Remembering …

Exactly 70 years ago the somber voice of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain spoke from the wireless announcing that Britain was now at war with Germany. Despite attempts and appeasement to avoid another war so soon after the carnage of the Great War, you can hear the sorrow in Chamberlain’s voice as he delivers the terrible news.

The Second World War is often not thought of as being as bloody a war as the Great War, but it was just as horrific, if not more so, especially for the civilian population of the countries involved. But this isn’t the time for horrors or statistics. It’s a time to remember, and pray never again.

A Thought

Why is it that Karl Marx, one of the fathers of socialism, is buried in the only London cemetarywhich charges an entrance fee?

Another Party’s Over

Another year, another birthday. (ok, so it was yesterday)

It seems like only yesterday that I was writing about my birthday last year. And yet it seems like a a thousand years ago – so much has happened to me in the last 12 months that it feels like a completely different life.

I’ve also been thinking about 10 years ago, when I saw in my birthday by sitting and cheering away every defeated Tory candidate in the general election. I was so optimistic at the end of 18 years of Tory misrule, and I was so hopeful for the fresh, exciting new government formed by the Labour party.

What happened?

A Serious, Organised Protest

Yesterday I took part in a ‘mass lone’ demonstration against the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act. This was the bill brought in order to remove long term protester Brian Haw from Parliament Square, but because it wasn’t made retrospective he is the only person now allowed to legally demonstrate there without the need for official permission. The SOCPA requires demonstrators to apply for permission to hold any sort of demonstration or protest within a zone around Parliament and Whitehall. Not only does this waste valuable police time by causing them to process unnecessary paperwork, but it’s also a huge infringement on our civil liberties and freedom of speech.

I’ve been aware of the lunacy of this act of Parliament since its introduction two years ago, but it was highlighted by Mark Thomas on a Radio 4 programme broadcast a couple of weeks ago. In it he explained his campaign against SOCPA and how he discovered that if various people wanted to demonstrate at the same time, but for different reasons (safety in numbers!) then they would each have to apply for individual permission. So began the ‘mass lone’ demonstrations held once a month in Parliament Square. The programme went on to detail Mark’s discovery that if he wanted to demonstrate for different reasons in different locations within the SOCPA zone that he would have to apply for permission for each location, which inspired his record breaking 21 protests in one day. It was this that we were all emulating yesterday.

Last week the police at Charing Cross received over 2000 requests for permission to demonstrate, including the 20 different protests and locations which I was applying for. With my permission granted I headed for Parliament Square, which was to be the collective first location of all the protesters. From there I set out with Clair on our planned route which took in many interesting, and some difficult to find, locations on Whitehall, Hungerford and Westminster Bridge and around various government department buildings. My protests, and I think those of most people taking part ranged from the serious (G8 promises on poverty, stopping people trafficking) to the less serious (bring back the skylon) to the downright silly (are there Slitheen in the cabinet, equal rights for daleks). I even managed to crowbar in requests for repeats and DVD releases for The Goodies! The point of the protests was not necessarily to make important points or political statements at each location, but to highlight the lunacy of SOCPA.

It was interesting the variety of reactions which our protests got. More obscure things got very confused looks from passers by. The best reactions I got were from people on Westminster Bridge where I was demonstrating for “Equal Rights for Daleks“. Many people seemed amused by this and one person even stopped to ask why. My final demonstration, back with all the other protesters in Parliament Square, was calling for all episodes of The Goodies to be released on DVD. This was probably only seen by other protesters, but from the very positive reactions I got this is a very popular cause! (The only person who questioned it was Mark Thomas himself, who I think I persuaded to my way of thinking!)

It was a fun, if tiring day. As it was very sunny and we were in a popular area of London there were large numbers of tourists around, many of whom asked if they could take pictures of us as we stood with our placards. It’s good that our messages will be seen around the world, but I wonder if they understood why we were there?

The End of the Doughnut?

A story in today’s Guardian reports that the BBC are considering closing (and presumably moving out of) Television Centre. Would that mean the end of the old concrete doughnut? I hope not. As a building it’s design is iconic of 1960s Britain. Surely the building itself is listed and would be preserved, with perhaps a new use. I’m sure you could fit several trendy flats in some of the old studios?

It’s all tied in with the long awaited licence fee announcement from the government.  While the BBC is expected to make programmes and oversee the digital switchover, the government don’t seem that keen to give them any more money. But the big spend is the proposed move to Salford of the Children’s and Sports departments and Radio Five Live to a new, purpose built broadcast centre. I’m all for big companies moving out of London, and I think it’s a great idea. Hopefully it will make some of the BBC less London-centric and will give jobs and opportunities to people a bit further north who don’t want to move to London just to work in major broadcasting (sensible people!).

We’ll wait to see what happens …