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[Email Teardown] Inside the Exact Emails Derek Halpern Used to Launch His Online Program, “7-Figure Courses”

If you’ve ever created a product for your audience—such as an ebook, WordPress plugin, SaaS app, or online course—then you know just how stressful it can be to hit “Send” on that final email:

Telling your audience what you’ve made for them.

No matter how good your marketing chops are, you can always learn a thing or two from studying conversion experts and how they announce and sell new products.

And that’s what makes Derek Halpern of Social Triggers such a fascinating case study.

Recently, Halpern launched his new online training program, 7 Figure Courses, which teaches people how to start and grow an online business.

Exclusive Bonus: we’ve put together a bonus Google Doc cheat sheet to help you implement ideas from this tear-down. This doc has links to 3 other epic guides and ideas for launching your own product or service. Click here to get the cheat sheet.

Halpern uses a unique recipe in his product launch.

If you’re in the online marketing space, you’ll be familiar with some of his strategies, but he also adds some unusual wrinkles that we can all learn from, including:

  • The “House Of Cards” Cliff Hanger: a cliff-hanger that builds suspense for Halpern’s upcoming release, like a Netflix TV series.
  • The Weekend Catch Up: the Saturday and Sunday Halpern gives readers to catch up on all the valuable content they might have missed during the week of frequent emails.
  • The Founder Facebook FAQ: the well-placed Facebook custom audience ad that complements Halpern’s drip email marketing and encourages people to ask questions, where they can get personalized, thoughtful answers directly from Derek on Facebook, just 48 hours before the deadline to join his course.

Plus, lots more.

Before we dive in, here’s a broad overview of how Derek Halpern announced his new training program, in 3 phases:

Build Anticipation

  1. The “House Of Cards” Cliff Hanger
  2. VIP Webinar Invitation + 3 Pure Content Videos
  3. Weekend Catch Up

Announce The Offer

  1. The Big Announcement
  2. Founder Facebook FAQ
  3. The “Which Are You?” Email

Handle Objections

  1. Testimonial Flood
  2. Time Objection + Idea Objection
  3. Last Chance (final day)

Halpern has deep experience in buyer psychology, persuasion, and conversion, so we can definitely learn a thing or two from his own launches.

So, without further ado…

Let’s jump into some of the unique wrinkles and main takeaways from how Halpern sells products.

1. The “House Of Cards” Cliff Hanger

Image: indiewire.com

Here’s the truth:

By far, the most important part of selling products is a deep understanding your prospect’s problems and showing how your product can solve those problems and achieve a better outcome.

Halpern obviously gets this, considering he offers an entire separate course on the psychology of sales.

That said, let’s assume you’ve gotten deep inside the mind of your ideal client. You have a fantastic product that solves a real pain point.

With that crucial groundwork, you might be able to announce your product with one email and get some sales.

But it’d be better to build up some anticipation.

That’s where the “House Of Cards” email comes in.

Let’s take a look at the ending of one of Halpern’s early emails in the campaign, which “teases” his upcoming online course in a juicy cliff hanger:

cliff hanger real 3 skitch

Halpern writes:

“I want to show you the RIGHT way to start – and grow – an online business. And I’m going to show you HOW to do it on Monday. This will be unlike anything I’ve ever done before. And I have a feeling you’re going to dig it. So, look for an email from me on Monday.”

Suppose you desperately wanted to start an online business, earn more, spend more time with your family, and make a bigger impact in the world – but you just didn’t know where to begin in starting an online business…

Then suppose you opened this email from Derek Halpern, whose content you’d been devouring for years as a trusted expert.

The ending would kind of leave you hanging, like an episode of Breaking Bad or House Of Cards, right?

Anticipation is powerful.

According to Cornell University social psychologist Amit Kumar, the longer you wait and anticipate an experiential purchase (like taking an online course, as opposed to making a material purchase, like a new house), the more you enjoy the experience.

“The anticipation of experiential purchases is more pleasurable than the anticipation of material goods.”

amit 3 resized
Kumar’s research in the July 2015 Journal Of Consumer Psychology

Anticipation isn’t only for “launch” based businesses, like online courses.

Dialing up the suspense can also work well in SaaS, WordPress plugins, and even ecommerce, where you’re constantly rolling out new products, UI/UX redesigns, and other announcements.

Here at Drip, when we launched Workflows, we similarly sent a “House Of Cards” email.

This created a wave of comments and Tweets speculating what we were about to release.

Our House Of Cards email for Drip Workflows

Great brands like Apple use curiosity and anticipation to engage their followers with every launch. Derek Halpern uses this technique, and you can use it, too.

Key Takeaway:

If your team has been working for months on a product or product or service that’s finally ready to release, don’t give away the cake all at once. Instead, build a little suspense with a “House Of Cards” email.

Even a simple “PS We’ve got an awesome update coming next month. If you want to achieve XYZ, then you’re going to love it. Don’t miss our email next week…” can get your subscribers on the edge of their seats. People will look forward to the value you’re about to deliver, and they’ll enjoy the experience of using your product or service more because of it.

2. The VIP Webinar Invite

Next up, Halpern announces the webinar.

Here’s what that email looks like:

There are plenty of takeaways to highlight with this email and the Social Triggers webinar itself.

However, we’re going to assume that you’ve been on a few webinars, and that you’re at least generally familiar with the “content, content, content, offer” style of product launch.

(If not, keep reading below, and we’ll get you caught up on this popular product launch strategy in just a minute.)

For the purposes of this post, it’s what Halpern does AFTER his webinar and 3 pure content videos that’s really worth unpacking. Whether it was planned or unintentional, the way Halpern sets up the time and date of his next launch email is very subtle, and very smart.

This is also a simple tactic that almost nobody else is doing in their product launches.

3. The Weekend Catch Up

Here’s the deal:

If you’re on anyone’s email list who’s ever promoted an online course, you’ve probably received a ton of valuable material in the form of free videos… leading up to an offer to invest in more premium material.

The basic is this:

  1. Give Content
  2. Give Content
  3. Give Content
  4. Make An Offer

(If you’re not familiar with this, see Jeff Walker’s book, Launch, which is a great primer on the general product launch strategy pictured below.)

C:\Users\ASUS\Desktop\_Drip blog post images\Derek Halpern\ccc video real 2- skitch.png

Here’s the subtle twist that Halpern adds to this funnel:

The Catch Up email.

In essence, Halpern gives readers a weekend “pause” in the middle of the launch—with no other emails—just so people can catch up on all the free material he’s been sending.

Here’s what that email looks like:

“Find some time to go through this material so you can be ready for Monday.”

This is dead simple, but effective.

Put simply, people are BUSY. When you publish lengthy video lessons (or content in your free email mini course), you’re expecting folks to sit down and digest the content. Unless you’re an outlier with 50%+ open rates, many people won’t have time to watch your videos right away—even if they fully intend to learn more about your product or service.

Key Takeaway: Model Halpern and plan for a “catch up” email the next time you send frequent emails, so that readers have time to catch up on all the content they might have missed.

Another way to give your subscribers personalized “catch up” time is to re-send your emails to folks who don’t open them (making sure to wait a few days and change the subject line). Noah Kagan from SumoMe originally wrote about how this hack can increase your email open rates by 30% or more.

To fully automate your strategic re-sending, use Automatic Broadcast Resend every time you send a broadcast, and watch your email marketing ROI skyrocket.

Now, after Halpern’s readers  have had a weekend to catch up, it’s Monday morning.

And Derek Halpern takes us right back to the story…

4. Announce The Product

On Monday, Halpern rolls out the red carpet to join his program.

Rather than giving some hard pitch, Halpern shares a “behind the scenes” video that walks us through the actual course.

Here’s what’s interesting:

The doors open on Monday. And the deadline to join is Friday at midnight.

That means readers have five days to make a decision, with no more “catch up” weekends.

With readers pondering the 4-figure price tag and a potentially life-changing decision, Halpern comes prepared to answer their questions—this time incorporating Facebook ads to continue the theme of nurturing and serving readers.

5. The FAQ Email

Why send an FAQ email?

Oftentimes, with high-ticket products and services, you’ll have a subset of leads who know they want to buy.

But before they invest thousands of dollars in an online training program, at a high price, many people need some reassurance.

Again, this strategy isn’t exclusive to online education. In his epic guide Profitable Ecommerce, ecommerce expert Andrew Youderian from Ecommerce Fuel talks about the buying behavior of online shoppers, offering this:

“Most people won’t balk at placing an order for a $150 item over the internet… When you get into higher price ranges, the number of people willing to order without speaking to a real person decreases, so you’d need to invest more in customer service.”

Same goes for information products, SaaS, and consulting.

The fact is, most people want some interaction with a real person before clicking a “Buy Now” button to spend thousands of dollars online.

That’s where the FAQ campaign comes in.

Halpern sends out an email to answer FAQs like “can I get a refund if it doesn’t work?” and “what if I don’t have an idea?”

He then goes one step further and shows how he persuaded someone to NOT join, because they just weren’t a good fit.

C:\Users\ASUS\Desktop\_Drip blog post images\Derek Halpern\faq email - skitch.png

Cool, right?

Even if you missed this FAQ, the “7 Figure Courses” launch stays in front of readers near the deadline—with strategic Facebook retargeting ads.

Halpern uses a sponsored News Feed post as yet another venue for people to ask questions about the course (or check out questions that other people are asking).

With Facebook and email combined, you can create an impressive “surround sound” effect with any announcement you’re making. It’s the online equivalent of hearing a radio ad whilst driving past a billboard advertising the same company on the highway.

With this tactic, people can ask questions in the comments, reply to other readers, and even share the sponsored post (driving free traffic to Halpern’s course).

Check it out.

Facebook sponsored post FAQ - blur

Lead nurturing, anyone?

If you’ve been following Social Triggers for years, and you see a personal reply from Halpern in your Facebook notifications, you’d be MUCH more likely to invest in the course.

The lesson is this:

Don’t be afraid to use other channels in tandem with your email marketing strategy. If you’re not sure where to start, just upload a .csv of your email list into Facebook as a custom audience. Spend $20 on a “reminder” campaign 24 hours before the deadline of your next launch, and answer a few questions in the comments. A little personal touch can go a long way.

Key Takeaway: To combine social media and marketing automation for your own big launch, start by experimenting with retargeting.

Create a Custom Audience for folks who visit your Pricing pages, so that they see your FAQ post on Facebook. You can have the founder or customer support answer questions and interact with prospects. For the “surround sound” effect, turn on your FAQ Facbook sponsored post the same day you send the FAQ email. And don’t forget to reply to your subscribers’ questions in the comments.

6. The “Which Are You?” Email

Before we get into this final section, just take a gander some of Halpern’s subject lines below.

Notice anything strange?

“Yep, I’m pulling down my pants”
“I make so many mistakes.”
“I learned something new about you…”
“Introducing Seven Figure Courses”

Would any of these lines NOT stand out in your inbox?

At Drip, we’ve seen firsthand how much effort businesses put into writing value-packed emails.

And that’s good. But if your prospects never open your emails in the first place, it’s all for naught.

That’s what makes Derek Halpern’s subject lines worth modeling. They stand out in the inbox and BEG to be clicked.

The subject line on this next email is no exception:

“Which of these 3 people are most similar to you?”

In the email, Halpern describes his 3 different customer avatars for the program:

C:\Users\ASUS\Desktop\_Drip blog post images\Derek Halpern\which are you.png

Once again, Halpern goes above and beyond the level of education and lead nurturing that most online businesses dream of offering.

And whether you sell software, online education, or consulting services, you likely have a range of customer types that fall into 2 or 3 general “buckets.”

Instead of writing vague copy that tries to appeal to everyone, you could model Halpern. Tell subscribers exactly who you serve—and how you can help them.

Chances are, unless you operate in an extremely narrow niche, there are several customer segments you can speak to. And it pays. According to Econsultancy, 94% of companies say that personalization is critical to their current and future success. Yet only 4% of companies say that their customer experiences is ‘very’ personalised.

What is the main driver for personalization in marketing?

Even on Halpern’s blog, personalization is a key tenet of his marketing.

pesonalization - skitch
Not your typical free ebook offer in the sidebar.

Again, this isn’t just for information products.

David Siteman Garland baked the “Which Are You?” angle into his software product Course Cats, speaking directly to 4 target customer groups instead of writing vague copy for everyone:

C:\Users\ASUS\Desktop\_Drip blog post images\Derek Halpern\which are you course cats.png

Key Takeaway: If you haven’t yet, brainstorm the 2 or 3 laser-targeted customer segments that your business serves. When you announce a new product or service, consider creating 2 or 3 separate posts or explainer videos that speak to the hopes, fears, and dreams of each segment. Then, direct people to those 3 pages in your email copy.

7. The Testimonial Flood

Now we’re in the home stretch.

Halpern does something interesting, coming right after the “Which Are You?” email.

He gives us a FLOOD of reasons why other Social Triggers readers are investing in the course… and many of these quotes are strategically picked to get to the heart of why people really want an online business.

Take a look:

faq email __

Halpern doesn’t use any sales tactics in this email. In fact, he barely writes any copy at all. He just shows you why other people are joining the program, and asks whether you’ll “take the leap just like they did.”

To really understand why this works, it’s helpful to look the science of decision making.

VentureHacks, a blog for startup advice, recommends that entrepreneurs study investor Marc Andreessen. Andreessen has written at length about the 25 human cognitive biases, citing fellow billionaire investor Charlie Munger for his thoughts on psychological biases and their power to influence decision making at a primal level.

charlie munger
Charlie Munger wrote about the 25 human cognitive biases in his book, Poor Charlie’s Almanack.

It’s hard to overstate the importance of these persuasion “triggers.”

Halpern’s campaign definitely incorporates a few:

  • Reciprocity: When you give away a ton of free value, people naturally want to reciprocate.
  • IKEA Effect: When you create something yourself (like a piece of IKEA furniture—or an action plan for creating your online business), you’re more likely to place a high value on what you’ve built. This is what makes worksheets and fill-in-the-blank exercises effective.
  • Authority: When you publish content on your topic of expertise, you trigger people’s authority bias, making them more prone to pay attention.
  • Lollapalooza Effect: The confluence of several cognitive biases at once (e.g. reciprocity, authority, the IKEA effect), that creates an almost irresistible effect.

(Go here for a full list of cognitive biases.)

So what do all of these cognitive biases have to do with the “testimonial flood” email?

Well, one of the most powerful persuasion triggers is social proof.

That’s why Halpern showcases others who are joining the course. When you combine social proof with elements of authority, reciprocity, the IKEA effect, and more in your own marketing, you’ll create what Munger calls the “Lollapalooza Effect” and many folks will take the leap.

If your conversions are low, it’s worth adding in some of these triggers and testing your results. Make sure to add testimonials at every step of your funnel (your website, welcome email, pricing page, checkout page, etc.). Let people know that others are buying and, more importantly, their reasons why.

With that, there are just 48 hours to go…

Halpern devotes two more emails to tackling two big objections people have to joining the course and starting their own life-changing online business.

8. Address And Remove Objections

It’s hard to tell whether Halpern wrote these next two emails spontaneously, or if he planned them prior to the product launch.

Either way, it’s smart to tackle people’s fears head-on. Why aren’t people buying your product or service, and—assuming they’re a good fit—how do you respond?

For Halpern, these are the two big objections:

“I don’t have time.”
“I don’t have an online course idea.”

Let’s take a quick look.

For Halpern, these are the two big objections:

The Time Objection

time objection

With any online education program, you run into the objection, “I’ll just do this later” or “now’s just not a good time.”

Guess what?

There’s never a perfect time to commit. It’s your job to prove not just that it’s in your prospect’s best interest to invest—but that TODAY is the best day to do it.

For Halpern, he dedicates one an entire email to this objection. He writes:

“After sitting on the idea for almost 2 years, I started Social Triggers.”

The message is clear:

If you’re sitting on an idea, waiting for the clouds to part and grant you 6 months and an extra $5,000 windfall to finally start, you’re on the path to wasting years of your life.

Which is why today is the best time to invest. Not just in Halpern’s program, but in any online education product that solves a pain point. Always be sure to articulate why NOW is the time for your prospects to invest in your product or service.

Finally, for prospects who *aren’t* sure about their idea, Halpern removes another one of the biggest barriers to starting an online business:

“I don’t know if my course idea is any good.”

The Idea Objection

idea objection

Halpern makes the point that his opinion doesn’t matter.

Instead, people need to talk to THEIR customers to get feedback.

On a broader level, this isn’t about common objections to starting an online business. If you’re a business owner, it’s about gaining a deep understanding of why someone wouldn’t buy your product or service.

Do you know why customers leave you?

Have you asked people directly why they chose not to buy your product or service?

When you have empathy for the people who don’t buy from you (even though they’re a perfect fit and could benefit from your solution), then you too can write copy like this that cuts to the heart of the most common objections. Whether it’s an email announcing an online course, your sales demo for a SaaS product, or your consulting services pitch over the phone, every business can benefit from addressing objections head-on like Halpern.

After tackling these two objections, Halpern sends one final “last call” email on Friday night. Just a few hours before the midnight deadline, he gently reminds people that the train is leaving.

And that wraps up Halpern’s launch of “7 Figure Courses.”

Halpern is a master of increasing conversions.

We can all learn a thing or two from this funnel, so we can get more traffic, leads, and revenue—even if we operate in different industries and rely on mediums besides email.

Exclusive Bonus: To make this actionable, we’ve compiled this post into a Google Doc checklist. The checklist includes:

    • Elements of Halpern’s launch
    • Ideas to incorporate them and crush your next major launch, announcement, or feature update
    • Links to 3 other recommended product launch case studies: one for a book launch, one for a Kickstarter launch, and one for an online course that made over $200,000

Click here to get the cheat sheet.

If you borrow even one idea from Halpern’s funnel (like an FAQ with your founder on Facebook, a “House Of Cards” cliff hanger, adding social proof), you’ll hit a home run on your next announcement and turn even more leads into loyal customers.


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2013 Kia Sorento facelift uncovered

The 2013 Kia Sorento facelift has been spotted almost completely undisguised just weeks out from its official unveiling.

Tim Beissmann
09:46, 12 June 2012

First published by Kia World website, the image of the upgraded Sorento reveals the large SUV’s refreshed front-end styling, which benefits from cleaner, clear-lens headlights; a sleeker, more sophisticated grille; vertical fog lights; and a reshaped bumper and bonnet.

Earlier spy shots revealed the 2013 Sorento will also get mild revisions to the side panels, tail-lights and rear bumpers in what will be the car’s first visual update since the second-generation model launched in 2009. The refreshed cabin should also introduce some minor design enhancements and higher quality surfaces and materials.

As we reported late last month, the biggest changes will take place under the skin, however, with the upgraded Sorento to ride on an all-new platform that it will share with the all-new third-generation Hyundai Santa Fe.

Engineers from Kia Australia have been fine-tuning the new Sorento’s suspension set-up to improve its ride quality and handling ability on local roads.

The Sorento’s existing petrol and diesel engines are expected to carry over, potentially with minor upgrades to improve power and fuel efficiency.

The 2013 Kia Sorento will go on sale in Australia later this year following its debut at the 2012 Sydney motor show in October.

Specifications and prices will be revealed closer to its local launch.

Read CarAdvice's 2012 Kia Sorento review.

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Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) deputy chief officer of product planning Satoshi Ogiso has revealed the Toyota Prius will likely be retained as a hybrid into the next decade, with hydrogen and electric cars set to trump it as new-technology leaders utilising different names.

Daniel DeGasperi
17:26, 25 November 2013

Ogiso-san (below), known as the godfather of the original Prius, said that resource pressures in the coming decade would mean manufacturers will likely have to rely on electric, hybrid and hydrogen-powered vehicles.

Toyota will, with the FCV concept shown at last week’s Tokyo motor show, join Hyundai and Honda in bringing a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle to the market by 2015. Conversely, manufacturers such as Nissan and Tesla are actively pursuing electricity grid-powered vehicles that both believe will be the future of motoring.

By Ogiso-san’s own admission, it won’t be until “from something around 2025 [that] Toyota will produce or sell several thousand fuel cell vehicles monthly”, yet the biggest hurdle for competing-technology electric cars – driving range – he says will be by then overcome.

“Probably at least 500 kilometres is needed for electric vehicle [viability],” opines the product planning chief.

“For conventional automobiles or conventional passenger [electric] cars, probably more than 10 years needed to get more than 500km driving range.”

Nissan, one of the biggest proponents of electric vehicle technology, says each year battery technology is improving, allowing driving range to be extended, but the brand’s current tech flagship, the Leaf, can still only drive less than 200km between recharges.

'Pro-hydrogen' manufacturers currently claim that the ability to drive 500-plus kilometres and refuel in just three minutes with a liquid that is comparably priced to petrol makes such vehicles far more attractive than electric-powered vehicles currently limited to less than 200km.

But even with the driving range problem solved, Ogiso-san sees problems in an all-electric future.

“We should not forget about the charging, once we expand the capacity of electric vehicles it means the charging time becomes longer,” he starts, before explaining how popularising electric vehicles could both affect the available electricity for housing and businesses and shift the emissions issue – by plugging in electric vehicles to a household socket where electricity is made by coal-fire, CO2 is simply produced at the plant rather than out of a tailpipe, where by comparison hydrogen vehicles emit only water vapour.

“Energy diversification is very important,” he explains.

“All-electric vehicle is very nice because when vehicle is driven, no CO2 is coming out, but in Japan, unfortunately, total CO2 volume [because of coal-fire power plants] … pure electric number is a little bit worse than [current] Prius.

“It is [also] a little bit difficult to shorten more [charging time] because quicker charge requires a lot of electric current and charging facilities, and infrastructure costs are bigger and bigger.

“Twenty kilowatt-hour [the average electric vehicle battery pack capacity] charging in 30 minutes is a very simple calculation … it means 40 kilowatts per hour, and 40 kilowatts is a very huge number, is something for the consumption electricity for 20 houses or something. It requires some extra costs for the charging system.

“These kind of issues exist.”

If the top two selling cars in Japan – the Toyota Prius and Toyota Prius C – were electric plug-in vehicles, Ogiso-san says “that’s not a good thing [for the] Japanese energy supply” because it would result in a huge strain on the electricity grid.

Ogiso-san further maintains that “from a practicality point of view, hybrid is better solution for the whole customer, because electric vehicle the driving range is limited and the charge up time at least 30 minutes or so is required even if the customer uses quick recharge”.

Quick charges, however, which use a higher amount of electricity to reduce charging time, are not recommended on most electric vehicles, such as Toyota’s own iQ EV sub-light hatchback, as they affect battery longevity.

That leaves owners with a multiple-hour wait to recharge their cars. Conversely, electric vehicle advocates claim that although it takes only three minutes to fully refuel a hydrogen vehicle that can achieve a circa-500km range right now, there is no current infrastructure in place to do so, and the fragility of the substance requires expensive investment for service stations. While it takes longer to charge an electric car to achieve less distance, any household power point can recharge electric cars right now...

Ogiso-san still believes, though, that “we judge that EV is very suitable to short-range driving” while hydrogen will be reserved for larger, longer-range vehicles because they “do not have these [EV] issues … charging is just as fast as petrol vehicle.”

Toyota's deputy chief officer of product planning also believes hybrids will have a place for many years to come, meaning the Prius nameplate will long be tied to petrol-electric power.

“We have not decided yet for the Fuel Cell Vehicle (FCV, above) name that is coming in 2015 … but I personally think we should add different name than Prius, because I explained to you about the importance of energy type diversification.

“We have to continuously use liquid fuel towards [2020s] so Prius hybrid should exist continuously in longer term, so I think fuel cell vehicle for the future should have another name.”

Osigo-san was also forthright with the suggestion that hybrid technology is a stop-gap or ‘band-aid’ measure between petrol-only cars and electric or hydrogen vehicles.

“Everyone sometimes comments that hybrid is some intermediate technology or some bridge towards next-generation powertrain,” he begins.

“But it has last long. Sometimes I say it’s a very long bridge.

“It’s very interesting story that we launched hybrid in 1997 in Japan, and at the time every car company were announcing fuel cell vehicles would come soon. Unfortunately, it has not come yet for every car company’s announcement, so even in 1997 everyone said ‘is it [hybrid] intermediate for the fuel cell?’, but more than 15 years have passed since then.

“Every car company [is now] starting to build the hybrid mass production”.

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Tag Archives: Staying Healthy

Staying Healthy During The COVID Ordeal

There’s no denying that the coronavirus has changed life as we know it. Gone are the days of being able to step outside our homes to shop, dine out or even just walk around the block. Stay at home orders and social distancing has forced people across the country to stay home. Even schools are shut down in the middle of the academic year and students are learning online. While all of these measures are designed to protect us from the highly contagious coronavirus, it has wreaked havoc with our physical and mental health.


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[2021-06-16] COVID-19 and Vaccination in Dutch Labor Law – Round Table with L&A Lawyers at Cityden Up

This event is for invitees only. If your company is member of Dujat, please contact our office
and we will send you the invitation.
Together with L&A Lawyers, we are pleased to welcome you to our Labor Law Round Table event which will take place at Cityden Up in Amstelveen, next week on Wednesday 16 June.

Thanks to the current relaxations it is for us possible to invite a very small group for an offline session. The focus of the contents will be related to Dutch law, so it is therefore highly recommended to forward this to your HR department. We kindly request to limit your attendance to 1 representative per company.

This Round Table you will be joined by experts Arlette Putker-Blees and Inge Arts, two specialized employment lawyers from the Amsterdam-based boutique law firm L&A Advocaten.

They will update you on various topics related to COVID-19 and the workplace. Aside from touching upon relevant COVID-related developments, the session will mainly focus on the (im)possibilities for employers around vaccination, as many of their clients are currently struggling with the roll-out of the vaccination strategy in view of the employment relationship.

Of course there is an opportunity to ask questions, and we conclude the event with drinks and networking on the Cityden rooftop terrace.

Date: Wednesday, 16 June, 2021

Time: 15:30 – 17:30

Venue: Cityden Up, Professor J.H. Bavincklaan 3, 1183 AT Amstelveen

Language: English

15:15   Registration

15:30   Welcome by Willem Visser ‘t Hooft, Board Member of Dujat

15:35   Presentation by Arlette Putker-Blees, Managing Partner at L&A Advocaten and Inge Arts, Employment Lawyer at L&A Advocaten

16:20   Q&A

16:40   Closing remarks by Christa de Kemp, Managing Director of Dujat

16:45   Drinks & Networking on Rooftop Terrace (seated)

17:30   End of Event


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Duke Southard

Author, Educator, Lecturer

20/20- Stacey Burns murder

A Facebook friend reminded us that January 21, 2011 was the date that the eagerly anticipated 20/20 television show about the Stacey Burns murder aired. About forty minutes of that particular show dealt with the murder, including many interviews with those who knew Stacey. There were no conclusions drawn by John Quinones, the lead “investigator”  on the show.

I’ve wondered what would happen if the same crew from 20/20 revisited Wolfeboro today. The original show was telecast just 20 months after the murder. Now we are those twenty months and another five years removed from the horrendous crime. What would the interviews be like today? How would Stacey’s friends and family see this tragedy almost seven years in their rear view mirror? How would the community of Wolfeboro react? Would the 20/20 stars (remember that it is a television show, intended to entertain as well as inform) be greeted with the same enthusiasm today as they were five years ago? Would the police be any more open today than they were five years ago? Would John Quinones be any more successful in his interviews with alleged suspects in the case?

Wouldn’t it be nice if that show could have had a positive effect on the investigation? Is the show, like life itself to quote Shakespeare, “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing?”

It was an entertaining forty minutes back in 2011. If only it could have been more than that.

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I'm Duke Southard, author, educator, and lecturer.

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Jim Balmer’s Recent Automobile Injury Seminar Materials

Auto Injury Expert Examination Strategies

Requirements for Selecting and Qualifying Expert Witnesses

  • Whenever possible, use treating healers for expert opinions regarding damages avoid independent examiners.
  • For liability experts and those testifying about force of impact, crash reconstructionists are the best option. These experts need to be engaged as soon as possible after the crash in order for them to gather evidence. They should have all the certifications (ACTAR, etc.) and be capable of performing download of airbag control modules. They should also have animation capability for creation of exhibits that will illustrate how the crash occurred to jury.
  • Independent Medical Examiners. If needed, make certain expert is able to come to court instead of testify by deposition only. It is always good to have a treating chiropractor or physical therapist to testify along with IME. The less experienced an IME, the better, if testifying for Plaintiff.
  • Biomechanics Experts. They are especially useful where seatbelt defense has been asserted. They are also helpful in crashworthiness claims. Some use physics teachers from locale of trial.
  • Vocational Experts. They are useful in loss of earning capacity claims.
  • No harm using a paid witness. The more experience, the better.

Getting the most out of Depositions

  • In discovery, less is more–ask as few questions as possible
  • Don’t take a discovery deposition unless absolutely necessary
  • Use illustrative exhibits whenever possible
  • Use video in larger cases, preferably HD

Direct Examination of Plaintiff’s Experts

  • Use of visual exhibits is encouraged
  • Encourage your expert to speak in common terms

Cross-examination of Defendant’s Experts

  • If you have not already taken discovery deposition, obtain court permission to voir dire the witness outside the presence of the jury
  • Aggressively attack their qualifications
  • Research and pursue financial arrangements
  • Avoid getting into their bailiwick on cross-examination in all but the most obvious situations.

Effective Ways to Demonstrate the Impact of Injuries

Jury or Non-Jury Trials

  • If impact is moderate, damages not readily visible or high earnings are at stake, avoid juries when possible
  • If impact was significant, damages are readily visible, defendant is unattractive or plaintiff is attractive, seek trial by jury

Introducing Damages at Trial

  • Visual exhibits, such as video or other pics is helpful
  • Before/After witnesses can be highly effective
  • PTs, OTs and nurses are effective witnesses to pain, but difficult to secure for trial
  • Experts to supplement other evidence can be helpful

Making and Responding to Objections

  • Trial briefs, especially these days, are a necessity
  • Motions in Limine are critical where sensitive evidence is concerned
  • Objections ought to be made in all but the most obvious circumstances

Technology in the courtroom

  • So long as it saves time AND helps the jury remain focused, a good idea.
  • Make certain the equipment is working properly and your staff are competent with it BEFORE trial begins.


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6 Beautiful Nursery Ideas

Baby room schemes that’ll make nap time all the more appealing.

Not only will your teeny-tiny one be spending a lot of time in this room, but so will you, so make sure it’s a space that you’ll both love.

Here are a few of our favourite nursery decorating ideas that’ll ensure your baby’s arrival into your home is as welcoming (and stylish) as possible.

1. Sweetie pie

For a contemporary twist on the classic gender-specific pink nursery you can bring in harmonising candy-coloured shades to compliment the pinks such as Bush PinkCaribbean Dawn 3 and Lavender Quartz painted separately on each wall.

Expert tip:

While your candy-coloured walls add a playful atmosphere to the room keep your furniture and accessories in natural wooden shades and crisp whites to keep your baby’s room contemporary.

2. Lucky stripes

A nursery should be soothing and calming. This is where pale greens such as Willow Tree and warm greys such as Crispy Crumble can play a part. A neutral white base such as Jasmine White in a nursery scheme gives opportunities to play with small doses of brighter colour, such as painting the edge of a shelf in a happy shade such as Vanilla Sundae.

Expert tip:

When accessorising your baby’s nursery, introduce interesting soft textures for your baby to play with like a furry blanket or sheepskin draped across a rocking chair that’ll be sure to stimulate their senses.

3. Two peas in a pod

Sometimes fitting in another family member into a little house can be a real challenge! This calls for some sibling room-sharing. Good news – putting together a playful colour scheme that’ll look the part for both your baby’s nursery and for your toddler is simpler than it sounds. This striped blue scheme will see through a child’s room from nursery to toddler room using Marine SplashPaper Chain and Lagoon Falls.

Expert tip:

To keep a cohesive look in a shared sibling bedroom, use matching bedding in both the crib and the toddler bed to tie the room together.

4. Crib corner

If your little one’s crib is making its way into your own bedroom (either because you’re tight on space or just want to be close your new baby), one nice way to give both parent and baby their own spaces is by colour zoning. Using a calm shade such as Chic Shadow to paint around the area of the room where the crib sits can mentally divide the bedroom space - and leaves a little room for your own tranquility.

Expert tip:

Another way to maximise your personal space is by adding a room dividing curtain or two around the crib to give your baby a cosy corner. Another bonus for using curtains like this is the sound absorbing qualities, ideal for tip-toeing around a sleeping baby!

5. Blue babe

If you’re heart is set on a traditional blue nursery (blue is believed to be the shade of relaxation after all), you can give your stress-free blue scheme a little pizzazz by incorporating a few complementing hues like a serene green such as Willow Tree and a calm, light grey shade such as Polished Pebble.

Expert tip:

Use different shades on adjacent walls for a crisp and contemporary look that won’t date as they grow up. Try out different shades on your walls with the Dulux Visualizer app

6. Pastel perfect

Combine Bitter Chocolate 5Blue Seduction 5 and Sea Urchin 4 for an invigorating colour scheme that’ll suit both little boys and girls. Use these peaceful pastels together by creating a striped feature wall that’ll stimulate your little one’s senses.

Expert tip:

These bold stripes are easy to do – all you need is masking tape, a tape measure, chalk and a plumb line. Watch this video to learn how to paint the perfect stripes. For an extra protected and washable Dulux Easycare alternative use Willow TreeMineral Mist and Blush Pink.

Chosen your favourite scheme? Order your colour testers, with free delivery, to test them at home.

Find out more about our Dulux Easycare range and see all our available colours on the Dulux Easycare product pages.

Easy and safe payment Paypal visa master card maestro ideal cb


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Google and various blog software vendors recently announced a method to deter comment spam by reducing its benefit to the spammer… it sounds like a pretty good idea, so I updated my installation of .Text to use this new attribute in the comment section by adding just a single line within comments.cs: namelink.Attributes[“rel”] = “nofollow”; … now, let’s just hope it works 😉

I think I might enhance this a bit later, adding the idea of approved comments that don’t get this attribute for their links, since I see no reason why a non-spammer’s comment shouldn’t give them google-juice. That feature is likely a ways into the future, but you never know.


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Firearm Bolt Pouch

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Universal firearm bolt pouches are made of heavy duty canvas or vinyl with a velcro flap to protect them from dust & dirt. Great for glove box.

Option canvas or vinyl

These products are packed at random so colours may vary

Additional information

Firearm Bolt Pouch

Canvas, Vinyl

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This is fantastic quality Pinot Blanc, dry yet fleshy, rounded and full of body. This wine has a perfumed nose with hints of peaches and citrus and a steely backbone that carries through on the palate. Faint spice and crisp finish to balance. The collective work of 216 growers, Cave de Turckheim is one of the most successful co-operatives in France.  Founded in 1955, Cave de Turckheim has been a guiding force in bringing clean, bright and fresh Alsatian wines into the market place. Grapes are grown in diverse soils, including limestone, granite, gravel, marl and sandstone, all of which impart different characters and styles to the overall blend of the wines.

Grape Variety Pinot Blanc
Closure Screwcap
Bottle Size 750ml
Brand Cave de Turckheim
SKU TU1314


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Asle Bruen Olsen (1951-2018)

Asle Bruen Olsen died suddenly and unexpectedly July 13th 2018, only 66 years old. We lost a good colleague and a treasured friend. Asle worked at the University Museum at the University of Bergen in Norway for his entire career, and was a member of the EAA.

Asle gained his Magister degree in 1981 on a dissertation on Stone Age quarrying and distribution of diabase axes in western Norway. His thesis and the following article in 1984 together with Sigmund Alsaker in Norwegian Archaeological Review became instant classics and are still considered central to the understanding of stone axe production in Northern Europe.

During the following years, he led a large number of archaeological excavations for the University of Bergen connected to cultural heritage management (CRM). He was a strong proponent that CRM excavations should be guided by cutting-edge theory and apply the newest scientific methods. He showed this in practice when he was appointed leader of the excavation of the large Stone Age site Kotedalen at Fosnstraumen in Hordaland County in Western Norway in 1986 and 1987. In close collaboration with botanists and zoologists, he achieved astonishing results on hunter-fisher-gatherer economy, settlement patterns, and early agricultural practice. Even though his main academic interest was the early prehistory of Norway, he also published on later periods, particularly when CRM excavations led to the uncovering of new and interesting data (for which he had a well-developed flair). Examples are the excavations of Iron Age circular dwelling structures – probably old judicial sites – in Nordfjord and Voss in western Norway, and a spectacular Viking Age grave with numerous tools for metalworking in Sogndal in Sogn and Fjordane County in western Norway.

From 2004 and until he died, Asle was the leader of the excavation unit at the University Museum in Bergen. He worked hard to establish the unit as a modern and effective tool for the cultural heritage management. During this period, a marked increase took place in the number of CRM excavations in western Norway, and consequently a marked increase of his staff. Nevertheless, in addition to heavy administrative tasks, he participated in the field as much as he could, and a large number of students in archaeology have experienced him as an inspiring and knowledgeable teacher.

Asle grew up in Trondheim, central Norway. However, western Norway was his arena, and few people knew this regions’ archaeology, as did Asle. He wore out several cars on his travels on narrow roads on his way to fieldworks and surveys. During the last few years, his travels often also went to his cabin by the Sognefjord or to his house in Portugal, where he enjoyed staying with his family. In addition to being a gifted and dedicated archaeologist, Asle was also a family man, and our thoughts go to his family during this difficult time.

Knut Andreas Bergsvik (University Museum, University of Bergen) and Randi Barndon (Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion, University of Bergen)

Ericka Maria Thrash Engelstad (24.02.1947-17.07.2018)

Ericka Engelstad has passed away. From Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA, Ericka Engelstad began her career as a BA student at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, then attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison, from where she was awarded her PhD in 1980. While still a graduate student, in 1972 she moved to northern Norway, where she carried out fieldwork for the Tromsø Museum. She was employed as associate professor at this university museum from 1981until 1991, when she was appointed Professor of Archaeology at the then Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Tromsø. She retired from this position 31.12.2015. In the period 1991-1996 she was editor-in-chief of Norwegian Archaeological Review, 1992-1995 of the innovative journal KAN (Kvinner i Arkeologi i Norge /Women in Archaeology in Norway), and she served on the EAA executive board from 2010 to 2013.

Through her long career Ericka engaged in a wide range of topics. Her early fieldwork in Norway inspired her continuous interest in hunter-gatherer archaeology, which was also the topic for her PhD. Characteristic for Ericka's research was her readiness to engage in new theoretical perspectives and approaches. Thus her publications on northern hunter-gatherers ranged from early considerations of subsistence and seasonality, through statistical analyses of house types, to evaluation of concepts such as sedentism, interest in household archaeology and representations of gender in rock art. She also took great interest in ethics in archaeology, and in her later active years in human-animal relations.

However, it was her contribution to gender and feminist archaeology that won her wide international recognition. From the mid-1980s onwards she played a central role in Scandinavia and internationally in integrating gender and feminist perspectives in archaeological research and in raising the awareness of gender inequality in academia. She was involved in establishing KAN, she was the first director of the Centre for Women and Gender Research at the University of Tromsø, and she was a member of the EAA community Archaeology and Gender in Europe (AGE). She co-organised the Women's World Conference in Tromsø (1999). Just as importantly, she was in high demand internationally for talks and workshops addressing topics at the intersection between gender, anthropology and archaeology. Ericka was a strong supporter and role model for many younger female scholars. Some of her key publications are “Images of Power and Contradiction: Feminist Theory and Post-processual Archaeology” (Antiquity 1991), “Desire and Body Maps: All the Women are Pregnant, All the Men are Virile, but …" (Theoretical Perspectives on Rock Art, 2001) as well as the interdisciplinary anthology Challenging Situatedness. Gender, Culture and the Production of Knowledge (University of Chicago Press 2005), which she co-edited with Siri Gerrard.

For her pioneering activities in gender archaeology she was awarded two honorary doctoral fellowships in Sweden, first in Uppsala (2006), then in Gothenburg (2012).

Ericka will be sorely missed in many institutions around the world. Our thoughts go to her husband, Professor Knut Helskog, and the rest of the family.

Charlotte Damm, Arctic University of Norway (

Henry Cleere (2.12.1926–24.8.2018)

It is with deep and sincere sadness that the EAA has heard about the recent passing of Henry Cleere, one of the instrumental founding fathers of the Association, our first Secretary and thereafter for many years the Editor of The European Archaeologist. In 2002 Henry was the recipient of our European Archaeological Heritage Prize, in recognition of his contribution to the internationalisation and modernisation of archaeological heritage management in Europe over the previous 25 years. Until very recently, Henry continued to support and contribute to our Annual Meetings and play an important advisory role in the governance of the Association.

Henry’s diverse and inspirational career in heritage management included being Director of the Council for British Archaeology (1974-1991) and World Heritage Coordinator for the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS, 1992-2002). He was awarded an Honorary Professorship in Archaeological Cultural Management by University College London in 1998.

A tribute

by Kristian Kristiansen (

I first met Henry when he paid me a visit in Copenhagen around 1980 when I was a new and very young head of the Archaeological Heritage in Denmark. He was visiting people and heritage institutions around Europe in order to collect material for his planned book ‘Approaches to the Archaeological Heritage’, which came out in 1984. We immediately found each other, irrespective of the age difference, and Henry also brought his wife and small daughters if I remember correctly. From then on we would meet at regular intervals in various European initiatives, not least in the formation in the ICAHM, which was Henry’s idea, and where he was also a driving force behind the ICAHM charter on archaeological heritage. He graciously suggested that the Swedish State Antiquarian, Margaretha Biörnstadt should be first president of ICAHM, also active in the initiating group. These were days of new ideas about a new kind of heritage, cross-cutting borders and nationalities.

Later when I started mobilizing people to help create first a Journal of European Archaeology, and then the European Association of Archaeologists, Henry of course became member of the founding group, where we used his extensive experience in formulating the statutes, and he was a natural choice for EAA secretary, when we got started with me as first president. He was also the driving force behind the EAA Code of Conduct, which is still in force.

You were never in doubt about Henry’s priorities, politically and archaeologically, but always forwarded them with humour and preferably over a good beer. A few times, he could explode when members of the founding group kept repeating arguments he considered ridiculous, but I dare say without his abilities as unofficial secretary during the founding phase, we would not have been able to get the EAA off the ground so efficiently. He was a great negotiator as well, and I always felt safe with Henry at my side. A man of many talents, we were fortunate that he devoted his skills to archaeology in the second career of this life. I feel privileged to have worked so closely together with him in the formative years of the EAA. His life spanned much of what shaped Europe, and he contributed in his various life phases to this new Europe. When we were on excursion in the Slovenian mountains during the inaugural meeting of the EAA in Ljubljana he crossed his own paths from the Second World War, when he spent time in the same region as member of the allied troops. What a life! I shall never forget Henry and the good times we had together.

Participants of the meeting when the first EAA statutes were drafted, Bechyně, South Bohemia, June 1992. From left to right: Evžen Neustupný, Arek Marciniak, Ilse Biruta Loze, Mike Rowlands, Anna Maria Bietti Sestieri, Henry Cleere, María Isabel Martínez Navarrete, Bogdan Bruckner (Photo: Kristian Kristiansen)


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Art Museum Strongoli, Calabrian Building, Italy Architecture Project News, Design Images

Art Museum Strongoli Italy

Calabrian Architecture, Italy: Strongoli Development design by COOP HIMMELB(L)AU, Vienna

post updated 18 Jul 2021 ; 26 Mar 2009

Design: COOP HIMMELB(L)AU, Austria

Two new projects for COOP HIMMELB(L)AU in Italy

COOP HIMMELB(L)AU has been commissioned for the Art Museum Strongoli and selected for the project “Walking through the History” as a result of a two-staged tender in Perugia.

Art Museum Strongoli, Calabria

Art Museum Strongoli, Calabrian building design

Art Museum Strongoli

The University of Perugia has initiated a research project with the title “Walking through the History”. The intention is the valorization of the acropolis of Perugia, using a system of innovative pedestrian spaces and paths. Within this project COOP HIMMELB(L)AU got the commission to design a glass sculpture as a canopy above the Via Mazzini.

Art Museum Strongoli, Calabrian building design

The new Art Museum Strongoli in Calabria is the third COOP HIMMELB(L)AU project in Italy. The museum is not only a cultural center but also understood as a generator for a future development of Calabria, a place for cultural entertainment and recreation. The new building is situated on the top of the “Motta Grande” hill in front of the city, visible from far away.

Art Museum Strongoli, Calabrian building design

The new museum houses not only flexible exhibition spaces, but also a small “multi-hall” and a panorama restaurant. The project is a composition of three main elements: the emblematic, coneshaped construction with the entrance is orientated towards the city, while the cantilevering restaurant at the opposite end of the building offers a panoramic terrace facing the sea in the east. Both public attractors are linked by a two storey exhibition volume.

Art Museum Strongoli, Calabrian building design

The exhibition areas are determined to be as flexible as possible, supported by underground service facilities accessed via two elevators. The multi-hall can be used as temporary exhibition space, lecture hall, auditorium and cinema or simply as an extension space of the foyer for public events.

Art Museum Strongoli images / information from COOP HIMMELB(L)AU 260309

Coop Himmelb(l)au Architects, Vienna

Location: Strongoli, Italy, southern Europe

Italian Architecture Designs

Contemporary Italian Architectural Selection

Italian Architectural Designs – chronological list

Italian Architectural News

A key design by COOP HIMMELB(L)AU: Hainburg Church, Austria

Perugia Buildings

New Centre to assist Community After October 30th 2016 Earthquake, Perugia, central Italy
Design: Stefano Boeri Architetti
Multifunctional Centre for Norcia, Perugia
photo : Giovanni Nardie
Multifunctional Centre for Norcia, Perugia
The opening of the first Pavilion of the Multifunctional Centre is a new important turning point toward the reconstruction of one of the most damaged areas by the earthquake that happened in central Italy of 2016.

Energy Roof Perugia

Multifunctional Centre for Norcia, Perugia

Italian Buildings

Winery in Chianti, central Tuscany, central Italy
Architects: IB Studio
Winery in Chianti
image Courtesy architecture office
Winery in Chianti

Milan Architecture Tours

Naples Subway Building

Maxxi Rome

Italian Architect

Art Gallery Buildings

Comments / photos for the Art Museum Strongoli Italy Architecture design by COOP HIMMELB(L)AU page welcome

Website: Visit Italy


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Forest Gate: scene of Rock Against Racism's first gig

Monday, 12 December 2016

We have just passed the 40th anniversary of the establishment of Rock Against Racism, and its first gig at the Princess Alice pub, on Romford/Woodgrange Roads.

Princess Alice - venue of first
ever Rock Against Racism gig
A recently published book: Reminiscences of RAR - Rocking against racism 1976 - 1982 tells the tale and  celebrates the remarkable story of the organisation that so successfully fused politics with popular culture and helped mobilise youth against the rising tide of racism in Britain, at the time.

The book features over 60 sets of personal recollections from people and the roles they played within the organisation. We rely on, and are incredibly grateful for,  a small number of these for what follows - an account of yet another important part Forest Gate has played within the history of popular music and modern political culture  within the UK (see footnote for details of the book).

The cover of Reminiscences
 of RAR - Buy it!

Racism was on the rise in Britain in the mid 1970's. The National Front vote was increasing and their thugs tried to terrorise Black and Asian communities by provocatively marching through them, protected by the police, as they chanted threatening, intimidating and racist abuse at their targets of hate.

There was resistance from left groups, and brutality and fights were not uncommon. A number of Asian and  demonstrators/defenders were badly injured, and some killed in protecting Black and Asian communities and their rights to a peaceful life in their chosen town and country of settlement.

Then, in the summer of 1976 at a gig in Birmingham, a drunken Eric Clapton - dubbed by many at the time as "God" because of his guitar supremity - roamed about the stage, calling for Black and Asian immigrants to "Go home", in extremely racist terms. He also proclaimed that "Enoch was right"  (reference to Tory politician Enoch Powell who in 1968 had said that unless the "tide of immigration" was halted Britain would be drowned in "rivers of blood" ).

Clapton had recently revived his flagging career  with an enormous hit with Bob Marley's Who shot the sheriff, which to Marley was a revolutionary song.

Ironically, Clapton owed almost all of his fame to his reworking of Black music - Blues, some Rhythm 'n Blues and Reggae.

Roger Huddle and Red Saunders,
 at the book launch in Conway Hall
He was not alone among rock idols in expressing such appalling sentiments. David Bowie on another occasion - probably drug-fuelled - strutted around Heathrow airport in Nazi dress, and later proclaimed an admiration for fascism and Adolph Hitler -  sentiments he quickly later repudiated.

Appalled at this turn of events, a small number of Socialist Worker Party activists wrote to all the music and left press condemning the racism of some of pop culture's heroes.  The PS to the letter concluded: "Who shot the sheriff, Eric? It sure as hell wasn't you"

The results were remarkable, as large numbers of shocked pop music aficionados joined forces with political activists, committed to a better future, and formed: Rock Against Racism.

This is the story of its opening  Princess Alice gig, through the words of some of them.

The extracts from the book, reproduced below, are from the following key people:

Roger Huddle: one of the three most influential early figures in RAR. He was a print worker and is today one of the two editors of the book.

Red (left) and Roger,
in Hackney in 1980
Red Saunders: the author of the letter to the music and Left press, following the Clapton outrage that proved to be the catalyst that lead to the establishment of RAR. The other co-editor of the book.

Steve Cedar: a student activist from the North East London Polytechnic (in Stratford), in the SWP at the time.

Carol Grimes: the headline act at the Princess Alice gig. Her first band was  The Race, a Blues and Folk based band, played mainly in London. She is still singing, writing and performing.

Bob Light: lived in Plaistow at the time and worked in the Royal Docks - which he described as a "war zone", because of a number or pro-Enoch Powell demonstrations and racists sentiments displayed.

The Princess Alice tale

Roger Huddle
We held the first RAR gig at the Princess Alice in East London on 12 November 1976, with Carol Grimes and the London Boogie Band... It was very important that we pitched our propaganda with a very high visual language. Dave King, a brilliant designer, who Red  knew through the Sunday Times colour magazine was asked to design a logo and the RAR star was born. Later he also designed the Anti Nazi League (ANL) arrow.

A near-contemporary
 photo of Carol Grimes
 the headline act
 of the first RAR gig
 at the Alice
Red Saunders
The first gig we did was with Carol Grimes. She was pub rock. In fact she was benefit rock. She did more benefits than anyone I knew. She'd say she was a Blues singer.
 Roger Huddle said we need to do gigs in east London, where the NF were. So we booked the Princess Alice pub in Forest Gate. We'd organised things before, so we weren't frightened. We got some socialists from the dockers' union to do the security. I remember putting up the banner onstage. The banners came from the other side of our sixties background - Agitation.
We loved artists from Alexander Rocdchenko and Andy Warhol.
So, the gig was a success, and it snowballed quickly.

Steve Cedar
The Princess Alice, an unremarkable pub in Forest Gate, E7, an unremarkable district of East London, was the venue for the first Rock Against Racism concert, organised by 3 or 4 unremarkable lefties from the area, myself included, perhaps in terms of musical tastes, the most unremarkable of all.

Steve Cedar - today
I fucking hated racism in all its forms, and even I, whose only social activity at the time was selling papers and going to the pub, had heard of Eric Clapton's disgusting comments about foreigners touching his wife and David Bowie's irresponsible antics at London Airport, dressed in Nazi gear and seig-heiling from a limousine. He, at least had the dignity to admit that he was being a tosser at the time. ...
So, I was very proud to be part of the organisation of the first ever RAR concert in that pub. To be honest, I don't remember very much about the concert. I remember the rubbish lighting and the rubbish sound system, but the reggae band was good and Carol Grimes topped the bill and sang some great classic rock.
I spent most of the time with a pint in my hand and an eye on the cash till, and reckon about 200 people came to the event, a great success, seeing as the posters advertising it were hand printed on a stencilling machine in our living room in Plaistow, as everything was in those days, from demos to public meetings.

Cover of the first edition of
 TempoRARy Hoarding,
 the magazine of the movement

We also made a heavy profit with more than enough to pay for the drinks we bought for the bands (cans of light ale and cheap whiskey, I remember it very clearly) and that's where my memory becomes sharper.
Every story of success has its downside. After the concert we were tidying up and the landlord came upstairs to check on everything, when he saw the cans of beer and empty whiskey bottles and went totally apeshit. He wanted to break my head open with one of the empty bottles and take all our profits for "corkage", a new word for me then, which meant the difference  in his earnings due to the gift to the musicians. I pleaded total ignorance and made sure we got well behind Bob Light and Pete Goodwin, two of the other organisers at the great event.
We calmed him down, eventually, by me accepting a lifetime ban from the Princess Alice and appealing to his Irish origins in search for solidarity with a movement that was against racism in the British Empire, but I think the lifetime ban clinched it. So, I walked the mile home clanking with change in a metal cashbox, feeling proud to have launched my showbiz career for a worthy cause. ...

I think the RAR movement opened up politics and political action to hundreds of thousands of young people who would not have been involved through the traditional politics of the left.

Carol Grimes: What follows are extracts from a Black Echoes and London Jazz News interview with Carol Grimes, the week after the Princess Alice gig.

Carol Grimes, today
Carol Grimes and the Boogie Band once again delivered a rocking set to a delighted crowd who had turned up and put their money where other put their mouths. A tight hard working seven-piece band who enjoy a good blowing, funky evening, as much as the audience, they should be seen by more people, especially as they are fronted by one of the best female blues/soul singers the country has yet produced.
The repertoire was mostly songs from her Memphis album, recorded with the Memphis Horns, and she sounded good, giving the Frederick Knight compositions a good shakedown. ...
The event is worth noting as well. Instigated to set up a fund to combat racism (from whatever source), it is hoped to make it a regular event, although not necessarily in the same venue (they have plans for Ackham Hall and the Roundhouse). It is hoped also to get the services of Soul and Reggae bands, as well as rock musicians, and the success of the venture will eventually be measured by the ratio of black and white and vice versa in the audiences, one of the worthwhile grass roots objectives this could achieve.
At this gig it was predominantly white, but that was due to the lack of advertising (Black Echoes?). I'm not sure of the role that politics takes but I'm sure that the Socialist Workers' who got this thing on, will realise that racial harmony is far more important than any political party.
The venture deserves support from anybody who cares, as the World is in need of Love today - Fred Rath
Bob Light
The very first RAR gig ever - held in the Princess Alice, Forest Gate. Compared to the achievements of the epic carnivals, this was an almost absurdly small initiative. I think it is fair to say that even the imaginations of Roger and Red had not yet grasped what RAR would achieve.

The Clash at the huge RAR gig,
 in Victoria Park, April 1978
But for most of us who lived in Newham (and I lived about a mile from the Alice) even  small scale anti-racist events threw up the problem of security. The NF considered the East End as their 'patch', and the BM (ed: British Movement) held their weekly covens at a different pub a couple of hundred yards up the road. At least one of the local pubs was a no-go area for anyone with more than a millimetre of hair (ed: Earl of Essex?).
I can't recall the exact reason was made to have the first RAR gig in an unlikely and fairly inaccessible place like Forest Gate. Hackney, Camden, even Central London would have all seemed more obvious choices. But looking back, I would guess that it was Forest Gate precisely because the Nazis thought it was their own little Reich. We were taking the fight to the belly of the Beast.
I can recall going to book the pub. The Alice was not one of the regular pubs we used for meetings - it was generally too big and a bit expensive. On top of that one of the none-too-imaginative tactics the Nazis regularly used was to frighten off a pub landlord either with a threatening phone call or a bomb threat.
So, we needed to forewarn the publican the gig might be a bit 'warm', to give us some guarantee that it wouldn't be cancelled. In the event, despite our fears, it turned out the landlord was an Irish Republican who told us that as long as there was no fighting actually inside his two bars, he didn't give a fuck about the Nazis. Which seemed fair enough.

Demonstrators/gig attendees en route
 from Trafalgar Square to Victoria Park, April 1978
We knew we could promise that because one big advantage the Alice had over other venues was above the function room was above the pub approached by a wide staircase with its own door to the street.
I cannot remember a thing about the publicity or anything else about the actual organisation of the gig itself. But I do remember only too well that we knew the gig would be in serious need of protection. Our plan wasn't exactly D-Day - we knew if the bad guys came we had to stop them on the stairs. If they got into the room, it would be bloody chaos, the police would be called and London's Finest would take the chance to beat up and arrest some Lefties, while letting their Fascist soul mates get away to their cars.
So, on the night, we had women and men placed on all four corners of the junction with the Alice stood on to warn us if the Nazi hordes were coming, and we had a reception committee waiting for them at the top of the stairs. Just in case that proved inadequate, we had six pick axe handles in a cricket bag and several cans of pepper spray that I had bought at a motorway service station in France.
In the event, the Nazis bottled it (I'm pleased to say they usually did) but for me the evening developed a rhythm that would become all-too-familiar in the RAR days. You could summarise our evening under the headings Tension, Apprehension and Frustration.
The Tension was driven by fear - the fear that the Nazis would coming streaming up the stairs, fear that I would get seriously hurt, fear that I would let my fear get the better of me. But as the minutes and hours passed that turned to Tension - we knew we had to keep our guard, we knew we had to keep our guard, we knew we had to keep everyone on their toes, we knew we couldn't afford to drink, we knew we couldn't relax, we knew we couldn't enjoy the gig.
Then, as the gig inside was turning into a glorious celebration of anti-racist fun, courtesy of Carol Grimes and her band came frustration. Frustration that we had not been able to enjoy the evening and even more frustration that we had not been able to give the Nazis the fucking good hiding they certainly would have got.

What came next for RAR

- courtesy of Mike Symonds, who compiled a far more comprehensive time-line of RAR's history for the book.

The logo that supported a
political/cultural movement
- May 1977, the National Front and National Party attract a large following in local elections in London, Leicester and Blackburn.

- November 1977, launch of the Anti-Nazi League.

- April 1978, massive RAR/ANL festival in Victoria Park, when 80,000 attendees marched from Trafalgar Square to Vicky Park, in support of threatened East End communities, to see X-Ray Spex , The Tom Robinson Band and The Clash. A life and political changing moment for many there.

- June 1978, Fascist gangs run amok down Brick Lane, to terrorise the local Asian community (so very reminiscent to Battle of  Cable Street, almost 40 years previously).

- September 1978, second London RAR festival, in Brockwell Park.  35,000 see Aswad, Sham 69, Misty in Roots, Elvis Costello - among others.

- The summer of 1979, the police deploy multiple thousands of officers to defend pitifully small National Front marches in a number of British cities (echoes of Cable Street, again).

- July 1980, 4 racists stab Atab Beg to death in East Ham High Street. This was followed by a number of racist attacks on pupils and teachers at Plashet school. These events prompted the foundation of the Newham Youth Movement, spearheaded by militant local Asian youth (remember, Unmesh Desai?).

- April 1981, riots in Brixton, followed later that summer by riots in Liverpool, Birmingham and Manchester. Less serious disturbances also broke out in Bedford, Bristol, Edinburgh, Gloucester, Leeds, Leicester, Wolverhampton and elsewhere.

The book and its launch

A very successful launch event was held for the book, at Holborn's Conway Hall on 5 December - organised, almost inevitably by Roger Huddle and Red Saunders. We were all looking a bit greyer than in those heady days, but a good time was had by all. Roger and Red have lost none of their organisational skills.

The ever-fresh Tom Robinson,
 at the book launch
The event was a mixture of reminiscences and music, notably featuring Tom Robinson - in as fine and angry a voice as ever. A good night - down memory lane. As many of the speakers noted, the most appalling racism of those days is thankfully behind us, but the threat of racism is ever-present, as much of the post Brexit mood has shown.

Finally - BUY THE BOOK! It's a great read for those who remember those days and even more so for those who want to find out more about an important part of our recent political/cultural heritage.

1. Reminiscences of RAR - Rocking against Racism, 1976 - 1982, published by Redwords, £15. ISBN 978-1910-885-36-9. We are grateful to the publishers, editors and contributors for enabling us to compile this blog.  We highly recommend the book to all interested in RAR, and modern political culture.

2.A second book - this time mainly of photographs has recently been published on RAR, which is highly recommended: Syd Shelton: Rock Against Racism, published by Autograph, £20.

3. Were you at the Princess Alice gig? Do you have any mementos of either it or the whole Rock Against Racism movement, if so, a website is being established that would love to hear from you: It is under construction, but contact for details.

  1. The lighting was rubbish, not the fighting, of which there was none (apart from the landlord) :)

  2. Oops, sorry, Steve. I've amended the text, above!

  3. I remember seeing Benjamin Zephaniah play there back in the early very 90s. Love this part of the world.

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Missy Peregrym is seen on the set of "FBI" on November 14, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

If you have stayed up to date with FBI on CBS, you know that Special Agent Maggie Bell has made a major decision for her career in the March 10 episode. That has left fans of the show speculating if this is the last time they will see Maggie on the show. Is Missy Peregrym, who plays Maggie, leaving the show? It might seem that way, but it’s premature to say farewell to Maggie just yet.

Maggie Bell Takes a New Assignment on FBI

In season 2 episode 17, titled “Broken Promises,” Maggie meets with Special Agent in Charge Isobel Castille (Alana De La Garza) about a job from the Assistant Director in Charge (ADIC). Though Isobel doesn’t want to let go of a valuable member of the team, she reluctantly tells Maggie to take the job as it would only be for a few months.

Maggie initially turns down the offer, but Isobel discourages her from being too hasty. So the rest of the episode, Maggie is pondering over the offer.

After mulling over it, Maggie tells OA (Zeeko Zaki) about the offer. At this point, we come to know the assignment from ADIC is an undercover job. Maggie fits the profile they are looking for to go undercover on this unspecified assignment.

Towards the end of the episode, Maggie has made the decision to take up the job. She reveals that to OA after she has called the ADIC with her answer—and she’s leaving the next day, so OA doesn’t have time to convince her otherwise and she doesn’t cave in.

Maggie leaves at the end of the episode, after a very pensive shot of her desk. Is this foreshadowing that we won’t see Maggie again?

Also Read: Why Did Colin Donnell Leave Chicago Med?

Is Missy Peregrym Leaving FBI?

Missy Peregrym has played Maggie since FBI premiered in 2018. With her being part of the core group of characters, the show wouldn’t be the same without her.

But it’s premature to say Peregrym is leaving and we won’t be seeing Maggie again. After all, Maggie did tell OA that the assignment is only for a few months at most.

That ending, in particular, felt ominous. Like, will something happen to Maggie and she won’t return? But some theorize that they are setting the stage for Maggie’s return.

Because Peregrym isn’t leaving the show. She’s only gone temporarily to focus on her coming child.

In October 2019, Peregrym revealed she and her husband, Aussie actor Tom Oakley, are expecting their first child together. Peregrym, who was previously married to Zachary Levi, wed Oakley in 2018.

View this post on Instagram

There’s no more hiding it… our family is expanding!!! ❤ #LilOakley #Spring2020

A post shared by Missy Peregrym (@mperegrym) on

Peregrym disclosed that her pregnancy won’t be written into the show. Nor will they be using strategically placed potted plants and camera angles to hide a baby bump.

The show has used the plotline to allow Peregrym to take some time off while she focuses on her pregnancy and baby. It’s possible she might return after giving birth. But Peregrym and CBS haven’t commented on that yet.

So far, there’s no news if FBI is returning for season 3. But if it does, Maggie’s return is very much possible.

There are a lot of theories floating around the Internet. Most commonly, fans speculate that she might run into trouble on her undercover job, which will lead her former team to come to the rescue and bring her back.

Don’t Miss: The Real Reason Why Otis Killed Off on Chicago Fire


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Atiu Island

We’ve been lucky to spend a week of our winter on Atiu, which  is a small island three-quarters of an hour’s flight north-east from Rarotonga in the southern Cook Island group.  It’s a volcanic island 11 million years old, with a central plateau slowly rising from the sea,  a raised fossil coral border (makatea), and a […]

Arts on Atiu

We discovered amazing artistic talents on Atiu. While chatting to an elderly couple at the local store, Nga and Paiere Mokoroa, we  were invited to visit and see Nga’s exquisite heritage tivaivai  (a type  of patchwork quilt developed in the Cook Islands). We also visited Andrea Eimke, a German woman who set up Atiu Fibre Arts studio […]

People on Atiu

                  We met several interesting locals during our stay.  We visited Mata Arai in her coffee plantation, and then her home, where she showed us her hand processing of the beans and served us a pikelets with a brew of freshly ground coffee. Birdman George (George Mateariki) took […]


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Feed on

Since my series of blogs on the ineptitude of Reeds Rains Property Management I have still had dealings with them.

Yes, I did bin off their fully managed service, but then they offered to handle the contract renewal for £32. Well, in my book that is too good an offer to pass up.
I do appreciate that all they are really doing is changing the dates on the previous contract, but hey tis a nice easy option. Maybe I have found the long sought after “hassle free” service that Reeds Rains Property Management refer to. 🙂

Anyway, earlier this year I had a letter from the same person who has been my point of contact through all of my dealings.
The letter stated that the my tenants had been in contact stating that they have the following issue…
There was no issue stated. It would seem that said person, who had signed the letter, had generated a template letter without filling out the relevant part, signed it, then sent it to me.
On ringing the person, they denied it and asked that I send the letter so they could investigate.
Did I mention the letter was signed in Biro, so they must have known they sent it?
Oh yeah, and remember that they are no longer managing the property, and on chatting to my tenants they confirmed that they had not even rung Reeds Rains Property Management, and had no problems.

Last month the tenancy was renewed for another six months. As usual my tenants paid in advance.
The Reeds Rains Property Management contact called to confirm that the money had been transferred into my account, direct from the tenants I hasten to add, as those who have read what had happened in the past will know that the only people who hold on to the rent and pay it late are in fact Reeds Rains Property Management.

A couple of weeks later I was sent the new contract with a covering letter.
Yet again, it was a template that had not been amended, or even checked, before sending.
In this instance, it informed me that a Banker’s Draft was enclosed!

So, even though I now employ Reeds Rains Property Management’s services for the barest mininum, they still manage to consistently make mistakes.
What really annoys me is that there is no call for the mistakes. I would not have thought it was too much for a large Estate Agents to manage to to undertake the simplest of tasks, like generating and sending a letter, without to much trouble.
It would appear that the one thing that Reeds Rains Property Management excels at is failing in the most simplistic of tasks.

As said before, and evidenced by the comments my blogs have received, you could well be making a mistake in employing the services of Reeds Rains Property Management.

Leave a Reply


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EBC Greenstuff 2000/6000 Front Pads DP61558

Regular price $198.34 Unit price  per

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The EBC Greenstuff™ brake pads have once again pushed the performance barriers of organic friction materials. The latest version of Greenstuff™ brake pads are a deliberately softer compound to improve pedal feel on lighter cars at lower speeds. This resulted in a medium dust material with good lifetime and minimal rotor wear.Tests at the UK MIRA Motor Vehicle Research Institute have shown a version of Greenstuff™ to stop a car almost 20 feet quicker than original parts on a popular hot hatch braking from 60 MPH offering a huge 15% brake improvement.


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Happy Earth Day!

It’s been lots of fun to see so many celebrating literature on Earth Day. Serena Agusto-Cox of Savvy Verse & Wit has posted several eco-themed poems, honoring both Earth Day as well as National Poetry Month. Sheila Boneham’s post, “Reading for Earth Day and for Life,” features lists of literature for every reader. The Florida …

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Using eBay’s Seller Dashboard To Track Your Positioning of August 20, 2014, eBay’s updated seller standards are in effect, including a brand new seller dashboard. Designed to display status for current and future evaluation cycles, the new dashboard can pinpoint where your account needs some fine-tuning, plus highlight what you’re doing right. From sales amounts and history to closed cases without seller resolution, the dashboard puts this vital information at your fingertips to ensure you’re doing all you can to provide outstanding service. Here are a few tips to help you get the most out of this enhanced eBay feature.

Trying Out the New Dashboard
As we move into holiday season, now is the time to try out the updated dashboard and familiarize yourself with the new features. How? To familiarize yourself with the new dashboard, run a test report to uncover transactions with defects as well as any issues you can work on. As you do this, take the time to understand the dashboard’s features – icons, features, tabs – so you’ll know exactly where to locate the data you need quickly.

A Look at the Dashboard’s Features
The seller dashboard allows you to get a look at your projected performance level and defect rate. Here’s a quick look at its features.

  • Status at a glance. The dashboard immediately displays your total sales history, defect rate under eBay’s new standards, and explanations of the various types of defects and how they may be influencing your status.
  • Reports at your fingertips. Run a detailed transaction report that includes item ID numbers, specific transaction defects and which transactions received low seller ratings for description and shipping time.
  • Alerts you can use. Find out how you’re progressing in terms of Top Rated Seller Status and learn which performance areas need your attention. If you fall at risk of losing that status or not meeting eBay’s minimum seller standards, the dashboard lets you know right away, and gives you a look at how you’re performing at present as well future projections.
  • International updates. If you’re selling internationally, learn at a glance your status for eBay in the UK and Germany, plus your global rating for other eBay International sites.

Keeping High Standards as an eBay Seller
The new dashboard provides you with real-time data and projections that you can use to adjust your business practices — and keep doing what you’re doing right. As a reminder, here are a few tips on how to stay on track as an eBay seller … and keep that dashboard looking good!

  • Make your listings effective. Ensure you’ve accurately described your item and its condition. (Don’t forget to include great photos!)
  • Shipping matters. Buyers appreciate prompt shipping, so within one day of receiving payment, make sure to ship your item and provide a valid tracking number.
  • Customer service is key. Keep customers happy with clear communication, quick resolution of all issues and ensuring your listed items are always in stock.

The Bottom Line
The new eBay dashboard is a powerful tool that can help you know what you’re doing right and wrong for your eBay store. Take some time to thoroughly familiarize yourself with its features, and you’ll have all the benefits of data and feedback at your fingertips whenever you need it.


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The second problem with Wolfers’ estimate is his assumption of a $10 million value per life saved. This is the economists’ usual estimate of what we call the “Value of a Statistical Life.” A standard methodology for computing the VSL is to estimate the risk premium that workers earn for taking jobs in risky occupations. A typical number is an extra $1,000 annually for taking on an added 1-in-10,000 chance of dying in a year. If 10,000 workers are each paid to take on that added 1-in-10,000 risk, then the “expected” number of deaths (expected in a probabilistic sense, that is, the probability of death multiplied by the number at risk) is 1. So economists multiply that $1,000 by 10,000 workers to get the “Value of a Statistical Life.” The result: $10 million.

When I taught that concept in my cost/benefit analysis course, it was always in a context where a few lives were saved or lost. It breaks down when we’re talking about a million lives. I didn’t realize that until I read a post by economist Luigi Zingales of the University of Chicago. He estimated how much GDP we should be willing to give up to save 7.2 million people from dying of COVID-19. His 7.2 million lives lost is grossly overstated. But that’s not the point. What if it were true? He showed, using an apparently conservative $9 million per life saved, that we should be willing to give up $64.8 trillion, which is three years of GDP. The Zingales estimate amounts to an unintentional reductio ad absurdum. If we cut GDP to zero for three years we would do … what? Grow gardens and, in most of the country, live in very cold houses in the winter? In that case, over 100 million lives would be lost, which is 14 times his 7.2 million estimate. When your model tells you that because of the high value of life, you should be willing to give up 100 million lives to save 7.2 million lives, there’s something wrong with your model. Wolfers did not have an answer for that. The bottom line is that for a large number of lives like one million, a $10 million value of life is far too high.

This is from David R. Henderson, “End the Lockdowns Now,” Defining Ideas, May 7.

Justin’s discussion of least-cost avoider got me thinking further. Here’s that section:

When I made these points in the debate, Wolfers responded that he and his family should be able to go to a public park and not have to risk getting the disease from others. His is a valid point. But during the debate, he made another point that undercuts his response. He argued that employers who open up should be held liable if one worker gives the disease to another because, he said, the employer is the “least-cost avoider.”

The least-cost avoider is the entity that has the least cost of avoiding a harm from an externality. It’s often hard to tell how someone got the disease and it’s not at all clear that the employer should be liable. Wolfers responded that workers and customers don’t have deep pockets but employers do. The idea that there are millions of employers with deep pockets is absurd. Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and Alphabet (owner of Google) do. But even in normal times a large percent of employers have shallow pockets and those are no doubt shallower after 6 to 7 weeks of lockdown.

Yet the Wolfers invocation of the least-cost avoider principle got me thinking. If you’re an older person with co-morbidities, who is the least-cost avoider: young people or you? It’s probably you.

Read the whole thing.


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AsiaNov 25th 2017 edition

Pier pressure
Coal becomes a flashpoint in a close election in Australia

One big party wants to subsidise a new export scheme in Queensland; the other does not

THE bars along Wood Street have gone quiet. Thirsty mine workers on six-figure salaries have become a rarity since a coal-exporting boom ended. Boom-bust cycles are hardly new for this northern coastal city in the state of Queensland. But Greg Williamson, the mayor, says: “The cliff we fell off this time was enormous.” Many see salvation in a plan by Adani, a firm based in the Indian state of Gujarat, to build Australia’s biggest thermal coalmine in the remote Galilee Basin, about 300km (190 miles) west of Mackay (see map). The proposal has ignited protests around Australia, and could even decide the outcome of a state election on November 25th.

Coal has long helped Australia prosper. It is its second-biggest export (after iron ore), and Queensland’s biggest. The industry employs over 40,000 people. Adani wants to build a railway 388km across the outback from the Galilee Basin to a terminal it owns at Abbot Point, north of Mackay. From there, the coal will be shipped through the Great Barrier Reef, just offshore, to power stations in India.

But Adani has yet to secure financing for the A$16.5bn ($12.5bn) project. Australia’s four biggest banks have demurred. One of them, Westpac, announced a climate policy in April to limit lending for new thermal-coal projects to “existing coal-producing basins only”, in effect ruling out the as yet untapped Galilee Basin.

The banks’ reluctance reflects wider misgivings. Many Australians are queasy about the primacy of globe-warming coal in their power supply (it provides almost two-thirds of the country’s electricity). They consider it hypocritical to be boosting exports of coal even as Australia seeks to cut its own emissions of greenhouse gases. And they fear harm to the Great Barrier Reef, from the increased maritime traffic and the warming effect of the coal once it is burnt.

Last month thousands of people spelled out the words “Stop Adani” in co-ordinated rallies around the country, including one on Bondi Beach in Sydney, 2,000km south of the proposed mine. Geoffrey Cousins, a businessman and head of the Australian Conservation Foundation, a pressure group, says such protests have turned into the biggest environmental campaign “ever run in Australia”.

Others worry more about the economy. Queensland’s Bowen Basin, south-west of Mackay, fed the most recent boom, thanks largely to China’s demand for coking coal to make steel. About three years ago, after falling coal prices prompted mining firms to slash jobs, Mackay and other cities began to suffer. Townsville, where Adani has opened an office, has 9% unemployment, two-thirds higher than the national rate.

Peter McCallum lost his job as a courier, and now runs the Mackay Conservation Group, an environmental outfit. Adani claims that opening up the Galilee Basin will provide 10,000 direct and indirect jobs. Mr McCallum doubts it.

Annastacia Palaszczuk, Queensland’s premier, visited Mackay and Townsville during the campaign’s final week. Her minority Labor government is chasing a second term against the conservative alliance of Liberals and Nationals led by Tim Nicholls, a former state treasurer. The Adani project loomed large in the campaign. The company has applied for a loan from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, a federal body, to meet almost half the A$2.5bn cost of building the railway, which is crucial to the whole venture.

At first Ms Palaszczuk supported such a loan in order to create jobs. But just days into her campaign, she declared that she would block any disbursement if re-elected. She says she wants to avoid accusations of bias: her partner worked for the firm that handled Adani’s loan application. Others detected a more political calculation: to save votes in cities such as Brisbane where the project is unpopular. A recent opinion poll showed 68% of Australians opposed a taxpayer-funded loan to Adani, and Labor was leading narrowly in pre-election polls in Queensland.

Malcolm Turnbull, the prime minister, accused Ms Palaszczuk of being beholden to an “inner-city, Green-left agenda” with a “total rejection of coal in all its forms”. But not everyone in the coal industry supports the loan: the Infrastructure Fund, co-owner of Australia’s biggest coal port at Newcastle in New South Wales, commissioned research on the impact of starting to export from the Galilee Basin. It found output and jobs from existing coal mines in New South Wales and southern Queensland would suffer. Jonathan van Rooyen of the company says the federal government’s “billion-dollar support for the Galilee coal basin is not just playing state against state, it’s mate against mate.”

Others question the scheme’s economic viability. After crunching costs against projected returns, John Quiggin, an economist at the University of Queensland, argues that “any public funds advanced to the project will be at high risk of loss.” Adani is reportedly negotiating funding in China; the company says it is “very well advanced getting our finances internationally”. Queensland’s voters, in other words, are not the only people being asked to take a punt on the project.

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline "Pier pressure"

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