Tag Archives: Spectacle Productions

Bring Shaker Aamer Home: Parliamentary Screening of “Outside The Law: Stories from Guantánamo”

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On Tuesday June 21, at 6 pm, there will be a special Parliamentary screening of the documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo” in the Boothroyd Room in Portcullis House, opposite the House of Commons.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with US attorneys Brent Mickum and Tom Wilner, who are both visiting London for this event, British lawyer Gareth Peirce, former Guantánamo prisoners Omar Deghayes and Moazzam Begg, journalists Victoria Brittain and Andy Worthington and film maker Polly Nash.

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Save Shaker Aamer – ‘Stories From Guantánamo’ Screening 11th December

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GuanShaker01

The Save Shaker Aamer Campaign, dedicated to raising awareness about the plight of the last Londoner being held in Guantánamo Bay detention centre, will be holding a day of public meetings and demonstrations on Saturday 11th December from 12 noon at Battersea Arts Centre. The film ‘Outside the Law: Stories From Guantánamo’ directed by Polly Nash and produced by Spectacle Documentaries will be screened at Battersea Arts Centre in the Grand Hall from 4.30pm.

All welcome!

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Storms brewing over REO personnel?

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You’d think that with debts up to their eyeballs, and Wandsworth Borough Council’s decision on planning permission still in the balance, the owners of Battersea Power Station would have enough to worry about.

But now new allegations have arisen in the Irish media about certain figures involved in REO, the property firm that owns the site.

The Irish Independent has reported that Willie McAteer, formerly finance director of Anglo Irish Bank, which loaned money to REO, also owns a stake in the company.

McAteer was also arrested and questioned by the Irish fraud squad in March 2010 following his resignation from the board of bailed out bank Anglo Irish in 2009.

Meanwhile accusations of irresponsible behaviour are in the air directed at Johnny Ronan, one of the owners of Treasury Holdings, REO’s largest stakeholder, with an opinion piece in the same newspaper accusing him of reckless spending. Mr Ronan’s children’s ‘lavish birthday parties…costing hundreds of thousands of euro’ come under fire.

This only adds to speculation on the propriety of his behaviour – in March the Irish Times reported that he was ‘standing down’ from his position for a few months, following embarrassing revelations about his love life.

It seems Mr Ronan had been embroiled with arguments with a former girlfriend after being found taking extended lunches and private jet trips to Morocco with a former Miss World.

Not responsible behaviour, some might say, for a man whose company has debts funded by the Irish taxpayer to the tune of more than a billion euro.

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How much is Battersea Power Station worth?

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Detail of a slide from REO's presentation to the Battersea Power Station Community Group

Even if you take the question in its strict financial sense, it’s not as simple as you might think.

Property consultants King Sturge valued the site at £388m in February of this year. But read the small print and you see that this value depends on some factors which are still in flux: the obtaining of planning permission, the extension of the Northern line to Battersea, and the availability of funding for REO’s huge debts.

To take the first issue of planning permission, that’s a decision that’s going to be made by Wandsworth Borough Council later this summer.

And it might not be as cut and dried at the developers hope: several groups are opposing the plans, including the Kew Bridge Engines Trust, 20th Century Society, Battersea Society, SAVE, and the Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society. The Victorian Society have also made a formal written objection and recorded an interview with Spectacle on their attitude towards the developers’ plans.

Even supposing the planning proposal is given the go-ahead, it’s unclear how valuable the site will be, given REO’s reluctance to say what proportion of the site will be made up of affordable housing.

Even now, when the site has none of the “essential” planning permission in place, the valuation of £388m suggests a value-per-acre of £10m. A little high, perhaps, given that Capital & Counties exhibition centre in Earls Court, which already generates income and has ready transport links, is valued at £6m per acre.

This second point of transport links, and the extension of the Northern line to Battersea, is also up for discussion.

No public money is being put towards it from either the mayor’s office or the Department of Transport, so it looks like it would have to be privately funded. The REO’s estimated cost at the moment is £200m – seen by some as a hopelessly optimistic figure.

And even if the price of building the tube link remained on target, it’s uncertain where REO would find £200m, given the company’s unfortunate financial position and hefty debts.

It’s hard to see how a valuation of the Battersea Power Station site, and of its worth to the developers, can be at all conclusive. £388m is an attractive figure for a company mired in debt, but to anyone else it looks optimistic at best, and at worst completely unrealistic. It is also £12m less than REO paid for the site.

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Battersea Power Station owners deep in debt

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REO co-owner Rob Tincknell

Property firm REO, whose portfolio includes Battersea Power Station, owes millions of euro to its banks, and to the Irish taxpayer.

The company owes a total of €2bn to its banks. This includes nearly €1bn owed to Nama, Ireland’s National Asset Management Agency – set up by the Irish government to take on the debts of banks bailed out in the financial crisis.

With a property portfolio valued at €1.3bn (including the Battersea site, whose valuation is problematic in itself), the company’s debts now far outstrip its assets.

That’s not the end of REO’s problems: it recorded a pre-tax loss of £900m for the 14 months to February 2010. The announcement of those accounts, in June this year, caused a 50% fall in the company’s share price, taking it down to just 8 pence per share, and a market value below £40m. The company is not in good financial health.

So it’s perhaps not surprising that REO are looking to separate the potentially lucrative Battersea Power Station site from the company as a whole. They hope to draw off the property into a separate company, and list it on the stock market before the end of the year.

Investment partners are being sought to help fund the project, with international property groups and Middle Eastern wealth funds thought to be expressing interest.

But these grand plans could be brought to a halt if Wandsworth Borough Council decide not to grant planning permission. Elsewhere on the Spectacle Blog you can find out more about the historical preservation groups who are opposing the developer’s plans for the site.

You can also watch our interview with Alex Baldwin of the Victorian Society and other clips about the power station in the Spectacle video archive.

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Guantanamo Screening – Friday 9th July

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Outside the Law: Stories from Guantanamo is being screened on Friday 9th July by Roehampton University. For full details, see below.

Venue: Roehampton University , London, UK

Films shown: Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo.

The event is not open to the public. Andy Worthington to give a lecture to US Fullbright Students as part of CLIP CETL programme

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‘Outside the Law: Stories from Guantanamo’ Review

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Guantánamo Shakeel Begg

‘Outside the Law: Stories from Guantanamo’ is described as a ‘powerful documentary’ that ‘covers all the issues… Seeing the extent to which the rule of law has been trashed, and the standard of ‘justice’ employed as a return to the 11th Century (pre-Magna Carta), is depressing and upsetting indeed. But the film also presents hope for humanity.’

Read the whole review here at Michael’s Peace Blog.

Guantanamo Screening and Q&A – Tomorrow 27th May 7pm

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Guantánamo Moazzam Begg

“Outside the Law: Stories from Guantanamo” is being screened tomorrow at The Broca, 4 Coulgate Street, Brockley, London, SE4 2RW. This will be followed by a Question and Answer session.

For more information, see the Spectacle events page.

‘Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo’ screening across the UK

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‘Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo’ will be showing at Oxford University this Friday, 21st May at 7.30pm, and will screen at a number of UK venues throughout the next month. At Oxford, and also the following events listed below, there will be a Q&A session. Visit the Spectacle website and the Spectacle Guantánamo Blog to read more about the project.

Friday May 21, 7.30 pm: Film screening – “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo.” Followed by Q&A.
Christ Church College, Blue Boar Lecture Theatre, the University of Oxford, St. Aldates, Oxford, OX1 1DP.
With Omar Deghayes, Andy Worthington and Polly Nash.
This screening is organized by the Oxford University Amnesty International group. For further information, please contact Amnesty Oxford.

Thursday May 27, 7 pm: Film screening – “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo.” Followed by Q&A.
The Broca, 4 Coulgate Street, Brockley, London, SE4 2RW.
With Andy Worthington.

Friday May 28, 6.30 pm: Film screening – “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo.” Followed by Q&A.
Chichester Lecture Theatre, The University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9RF.
With Omar Deghayes and Andy Worthington.
This screening is organized by the University of Sussex Amnesty International group.

Saturday May 29, 2 pm: Film screening – “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo.” Followed by Q&A.
Under the Bridge music studio, 7 Trafalgar Arches, Brighton, BN1 4FQ.
With Omar Deghayes and Andy Worthington.
This screening is organized by Under the Bridge. For further information, please contact Jackie Chase on 07799 564620

Wednesday June 2, 6 pm: Film screening – “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo.” Followed by Q&A.
Birkbeck College, University of London, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HX.
With Omar Deghayes, Andy Worthington and Polly Nash.
This screening is organized by the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies. Please contact Barbara Zollner for further information.

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