The Guerilla team confronts Bill Rammell

Last week the Minister for higher education Bill Rammell came to Staffordshire University on a low key visit in an attempt by the University management to persuade him – the government- to donate money for the proposed university quartet development.

The Guerilla team heard of the ministerial visit and headed down to the café where Bill Rammell was expected. Armed with a mobile phone and nothing else apart from our eagerness to confront him and ask some questions. We debated over what our first question should be, Chagos Islands, Free education or a number of other possibilities. We had no idea how much time we would have and whether or not he would even speak to us.

The University management had seen us sitting at the café, they seemed uneasy with our presence. They had heard about us previously as we had raised an issue of JCB investing in the University. JCB profits from the illegal occupation of Palestine, this would make it an un-ethical company, in our view.

As Mr. Rammell was socializing with the University management we slipped through the smiling, smartly dressed management, introduced ourselves and asked the first question. Immediately Rammell took a defensive pose. Earlier this year there was a report published in the Guardian revealing that the government wanted Lecturers and University staff to spy on Muslim and ‘Asian looking’ students, I asked about this and also added that it meant that this would inevitably mean people ‘like me’ and asked Mr. Rammell how he justified such infringements on academic and student freedoms. The minister denied he had said what the Guardian report had revealed adding it was “based on a report that did not see the light of day”. The University management tried to push us along and I had to remind them that they shouldn’t touch us, in a very nice and polite manner, of course.

I then asked that if there was no suggestion on spying then why the Lecturers Union would take a vote on the issue. His reply was that there can be “disagreement” between the government and lecturers sometimes. However this would not explain why they would take a vote, surely they had read the report issued by the government, and thought it was asking them to spy hence taking a vote on it at their annual conference. We were then told that the minister had to leave but before leaving he said he would be happy to discuss any issues with us at Westminster, on camera. Maybe we will pay him a visit.

The track record of Bill Rammell is well known, to the extent of him lying to defend the position of the government on the Chagossians’ returning to their islands in the Indian Ocean, even after the high court ruled that their removal was illegal. Rammell has supported the war in Iraq, then, at the same time, claiming there is no money available for a free education, forgetting the fact that billions of pounds are being spent on an illegal war.

Bill Rammell is not just a standard politician, he is a minister that has defended the indefensible, but not with facts, rather he has used lies and even undermined the democratic structures of this country to achieve the governments’ goal. This was the case after the high court ruling of 2000 in favor of the Chagossians’. Rammell sent an order-in-council to the queen which she approved that essentially meant that the high court ruling was overturned. Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to ask him all that we had wanted, but maybe we will try to arrange a meeting with him, if he will see us.