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Collected Films by the Reclaim Shakespeare Company: ‘To BP or not BP’
The Reclaim Shakespeare Company has delivered a spectacular set of performances at BP sponsored Royal Shakespeare Company events over the Cultural Olympiad season. Here's the collection of videos they've put together to tell the whole story. Performance 1: The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, before The Tempest, April 23rd (Shakespeare’s birthday!) Performance 2: The Royal Shakespeare Theatre…
1 Aug 2012 admin -
Unpicking Nigeria’s new draft oil law
This guest blog was written by Jeremy Weate. He runs Naijablog and is on twitter. Over the past few years, Nigeria’s Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) has acquired a mythic, if not theological framing. It’s as if the document, once gazetted, will provide a final judgement on the direction of reform of the sector. No matter the…
25 Jul 2012 admin -
Que Sera Sera: the UK Government and Arctic oil
Last week ministers appeared in front of the Environmental Audit Committee to defend their position on Arctic oil extraction. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office's Polar Regions Unit states that while it is concerned with “the effects of climate change on the Arctic” they also recognise “the potential of the Arctic to strengthen energy security” –…
11 Jul 2012 admin -
Tangled up in US cables: an intern’s view
This post was written by Platform intern, Pip Brown. Back in October 2011, I gladly accepted the task of working together with Platform researchers and sifting through the US Embassy cables to find information on oil and conflict in the Niger Delta. How many could there be? I typed the words “Shell” and “Nigeria”…
5 Jul 2012 admin -
EU announces Arctic policy, but what does it mean?
Yesterday (3rd July) the European Commission published a document outlining its policy position on the Arctic region. Alarmingly, one of the action priorities listed in the press release is "Promotion and development of environmentally friendly technologies that could be used by extractive industries in the Arctic". In the Communication full text (p9) they add: In…
4 Jul 2012 anna -
‘Out damn logo!’ A week of oil-sponsorship controversy in the theatre world
Phew! There’s been so much going on this last week in terms of various interventions and speaking out on the controversial subject of BP sponsorship that at times it’s been hard to keep up. Here’s handy timeline to help keep people in the loop. Things had already been simmering away following renowned actor Mark Rylance…
2 Jul 2012 admin -
Tullow Oil’s foul play in Ghana
Sunderland FC’s controversial sponsorship deal with a Tullow Oil front group was featured in today’s Independent: There are growing concerns surrounding the suitability of Sunderland's new sponsor, Invest in Africa, amid claims from the oil watchdog Platform that the initiative's founding partner, Tullow Oil, is responsible for damaging business practices on the continent. Tullow…
28 Jun 2012 admin -
Blowing the whistle on Sunderland AFC’s oil sponsorship deal
At Platform we’ve been very focused on looking at how oil companies use cultural institutions to plaster over their controversial operations, but just yesterday a UK-based oil company moved into the sports sector. The Guardian reported that Premier League Sunderland AFC had secured “pioneering African sponsorship” with Invest in Africa. The article makes Invest In…
26 Jun 2012 admin -
RBS & ECGD offer billions in public money to expand Caspian fossil fuel infrastructure
While the Tory government forces through unpopular cutbacks to the NHS, education and pensions, British public institutions plan to invest hundreds of millions – if not billions – of pounds into new fossil fuel infrastructure on the Caspian. Both the British Export Credit Agency (the ECGD – recently rebranded "UK Export Finance") and the Royal…
25 Jun 2012 admin
