Re : Free Republic of Keele in 1980?
No, before my time, but there was another attempt at the free republic whilst
I was there. I can't for the life of me remember why this time, but I believe
it was written on the FRK passport (which I still have somewhere, sad, I know).
A fairly uneventful protest, other than from the Keele underground movement (or whatever it was called) which mostly involved us doing sneak raids on passport control et al and hurling flour bombs ;-)
From the same period, does anybody remember the "Emma Sturt guides"
that used to appear in pubcirc? Such as...
"The Emma Sturt guide to doing the gardening. (1) Tell the gardener to
do it"
What ever happened to Emma Sturt, or Mark Ellicott for that matter?
Mark Stamps(1985-88)
Another attempt at the free republic
That would have been one of SU president Tony Bell's many attempts to get
jolly cross at something or other, but failing because he was simply too nice.
I've not seen Mark Ellicott for a few years now, but we used to regularly bump into each other at south London bus stops. Pretty funny for a guy whose friends used to balk at the idea of public transport.
Alistair [83-86]
Unilateral Declaration of Independence
....then there was the time (1980? 1981?) when the Union issued a Unilateral
Declaration of Independence, and campus became "The Independent Republic
of Keele". We even had passport control and customs check points on the
entrances to campus. This lasted a few days, and was all in response to cuts
or something (I forget exactly what!). It made the TV news and reinforced
the students' lefty image with the locals for a while (I believe that in the
sixties Keele was known locally as "The Kremlin on the Hill"!).
Mark Ayres.
Olympic Keele
It is March 1980 and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is unhappy
about the venue for the Olympic games in the summer.
Does anyone remember the generous offer made on behalf of Keele University to the IOC offering Keele University's sport facilities for the Games?
arhh...there was only one drawback - the lack of a swimming pool - nevermind, at least the track events could take place on the campus and the swimming in the local public pool in Newcastle.
Anyway, a 'student-rally' (about 12 people) supporting this bid was held in front of the library and the 'bid' even received publicity on the regional TV news. I was all in favour of the idea.....until I got hit by an egg!
If the person who threw it is reading this - thanks a bunch... and there's still an outstanding dry cleaners bill to settle!
Regards
Dr Paul Gabbott
Re: Olympic Keele
I vaguely remember we applied to the IOC to host the next Olympics.. Sadly,
like the rest of my fellow radicals, I've got no idea what we were protesting
about.
My only enduring memory of those endless union meetings was the appointment of the Chip Finder General, who played the hugely important part of standing behind the curtains in the main hall waiting for the chip van to arrive to signal the end of the meeting..
Si 79/80
