Talbot running unopposed into the Oldham box, but the Chesterfield midfielders shot was too close to Cisak who saved it with his feet. When Oldham responded Lee confidently collected a Morais drive, before James Hurst and Mark Allott were booked as Chesterfield’s defence struggled to prevent Oldham equalising the tie on aggregate.

Morais then had Lee scampering across his line, but the ball finished on the roof of the net before the keeper did well to block a Kuqi header as the game moved towards the final ten minutes.

Then on 89 minutes Jean Yves Moto and Cisak, seeking to get the ball down the field as quickly as possible, only succeeded in getting in each others way and when the ball ran free Lester was like lightning in getting beyond the pair to push the ball into an empty net. Queue ecstatic celebrations amongst the 937 Chesterfield fans behind the goal as they started to celebrate a famous victory that will take them to Wembley for only the third time in the club’s history.

With six added minutes, Oldham continued to press but rarely threatened and at the end the Chesterfield players ran across to spark further celebrations amongst the away fans. Chesterfield will play either Swindon Town or Barnet in the final at Wembley on March 25^th 2012.  

“We will enjoy the day, but we are going there to win” said Chesterfield manager John Sheridan, who also praised his side for their battling performance, defensive skills and will to win.

Over 5,000 fans, including 937 from Chesterfield watched the game at Boundary Park 

What’s happening in Iran? Interview with Iranian activist.

What’s happening in Iran? 

Interview with Iranian activist, who for obvious reasons shall remain anonymous. 

1. Does the Iranian President have the people’s support in ‘standing up to the West’ and the USA in particular?

Really the question here is who is the President and who does he represent? Is he elected or selected?

Iran is unlike France and America where people elect the President. Elections are not real. Governments are imposed on people and they only use the democratic tool to legitimise themselves. There has never been a free and democratic election, either to establish the Islamic Republic of Iran or to legitimise any of its actions. As result, if we say people’s support?? Certainly not, but the regime does have a small and well-organised group of followers that include mercenaries.

2. Do people believe that military action may be imminent?

That’s hard to answer. People wish for fall of this regime, but at what price? War helps them to stay in power even longer. Bluffing is part of the regimes propaganda and they really want to provoke an attack on Iran.

3. I gather you are concerned at the increasing drug trade, especially in the Kurdish regions of Iran. Can you explain?

Yes this is correct. The Iranian regime uses three main elements to strengthen their position within or even outside of Iran. 

* Religious propaganda: to keep people in idiocy.

* Military: which is more against its own people rather than outside threats.  

* Drugs: both inside and outside of Iran. It is not only exclusive to Kurdistan (Iran or Iraq), but to other regions as well. However it has been one of the regimes policies in the Kurdish regions, where there is always more resistance to central governments actions. 

4. Is there any indication that workers are organising themselves within unions to push up wages and play a part in the political process in Iran?

No, there are not any real worker syndicates or unions. The regime controls and monitors the real workers, exerting constant pressure on them. Many workers are sacked or even imprisoned. Many factory employees have not been paid for months or in some cases even for years and factories are closing down. Yet on the other hand Chinese goods are being heavily imported to Iran.

5. Iran is developing links with China. Why is this important to the current regime?

Two reason. First, to secure China’s backing in international affairs and secondly, China is a big oil market and while many European nations have sanctioned dealings with Iran, China is currently willing to exchange goods for oil.

6. Are those opposed to the current regime being politically persecuted? [

They are, and many influential members of past governments have been imprisoned, some of them even without legal trials. Within this group are the Prime Minister of Iran during the Iraq war in the 1980s, a parliamentary speaker and many members of previous parliaments and government ministers.

Many students, workers, intellectuals, white-collar workers and minority national front groups at first were fooled by the regime and collaborated with them. They were hoping to witness reform from within, something that never happened. Now they are considered as opposition too. The regime does not accept any sort of objections even from people close to the regime itself. There are many recent cases and frame ups are so normal that people no longer believe in media shown confessions, as they know of the brutal conditions under which people are held in prisons.

The worst part is that no human right groups can defend those arrested as even well-known lawyers are now in prison. In the Iranian judicial system they arrest people for unfounded and baseless crimes. One recent one was “crime against god”. Public protest is stamped on harshly.

7. How have the Iranian people – and the regime in charge - viewed ‘the Arab Spring revolt’?

Differently. For the vast majority of people it is the Arab revolt against dictatorship. However the Iranian regime sees and calls it an Islamic Awakening and the result of Iranian revolution. However because of the close ties with Syria the regime in Iran prefers to regard this as interference by outside forces rather than a people’s uprising.

8. With the world economic crisis then has the standard of living of ordinary Iranian’s been affected?

It has. There are three different numbers of inflation in Iran. The Government’s: at 12%, financial institutions at 20% and others who have estimated it at 40%.

The gap between rich and poor is widening more and more. The Iranian currency has lost its value in recent weeks and it means even more pressure for people. The West expects and hopes this pressure results in more objections from people, but one should remember any mass protest and revolt from the people is because of an objection to the regime and not because of the needs of outside forces.