Fortnightly June 10-24 Free Red Rag Reading's only newspaper Next issue: Copy deadline: Thurs June 21 News: 724087, 666681 Events: 724087 Going out: 61361 Distribution: 665676 Send articles and money too to: Red Rag, Box 79, Acorn Bookshop, 17 Chatham Street. Help! The last issue isn't quite paid for yet! Please send us some money! Four miners from Rose Heyworth colliery in South Wales are in Reading to help organise local support for the miners' strike. They have set up a strike centre at the TGWU office, 36 King's Road (590311). Go and meet them there. Get them to speak at your workplace. The local Miners Support Committee meets every Thursday - the TGWU office will tell you where. Make a donation, in money (cheques payable to 'Reading Trades Union Council' and marked on the back 'Miners Support Committee'), or food (to go to S. Wales). More on the miners on p3. Meanwhile, Citizen Cain keeps on digging (page 2), the twentieth century threatens to dawn in Reading (p 5), and the idea is floated (if that's the right word) for an alternative local radio station (also p 5). Red Rag's indispensible Events diary of political meetings and open gardens is on pp 6-7, and the famous going out guide on pp 8-9. For the rest of the contents, see inside. - - - LOOKING AFTER THEMSELVES On the 19th June the future pattern of local NHS provision will be decided by the District Health Authority meeting at Borocourt Hospital. Also present, at least outside the building, will be members and representatives of groups from Henley, Reading, Wokingham and Newbury, from the Friends of Newbury and Sandleford Hospitals to the National Childbirth Trust - complete with "babies, prams and banners" - to representatives of Health Service trade unions. Nearly every organisation consulted has opposed the Health Authority's plans, from Berkshire County Council Social Services Committee down to local voluntary organisations, yet it seems likely that the final plan approved by the Authority will differ little from the original proposals. These proposals, if implemented, will redefine the kinds of services that the Health Authority considers its responsibility. Two examples: transferring responsibility for those long-term patients who are not expected to "get better" and go home from the Health Authority to Social Services and voluntary organisations; transferring responsibility for family planning services to "the independent sector." Underlying the more dramatic proposals, which would involve the closure of hospitals like Fair Mile, Hungerford and Prospect Park, is the concept of "Care in the Community". This term, which first emerged in a DHSS circular in 1981, is a skilful public relations fraud worthy of Saatchi and Saatchi, it has been taken up by opposition groups as much as by supporters. Nobody dares oppose something so obviously wholesome, and every time someone says, "Of course I support care in the community but..." they have wrong-footed themselves; and the government and NHS administration look as though they at least have their hearts in the right place. Yet the burden of "caring in the community" will fall most heavily not on the NHS, nor even on the "community" wherever that may be, but on voluntary organisations constantly struggling to find more goodwill from the "community" to keep them going and on Council Social Services already cutting back and unable to raise more money because of rate-capping legislation. The other side to the Health Authority's proposals is the concentration of "acute" and maternity services at the Royal Berks Hospital. This is what has enraged the increasingly volatile citizens of Newbury, who will see their maternity unit and accident department closed. Not even the Health Authority pretends that sending ambulances up and down the M4 filled with seriously injured or ill people and overworked drivers is care in the community. This is a more efficient use of available resources. In this way will the National Health Service save money: reduce some services, transfer others out of the NHS and centralise others onto one site. Of course it's happening all over, not just in West Berkshire; but on the 19th June the buck, passed down the line from Whitehall, stops here. They may call it care in the community, but anyone who reads BUPA ads knows it really means look after yourself. Guy Bentham Reading Health Watch will be meeting on the evening of the Health Authority meeting to discuss the next stage in the delence of the NHS in West Berkshire. 5-30pm Reading Centre for the Unemployed. - - - CITIZEN CAIN "Sir Earnie's" Thanks The gratitude of "Sir Earnie" Harrison of Racal for his knighthood and all the other favours he has received from the Conservative Government is plain. Just before the General Election, Finchley lawyer Margaret Thatcher was his guest at subsidiary Racal-Tacticom in Bennet Road where she was able to demonstrate her support for new technology. On June 13th, the day before the Euro-elections, Hampstead lawyer Diana Elles, the Tory Euro-candidate, will be his guest at another subsidiary in the same division, Racal Mobilcal, Basingstoke Road, in the hope she may find new technology easier to handle than seals or dairy cows. These publicity bonuses are of course in addition to straight Racal donations to Tory funds (475,000 last year). "Sir Earnie" himself isn't doing badly either. According to the 'Sunday Times' he is the nineteenth highest paid director in Britain, taking home a cool £148,000 in 1983, not something about which the Racal publicity machine has exerted itself. Not like it has for example over Racal's new venture into the remote telephone market, which it got covered in the 'Evening Post' together with an attack on the left leadership of the POEU, which is threatening to blow the remote business off course in the same way it has delayed Mercury and damaged its profit prospects. The attack was coupled with a boost for "moderate" Reading POEU secretary Gordon Duncan's campaign for re-election to the NEC and the bait of suggestions that in return for letting the new business flourish the POEU might be able to recruit new members within Racal. Something the ferociously anti-union "Sir Earnie" will however most certainly resist! Botha Men Three other directors of major Berkshire companies figured in the 'Sunday Times' top 100 : ICL's Robb Wilmot (£189,000), Metal Box's Denis Allport(£93,0000 and Adwest's Frank Waller (£87,000), Adwest having grown a lot since its post-war beginnings on Woodley Aerodrome and no doubt profiting from Mr Waller's withdrawal from the problems of Reading Football Club and concentration on getting profits up (25% last year). Interestingly in view of Mr Botha's recent visit both the other companies have strong South African connections. South Africa is ICL's biggest overseas customer, especially since some of the U.S. computer manufacturers pulled out under pressure from the black caucus in the U.S. Congress. And Metal Box, which has been closing factories in London and the North, is doing more and more of its manufacturing in the cheap labour market of South Africa, a strategy that City analysts boast has "pulled the Company round". Strategic Developments Lobbying hard to keep the commitment in the draft Berkshire Structure Plan to major development in Newbury - an "area of opportunity" the Plan calls it - is builder John Norgate whose Trencherwood company is being launched on the stock market next week. With a profit of £1.34M in the year to last October, the forecast for this year, based on forward sales of houses, commercial property ventures and contracting, is £2.5M. Norgate, whose stake will be diluted from 99% to 85% by the share issue, is said to know Newbury "like the back of his hand" and is even now identifying where the "area of opportunity" will strike. And the Consortium (the people who gave you Heseltown) will no doubt be pleased if the development of the new estate and shopping centre in Spencers Wood goes ahead. It will enhance the value of their favourite new development in Hook, just over the Hampshire border. Morton's Fork A twin-pronged attack on community groups and their influence and an attempt to batten down the hatches for the next two Tory years emerged at the first Borough Council meeting after the elections and is now being fought through the Committees: the abolition of the Joint Housing Consultative Committee and of the Play Council. Last year's Tory Housing Chairman, Ron Jewitt, spent many uncomfortable JHCC meetings trying to find elegant variations on the phrase "There isn't the money" (which wasn't true anyway but that's another story) but his successor Tory "Readibus" Markham might not even get the basic statement right and certainly can't be trusted not to give any hostages to political fortune to a set of well-briefed tenants' and residents' representatives (just think how much furore he raised by saying "There isn't enough money" rudely to Readibus). So in the interests of Conservative safety JHCC has to go - if they can find a legal way of getting rid of it. The Play Council has also been a thorn in Morton's side, as the community representatives on Play Council led the revolt against then Leisure Chairman John Oliver's equally politically asinine cut in the playscheme budget. However the Play Council may be saved by the Tory revolt that deprived John Oliver of his Chairmanship and elevated Hamza Fuad in his place. As one senior opposition Councillor commented at the time : "Hamza Fuad is an intelligent man and it must have been very hard for him to see John Oliver as a Chairman". And Fuad did not support the move to get rid of the Play Council at that meeting. Trainsport Tidings The last time, incidentally, that anyone can remember a Tory Chairman being turned out by a revolt from within his own party is back in the old County Borough days when a Tory Alderman lost the Chairmanship of the Transport Committee after members had expressed concern over the way in which certain buses had been ordered for the Reading Transport fleet. There is still some concern today about why Tony "Readibus" Markham took it upon himself to contact the firms that had tendered for the new buses that he did not want to give Readibus the money to run, a contact for which he had no authority from the Readibus Management Committee. Sounds a very "square" practice. Points From The Post Benefits: That other well-known "square", Minster Councillor Joe Slater, cannot be too happy that Age Concern (Reading) secretary Margaret Elkington has talked to the 'Evening Post' at such length about the misery being caused to Old Age Pensioners by the Government's cuts in housing benefit. He is chairman of Age Concern (Reading) and should really be able to keep political embarrassments out of the press. Deathwatch: Further to my thoughts in the last issue about Liberal attitudes to the Botha visit, I must give Dr Death credit for saying it would be humbug for the SDP to oppose the visit. The Liberals weren't much in evidence on the demo either. Greenhamnote: The 'Newbury Weekly News' on May 3rd quoted the Chairman of Greenham Parish Council as regretting that "the policy of harassment" had failed. As someone asked in the next issue, whose policy? Snookered: The 'Evening Post' report on the planning application to turn the ABC into a snooker club quoted the promoter as saying that they hoped to provide nice surroundings for "members to take their ladles". Leaving aside the question as to whether a members-only club is a good way of providing leisure facilities in a fairly deprived area, what's with this idea that women can't play snooker (and if they wish take their gentlemen)?... Diydeman: Former Liberal Borough Councillor Tom Heydeman seems almost alone in advocating a great scheme for MFI to move to the new 75,000 sq.ft. of retail warehouse that British Rail want to build on Vastern Road as part of their new station development. What everybody else is trying to explain to the Liberals' County Environment Spokesman is that if MFI leave their present premises down Caversham Road somebody else - like Comet say - will move in and traffic problems will in no way be relieved. What nobody can explain is why BR want to waste such a prime site on yet another unwanted DIY outlet which would not exploit the site's nearness to the station or communications links with the airports. Can it be that BR's property arm is short on imagination? Etonswill: Labour Euro-candidate has been looking into where all that lovely Euro-cash has been going to what we're supposed to be so grateful for. He's found that £3000 of it has gone to Eton College to fund the experimental heating of their swimming pool (I kid you not) and that Eton has also had free milk and cheap butter. To them that hath? Coffeeshock: The reason that Carradine's in the Butts is closing is that their rent is just up for three-yearly review and the new Butts owners (Kleinwort-Benson out of Edward du Cann M.P.) have doubled it from £10,000 to £20,000. Watch out for more closures in our premier shopping centre as more reviews come through. - - - TRUTH AND FACTS (Transcript of a tape recording by the son of one of the South Wales miners currently in Reading) If I had to choose a title for what I an going to talk about, I would use 'Truth and Facts'. Why 'Truth and Facts'? It is because my father is a miner, I live in a mining community and we are at present in the middle of the miner's strike. It is, therefore, a subject I feel deeply about because I am involved. I have watched the news on television and have read the newspapers, all giving the 'facts'. But my father is now a picketing minor and I happen to know the truth. And the truth is entirely different from the 'facts' the media are giving out to those everyday people in the street who have never worked 900 foot underground, deep down in the bowels of the earth. Describing it this way in my way of saying how the miners are unique. To work 900 feet underground you can live and die together and therefore miners - until now - have always stuck together. Before I go on to 'Truth and Facts' I shall say a little more about the miners. They are not just fighting for their jobs, but for their sons and future generations. Yes, they are willing to close worked-out pits. But no, they are not willing to shut pits where there are still seams of coal to explore and mine. Coal is a valuable fuel, which will be badly needed in the future. The coal, per tonne, is subsidized, but not to the extent of other countries'. What a ridiculous situation where Britain is importing highly subsidized coal and closing their own pits. Yes, they will be left with the profit-making pits. The truth, perhaps, is what I read in a national newspaper today. Only a few lines stated that the Industry Secretary has hinted that the coal industry could be in line for denationalization in the future. Perhaps this is what this fight is all about. What if the country is left with only profit-making pits? Those ex-miners who have been sent to the scrap-heap will cost far more in unemployment benefits, etc. What about the spin-off jobs? More businesses will have to close, more jobs lost. I could go on and on about possible social problems, but I must get back to 'Truth and Facts'. The television and some newspapers will show a few isolated incidents of what is apparently bullying, threatening picketers - men that are appearing to be forcing men not to work. They do not speak of the lead-up to the incidents, of the provocation the picketers are experiencing. They do not show the thousands of peace-loving men, like my father, who picket in the proper manner, trying to put over their case. Yes, perhaps there is the odd picketer who oversteps the mark. But they are the minority, and this minority is being shown on your screens. There is shown on certain programmes, and in certain newspapers, a hint of the truth - but not all the truth. At the end of the day, will the everyday man in the street be made aware of what is happening? Today's miners do not want to force governments to keep them employed until normal retirement age, when because of their jobs death is only just around the corner. Minors retire after forty-five years working underground and find they have not even the breath to walk round any corner. If there are to be redundancies, they want for every redundant miner an unemployed youth to take his place. And each and every miner would say silently 'But not for my son'. It is a dirty and dangerous job, but it must be done, and it must be there. They are not fighting for an increase in wages, but the basic right to work and not have to rely on the taxpayers to provide for them and their families. There is pride in having a job, a job that is well done, at that. Some people admire the Victorian era, but most miners and living ex-miners have been told of or remember the workhouse and the misery of the poor. What about those pits making heavy losses? They are making these losses because of the lack of investment in the past, and now during the present. They are uneconomic because all new coal faces opened have to be borne by the pit itself. I did not know, until my father told me, that they are still paying monies to the previous coal-owners. Another point is that the law does not allow secondary picketing, so why are four to six picketing miners allowed to speak to working miners? My father has been one of those few. He has been told where to stand and what to do. But he has been allowed to. So the law can bend when it chooses to. But when I think of it, is it unlawful too speak peacefully to a fellow workman? There are some cases I cannot speak of. But one that I can is the case at a North Wales pit, when one night there were on duty one hundred and fifty policemen and not a picketer in sight! This was said on television: that is why I am able to talk about it. At the end of the day, who will pick up the bill? To me all this is like a jigsaw puzzle with one piece missing. That once piece might he called the 'hidden struggle bit'. Perhaps one day historians will write about these times, and by then the puzzle will all have been put together and understood. Figures and facts can worked to suit, but it does not always show the true position. But at the end of the day the picture is there for all to see. You will wonder what a strange subject matter this is for me to choose. In fact, up until a few weeks ago I was going to talk about rugby, or sport in general. Until then my only thoughts were of rugby, Vicki my girl friend and how to get out of revising. Perhaps I have grown up a little since then. Perhaps all this disturbance, and my exams looming up, has made me think. The saying that everyone has a part to play in this world is true. I have my part to play, and from now on I will do my best to make it a useful one. Hopefully the governments of this world will play their parts well. I have now finished my talk. I hope you have enjoyed this as much as I have in making it. Paul Selway - - - COAL NOT DOLE The miners' struggle today has become the main link in the chain to safeguard our democratic rights and the future of Britain. Their battle is a Battle for Britain. In using their democratic right to strike the miners are showing all of us that with unity and support, basic human principles can be safeguarded. They are fighting for not only their jobs, their incomes and the welfare of their families, but also they are fighting to save their whole communities from total destruction where in many areas the pits provide the only source of employment and they are fighting to save the pits themselves for once closed they cannot be reopened and valuable resources crucial for the growth of the British economy will be thrown away. The Government is attempting to starve the miners into submission to give up this fight. Should we stand by and let this happen? For if the Government can destroy the strength of the miners the success of future struggles for jobs, peace, democratic rights, civil liberties and economic recovery will be weakened. They need our help. Reading Miners Support Group, set up on Thursday May 24th is asking all people and organizations to support its activities. We are arranging meetings with speakers and video films, food collections and fund raising. A regular food collection point has been set up outside Tesco's in The Butts every Saturday morning. Speakers and videos are available for your meetings. South Wales miners are staying in Reading and can be contacted through the Support Group headquarters at the Transport and General Workers offices, Kings Road. The telephone number is 590311. Please contact this number if you wish to help or require speakers, or if you have any activities arranged yourselves and wish to gain further publicity. A news bulletin will be produced regularly and is both informative and will publicize any event. It can be sent to your organization on request. The miners cannot win without our support. Most of all they need food and money - please help to collect for them as widely as possible. The miners have already received widespread support from Covent Garden to Barnstaple. Oxford raises approximately £1000 a week; Hampshire has raised £10,000. So far Reading has raised over £1000 but Berkshire is a wealthy county and we can all spare a lot more than that! The miners will win. Miners Support Committee - - - LETTER 7th June 1984. Dear People, Some while ago, I made the conscious decision not to become involved in the production of Red Rag, but to contribute in the way I best felt able to do, by writing the occasional piece; since I have always disliked publications that were written mainly by the people who edited and produced them. One of the Rag's major strengths has been a committed readership, prepared to write the majority of the copy. However, over the past few months, I have become increasingly disturbed at the amount and nature of editorial interference, last week, one of my articles was interfered with in a quite unreasonable way. The article was unsigned, since I didn't want what was essentially a personal view to be confused with those of various comrades involved in another phase of my political activity, which I wrote about recently under my own name. Due to a cock-up (the people I spoke to were not as I had supposed involved in producing that issue) no one was able to get in touch with me before the editorial axe was wielded. Fair enough, if the axe was wielded for legitimate reasons; for example lack of space, or because the piece contravened the stated editorial policy, in other words if it was racist, sexist or supportive of an oppressive religion. Since I did not keep a copy of the original, it is a little difficult to work out exactly what has been removed; but as far as I can make out it amounts to two lines or so, which seems to count the lack of space reason out. However those two phrases were important to the piece. Again I can't remember the exact wording, but it was to the effect that libertarians should accept the support of others on single issues, even when their views on other issues did not exactly coincide with their own, in an attempt to break down sectarian barriers. Is this racist? Sexist? Does it support an oppressive religion? If not why was it cut? Why one of these insidious comments from the typist that seem to have been creeping in to the Rag over the last few months? Without contributions from the readership, Red Rag would be fairly boring to read, and I feel that those who do contribute are due the courtesy, within the limits previously mentioned, of having their submissions printed in full. If anyone disagrees with what is written they are of course entitled to reply, including those on the production team; but it is pretty discouraging for me and people like me, to have submissions that we may have worked long and hard on, hacked about and subjected to snide typists comments, because it has failed some ones ideological purity test. There seem to be letters of complaint on similar grounds in almost every issue of the Rag these days and I am sorry to have to add to them. If you were to listen to your contributors and readers, they might stop. Love, Giles. Footnote: Replies to letters in the same issue are also out of order, but those of us who have made the conscious decision to do all the work have feelings too. We don't have time to write articles: nearly all the copy comes from 'The Readership'. We appreciate that any organisation can seem like a clique, and intimidating, from the outside: why doesn't Giles get involved instead of writing pompous letters? Any editing in Red Rag is done with full discussion among those involved: articles should be accompanied by some indication of how to contact the writers so any editing can be discussed with them too. All articles should be signed - you don't have to use your real name. If you also state that you do not want your piece edited - that 'all or nothing' is to go in - that will leave no room for misunderstanding. James - - - PEOPLE'S RADIO - WHY NOT? As you may already ne aware, private radio broadcasting is soon to be legalized by Her Majesty's Government. New local radio stations catering for a whole range of listeners will come into being in the not too distant future. 'Reading Grassroots Radio' could be one of them. Can you imagine it? A local radio station that lets the people of Reading speak, and provides an alternative to the mind-numbing barrage of car adverts and banal banter that fills our airwaves at present! However, to the best of my knowledge no person or group in Reading is working on the idea. Hence this enquiry: I would like to find out if there are any people who have any ideas about such a project and then put them in touch with each other. The question is how to do that. I don't want to suggest organizing a public meeting, because perhaps nobody will turn up! What I would prefer is that interested people contact me, and if there are more than a couple of responses then a meeting can be arranged. I'm no high-tech freak or professional journalist, so don't think that you have to be a radio ham or media person to get in touch. More important, at this early stage, is to find out what your ideas are and, if there are enough people interested, turning this pipe dream into a viable proposition. John, 42 Gosbrook Road, Reading - - - OUR STREET, OUR FESTIVAL - RIGHT? True to form, Reading Festival 84 has lined up a more-or-less lavish buffet of Consumer Kultcher (what can you expect from an organization based in the offices of Nabisco p.l.c., British offshoot of the multi-megabuck American cookie company that now owns the ghost of the biscuitry that made Reading famous?) with a few canapes of worthwhile fringe events among the establishment stodge. And with Mark Ringwood, the one glimmer of hope in the Hexagon 'arts' machine, gone off to Bognor even those are getting minimal support and publicity. For those of us who would rather do it than devour it, there isn't even the token offering of last year's so-called 'National Busking Day' - a dismal flop, admittedly, but who'd have expected otherwise with pitches like the Butter Market and Victoria's statue? But who needs Nabisco 84? It's our street and they don't own it - yet. So if you sing, play, dance, mime, fall off unicycles or do anything else home-made and interesting, hit the street with it on Saturday 16 June: make it our festival! No organization, no committee, no 'official' pitches, but it would help to have some idea of who's doing what: come to the music workshop at Reading Centre for the Unwaged on Friday afternoon, 16 June, or leave a message for Tim or Dave on 596639. - - - 20TH CENTURY - COMING SOON! Why a community arts centre in Beading? Our initiative to set up a community arts centre was prompted by our own interest in artistic/creative activities and desire to learn new skills, which we found, was frustrated by the lack of facilities available to the general public. Opportunities for developing creative skills in Reading do exist but they are very limited in scope. South Hill Park is very awkward and expensive to get to unless you have a car and their courses are expensive as well. Fingers can be pointed to the Hexagon as an exhibition space/theatre/venue for cultural activity but we weren't interested in merely 'consuming' art for arts' sake. Basically, the Hexagon is not much more than a municipal entertainments palace - expensive and exclusive. Other centres of creative activity can be listed under the heading of colleges or educational institutions which usually require some sort of entry qualification. Their modus operandi contains all the formality of the teacher-pupil or 'classroom' situation that the word 'institution' implies. Reading Adult College, while requiring no entrance examination or qualification, caters more to those interested in 'the arts' as some kind of abstraction to be 'appreciated' or 'crafts' as a hobby or pastime to fill in the hours outside of work or the home (which is fine if that's all you're looking for). We're looking for something else, something more accessible, not only involving the community on a deeper level but run by the community, something more relevant to our needs... and yours? We would like to stress the difference between 'community arts' (activities organised by, for and involving the community) and 'arts in the community' (organised by the council/education system/voluntary groups filling in the gaps). We would like to break down the institution of 'artist as expert' who imparts 'specialised knowledge' on special occasions in special places. (Lack of 'expertise' does not mean poor results - for some extremely successful community arts projects see below!). Everybody is capable of creative activity on many different levels and we wish to encourage people to explore their potential in this area. We would like to see established a community darkroom, theatre, music venue, screen printing facilities, exhibition apace, a bar/cafe and eventually a film club and video workshops. We envisage starting small and growing step by step, depending on the funding we receive for various projects. We need interested/energetic people to get involved and help organise this project on all kinds of levels: administration, publicity/funding, lobbying the council for premises, devising projects that could be funded, people from various community groups to be on the management committee and members! of the centre. We would like to point out that by no means are we 'experts'. Neither of us has been involved in organising a project like this before and we don't want to end up 'running it' by ourselves (there'd be no point anyway) so don't hesitate to jump in and organise it with us! Laura, Allan, Clive, Quentin and Mark! 596639 - - - EVENTS Monday 11th June NCCL - St Mary's Centre, St Mary's Butts 8pm-10pm Police and Criminal Evidence Bill. Feminist Book Week starts today - a celebration of women's writing with Reading Women Writers' Group. 7-30 at Reading Centre for the Jobfree, East Street. Free. Feminist Book Week events continue all week. Details of all the events in Reading from Acorn Bookshop. All meetings mixed. Tuesday 12th June Why Religion? - talk organised by Reading Bahai Faith. 8pm. AUEW House 121 Oxford Road. Feminist Book Week - Jill Miller, author of Happy as a Dead Cat talks about her work as a working-class woman writer. 7-30 Reading Centre for the Jobfree. 50p entry (unwaged free). All welcome. Reading's Art Treasures - talk by Eric Stanford, Keeper of Art. 12-30 to 1-30, Art Gallery Blagrave Street. Free. (Reading Festival) The Garden in England - historical lecture by Dr Thacker, 8pm Palmer Bldg University Whiteknights campus. Free. Berkshire Anti-Nuclear Campaign - Brian Bastin (Labour Euro-candidate) and spokespersons from Conservative and Liberal parties on their attitudes to nuclear disarmament. Discussion. Wednesday 13th June The Police Bill open meeting at the Centre for the Jobfree, East St, 11am. Transcendental Meditation - talk 8pm Civic Centre Committee room no.2. Thursday 14th June Feminist Book Week - a session with Bub Bndger (Maori author from New Zealand) on non-sexist children's books. 7-30pm Lecture Theatre, Bulmershe College, Woodlands Avenue, Earley. Free. ** See Stop Press! ** Friday 15th June Magna Carta Manifesto 1984 - "We will remove from the Kingdom all foreign knights, bowmen, their attendants, and the mercenaries that have come to it, to its harm, with horses and arms," declared the original... 2pm Runnymede (between Staines and Windsor). Veggie Dining - 7-30pm Fairview Community Centre, George Street. Tickets £2 (£1-50 unwaged) from Acorn in advance. Saturday 16th June Boscombe Down Weekend Festival of Peace - a permanent peace camp to be set up outside the USAF bomber base. Phone Caroline - Salisbury 21865 or contact Reading PPU Box 10 Acorn. Sunday 17th June On Your Bike - a novel way of finding out more about Reading, its buildings past and present, as John Punter takes you on a leisurely pedal around the town. Free. Meet 10am outside Reading Railway Station. (Reading Festival) Beneath the City Streets... Flows the Holy Brook - a once-in-a-lifetime trip with a difference - right under the centre of Reading along the course of the Holy Brook. Much of this fascinating journey is underground and reveals among other things: arching which is believed to date back to when Reading Abbey was built, and the glass-bottomed floor of the Navy Recruiting Office. Please register with the Reading Festival Office in advance: 583535 Ext 453. NB Seriously not for claustrophobia sufferers. Meet 11am outside Courage Brewery Office, Bridge Street. (Reading Festival) Apparently now fully booked alas. Gardens open Old Rectory Cottage, Tidmarsh. nr Pangbourne 2pm to 6pm. The Priory, Beech Hill 2pm to 7pm. St Mary's Farm, Beenham 2pm to 6pm. Monday 18th June Education Otherwise (School is not compulsory) - maths day, 10-30 to 4-30, 2 Kiln Corner Cottages, Upper Basildon. Details: Upper Basildon 704 City Churches of London - illustrated lecture by John Wittich. 7-30 Palmer Bldg University Whiteknights campus. 50p to non-members of National Trust. Tuesday 19th June Lobby of West Berkshire District Health Authority - 10 am Borocourt Hospital (see article elsewhere this issue). Reading Birth Centre - meeting 1pm 63 Carnarvon Road. Bring contribution to lunch. Fundraising for Community Groups: workshop 10-30 to 3-00, Friends' Meeting House, Church Street. Book by 15th with Voluntary Services Council, 38 Caversham Road. Reading 54123. Reading Health Watch - revelation and discussion of decision of District Health Authority on future NHS provision in West Berkshire. Anyone else interested in learning more about what is happening to the Health Service in Reading and around would be particularly welcome. 5-30pm Reading Centre for the Unemployed. Details Reading 669562. Wednesday 20th June Miners Support Committee - public meeting Small Town Hall Blagrave Street 8pm. Physiotherapy - talk Civic Offices 7-30pm. Thursday 21st June Red Rag - copy deadline and editorial meeting to sue out the next issue. Help will probably be needed, with people away for midsummer. Leave messages for Dave on 724087. Friday 22nd June Red Rag - typing. Saturday 23rd June Red Rag - layout and paste-up. Geranium show - Caversham Hall, St John's Rd Caversham. Jumble Sale - for Borocourt Feral Cat Rescue 2pm to 4pm St Michael's Hall Sonning Common. Offers of help or jumble please to J E T Neal on 9260541 (Borocourt). Sunday 24th June New Age Group - meeting on breathing and relaxation with yoga teacher Judy Sender. Everyone welcome, please phone Pangbourne 4317 (Eve or Anne) in advance. 7-30 pm Little Oaks, Green Lane, Pangbourne. Donations to cover expenses. Oxfam open day - Shinfield Grange, Cutbush Lane, Shinfield. 2pm to 6pm. Gardens open - The Coach House and Mariners both at Bradfield, 2pm to 6pm. Coley Nursery, off Wensely Road 2-30pm to 6pm. Red Rag - folding and collating and labelling from 11am. Help always much appreciated here. Acorn Bookshop. Distribution in the afternoon. Monday 25th June South Reading BANC - 180 Hartland Road. 8pm. Discussion meeting on the state of the group and its future directions. European Assembly Election - polling day. Anyone staying up for the results will have to wait till Sunday when the rest of Europe has voted. Regular events Photography: sessions every Tuesday (10-12, 1-3) at Centre for the Jobfree, East St Housing and Welfare Rights: Thursday evenings, Community House, Cumberland Rd. Reading Gay Switchboard: Tues & Fri, 8-10pm. 597269 Mini-market: Thurs 9-1, St Mary's House, Chain St Women's Centre: open Tues 10-2, Wed 10-2, Sat 11-5. All women and kids welcome. Pregnancy testing Tues 7-9, bring urine sample from first pee of the day. Incest Survivors Group: meets regularly. Write c/o Rape Crisis Line, 17 Chatham St, for details. Anarchists: meet every Monday. Details via Box 19, Acorn Bookshop. Autonomists contact via the anarchists. Peace Pledge Union: meets monthly, always active. Contact 588459,868384, or Box 10, Acorn. Ecology Party: meets 1st and 3rd Hon of month at 25 de Beauvoir Rd and 38 Long Barn Lane respectively. Contact Maria 663195. Socialist Workers' Party: meet every Weds, Red Lion, Southampton St, 8pm. Labour History Group: meets monthly at Red Lion. Contact Breda 584558 or Mike 665478 for details. Vegans: 1st Sun of month. 1 Orrin Close, Tilehurst at 2pm. Contact Liz and Steve Shiner 21651 Women's Peace Group: 1st Mon of month at Women's Centre Contact Rheinhild 662873. Amnesty: 2nd Thurs of month. St Mary's Centre, Chain St. Contact Jean 472598. History of Reading Soc: 3rd Tues of month, Abbey Gateway Berks Humanists: meet 2nd Fri of month Oct-May at 8pm. Friends' Meeting House, Church St. Details Crowthorne 774871. Cyclists Touring Club: outings Sun 9.15 from Caversham Bridge or Henley. Richard 50949 Wednesday is Women's Day at Centre for fee Jobfree, East St. Coffee, advise, courses, etc, from 10-30. Silkscreen Workshops: at Newtown Community House, 117 Cumberland Rd. Details Clive 666324. Practical Paradise Club: Women's Centre, Abbey St. Workshops, self-defence, keep fit... and fun. Suns, 2-6 Reading Recreation Art Centres: Painting for Pleasure at Town Hall. Mon 7-9, Tues 10-12. Details 55911 or 861289. Cruelty-free toiletries: market stall every Sat behind Tescos, Butts Centre. National Council for Civil Liberties: 2nd Mon of month. St Mary's Centre, Chain St. Contact Paul 861532. Reading Cycle Campaign: meets monthly at the Rising Sun, 1st Mon of month. For details ring 483181 or 64667. Reading Birth Centre: 3rd Tues of month for food and chat. Ring 61330 for venue. Reading Organisation for Animal Rights (ROAR): 1st Tues of month at The Crown, Crown St. Contact Alan 477790. Beating Time Musicians Workshop every Friday afternoon, Reading Centre for the Unwaged, East Street, 2.30 to 4.30. Men's Group: meets weekly. For dates & venues contact Box 28, Acorn Bookshop. Gay Soc: Mondays in Univ terms 8pm, Council Room, Students Union, Whiteknights. Festivals 2-30 June Stonehenge Free Festival (Drugs, decadence and the pleasant aroma of 30,000 people trying to keep warm by burning green wood and plastic.) (What I say three times is true: this makes twice - Typist) 22 - 24 June Performance Arts Festival, South Hill Park (Bow Gamelan Ensemble producing amazing sounds with blowlamps, 23-piece tea-chest bass orchestra and other mind-boggling cultural manifestations). 1-2 July Porton Down, Wilts. 7 July 'Nudes vs. Nukes' Hampstead (BR Station), London. Full confrontal protest? 8 July 'Legalise Weed', Brockwell Park, Brixton, London. 13 July Windsor: one day on the old site! 27-29 July Elephant Fayre, Cornwall. £12. 10 August Women's Free Festival, Avebury, Wilts. Stop Press Feminist Book Week: Owing to some international confusion, Bub Bridger will not be coming to the children's book session on Thursday 14th. The food news is that instead, Flora Nwapa, author and publishers of children's and adults' books, will be coming. This is quite a scoop for Reading, so do come if you can! Help with publicising the change very welcome. The meeting is at Bulmershe College (Lecture Theatre), Woodlands Avenue, Earley. It's free; 7.30pm, open to women & men. - - - THE MINERS CASE National Union of Mineworkers Coal Not Dole Speakers from the N.U.M. and South Wales Womens Support Group talk about their experiences. Wednesday 20th June 1.30 - Centre for the Unemployed Womens Day 8.00 - Reading Small Town Hall Public Meeting The miners need our help to win! - - - GOING OUT Dear prospective socialites Due to an act of mindless vandalism perpetrated by mindless vandals, a number of posters about the town have been pasted over with 'Cancelled' stickers. These may be readily identified by the initials 'RBC' in the corner and should be summarily ignored. (Keep Reading pest-free: post your flies - as many as possible: it's nearly summer - direct to the Civic Offices.) Monday 11th Festival fringe Public Property Theatre Co. presents 'immigrants' by Jacques Kraemer, an anti-racist play originally written for French Marxist Theatre Co. Univ. Faculty of Letters Theatre, 8 pm: £l.25-ish. On tomorrow too. Festival unfringe 'Another Country' by Julian Mitchell. Stirrings of insurrection in public school: such acclaimed and belaurelled. Hexagon, nightly till Saturday, 8pm: £2.50 - £4. Old Town Hall Carlo Curley: organ works by Bach, Stanley, Pierne, Joplin (He wrote organ music? Probably a transcription of "The Entertainer' - again), Bonnet, Davies, Franck. 7.30 pm, £3.50. SHP Film: 'Nostalgia' - til Wednesday. Tuesday 12th Angies Wokingham, New Orleans Jazz. Watermill Theatre, Bagnor, near Newbury. 'Wood Worm' by Fay Welden. Prices as usual - extortionate. Till July 7th. SHP Cambridge Opera Group presents 'Tales of Hoffman'. If you can't understand Bach you'll love Offenbach. 7.30pm: £3 - £5. & Literature talk: Peter Pegnall on the poetry of Salvatore Quasimodo. 8pm: 50p. Wednesday 13th Reading Film Theatre 'Vivement Dimanche' ('Finally, Sunday'): Truffaut in the style of Hitchcock. 1983, B&W. £1.60, members and NUS £1. Hall, Aldershot. Ian Dury in concert. 7.30pm, . Telephone: Aldershot 25155. SHP Cambridge Opera Co. perform Lampe's 'The Dragon of Wantley'. 7.30pm, £3 - £5. Festival: Marion Montgomery, The Great Hall, University London Road site, 8pm, tickets from Ticketshop outlets. Thursday 14th Progress Theatre 'The Hostage' by Brendan Behan, the IRA kidnapping of a British soldier provides a setting for Behan to explore Anglo-Irish relations and the Irish people with characteristic satirical bent, 7.45pm: £2.20; NUS and UB40, £1.80. SHP Cambridge Opera, 'Tales of Hoffman'. 7.30 pm, £3 - £5. + Track 4, local band. 8.15 pm: £1. Festival Beaux Arts Trio of New York: Beethoven Opus 11, Ravel Trio in A minor, Schubert E flat major trio Opus 100. University Great Hall, 8 pm. Ticketshop outlets (?). Festival Fringe Burst Spectrum Theatre Co. in Fergus Keeling's 'Your Affectionate Friend, Oscar Wilde'. The play, headed for the Edinburgh Festival, explores the relationship between Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas. Univ. faculty of Letters Theatre, 3 pm. £££ ???. + The Raildogs: Upper Deck, Ship Hotel, Duke Street, 8 pm. Angies Friction Groove. Target Burn Essence. Sportsman. Shinfield Road. Free music, (i.e. music, free.) Friday 15th Angies: The London Apaches. Target: Firebird. Caribbean (oops: Paradise) Local bands night: The Stills, The Gathering, Misfire, Flocks of Rhinos, Performing Elephants. 9.30pm - 2am: £2. SHP Films: "Tender Mercies' with Robert Duvall and Tess Harper, 7.45pm and 'Diva' at 11pm. + 'Hoffman', again. Festival RFT: 'Born in Flames' by Lizzie Borden, (if you believe that's her real name....) Feminist revolt against a gradualist social democratic revolution, set in New York of today.) 8pm. + Jazz evening at the Upper Deck, Duke Street, with local band Chances Are. 9 till late. Festival Fringe Lunchtime recital: songs by Vaughan Williams and Schubert, and Russian songs. School of Education, London Road, 1pm. Saturday 16th Angies Vetos. Central Dance. Target Ocean Bridge. Caribbean Dance: Forum and Sounds. Hex: Free lunchtime music. SHP 'Tales of Hoffnan' + films as last night. Festival Second National Banjo Convention. For those that like that sort of thing, that's the sort of thing they like. University Great Hall from 1.30 to 10pm. Festival Fringe "The Great Music Hall Fiasco" presented by Entrttainment 4/3, a company formed in a Cemetary Junction Basement. 'A lighthearted, lightheaded look at the old world of popular entertainment', it says here on the Festival blurb. (Where? When? How much? Why??) Sunday 17th Angies The Boys from Brazil. Readifolk Caversham Bridge Hotel, 8.15pm: free. Butler, Chatham Street; free jazz. SHP Film 'Tender Mercies'. Festival Fringe Guided bike tour of Reading: bring a bike to the railway station at 10 am. + St. Patrick's Hall Summer Concert by members of the University. St. Pat's Hall, Northcourt Avenue, 7.30 pm. Festival Promenade Concert, Hexagon, 7.30pm. Yup, it's a Reading 'Last Night of the Proms' orgy, complete with ratted students bawling Elgar's greatest hits, nae doubt. Don't say we didn't tell you. Monday 13th Oxford Playhouse 'Verdict' by Agatha Christie. 7.45pm: £4.50 - £5; £3.50 UB40, NUS standby £2.50 Hex Flying Pickets (without new member Ken). 7.30 pm: £4.50 - £5.50. SHP Film: 'Outsiders' directed by Francis Ford Coppola. 7.45pm - on till Wednesday. Tuesday 19th Angiea New Orleans Jazz. Tudor Arms Gay disco: free. Hex Leo Sayer: falsetto strutting by mobile grin factory and all-round nice guy. 6.30 and 9pm: £5.50 - £6.50. Wednesday 20th RFT: "We of the Never Never'. 8pm: £1.60, members £1. Tomorrow as well. Hermit Club Upper Deck, Duke Street. Live music. Hex. Evening Post Model of the Year concert. More grins on legs, a touting to become the face and body inexorably to adorn (?) your Post for the next year. 7.30pm: £2 to ogle, £1.50 concessions. (If model/toy women aren't your turn-on, why not a Red Rag Genuine Prototype Real Person contest? Elect that elusive Substantial Body of Opinion.) Thursday 21st Angies Action Transfer. Central Thursday special. Target Deliverance. Bulmershe College: Multi-cultural evening. Sportsman Free music. SHP, Film: 'Ireland: the Silent Voice.' Free. + Performance Festival: People Show. 8 pm. Friday 22nd Angies Johnny Mars band. A live recording will be made, which could be interesting. Caribbean CW Promotion. Tudor Arms Gay Disco, free. Target Jason Paul Roadshow Hex Jimmy Jones, 'an all round showman of the rarest kind'. He's a comedian (sic), singer and impersonator, and 'Not suitable for children or those easily offended'. What, another one? 9 pm: £4.50 - £5.50. SHP Performance Festival: 8 pm. + film: 'Silkwood' with much-acclaimed performance by Meryl Streep. 7.45pm; on till 27th. Saturday 23rd Bulmershe Summer Ball. Angles Reactors Target Separate Energy Caribbean Hot Steel and beauty contest, £3. Hex Free lunchtime music with The Anthill Mob. Central Two sound systems, Marcus and another one, to raise funds for football club. SHP Performance Art tape: world premiere. Cinema. 11 pm. + Performance Festival with Paul Burwell, Morris Minamolo, Kate Owen. Ian Sherman: from 12 noon. People Show, 8pm. Sunday 24th Angles Juvescence Readifolk Caversham Bridge Hotel, 8.15. Free. Butler. Chatham Street. Free jazz. SHP Performance Festival with Jane Wells, Karen Rami, Jordi Cerda, David Medalla: from 12 noon. People Show 8pm. Monday 25th The oracle faileth: I can't find anything on. (neither can I.) Amuse yourselves or see Events. Tuesday 26th Angles New Orleans Jazz Tudor Arms Gay Disco: free. SHP Literature lecture: Beckett's 'Malone Dies' and 'The Unnameable' with Peter Pegnall. 8pm: 50p. Exhibitions 26th May - 16th June: The Berlin 20's: works by Richard Ziegler. Town Art Gallery. 8th - 17th June: Pictures from the collection of Dr. Heinz Rowland: works by Bonnard, Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland. University Art Gallery, London Road site. 9-5 Mon-Fri. 8th - 17th June: Animal pictures in books of the past five centuries. University library. Ditto: Exhibition of contemporary sculpture in the Mayor's Garden, Civic Centre. Ditto again: Tapestry exhibition and demonstration by Grace Erikson. Ramada Hotel. (trying to gain culture Cred?) Key Old Town Hall: Blagrave Street. Art Gallery: Above main library, Blagrave Street. Hexagon: Queen's Walk. Telephone 591591. Caribbean/Paradise Club: 112 London Street} Telephone 51312 or 56847. Central Club: London Street; Telephone 54421. South Hill Park Arts Centre. Telephone Bracknell 427272. Angles. Wokingham. Telephone 789912. - - - ACORN'S BIT Right-To-Read Knockabout Comics were acquitted on all charges at the Old Bailey - great news. This could mean that Airlift (the other wholesaler charged under the Obscene Publications Act) and also your own local bookshop have an easier ride through the courts - we don't yet know. Whichever, it's great for Tony and Carole of Knockabout. But there are still trials to come. It's not over yet. New Toy (Sorry: tool - sorry: Useful Revolutionary Aid) Acorn now has a reducing, enlarging up to A3, singing and dancing photocopier - cheap, clean, etc., etc., etc... Seriously, though, for short runs like tickets or badges or a few leaflets, it's proving very useful. 8p for one single-aided A4 copy, less per sheet after that up to 50-plus (4.5p); extra for reducing, enlarging, colours, card and singing and dancing. - - - TIME FOR A CHANGE! The 'banning the bomb' campaign gives a false and misleading impression of the threat to our existence. To want to ban only nuclear weapons is like saying 'It's okay to kill people, but only in a particular sort of way' - by using conventional weapons. This makes a distinction between two kinds of people: those who are supposed to be killed (the armed forces) and those who are not (civilians). Perhaps we have forgotten the countless numbers of lives lost during mindless bombing of civilians during the second world war? And since in Cambodia, Korea and Vietnam? Is this seen as the more acceptable face of death? Nuclear weapons kill people just like any other weapon, only more efficiently. Merely banning them would be like taking a sweet from a child: it will just go and look for another one. You cannot say to the child 'Go away and forget about it'. What you can do is change the child's mind away from the missing sweet, change its desire to possess one. It is our mentality which must be changed, and not the ultimate expression of it. The 'banning the bomb' campaign is attacking the outcome when it should be attacking the cause. Either ban all weapons, or none at all. Nuclear weapons will only 'go away' when we have the intelligence to see that they are an evil that has come from us, and not one that has imposed itself from outside. To ban weapons, to stop war, we must realise that the solution lies within us: buttons do not push themselves; neither do computers program themselves. We must initiate a mental revolution. It is not nuclear weapons that pose the greatest threat to our existence; it is humanity itself. MX - - - BAND CALL The Beating Time 'office' is already seeing results from last month's free music festival at the RCU, in the form of requests for groups and performers to play at community events. This is what it's all about, but it will be easier for everybody concerned if there is a coherent (and theoretically complete) list to refer to. If you have a group or act that plays or use music and are willing to do freebies or cheapies as well as normal commercial gigs, let Beating Time have the details, o/o Reading Centre for the Unwaged, 4-6 East Street, or leave a message on 596639. (We are looking for acts now for Katesgrove Community Association's wingding on Autumn Bank Holiday Monday, including a Reggae band if possible.) Meanwhile the Musician's Workshop needs more active support. So that those in work, and students, can be involved an evening workshop is being started, for the present at least in addition to the Friday afternoon sessions. Alternate Thursdays starting on 28 June, 7.30 at the Centre. A workshop/gig is also in the planning stage for sometime in midsummer. There are several promising prospects of support for a continuing community music programme in Reading, but it won't happen unless there is actually something happening to be supported. Dave - - - MONEY The situation is grim. The next issue, if there is one, may have to he very small: we need your money! Send cheques to Box 79. Acorn Bookshop, 17 Chatham Street; leave money (lots) in the collecting tins at Acorn, Pop Records, Mace on Cemetery Junction or Harvest Wholefoods. Best of all get a standing order form (available at Acorn or by ringing 374532), fill it in and make sure it gets to your bank! - - - RED RAG Red Rag has been Reading's Only Newspaper since 1979. It is fortnightly and free; it is financed entirely by readers' donations and is usually in debt. (Send cheque payable to 'Red Rag' to Box 79, Acorn Bookshop, 17 Chatham Street; put donations in the boxes at Acorn, Pop Records, Harvest Wholefoods or the Mace shop on Cemetery Junction.) Red Rag is produced by a fluid collective, which meets every six weeks. Currently 1500 copies of each issue are printed. Red Rag has no political line or affiliation. Most of the copy comes from outside the collective. Articles should be signed (even if only 'Anon'), should have with them some way we can contact the writer, and should say whether we may edit them and how. (It is also a kindness to dumb animals, said a voice from behind the tripewriter with deep feeling, if articles arrive cleanly typed and single-spaced to a maximum width of 12 centimetres - 58 characters on a standard Pica machine: there are few pastimes as tedious as reconstructing somebody else's agitprop word for word.) We print nearly everything we receive. We are inefficient and incompetent: we always need help. - - - OUTLETS You may have picked this copy up from any of:- Acorn Bookshop., under Chatham St car park Listen Records, Butts shopping centre Harvest Wholefoods, Harris Arcade (off Friar St) Centre for the Unemployed, East St UB Cycles, 56 London Street Central Club, bottom of London St Rag Doll, Duke St Elephant Off-licence, Derby St Fine Food Stores, 168 Oxford Rd Fairview Community Centre, bottom of Gearge St Harrison's Newsagent, Caversham Read Ken's Kitchen, London Road Jelly's Stores, Whitley Street Number Sixty, Christchurch Green Ken's Shop, Students' Union, Whiteknights Tech College lib & students' common room, King's Rd. Pop Records. 172 King's Road Rib 'n' Roast, Cemetery Junction Mace shop, Crown Colonnade, Cemetery Junction Continental Stores, Cemetery Junction The Sugar Bowl, 26 Wokingham Road Ling's Chinese Fish Bar, Wokingham Road Sutherlands, 55 Erleigh Road - - - TOTALLY BOXED I maintain my equilibrium with my 'Box' philosophy. This involves having many boxes, each quite separate. Nothing is constant - a box may disintegrate or its contents rot. I can make new ones but I never put all my 'goodies' in one box. The total number is not known, not because there are so many but just because I never count them. They are there when needed. Clearly some are used more than others. Sometimes I discover boxes I never knew I had. Some are occasionally discarded and others are allowed to decay. Sad is the one-box person whose box is destroyed or lost. They are left to drift, boxless,through life till another box arrives or they create one. Build a new box once in a while for therapeutic effect and variety, and don't neglect maintenance. Do not dwell too long in one box. They wear out and the contents may get boring and the others may suffer from neglect. Beware too many boxes, (I don't know how many that is!) or there won't be enough of you in one box and you won't have the strength to open a box. Although you may have many boxes, pay proper attention to the one you're in. Not all boxes have the same dimensions and characteristics. They vary in durability and depth, material and texture, accessibility and luminance. You must know which box you are in. Funny things happen to boxes - their characteristics change and their contents alter. A simple shallow little box may have hidden depth or the contents may be merely Illusory. Boxes may be separate but they can be linked. Carried to the limits they can be joined into a complete boxwork. Moral - Box Clever! Mike H - - - SMALL ADS... FREE! Borocourt Feral Cat Rescue: Good homes sought for kittens and cats of all shapes and sizes. Inquiries welcome to J.E.T.Neal at Borocourt on 92680 541. Vocalist wanted: must have good voice and image. For modern commercial band. Tel 664430 French girl (25) seeking work for the month of August. All offers considered. Please contact Brendan Prendiville, Sibly Hall, Redhatch Drive, Earley, Reading. Tel 873171 (room 132). For sale: Baby Belling, brand new. £80 ono. Rdg 868260. Wanted urgently: 4 woodon pallets with slatted tops, for raising a matress off the floor. Contact Liz on 867955 (584425 day). - - - $Id: //info.ravenbrook.com/user/ndl/readings-only-newspaper/issue/1984/1984-06-10.txt#2 $