Might it even be beneficial? And when we talk about squatting, what do we really mean anyway? Those questions are raised again this week, albeit belatedly, by a surprising new adjudicator: Richard Madeley. In Madeley Meets The Squatters , the former breakfast TV maestro turns investigative reporter, visiting squatters and anti-squatters alike, and bringing more nuance to the subject than the current administration did when it drafted section Grant Shapps, co-chair of the Conservative party, has a very clear idea of what squatters are: they are people who come and steal your home while you are on holiday.
Justifying the law change in this paper , Shapps cited some well-publicised recent incidents of homes stolen by squatters, including that of Oliver Cockerell , a Harley Street doctor, which was occupied during renovation work while his wife was pregnant.
Dr Cockerell blamed "gangs of anarchists and eastern Europeans". Shapps went on to describe squats as "death traps of despair" and spoke of squatters' lives as "characterised by gloom and anguish". These negative stories have dismayed many long-term squatters. Take Joe Blake and Reuben Taylor, two squatters in their 20s who live in an abandoned plant nursery near Heathrow airport.
Their set-up, Grow Heathrow , is far closer to Shapps' illusory harmonious community than a death trap of despair. In fact, you could call it a squat-topia.
Blake and Taylor's group — now numbering 17 or so — cleared their site of 30 tonnes of waste and repaired derelict greenhouses to live in. They grow organic vegetables, which they sell via the local grocer. They hold bicycle workshops, arts and crafts sessions and gardening workshops for the local community.
They even do the gardening for the local constituency office. They have displaced no one and the neighbourhood wants them there, since they campaign against the proposed third runway.
It's a frugal existence, mind you. The only electricity is via a wind turbine and solar panels — just enough for music and the internet. It gets bitterly cold in winter. The "shower" is a Heath Robinson-like contraption consisting of a water butt on top of some scaffolding, with pipes leading to an old radiator with a fire underneath it. It would be very difficult to paint these squatters as a burden to society. They don't even have a carbon footprint. Blake and Taylor are also members of Squatters' Action for Secure Homes, or Squash , a voluntary group that has been leading the campaign against section Most of the governments' arguments for criminalising squatting they can instantly rebut.
They say the well-publicised examples of squatters stealing people's homes represent an insignificant proportion of the estimated 20, to 50, people squatting in the UK, most of whom live in long-term abandoned properties the government has done no research of its own since Last month, experts on housing law wrote an open letter complaining that "media and politicians are misleading about law on squatters" and that the existing law was adequate to protect homeowners like Cockerell.
Shapps and co whipped up a moral panic, aided by sections of the media, then section was "sneaked" through parliament during the bill's last three days, he says. But most squatters want to stay somewhere for a long time. They don't want to take someone else's home.
Moral panic over squatting is not difficult to engineer, says Dr Hans Pruijt of the Erasmus University, Rotterdam, who has studied squatting across Europe. In the Netherlands, a country with a formerly enlightened squatting tradition, it was outlawed in October , by a very similar process to the UK.
In Spain, in the mids, squatting was tenuously linked to terrorism before being outlawed. Just how bad has it been? We drive on the right side of the road; they drive on the left. We have trucks and strollers; they have lorries and prams. We watch The Bachelor ; they watch Love Island. Actually, I watch Love Island too. But strangest of all? Since , the NFL has exported games to England in an attempt to expand its international audience.
The end zones were very small. The new stadium has locker rooms big enough to fit 50 guys and an artificial turf football field under its grass soccer pitch , which retracts. This is a valiant idea. But there are no other countries on Earth where American football is the most popular sport. None of those 30 will have featured two teams with winning records.
There are 14 NFL games in Week 6, and five fit that description. How could they play 30 games in London and not have a single one between two winning teams?
Is the NFL taking the piss? This year, the NFL is bringing the Brits its worst set of games yet. N one of the four teams playing in London have winning records. Last week, the Jets faced off against the Falcons. Absolutely dreadful, right?
But no. We keep exposing our strongest international ally to our trashest football team. Somehow, it gets worse. This Sunday, the Dolphins will play in London against the Jaguars. Keep him away from the pubs. It would be bad foreign policy if another nation agreed to import food from American farms and we sent them boat after boat filled with rancid, expired meat.
So why do we continue to export our rancid, expired football teams? This is hard, because there have been so many bad teams sent to London. But there can be only one winner loser? The Browns, of course, were more than happy to give up a home game during a season that they were actively trying to lose. Which brings us to our next question. The broad crappiness of these games actually makes perfect sense if you understand how the NFL decides which teams play in London.
The league leaves that up to the teams, who volunteer to give up one of their home games. Losing home-field advantage could limit your odds of making the playoffs. The money element not only explains why the home teams in London games are bad, but also why the road teams are bad. The teams willing to give away their home games give away only the least profitable matchups. Teams are likely to sell out when playing divisional rivals, the best teams in the league, or teams with large traveling fan bases.
So teams go through their schedules and agree to ship their least enticing home game overseas. Check out the weekly video line up for the regular season. A look at the top pictures of Steelers fans from the team's Week 4 game against the Packers in Green Bay. A look at the top pictures of Steelers fans from the team's Week 3 game against the Bengals in Pittsburgh. A look at the top pictures of Steelers fans from the team's Week 2 game against the Raiders in Pittsburgh.
A look at the top pictures of Steelers fans from the team's Week 1 game against the Bills in Buffalo. Take a look at the best photos of fans at the Hall of Fame Game vs. From custom jerseys and terrible towels, to sideline gear and authentic memorabilia, there's something black and gold for every fan at the NEW Steelers Pro Shop store located on Art Rooney Ave at Heinz Field.
You will find everything you need to show off your Steelers pride for you and your family. Come experience a shopping environment unlike any other. Get it direct from the Team at the Steelers Pro Shop. Download it today! A short behind the scenes look at the Pittsburgh Steelers media days where the players participated in photo and video shoots.
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