Valley News, Van Nuys, California
Originally published in the Valley News, Van Nuys, California, Thursday, November 3rd, 1977
London district ‘secedes’
Transcript
London district ‘secedes’
LONDON (UPI) – The Independent Republic of Frestonia, population 120, wants cordial relations with surrounding Britain.
One day old Wednesday, Frestonian independence was declared by residents of two west London streets who are squatting in Greater London Council-owned houses due for demolition.
Notice of Frestonia’s independence was sent to 10 Downing Street, Buckingham Palace and the United Nations.
“We have applied for full membership in the United Nations and if faced with GLC aggression we will ask for a U.N. peacekeeping force,” said Frestonian Foreign Minister David Rappaport-Bramley.
“We are confident our application will be accepted,” he said. “Our biggest problem is finding somewhere in New York for our ambassador to squat.”
The Frestonians are serious about one thing – they want to publicise and win support for their drive to stop the GLC from tearing down their houses and replacing them with an industrial development that includes no new housing.
“We know people will think we’re crazy, but although we’re all squatters, we have built up a super community in an area that was just left to die,” said artist Geoff Gough-Bramely, who designed Frestonia’s coat-of-arms.
“If it hadn’t been for us, these houses would have been rat-infested and derelict by now. We have proved that rundown areas like this are worth saving.”
Foreign Minister Rappaport-Bramely said, “We are quite willing to give up squatting. We aren’t looking for hostilities. But we would like to protect the area.”
Every Frestonian is a minister of something – 12-year-old Caroline Yeo-Bramley is minister for Public Health and in charge of sweeping leaves off the sidewalks – and all have added the surname “Bramley” to their given names.
The GLC has promised to rehouse families first, so the Bramleys of Frestonia have declared themselves not just one nations but one family.
Besides maintaining cordial relations with Britain, Frestonia hopes to balance its budget with tourism and plans to set up its own currency and postal service.
Passports and visas have been waived so tourists from engulfing London streets can view Frestonia’s famous mountain scenery, painted on a corrugated iron fence masking a rubbish dump.
“We might even open an hotel,” Tourism Minister Jane Gough-Bramley said.
“We will see them at the U.N. or anywhere else,” said a Greater London Council spokesman. “We have a lot of sympathy for many of the squatters, but the redevelopment of the area is in their own interests.”
