Protest

  • We choose our level of dissent

    The protests of our day cover the entire spectrum. The events of world affairs are its criteria. We either feel it’s getting worse, or it’s going to get so. It’s a matter of course, or it’s a matter of time.

    A wall sticker in Reading, Berkshire

    The level at which we can attack the issues also varies between us. Even though our streets are shared, they’re not spaces for concourse. We’re separate people, and we’ve got separate ways.

    It may be in a different context if we choose to act. The folks may be different. They may not be our people. They could be a different kind from us. The global system is a welcoming place.

  • Corbyn’s rally for a new dawn

    Today Jeremy Corbyn MP (Islington North/Independent) spoke to We Demand Change, a purpose-built event for a collective of activists and groups centred on social change in the UK.

    It’s an old format by now. The cries against capital, the mainstream political parties, and warfare are tough to translate into reality. The corridors of power are not always a welcoming place.

  • Court Reports: Elizabeth Tower protester

    Daniel Day, 29 from Essex (as reported by the BBC), has appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court. He staged a solo protest yesterday on the side of Elizabeth Tower.

    Protesters waiting outside

    His lone actions led to his arrest. During the incident he was injured and bled from his feet. He’s due back in court 17 March.

  • Long Report: The embers of service

    It takes time to set anything up. I was told this by a Tory grandee, whose marquee role in the party set him up to know practically anything about it.

    He’d seen more people try to make a quick buck out of it than those who didn’t. The few who tried it found it took a lot of work to do something great just within its own walls.

    It would be the only work they could do because of the effort it involved. The rest of the story is a bleak outlook.

    The way things go in Whitehall today, it’s not a case of asking who our greats are. They aren’t great. They don’t work hard, and often their plans don’t get turned into projects.

    At least, it’s what I caught sight of as I had a look. The ‘insight’ was brief, but lasting. It showed me that for all that’s said, little is proactively done as a result.

    Workplace fevers

    As it seemed any colleague would quit their job at a second’s notice to join a protest, a cheapening of the state began in earnest that shaped its future course.

    It was said higher up that a “quick win” would solve any issue. All it took is a “bright idea” and a lot of “science”, they said.

    The problem is there were already problems in the delivery of services that explained many of the issues, and these were due to such “fads”, or ideas.

    In the next stage, they believed in it. However, it was only a fervour in “doing government the right way”, and plans folded out that weren’t going to work.

    A new low

    It seemed to be this way in politics, and government. The new appointees saw work would take a shorter time than play, and it kicked off a culture war.

    The increase in striving for leisure activity led to bitter fights for control in all realms of state, and it led to huge upset.

    A moment in Whitehall sums it up. A person said swingers in a nightclub had been replaced with “Staples” and “Screwdrivers” who worked hard and didn’t play.

    It spread upset in Westminster. The Tory grandee was right, this one time. There were chancers everywhere trying to draw on past scandals to make their way.

    Change ahead

    In a surprising twist, an answer came from Whitehall. There was a move to recruit properly. There were ideas for new computer systems to drive efficiency.

    There was a call for simplification in politics to make it more clear what was being asked for. A pattern emerged of stating things straightforwardly.

    This made it obvious who was working, and who wasn’t. It helped reward progress, and discipline failure. It meant work was done, and results may come out.

  • Westminster Week: Sticking to your guns

    Monday

    The streets outside Westminster were busy with normal foot traffic and other activity. While the prospect of another farmer’s protest began to show, a much smaller march in favour of an Iranian figure started hours earlier.

    Wednesday

    It was a combative outing for Kemi Badenoch MP (North West Essex/Conservatives). She said Sir Keir Starmer MP (Holborn and St Pancras/Labour) doesn’t know his brief.

    Meanwhile, the Prime Minister said she keeps to a script “that doesn’t allow adaptation”, and finds it “tedious”. It’s not just a matter of style but also substance here.

    Thursday

    Olivia Bailey MP (Reading West and Mid Berkshire/Labour) spoke about her own experience of abuse and shame as an LGBT+ person, saying:

    “The best way to honour the LGBT+ people who have, throughout history, fought for our rights, often at great personal cost, is to never be complacent, to link arms as a community and to make it our solemn mission to ensure that Pride is not just our protest against the pernicious effects of shame, but something felt freely by every LGBT person finally allowed to just be who they are.”

  • Our own insurrection

    The role of many in the constant aggressive tactics against our political system is the defining image of our times. It’s unfortunate that so many could have been candidates for this prized place.

    There have been many standout achievements, great moments, and seminal successes that may have made it to such a spot. The sad truth is instead we’ve got a scene of outright chaos.

    The catcalls of numerous organised, staged, and contrived protests held in London have stained our country’s conscience. The accusation of race hate against Israeli’s and Jews is a disgrace of our age.

    Yet the roots of this are deep. They exist in many parts of the country that see radicalism as part of its local scene. It’s why it’s an insurrection. It’s been sent by the regions to disrupt the political process.

    The uprising has all its own tales to tell. The repeated attempts to kill key University staff members in London. The attacks on staff at national institutions. The plots to murder guardians of monuments.

    This is the stuff of history. The attempts of insurrections before are seen in these hallmarks. Yet we’re silent on saying it. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because it’s takes that long for people to see it as it really is.

  • A new, Collective rage

    In forging a path ahead, it’s not the left’s great attribute. They tend to see themselves as self-organisers, but their interactions beyond this are sketchy.

    If asked to take a seat, they’ll likely try to take yours, too. It’s even stated on the website of Collective, a party who aim to take control of lefty politics in the UK.

    “Support for Palestinian human rights and sovereignty has become a litmus test for anyone purporting to uphold left values. Our strategy is clear: for those who fail this fundamental test, we’re uniting to remove them from political life.”

    The reality is it spills over, and it’s happened too many times. A rage outside the embassy of Israel, and then a stage outside Downing Street. It’s old hat.

    The purposeful among us are already at work, the less focused are already painting a new placard. The winning formula is democracy, since it brings results.

  • Drama at Westminster

  • A squatter’s nature

    It’s interesting where squatter’s put down their stuff, these days.

    The days of a patch of land or a disused residence are passing into the mists of time to allow for more upmarket, expensive real estate.

    The moving-in of squatting groups into restaurant/retail units in London for example that cost millions to rent, is an example of a more premium sort of activism that hopes to capitalise on location and clientele to get its point across.

    I’m sure if the squatters at the York & Albany in Camden had been successful, they would of passed over a few latte’s in favour of their cause (whatever it is, as it isn’t clear what anyone believes anymore when it’s so obvious). In actuality, they weren’t able to open their own cafe – however informal – for free.

    The rents are high if it’s the only place going on a plot of land which isn’t available anywhere else (at times, with views not seen everywhere else).

    The market is tight if it has to be just right, and this is a travail experienced by many who could just open up anywhere if they were given the same opportunities as the ‘eco-SAS’, who just seem to try it anywhere.

    However, those such opportunities don’t exist and the places where restaurants, hoteliers, and the like want to set down their roots are hard to come by. It appears the same is also true for the opportunists in our midst.