Blog

Deception

2011-05-14T13:28:23Z

Promises were made. Promises were broken. DECEPTION! Watch student fightback movie now

I'm voting Conservative

2011-03-04T11:01:34Z

A group of NewVIC students take an irreverant look at how the country will benefit from the Coalition government's cuts programme

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DIY UK started out as a group of students at NewVIc but now it's become so much more than. Working with media professionals, including the author and teacher, Saci Lloyd, a group of motivated and passionate students are creating a satirical campaign to highlight the effects of the cuts on education, hospitals, libraries and local councils.

Using animation, video and graphics, DIY UK is a witty and stylish online campaign that invites students nationwide to add their voices to the growing movement of resistance to the cuts in the UK.

If you want to do more than march on the streets this is the place for you. What are you waiting for? Get to work!

Rightwing Superzeroes Unite! Doubts at Number Ten

2011-01-19T17:59:20Z

Doubts at Number Ten. Super Dave starts the year in bullish form, but Cleggo wonders if he's gotten in with the wrong crowd. View Now

Watch now!

Right Wing Superheroes of the World Unite!

2010-12-17T11:43:41Z

Right Wing Superheroes of the World Unite! Part 1. Angst on the Westminster backstairs... WATCH NOW

Student protest, Carbon Diaries 2017

2010-11-24T11:09:32Z

An extract from The Carbon Diaries 2017... Laura Brown is at university and Student Protests are spreading like wildfire across the country....
Little did I know when I wrote this that the cuts would come so soon.

When I wrote the Carbon Diaries series I was looking at pressure - and how you react to it.

Look at the way this Tory government has gone - a crime against the younger generation.

I'm really proud of the way that students are getting on the streets to protest.

photo by Selina Sheridan

Extract from Carbon Diaries 2017

Mon, Mar 13^th
When will it stop? I went into Uni today to hand my project in and the place was buzzing with the news that the Gov is going to slash student loans by 50% and take away our free travel. If it goes on like this education will only be for rich kids.
5 pm. 5,000 Oxford University students walked out this afternoon and in Bristol, Bath, Exeter and Oxford, kids are refusing to leave school. They say they’re gonna camp out over the weekend in protest. Like that’ll bring Parliament down.

Tues, Mar 14^th
Hmm. 140 schools and 60 university demos happened today.

Weds, Mar 15^th
Day 3. My uni, LCC came out today, so I’m officially on strike. I had no food in the flat, so I took the chance to sneak off and shop at a dirty old supermarket. You’ve got to do stuff like that undercover on the Docks, people round here’d crucify me if they knew.
Anyway, when I got off the bus at Beckton there were kids swarming about everywhere, all blocking the tube station exit and the bus stops. It was dead funny watching people trying to push their way through a bunch of school kids in little blazers. But the best thing was when I got to the store. I heard some shouting and peered over the biscuits to see a stand-off at the entrance. 3 black girls were leading a posse thru the sliding doors. A lady manager was trying to stop them, but they just pushed her corporate ass over before rushing inside, all with raised fists, chanting:
‘Every Little Lie Helps! Every Little Lie Helps!’
After that they zoomed all over the store. The nearest group to me had just started stomping on a crate of Israeli avocados when the whine of police sirens filtered inside and they all scarpered to the exit. I watched thru the window as a bunch of police vans screeched up and the feds jumped out. They ran all over with outstretched arms, trying to trap the kids, but there were like ten nippers to every officer, squirming all over, like escaped eels. It was excellent.
When I was leaving, I saw the kids had sprayed all down the long glass windows.
THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHTEOUS
Who says schools are dumbing down? That’s some serious word play for the junior brain.

Thurs, Mar 16^th
Day 4. The minister for education has ordered students to go back to study. He said the Government could not and would not be terrorised into changing its policy. The students have now called for a complete black-out strike and loads of teachers have come out in support. (Anything for a day off)
This evening on I slinked round to Stace’s to watch a movie. I pulled my hood down low to avoid the protestors.I asked Stace how she gets away with it.
‘I’m a drummer, Laur. I’m s’posed to be thick. No-one bothers me,’ she grunted, stuffing a fistful of popcorn in her jaws.I reached for the bowl. ‘We’re never gonna be ready in time for the Europe gig unless Claire and Adi quit spending their whole time picketing the campus.’
‘Ah, chill, it’s not for weeks yet. Now shut up, my mate told me this is the bit where she sticks an ice pick thru the dingo’s head.’I shut my eyes, but too late. A mournful howl filled the room.

Fri, Mar 17^th
Day 5. The Gov and the students met, but all that happened was the minister repeated they would not back down, that the student demands were impossible, that we all have to make sacrifices in this difficult period.It’s alright for him, he’s got an education. Anyway, the whole things gone massive. 6,000 schools, colleges and Uni’s are shut down. The media are calling it the Tellytubby Riots.

Sat, Mar 18^th
Claire’s just belled me to go to an overnight demo at UEL. I know I should go, it’s not that I don’t care, it’s just I really hate demos I hate all the people on them I hate all the slogans I hate all the herbal tea I hate all their eyes. But obviously I can’t tell Claire that so I said I had bad period pain. I locked off and there was a knock on the door. Sam. ‘Wanna play pool?’
He handed me something. ‘Quick put this cap on and wear it low. We’ve got to bust you out of here.’I laughed. ‘Hang on, I’ll get my jacket.’
Huh, I was on fire tonight. I got myself in the zone (2 double rum&cokes) and I just couldn’t miss. It was like I was controlling the balls with my mind. After I’d whipped his arse for the 3^rd time, Sam threw his cue down on the table.‘You’re too good. This is embarrassing.’
‘Why, just cos I’m a girl?’‘No-o I don’t mind getting beat by a girl if she’s ugly. But when a cute girl beats you, it’s not right. It’s like the cosmos is out of balance.’ ‘Oh.’ I suddenly worked out what he said. The thing is I can never tell when he’s joking and when he’s not. He keeps flipping between flirty and dead straight. I blushed.

Mon, Mar 20^th
Every single UK school, college and university is on strike. Nearly 5 million students and teachers. I haven’t seen Adi for like 10,000 years. Every time I call him it goes thru to voice mail cos he’s stuck in a meeting or wrestling with some police dog on campus.
Ooh, one piece of goodness today though; dad called to cancel the moths. Something to do with pig pressures. Every pig has a silver lining.

Tues, Mar 21^st
Unbelievable! I am amazed. The Government’s backed down. We’re keeping our student loan and free travel. This is the first time I’ve ever seen something real happen from protesting;

makes me feel a bit guilty for not getting stuck in.

The Only Way is Essex

2010-10-29T10:11:36Z

Well here they are… the cuts we’ve all been waiting for, provoking a huge outcry – that the Tories spending cuts are ideological, that the right wing aren’t taking a hatchet to the nation because of the defecit but because they believe that a smaller state is a better thing.

Photo by Ssoosay.

But what do we mean when we accuse them of making cuts based on ideology? The word just means a body of ideas. Ideas about what? I’ve got a sneaking suspicion people aren’t fully sure what they’re attacking. ‘Keep your friends close and your enemies closer’ mutters Michael Corleone in the Godfather… and so in this spirit, lets go on a little journey together into the Neoliberal badlands, on the trail of what makes dem Tories tick.

Ah, lets begin with Maggie. The last time we saw cuts to rival these was under her leadership in the 1980’s. Her mission? Simple. The country needed a good shake up. We were too ineffecient, the economy was stagnant. And so she rollled up her sleeves and turned the UK economy over to the free market whilst simultaneously weakening the power of people to protest. It was a decade of a mass sell-off of all the things that the nation owned – transport, water, power, houses, the whole job lot … and then when people started to protest, she went after the Unions like a bat out of hell. But why?

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Influenced massively by Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman Thatcher’s government was a proud champion of 1980’s neoliberalism. The idea was to privatise the world, giving everyone a chance to buy in. Based on a rabid belief in private sector growth, low taxes, weak unions and bargain basement wages, the government ripped into public spending, practically destroying whole communities in industrial areas that were no longer profitable. But at the same time other parts of the nation were booming; the 1980’s was a time of spectacular success and greed, spawing such characters as Harry Enfield’s ‘loadsa money.’ It was a massively unequal society.

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So where was Friedrich Hayek coming from? Why concoct such a seemingly heartless theory in the first place? Strangely enough it was because he was a passionate believer in democracy and fiercely opposed to the corruption and stagnation he saw in socialist states. He believed that modern societies were too complex to manage by a single government and that you had to shrink and deregulate the state to in order to free up the power of individuals to build a successful country.

From such little acorns monster oak trees grow. Ever since the 80’s the Tory party has been deeply rooted in Hayek. He’s a gift to them. He made it all right to for the right to promote selfishness, greed and lack of concern for society, all on the basis of the 'rights of the individual.' For the modern Conservative party the market is king. Services are to be outsourced, borrowing and speculation boosted sky high and all the resources of the state sold off at rock bottom prices to let the market flood in. And so welcome boom and bust, dismembered communities, ravaged estates… but at the same time welcome money, money, money. Not for everyone… but for enough people to keep you in power.

The Tories make a calculation, you see. And it’s a clever one. As long as they’ve got the business community and the private sector and the people who profit from it onboard, they’ve got enough votes to keep themselves in power. Never mind that the rest of the country is on its knees. It’s a free market and the only the strongest will win. The trouble is when you define the strongest as basically the most greedy - you end up with a whole bunch of people acting like this...

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And right there is the crux of the problem. Real life doesn’t work like this. Nature works by co-operation, by communication, by sharing. No successful community lasts long with the ‘strongest’ ripping the guts out of the weakest. You run out of steam pretty if you go down that route. No more guts left, you see. For a community to be truly successful, it’s co-operation that really works. Dull old mouldy being nice to each other, working with others co-operation. Not Coming To A Cinema Near You and definitely not starring Vin Diesel.

And so back to Ideology. And the Tories. And what we mean when we say their cuts are ideological. I think what we are attacking is their belief that the free market (a system that has nearly bankrupted us all) is the best way to run our lives. We are attacking their belief that it’s all right to sideline the inefficient, the slow, the elderly or the poor. We are attacking their belief that government should be about money and allowing business to do what it pleases as long as we’re allowed to lick up a few crumbs. We are attacking their belief that the free market approach makes our society more democratic. But most of all we are standing up for our beliefs, that good government should share resources equally, redistribute wealth fairly, and represent all of us, not just a priveleged few.

Tea Party Madness

2010-09-29T10:40:06Z

The Tea Party Movement. It's James Brown in reverse. Say It Loud and Chewing Gum. I is White and I is Dumb. What's going on over there?

Photo by Fibonnaciblue

The USA is being dragged in the most alarming skid to the right I've seen in my lifetime .... and I'm old enough to remember the last chapter, when Ronnie Reagan, the Man Who Never Told Bad News to the American People, ruled the airwaves. But at least then Reagan was just a cynical manipulator of the religious right of the Republican Party. He didn't actually believe the hogwash. Now it's a different story. The Tea Party Activists are true believers. Pinheads with Armageddon pamphlets you hide from behind your curtains on a Sunday morning. Beady eyed polyester trousered losers. But back home in the prairies, somebody's been a feedin' them and a clothin' them in red pantsuits and a givin' them great fistfuls of dollars while breathing words of power and hope in their tiny ears. And now the Tea Party is making a bid for power. A real credible bid. Nick Griffin must be weeping tears of bitter, bitter envy. What miracles could he have wrought in Barking with this kind of crazy money.

So... what does the Tea Party stand for? Well, lets take a look at Sharron Angle, the candidate who recently won the Republican primary nomination in Nevada. Let me repeat, won. Thousands and thousands of people went out into the burning desert sun to mark a cross (burning, also) next to her name at the polling station.

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Here are some of Sharron's thoughts on life. She'd like to abolish the US education department because it's 'unconstitutional'. She believes America should pull out of the UN because it promotes un-American ideologies (like having a good reason to carpet bomb) Sharron is anti-abortion in all cases, including where rape or incest is involved, and she doesn't believe in state pensions for the elderly, or in mothers working. She doesn't like the demon drink much either, but surprise, surprise, she loves a smokin' gun and has pretty much threatened an armed rebellion if radical conservatism doesn't get its way. 'Iif we don't win at the ballot box, what will be the next step?' She asks. A hoe down mow them Commies down?

And who is voting for her. The people who believe Obama is a Muslim, that climate change science is witchcraft and that evolution is a myth. Let's not beat about the G.W. Just watch any Tea Party rally, tune into Fox news and take a close look. It's a sea of terrified, white, supersize me folk, led by the nose by former alcoholic and coccaine addict Glenn Beck, the vitriolic Fox News Anchorman and all round good guy who just cares an awful lot about stuff...

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You've got to hand it to him, Beck is a true master of the dark arts of manipulating the anger of white middle and working class people and his toxic language and extremist ideas have taken root with a whole section of disenfranchised people. Backed by a powerful cabal of financial and media interests, he knows to keep it good and simple. Us good, them Bad. Us being patriots and god-fearing and Them being elite, Un-American and the worstest cuss word of them all, Socialist.

Recently this pasty-faced fool held a mass rally in Washington on the anniversary of Martin Luther's famous I have a Dream speech. Perching on the step below the one that Dr King stood on all those years ago, he declaimed to the massed flag wavers around him, 'we are the ones who must stand for civil rights and equal rights.' Watch it, please. It's like Quantum Physics for real. A genuine parallel world opening up right in front of you.

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You can understand why people feel so furious and lost and powerless. America is ruled by corrupt elites; whichever party you're with you have to be a millionaire to even think of running for the senate, and from the minute you enter office until the time of the next election, you've got to raise at least $10,000 a week to stand a chance of getting back in power. What kind of whoring with business must the political class have to do to stay in power? The people are all well and good, but the people don't pay the bills.

And so here we are. The Days of Rage for working class whites. The Democrats do next to nothing for them, the Republicans round them up with the church prod for the slaughter. What will it take for a credible party of the left to rise and fight for the working man in America?

Monkey Biznis

2010-09-14T08:21:55Z

It’s tough being a Miliband. First the election. Six weeks on the stump; criss-crossing the country like a pair of demented snake-oil salesmen peddling Gordon Brown Miracle Wax, only to have your damn mule shot out from under you on election night. And then the next morning, while your compadres are slinking off into the boardroom backwoods, it’s down to you brothers to stumble out of bed, souse your heads in ice-cold water and go about the business of total self-reinvention with nothing but the shiny suit you’re standing in, a Blackberry and for vittles, a half-eaten mammal you snaggled on the back roads of Whitehall. (David, a squirrel. Ed, a tube mouse, Northern Line) But a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do. And you boys did have a big hand cooking up the Wax in the first place. So saddle up!

I’ve got nothing against the brudders. I’m sure they are nice to their mother and always lower the toilet seat after use. And as far as politicians-who’ve-got-a-chance-of-being-elected go, well, apart from being Tony Blair’s choirboys for the past ten years, at least they weren’t caught double-dipping in the expenses honey pot. On a scale of 1 to 10, they’re a 5. In the middle. Like a tub of Flora. But there’s a twist here. The Millibands are brothers who like each other. And that’s what makes their race for the leadership of the Labour party more bizarre than most political contests. Not only do they want to gloss over the power struggle for the voters, but this time, they’re almost as desperate to believe the whole charade themselves.

Power. It’s a funny business. Kids reach out sticky fingers for it the minute they’re born, leaders weep like tiny babies when they lose their grip on it, but in politics, as in life, no one ever uses the P word. Have you ever heard a candidate admit they want power? No. Because it’s political suicide. Too naked, too Machiavellian. So what’s a power-crazed social misfit to do if he wants to get on? He’s got to justify his blazing ambition to be top of the pile somehow... he’s got to sell the dream. And so the modern politician has come up with just the thing. Public service. Listen to them. Ed and David and Nick and Barak talk a blue streak when it comes to being public servants. Talk about brazen doublespeak. They’re only in the game for us. I mean, somebody’s got to fix the crumbling school system, to slap down the bankers, to roust the benefit cheats from their sweaty sheets. And who better than humble old them? Our very own Jeeveses.

But the trouble is, it’s simply not true. Power is a big taboo in modern society. I don’t know why, maybe it’s because we think we should have evolved beyond it by now, like those old Star Trek episodes where blond aliens in togas sit by polystyrene rocks and say lines like, ‘Four thousand years ago we banished violence from our midst, now all is Balance.’ But the fact remains that our whole lives are one long power struggle, whether it’s for personal ends or for public good. Our fight for dominance is neither good nor bad. It just is. We’re great apes and we work well in hierarchy. Go to any office Christmas party and feel the static. It’s a balloon jungle.

You know we could do worse than taking a respectful glance at one of our closest cousins. According to the eminent primatologist Frans de Waal, it’s refreshing to work with chimpanzees, because they’re the honest politicians we all long for. In chimpanzee society, hierarchy permeates everything and it’s all out in the open. You don’t see chimps pretending. They live in a whirl of complex, ever-shifting coallitions and power is always up for grabs. It is what it is, and they have no qualms about it. If a chimp is on the rise, he’ll do what it takes and then throw himself down on his bamboo bed at night with a clear conscience.

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Ah, I hear you saying, but we’re not chimps, are we? We’re more …. what? Complex? Evolved? After a lifetime of observing chimpanzees, Dr de Waal begs to differ. He believes that chimpanzee society is every bit as complex as ours, with a strong morality woven through it. If we judge a nation's greatness by how it treats its weakest members, then our cousins are punching way above their weight. You’d definitely be looking forward to your twilight years in this highly empathic, close-bonded bunch far more than you would under the Tories or Labour. At least these guys wouldn’t sell your pension. Chimps may lack a few table manners, but when a leader takes power, he does so with the will of the group to maintain a stable society that looks after all its members. And when he gets too big for his banana skin boots, the group kicks him out. Transparent government in action.

Anyway, so back to brother thing. Cain and Abel, Reggie and Ronnie, Noel and Liam... it’s a fraternal minefield. Most brothers will lose at least an eye or a limb over the course of a venomous lifetime. And that’s if they’re lucky. Look at Cain. One little fit of jealousy over who married the best sister (don’t ask/do ask) a handy ox bone - and the guy was doomed to roam the earth for all time. No toilets, no showers, no fresh socks. Ever. You can see why Ed and Dave are frightened to go there. But still, wouldn’t it be great if they and all the other leaders could be as honest as a chimpanzee? Even just for a day.