P R E S S R E L E A S E
“the great frock n robe swindle anti-jubilee newspaper”
Shaun
Featherstone, an artist from Cardiff, has published an alternative to the “overbearing
deluge of pro-monarchy, diamond jubilee media coverage”. He has spent the last
four months, with the help of a small army of volunteers compiling and editing
the free newspaper which is being given away free all over the UK. The paper is called the great frock n robe
swindle – a play on words of the title of the film ‘the great rock n roll
swindle’ – a film about and starring the sex pistols. The paper has been produced “in the spirit of
punk and working class activism”.
The
newspaper has over 100 articles and artworks – mostly new copy - written or
produced especially for the paper as well as re-published items, vintage
republican and anti-monarchy cartoons, quotes and articles. The newspaper includes items from Julie
Birchill, Patrick Jones, Paul Flynn MP, Mary Macleod MP, Heathcote Williams,
Mab Jones, Emma Geliot, Glenn Davies, Dr. Stuart White, Dr. Gavin Grindon,
Prof. Andre Stitt, Brian Frank, Brian Jones, Jamie Reid, Michael Cousin, Boo
Povey, Sean Kisby, Neil McNally, James Gray, Andrew Blick, Billy Ridgers,
Martin Rowson, John Robb, Scarlett Blades, Liz Morgan, Attila the Stockbroker,
James Keir Hardie and many more..
“I wanted to
put another side to the jubilee story. At the heart of my protest, which is
really what the paper is, is an opposition to the constitutional position of
the monarchy in the UK. It’s less anti monarchy
and more pro-republican. Significant numbers of people in the UK and the wider
‘commonwealth’ are less than supportive of the British monarchy but you
wouldn’t know it judging from the celebratory coverage in the UK media. So the
paper is a way of getting some balance into the public domain and hopefully sparking
more debate on the whole issue.” said Shaun Featherstone. “At the end of the
day if it makes a few people think a little more deeply about some of the
issues then it has achieved its purpose – being curious and questioning the way
of things is always a good thing.”
Contributors are international – from Canada, USA,
Australia, Germany and all over the UK. Content was sourced by a variety of
means: by open call, facebook, recommendation but above all exhaustive research
and over 600 solicitation emails. The
paper includes an exchange of emails between two serving UK MP’s : Paul Flynn
MP (Labour), Mary Macleod MP (Conservative) - see pages 32 and 33.
Distribution
& circulation: 6,500 copies were printed and sent around the UK – printed by
Trinity Mirror PLC. The newspaper is
available FREE from bookshops and art galleries across the UK including: Word Power, Edinburgh; Star and Shadow,
Newcastle; Peoples Bookshop, Durham; News from Nowhere, Liverpool; Radish
Books, Leeds; Hotcakes, Hebden Bridge; Spike Island, Bristol; Mission Gallery,
Swansea; G39/Milkwood, Cardiff; Oriel Wrexham; IKON Gallery, Birmingham; SOAS/bookmarks/Freedom/Newham
Bookshop/56a Infoshop/Judd Books/Gays The Word/Church Street Bookshop/Pages of
Hackney/Central St Martins/Calder Bookshop/Housmans – all inLondon; The Cowley
Club, Brighton; October books, Southampton.
“Even
under a representative system of government it is possible to paralyse a nation
by maintaining the fiction that a reigning family is a necessity of good
government. Now, one of two things must be – either the British people are fit
to govern themselves or they are not. If they are, an hereditary ruler who in
legislation has more power than the whole nation is an insult ; if they are
not, they should not be entrusted with votes. Despotism and monarchy are
compatible; democracy and monarchy are an unthinkable connexion.”
James
Keir Hardie on Queen Victoria’s
diamond jubilee, 1897
(re-published in the great frock n robe swindle
2012)
