So if you want to check out the Director’s Cut version on the big screen (Disclosure to avoid disappointment: Screen size aside, you may find it hard to spot the difference from this YouTube version, and when I say “feature”, I mean “feature as a sideshow probably whilst people are finding their seats”…), then get your tickets now for London, DC or Toronto.
Now off to practice my acceptance speech for Cannes…
Friday is the unions’ global protest day in solidarity with our colleagues in Iran. Free trades unionists there have been harshly repressed in recent years, with many in prison for organising unions outside the approved ‘puppet union’ structures, or for daring to hold May Day celebrations.
I’ll be outside the Iranian embassy on Friday with colleagues from the TUC, ITF and UK unions. There’s more information on the demo at the TUC site, if you’re able to come along (12:30-13:30 at SW7 1PT). (more…)
A nice and serendipitous link between my last two posts – Having written about ‘Guthrie2.0‘ Jonathan Mann, I stumbled across an older song of his, ‘Interesting Time’ on Blip.fm, and it could have been written for tomorrow’s Put People First G20 march and rally – a slice of pure Guthrism:
“Ours is an interesting time. We’re so close and yet so divided.
The framework has been provided, but we carry too much on our shoulders.
Yes and ours is an interesting time, when we’re running out of water,
and the world is getting hotter, but everyone I know seems colder.
Let’s move, brothers, move, and we’ll all move together,
through our interesting times, we’ll move towards a better future.
Let’s move, brothers, move.”
Should be big enough a coalition to send a real signal to the G20 as they prepare to meet. But there’s stuff to be done before then if we’re to turn out enough people. Please do add your own message at putpeoplefirst.org.uk or on this here widget, and then get spreading the word with all the lovely social network tools on the campaign site.
I’ve recently visited your website for the Judicial Review of the increased congestion charge for London. At a time when the world is becoming more environmentally conscious, Porsche is showing itself to be an utter relic, moving its business into heavier and more polluting vehicles like the Cayenne, and trying to buy its way out of environmental regulation through legal threats. (more…)
It’s only taken me 6 years to have almost forgotten I once had a life outside London, such do I love it here. Luckily for me I’ve not gone totally native yet though. It’s nice to still have a shred of perspective once in a while.
I’ve been guilty of a degree of selfishness in that I’ve not been singing the praises of an amazing resource for those of us with kids in South-East London. As with all ‘best kept secrets’, the fact you don’t have to queue for hours to get into the Livesey Museum on the Old Kent Road (www.liveseymuseum.org.uk) was a major incentive to ensure that it stayed a best kept secret (voice of experience after having to skip the promised dinosaurs in the Natural History the other weekend for fear of standing in line for 30 mins with an over-tired toddler to see T-rex). (more…)
Prospective mayoral candidate Boris Johnson is no fan of health and safety regulations, apparently regularly declaring his hero to be Larry Vaughn, the fictional mayor in Jaws, who refused to close the beaches after expert testimony and evidence of the first shark attack, leading to another free lunch for the film’s eponymous anti-hero.
Apparently the odd gobbled bather here and there is a small price to pay for the business freedoms that come with under-regulation. The latest gaffe from London’s would be gaffer is taken from a speech he gave last year at Lloyds of London:
“The real hero of Jaws is the mayor. A gigantic fish is eating all your constituents and he decides to keep the beaches open. OK, in that instance he was actually wrong. But in principle, we need more politicians like the mayor – we are often the only obstacle against all the nonsense which is really a massive conspiracy against the taxpayer.”
Wonder how many more safety reps are going to be out canvassing for Ken now?
