Trot on the Pull

Enjoy! Hat tip Hilary via Facebook

UPDATE: Mrs Stroppy Osler has shared this and linked to my best mate ever, Dave Osler, and his posts on Top Ten Trotskyist chat up lines here and here.

Hopemas Party 2010

PHILOSOPHY FOOTBALL HOPEMAS PARTY : FRIDAY 17 DEC
"Philosophy Football's Christmas party on Friday 17 December. Just a few handfuls of tickets left, just £8.99 and each ticket is a £5 OFF voucher on shirts on the night so combine the evening with your Christmas shopping!

Our Hopemas Christmas party celebrates Hope not Hate victorious campaign against the BNP in Barking and generously supported by the PCS trade union. Its a superb line-up! Featuring the superb poetry of Lemn Sissay . Performing a special version of her hit Edinburgh show 'Afroblighty' (on nationwide tour in 2011) the supremely talented comic Andi Osho. Rap mixed with comedy from Doc Brown opens the night.. And filling the dancefloor into the early hours, music from the Melstars sound system.

With contributions from Zaiba Malik author of the August R4 book of the week We are a Muslim,Please, Nick Lowles, editor of Searchlight magazine, Owen Hatherley author of the recently published book A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain, PCS National Executive Member Zita Holbourne, and Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty.

At our usual party venue 'Offside' 271 City Road London EC1V 1LA in Islington, completely refurbished and renamed the 'New Red Lion'.

Book either at Philosophy Football or call 020 8802 3499". 

Hat tip Mark.

The Beatles - Hello Goodbye

Check out this post. 14 Million people have watched this video...and we think we have a drug problem nowadays?

Say Goodbye

This song is by Chris Brown.  The right time for Nick Clegg to say Goodbye is now of course. I will freely admit that this music is not my era but this I did appreciate reading the lyrics and recognising its poetry.

Check out reasons for this post.

"Time to Say Goodbye"

See here and here for the "rational".  Mr Clegg, it is "Time to say Goodbye". But this is a simply beautiful song but best heard I think - not seen. 

"Say Hello, Wave Goodbye"

It's Saturday night and I'm staying indoors.  I'm not that interested in "Strictly" so instead I am doing a trawl of my favorite YouTube music videos that refer to saying "Goodbye" in honour of this Party Election Broadcast.  Firstly a blast to my past and Soft Cell with "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye". 

Enjoy:)

Saying Goodbye to Broken Promises?

Once upon a time a fresh faced Party leader called Nick Clegg spoke eloquently about “broken promises - there have been too many in the last few years; too many in the last 30 years in fact; our nation has been littered with them; a trail of broken promises ....I think it is time to do things differently ....I think it is a time for promises to be kept “ .

These are the opening lines from the Liberal Democratic Party Election broadcast 13 April 2010. Check out on Youtube before it disappears. Hat tip Tom.

Meanwhile, talking about “promises” ...."page 39 of the 'Liberal Democratic Manifesto 2010' states " We will scrap unfair fees for all students taking their first degree, including those studying part-time, saving them over £10,000 each. We have a financially responsible plan to phase fees out over six years, so that the charge is affordable even in these difficult economic times, and without cutting university income. We will immediately scrap fees for final year students” Hat tip Three Score Years and 10.

Finally the BBC reports that the new “Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has insisted that plans to charge tuition fees of up to £9,000 a year to students in England represent a "fair and progressive solution to a very difficult problem".

Nuf said?

Call Mr Robeson: Early Spring Tour 2011

"Paul Robeson is a great and famous actor, singer and civil rights campaigner.  When over the years he gets progressively too radical and outspoken for the establishment’s liking, he is branded a traitor to his country, is harassed, and denied opportunities to perform or travel.  Just as physical, emotional and mental stress threaten to push him over the fine line between genius and madness, he is summoned to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee, to give the most difficult and important performance of his career.

Call Mr. Robeson is a roller coaster journey through Robeson’s remarkable and eventful life, and highlights how his radical activism caused him to be disowned and disremembered, even by the leaders and descendants of the civil rights movement.  It features some of his famous songs and speeches, including a dramatic rendition of Ol’ Man River.  It features some of his famous songs"

January 4 - 23 (not 10, 17 or 24): London. THEATRO TECHNIS, 26 Crowndale Road, NW1 1TT 7.30pm (Tues - Sat) 3.00pm (Thurs, Sat, Sun) £10/£8. (2 for 1 on 4 - 6 and 11 and 18) 0207 387 6617. http://www.theatrotechnis.com/
January 25: Darlington. DARLINGTON ARTS CENTRE,Vane Terrace, DL3 7AX 8pm. £10.50 (discounts available) 01325 486555 http://www.darlingtonarts.co.uk/
January 26: Bury. THE MET, Market Street, BL9 0BW;
8pm. £10/£6 0161 761 2216 www.themet.biz0161 761 2216 http://www.themet.biz/
January 27: Salford. THE LOWRY, Salford Quays, M50 3AZ 8pm. £10/£8 0843 208 6010 http://www.thelowry.com/
January 28: Derby. THE GUILDHALL THEATRE,Market Place, DE1 3AH 7.30pm. £10/£8 01332 255 800 http://www.derbylive.co.uk/
January 29: Goole. JUNCTION, Paradise Place, DN14 5DL 8pm. £8/£6 01405 763 652 http://www.junctiongoole.co.uk/
February 4: Peebles. EASTGATE THEATRE & ARTS CENTRE, Eastgate, EH45 8AD 7.30pm. £13/£11 01721 725 777 http://www.thebooth.co.uk/
February 5: Inverness. EDEN COURT THEATRE, Bishops Road, IV3 5SA 8pm. £12/£10 01463 234 234 http://www.eden-court.co.uk/

SUPPORTED BY UNITY THEATRE TRUST Double Award Winner Ogeyinka Merit Awards for
Excellence, London, October 2010 Angel Award for Artistic Excellence & Best Male Performer.
Brighton Festival Fringe, May 2008  D E S I G N : W W W. H O L D E N A N D S O N S . C O . U K  
(hat tip SERTUC)

Nobel Peace Prize Winner 2010 Liu Xiaobo

A brave and good decision by the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Committee to ignore the childish and immature bullying by Peking CPC clowns. 

Bearing in mind its history - China has an absolute right to be sensitive to other countries criticising its own internal affairs.  However this gormless, goon like response to entirely legitimate international concern, about it locking up a genuine non-violent poet and democratic, just makes it look like a nasty, brutish and real mafiosi state.

The Joy of the London Commute

Off message but I thought I’ll share my journey this morning to remind non-London folk that life is not all fun and games in our great metropolis.

I missed the 08.07 rail overhead train to London Liverpool Street so I waited for the 08.23 (big gap for rush hour?). It arrived on time but you could see from the front coaches as they passed that it was packed to the gills. I managed to get on and stood cheek by jowl with other travellers. So squashed that we could not move or even turn around.

Such is life in London but since most of us expected to change to the Central Line at Stratford in 4 minutes we thought we will put up with it.

Before the train set off the driver did announce on the PA that passengers should not obstruct the doors and that there was another train right behind us. If I could have got out then I would have done and waited for the next train. But I was stuck solid in the crush.

After 2 minutes the train stopped at Maryland station and somehow even more people got on to our carriage. Big mistake. Our carriage doors closed but our train driver kept reporting on the PA that there was a fault because people were obstructing the doors. He next announced that there was a fault with the doors which could be serious. He went out and walked along the train (some 15-20 carriages) testing each door to fix the fault. He came to our doors checked them from the outside then walked down to the next. It was by now beginning to get quite unpleasant and claustrophobic in the carriage. Passengers were mostly quite calm but some of them were beginning to be rather distressed. The train driver came to our door again and appeared to check it then walked away. It was very hot in the train since we were all wearing winter clothing. We asked people seated near the windows to open them and I asked people standing in the isles to move up and give us some room and take pressure away from the doors. There wasn’t a very particularly good response to this but the windows were opened and we had some fresh air.

After about 15 minutes in total the driver announced that due to passengers obstructing the door there was a fault which he could not fix and he would have to take the train out of service so everyone would have to leave the train. I think at that stage people were just relieved to know they could get out of the train. However, the doors were still closed. We could see people coming out of the train elsewhere and walking out of the station. Our carriage doors would not open. Passengers near the door pressed the open buttons but nothing happened. Some people began to get distressed. Others were asking us standing near the emergency handle to use it to open the doors. I thought about this and asked if anyone is feeling ill? To which an elderly lady replied that she was feeling very faint and asked me to use the emergency handle so she could out of the carriage quickly. There was no sign of anyone coming to open the doors from the outside so I pulled off the plastic cover and pulled down the emergency handle to open the doors. Nothing happened. I pulled the handle down again more forcefully and an orange light went on and the doors opened. Everyone streamed out and the lady who was ill thanked the Lord for being “rescued”.

Most of us had enough of trains for a while and we all walked to Stratford station (only about 5-10 minutes from Maryland). What was interesting is that everyone seemed to know the short cuts through the housing estates to Stratford station. So this sort of experience for commuters is not unknown. At Stratford I got on a peak hour Central line train which wasn’t that badly crowded but within 30 seconds we were deep underground for that long boring stretch from Stratford to Mile End.