80th anniversary of the Mass Kinder Trespass

[Paul Mobbs]

Hi all,

Here's my take -- feel free to derogate...

On Sunday 11 Mar 2012 22:20:26 mark at tlio.org.uk wrote:
> It wld be great to do this as a TLIO "action". What do you think?

Firstly, I've been camping outdoors on 'open land' (i.e., not formal sites) 
since I was 13. Why do I need to turn something that I've been 'naturally' 
doing for 30 years into an action to fight for the right to do it? -- seems 
rather silly to me. And I know of others who've been camping in the hills 
all their lives too, and they will continue to do so irrespective of what 
happens to the law on countryside access, squatting, etc.

Secondly, Kinder Scout. We're talking open moorland somewhere between 
1,900ft and 2,075ft high (the name 'Kinder low' is a misnomer -- it's the 
highest point). It's a good 2 hours walk from the nearest road, climbing 
about 1,100ft. Lightweight/'wild' camping is therefore the only practical 
option, and you need to have good equipment -- if a storm gets up the cheap 
tents you buy for festivals will be chewed up/shredded in a few hours, and 
cheap butane stoves don't work in the cold (it can snow on Kinder in late 
April!).

Who exactly is going to go on such a hike. More importantly, if you try to 
run it as a conventional 'action', who exactly is going to exert that kind 
of effort in order to see it? That's the paradox of trying to get legal 
parity with Scottish law using the Kinder trespass as a working example -- 
e.g. I can't think of any friendly journos who'd be willing to go that far 
for a story.

The way I see it, this isn't an "action" -- it's precisely the opposite. 
Being able to camp on open land, anywhere, should be seen as normal as 
going for a walk. It doesn't require a collective 'action' to make it 
happen; people should just go and do it (see reasons in second point 
below).

The reason for going to Kinder Scout, apart from its iconic position in 
social history, is that the land is owned by the National Trust. The 
National Trust for Scotland has all it's open land available for camping by 
the public under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 -- and the "sky has 
not fallen" as a result. Why then can't major English landowners, like the 
National Trust, open up their land too?; irespective of what the law 
currently states?


> Def interested in doing this.  Were you thinking of doing this on Sat
> April 21st (Queen Liz's birthday?)

As I see it, what this 'expedition' is all about is exercising our historic 
rights -- even though England law doesn't recognise those rights as a 
result of the Norman theft of the land. We're going to do this anyway, as 
many backpackers routinely do all the time in the Pennines and other 
places; but Instead of skulking where we can't be seen in hedgerows and 
quarries, from now on we're openly going to camp in the countryside 
(there's an analysis of the issues realted to this in the Free Range 
Network's sheet O1 -- http://www.fraw.org.uk/fwd?o1 ).

How I see this developing is that we put together something along the lines 
of a 'Kinder Declaration' to mark the date of the event itself. Free Range, 
TLIO, and whoever else wants to be involvedsimply draw up a text we can all 
sign-up to -- and which anyone else can 'subscribe' purely because they 
agree to it.

So, the date itself will be marked by the issuing of a declaration; the 
publication of a guide or handbook for those wanting to camp outdoors which 
outlines the disparity between the law in England and Scotland; and giving 
potential campers tips on how to camp outdoors (rather like the 'Great 
Outdoors' sheets developed by the Free Range Network already do).

>From the date we issue the 'declaration', we're basically saying to "the 
establishment" that irrespective of what you hold the law to be we're going 
to exercise our ancient rights to reside on open land -- and we invite the 
public to do so in their favourite locations across England and Wales. Not 
as a co-ordinated action or event, but just as an when they wish to.

Whilst Kinder might be an iconic expedition to launch this social meme, we 
need to encourage others around England and Wales to hold their own actions 
on open land/woodlands in their own area. So in a decentralised way we 
recreate the ancient practise of residing outdoors in the countryside -- 
it's then up to the establishment to either go along with that or find an 
escuse to defend the right of a minority who own the land to have exclusive 
right to it (that, after all, is the real issue that will be drawn out as a 
result of people camping out).

Thusm, with regard to dates, the date isn't relevant. We issue the 
declaration on the anniversary, and from that moment on anyone, anywhere 
can go camping in the countryside in order to uphold the ideas enshrined in 
the declaration -- be that on Kinder or anywhere else.

Each local event, and the Kinder expedition, IS NOT AN ACTION. That has to 
be absolutely clear at the outset. The 'action' is the issuing of the 
declaration. When people go camping on land that's a social/educational 
activity -- and as such it's not covered by most of the conventional 
criminal restrictions on protest. Then all we need do is invite people to 
post their pictures/experiences online, as a sort of travelog, to celebrate 
the recreation of our ancient rights.


So, do you get it? This isn't anything new. It's something that I and many 
others have been doing for years -- and no amount of 'actions' or 
'protests' will change that. All we're doing is formalising this practise 
by creating a 'declaration' that codifies our ancient rights, and which 
challenges private rights over open land. Then people just get on with it, 
and any legal actions/hassle that results from that will form the basis of 
"action", not the purely social past-time of camping with your friends in 
the open countryside.

I know that might sound a bit contrived, but it negotiates around a lot of 
the current criminal legal hassles over dissent, whilst at the same time 
focussing on the issue of private rights over a resource that should be 
held in common by all.


Comments?

P.

-- 

.

"We are not for names, nor men, nor titles of Government,
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for justice and mercy and truth and peace and true freedom,
that these may be exalted in our nation, and that goodness,
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God, and with one another, that these things may abound."
(Edward Burrough, 1659 - from 'Quaker Faith and Practice')

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Paul Mobbs, Mobbs' Environmental Investigations
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