(…and a little kiss to the COBRA committee)
We, the Undersigned, in full knowledge of the repercussions of our acts and sayings, wish to state the following:
On the 27th of March 2007 a member of the journal’s editorial collective was stopped and searched by men of the Anti-terrorist Unit whilst on the 0830 coach from London to Leeds. He was subsequently held, searched and questioned further at the Milgarth Police station in Leeds. The individual in question posed a serious threat to Britain’s national security, given that they were reading an article containing both the words airportising and images in its title (1). This individual was therefore rightfully stopped, searched and interrogated – all thanks to a fellow passenger being “un-British” enough (2) to snitch on them. We cannot help but express our awe at this passenger’s truly internationalist feelings and their valid interpretation of the article’s title and content – let alone its writer’s true intentions.
The editorial collective of the journal hereby wishes to issue a public apology to this concerned citizen. We deeply regret that such inappropriate material found its way in the journal, naturally distressing its over-the-shoulder readers. We have launched an internal investigation to find how this mistake happened and we will take all action necessary to prevent anything similar happening again in the future.
We can confirm that, with immediate effect, all material published in the journal will be of appropriate content and style, formatted in such way to prevent causing any further offence to just about anyone – let alone threaten the peace of concerned citizens.
As a sign of good will this issue of our journal does not contain an introduction. We can only hope this symbolic move will prevent distressing any of our fellow citizens any further. We also hope it will somewhat lift the burden of the Anti-terrorist Unit by sparing some of its valuable reading time.
London, September 2007
The Undersigned
The Editorial Collective, Voices of Resistance from Occupied London
(1) “Airportising the city: Images of Flying Yuppies and Total Spatial Control”, Voices of Resistance from Occupied London (1)
(2) Former navy chief Admiral Sir Alan West, UK’s new Security Minister, urged people to be un-British by snitching to the authorities (BBC News, 08.07.07)
