The Costa Project

Hello!

Okay. I know. Not only have I not blogged for well over a month, but I didn't finish my videos about Big Brother. How pathetic I am. Suffice it to say that I was disappointed that Aaron won.

I've been so busy recently that I haven't had time to do any blogging about the most recent project I have been involved with. Those of you who live in Bristol will know that Gloucester Road is probably the most independent street in Bristol, because it is jam-packed with independent businesses. And that is what makes Gloucester Road so brilliant - because it is a haven for independent shops, and isn't crammed with lots of supermarkets and things.

Or at least, that's how it's supposed to be, because in the last couple of years, Gloucester Road has found itself playing host to Subway, Sainsbury's and - more recently - Costa Coffee. It is the Costa shop that makes me particularly angry - because they do not have planning permission. Costa applied for planning permission and were refused after a 3,800 name petition against it, but have decided to open anyway because big corporations are kind of a law unto themselves. The legal position is that because Costa is appealing, they are in effect allowed to stay open until the appeal is rejected - which I think is absolutely pathetic, but there you are.

Anyway, for the last couple of weeks, myself and several others have been involved in picketing Costa Coffee, raising awareness, getting names on our petition etc. The good thing is, it actually seems to be working. Whenever I'm there, there are always a lot more people who hang around to have a chat with us and learn more about Costa than there are people going into the shop. I don't think the shop people are very happy about this - in fact they seem to have made it their mission to be as unpleasant as they can to protesters. Today, the manager (I think his name is Richard Sharkey? I could be wrong about that) came out and tried to claim that another, independent, coffee shop had been trading illegally for three years, when in actual fact it has only been there since April, and - to the best of my knowledge - is not illegal. He also pretended that this Costa hasn't received an enforcement notice when this article begs to differ:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-16071927

I was also assaulted twice, unprovoked, by the shop's security guard. There is also a girl working there called Fran Lyons (who is actually a friend of a friend) who was surprisingly unpleasant to me. The last time I saw her working there, I asked if she was a plant, so this time I said, 'I hear that because I called you a plant, you don't want to be our inside person?' (Our mutual friend has been passing messages between us) and she hissed, 'Why would I want to be your inside person? Why should I be nice to you?' So I smiled and said, 'Because, aside from the part where I'm trying to get you out of a job, I will always be nice to you!' So that's fine. I guess I should expect this kind of behaviour from the staff, but it still makes me laugh.

I don't think that Richard, Fran and the other Costa people should underestimate me, because I'm actually very shrewd. So while I don't shout at them and I'm always polite, that does not mean that I will let them walk on me. I really care about this cause, and I feel that we are getting somewhere. So I will go on standing outside in the cold weather, smiling at people, offering them biscuits and explaining the dirty tactics Costa Coffee are pulling. This is exactly why I became a political activist in the first place - because there is a wonderful buzz to doing something to help a cause you care about, meeting cool people, and making a difference. I feel that what I am doing is making a difference, and if nothing happens, at least I know I gave it my best shot.

In other news, in ten days is my first birthday! Okay, not the actual day that I was born, obviously. I wasn't blogging that early in life. It will be my birthday in the sense that it will be a full year since I started this blog! Slightly surreal, I guess. As of today, I am bringing back 'People To Respect And Admire'. So this week it will just have to be everyone who has been alongside me in sitting outside Costa and helping us, everyone who has signed our petition, and everyone who has given kind words of support on a cold day. It means everything.

Thanks!

George

Bailiffs, riot police and Big Bro Week 6

The Human Rights Act, and Big Bro Week 5

The Treatment of Beggars, and Big Bro week 4

Big Bro Week 3

Big Bro Week 2

Prisoners and captives

Gay actors and Big Bro Week 1

Bassett!

Hi everyone

Sorry for not updating in a while - although this time I don't feel guilty about it, because I've literally had LOADS on!

Unfortunately this post probably won't really appeal to anyone who doesn't live in Bristol... but I thought it would be a great way of talking about the play that I'm in.

As I may have mentioned in a previous post, I am in a play called Bassett, which is being performed at Bristol Old Vic. It's all about young people's attitudes to the world and why we are at war.

I guess I'd better talk a bit about it. It's all set in a classroom at the Wootton Bassett school. Supply teacher Miss Kirmani has had a breakdown and run out of class, locking a class of 14 Year 11 Citizenship students inside. Outside, a repatriation is happening - but not an ordinary one, because one of the dead soldiers, Charlie, is actually from Wootton Bassett and is known to the students. Leo claims that he and Charlie were mates. Kelly claims to have gone out with Charlie. In the classroom are several big personalities - and, inevitably, people clash, become paranoid of each other and... well I don't want to ruin the ending, but it's good.

It's on at Bristol Old Vic from 7 - 11 September. (And yes, that is purposely to mark the tenth anniversary of 9/11.) Tickets cost £12 - but it's well worth it! It's an amazing piece, in my own completely unbiased opinion. ;)

So yeah, come by. It'll be fun!

George :)

TV Times

Hello people

I went to see a play tonight, which was both fantastically disturbing and disturbingly fantastic, or vice versa. And while I was watching it, I had a number of confused thoughts, but the one that took priority was: I must write about this on my blog while it's fresh in my mind!

It basically centres on this old couple, Fred and Doris, whose whole lives are spent sitting in watching TV. They never, ever go out. (It's never really made clear how they survive without ever going out, but the play is nonsense really, and a lot of things aren't explained properly.) While he appears to only think about the TV shows, it is made clear how much Fred depends on Doris, and is scared that she will leave him and go 'into the outside world'.

Someone knocks on the door and starts gibbering about religious nonsense. Then, a girl in a hoodie, carrying a knife and a gun, breaks into the house, claiming to be 'the result of what this country has come to.' It becomes clear to the audience at this point that the entire play is about stereotypes - Fred and Doris represent the boring older couple with no life, the voice outside represents a super-religious person, and the girl in the hoodie represents the 'teenage hoodie culture' person, that the media seems so very fond of condemning.

Anyway, the hoodie girl becomes very scared by the voice from outside, saying that she is disturbed by what he is saying, because she wants to be more than that. Then a policeman comes in - a very stupid policeman - as in, the ''Ello, ello, ello'' types from fifties and sixties comedies. He's another stereotype! And then, he goes out and comes back with a massive gun, as a stereotype of a different kind of policeman!

Anyway, the hoodie girl forms a bond with Doris, who adopts her as 'the daughter she never had'. Hoodie Girl persuades Doris to come into the outside world with her, and Doris reluctantly does so, leaving Fred in front of the TV. Fred eventually notices, and becomes very scared and disturbed. The TV goes wrong and stops working - but occasionally the news comes on, with the newsreader reporting very disturbing things that are supposedly happening in the outside world.

Doris and the hoodie girl come back, and Fred is very relieved. Next time the news comes on, Doris warmly greets the newsreader - and it is revealed that he is not in fact on the TV, but actually in the room with them. Then eventually Rosie, a tart with a heart, comes in and reveals that they now all need to leave Fred on his own, because his TV license is expiring. No one, apart from Fred, is real - they are all TV characters! Stereotypes!

All the fake characters take this very well - except hoodie girl, who is terrified about leaving, and wants to be a real person with real free will. But they eventually leave Fred on his own - and then Fred dies.

As I said, I found this play to be really, really disturbing. It might not be so intriguing the way I say it here - but from where I was sitting, I felt a real connection. I found I could relate particularly to hoodie girl - because she is terrified of being a stereotype and wants to be a real person. I feel exactly the same way, because I'm very much a one-off - I'm not a stereotype at all, but only because I've forced myself not to be. I'm also scared of becoming like Fred, because I do watch a lot of TV, but I think that there must be more to me than that, if you know what I mean.

Anyway - this play has kind of inspired me to make a new start. I get inspirations like that every few weeks, but this one has been über-strong. This blog post probably seems a bit random to any reader, but I felt a particular revelation tonight, and I just had to get it written down. So I hope this has been entertaining in some way.

No entries for 'People to Love and Admire' this week, I'm simply not in that kind of mood.

I have a lot of projects over the summer - but I hope I'll be able to update this from time to time, or whenever.

Take care, guys! Have a great summer, and remember to keep checking back here!

My optimistic ideals

Hello guys!

Okay, so it's been over a month. Yes, I'm taking the shame. Every day I think about this blog and I feel guilty for letting it fall by the wayside... but I'm updating it now, so never let it be said that I never do anything for you.

Something has been occurring to me recently which I feel I need to share on here. In a few months time, it will be a year since I decided to be a political activist, and over the last few weeks I've realised that sometimes, I'm just an activist for the sake of complaining about something. Which is stupid, I know. So it's something I'm going to improve.

For example, I'll get an email from Avaaz.org or 38 Degrees or another NGO that I subscribe to, I'll sign their petition and then I'll forget about it. I don't do any research into it or anything. It's just because something I have learned to have confidence in has asked me to do it, I just get on with it without a second thought. This is obviously something that I'm going to try hard to stop doing, because independence is the most key part of my values. This is why I'm not loyal to any particular party; because if I was, I'd end up supporting something that I wouldn't normally support (or condemning something I would have supported.) So, anyway: it's never too late for a new start, and today I've decided I'm going to research more into the causes that I believe in, so that I can justifiably quote my opinion without just jumping on a bandwagon.

Now, this post is called 'My optimistic ideals'. The reason for this is because after my own independence, another thing that is very important to me is seeing the good in people. I know it's naive, but I genuinely believe that everyone has a good side, and that once they realise that, then they can use it to really help people and to make a difference. I think that a lot of the time, people can get so lost in the practicalities and politics of situations that they forget what is really important: people feeling secure and satisfied. Statistics mean nothing if people are not benefitting from them. (Sorry, I am fully aware that I am rambling here, but it makes sense in my head.)

Okay, People to Love and Admire. Now, for this post it's a bit unusual, because for the first time, both my people are fictional characters, but they are two of the best and most inspirational fictional characters I have ever come across!

1) David Reynolds
David Reynolds is a very intellectual, sharp, gay teenager in an online series called the Naptown Tales. I don't usually mention people's sexualities when I'm talking about how cool they are, but with David it's pretty vital. Basically... at the start of the series he meets and falls in love with a boy called Jeremy, and everything after that happens as a result of this occurrence. David and Jeremy decide to publicly come out (in a very conservative state in America) and play a fundamental part in changing people's attitudes towards the LGBT community, not just in their state, but right across America and even further. Politically-minded David takes no liberties in his campaigning - I think he's a politician through and through, but a very kind, compassionate one. He obviously has other issues that he feels strongly about other than LGBT, but that is the thing the series focusses strongly on. They're well worth a read...

2) Flora Poste
Flora Poste is the main character in a book by Stella Gibbons called Cold Comfort Farm. In the book, she goes to live with her cousins, the Starkadders, who are the most cut-off, reclusive and frankly boring people in the world, kept at the farm by the domineering Aunt Ada Doom, who apparently 'saw something nasty in the woodshed'. Flora (who is strong, capable and a bit arrogant) walks into their lives and single-handedly decides to sort out everyone's lives for them - which inevitably leads to a happy ending for everyone, including the great aunt. I love Flora because she is so charismatic and so cool that she can just walk in and take control like that. I like people with this power, it's a good power to have. Obviously it can be misused, but on the whole it's a really useful (and pretty awesome) trait. (Again, this book is a really fantastic read if you have a bit of time.)

I'll see you guys around, I guess, if I can be bothered to update this any time soon... hopefully I can...

The death of Osama and The Cut

Hi there

Now, I'm really sorry I haven't posted in a couple of days... but still, it's only been a few days, and I have some exciting news to make up for it! But more on that in a bit.

The first thing I'm going to talk about is the death of Osama bin Laden. Now, I won't pretend I know very much about Osama, or the intelligence that led to his death. In fact, I know hardly anything. But in my opinion, from what I have heard, his death was not justice, but simply revenge. I'm not saying I support what he did - I absolutely do not support it at all, he was a terrible man and he did not deserve anything good at all in his life. However, I don't condone the death penalty for anything; the inflictors of the death penalty are just as bad as the victims, in my mind. I know this is controversial, but I don't care. Revenge is a very easy thing to inflict and also to justify, and this is why I never condone it; because it is too easy to justify. Better to not kill anyone and take the moral highground.

Anyway, on to my next topic. I'm really excited about this one. Probably some of the people who read this blog will know that I was a massive fan of a BBC teen drama series called The Cut, which aired from 2009 to 2010 on BBC Two. It was cancelled at the end of the third series. Anyway, it was always marketed as a viewers' drama, so viewers were encouraged to give their input, like storyline ideas and music ideas and that kind of thing. Anyway, when it was cancelled, a few of us fans took it upon ourselves to write the next series ourselves. And I am happy to say that things are in motion now! I am in charge of our team of writers, who will be deciding what happens in Series 4. It won't be aired, or even filmed, but it will be written. I am really chuffed by the amount of dedication from my team, and I thought they deserved a mention, so yeah... I just wanted to talk about this here.

People I love and admire: has to be my new team of writers!

By the way, I apologise that this isn't really a great blog post. It's not one that I've been immensely proud of, possibly because the two subjects are so completely separate from each other. But, it's what was on my mind today, and they can't all be excellent.

Ta-ra!

The royal wedding

Hello

Okay, so I can see that with my promise of daily posts for a while, I'm going to end up doing them very late at night. I'm not always this disorganised, honestly.

Today, a month later, I'm going to talk about the royal wedding. Yesterday I told you that my views on this would be very negative. In fact, you will have noticed that they are so negative, I purposely don't capitalise the R and the W when writing the words 'royal' and 'wedding'.

The reason it pisses me off so much is because our useless Government goes on and on and on and on and on about how we have so little money and how we have to cut all the important things, like EMA and the National Health Service and youth groups etc... and then they can spend such a huge amount of taxpayer's money on this stupid wedding which is going to benefit absolutely no one! And I totally despise Will and Kate for going along with it. Someone said to me once that it's not really the couple's fault, it's just the system. I responded that they have a choice about whether to go along with the system, so it is their fault really. If they had any decency, they would have got married in Chelsea Registry Office, with Kate wearing jeans and a T-shirt. If they wanted a bit of glamour, they could have had the Queen along as a witness - and that's it.

In fact, the whole 'Royal' family really annoy me. For three reasons:

1) They cost the country a hell of a lot of money.
2) They are the ultimate example of posh and upper-class people being better than everyone else.
3) They are very insincere, and smile and wave at complete strangers all day.

I always say that if I was Royal, I'd be very unfriendly to everyone. People would stop me in the street, and I'd be like: 'Leave me alone! I'm in a mood, I feel a bit sick and I don't want to talk to you.' At least that way I would be honest with people, and not just let them lick my shoes for the sake of it. Honesty is the best policy, and I'm a firm believer in what you see is what you get.

I am proud to say I did not watch the wedding. I was at the theatre, enjoying a very gruelling rehearsal for our performance the next day. The majority of our group were good enough to sacrifice their precious wedding to turn up on the day, which I am immensely grateful for.

I think that's about all for today. I am aware that this is more of a rant than a post, but there we are. Tomorrow I'll either talk about the death of Osama or the Bristol Tesco riots, whichever takes my fancy.

Ciao!

Bassett

This one is just a quick one to do with my acting work. I'm sorry if you feel a bit cheated because of the hurry, I'm just not in the mood to write anything particularly insightful right now.

Basically, last week I auditioned for something called Bassett at a popular theatre in Bristol. We read through the script (which was amazing, by the way) and basically they assessed how well we performed each character. Anyway, I hadn't thought I had got in, because there were some great people there and I hadn't heard from them at all. But anyway... turns out no one has heard yet, so seems like they're taking longer to decide than I thought. So I still have a chance! So wish me luck!

Tomorrow I will talk about my rather negative opinion of the royal wedding (deliberately spelt without capital letters.)

Andrew Lansley's 'listening exercise'

Hello

Now, I said I'd update this blog every day for the next few days or so to make up for the long gap, and that's what I'm doing. I've chosen today's topic because it's really quite urgent and that is: Andrew Lansley's 'listening exercise' concerning the NHS.

Andrew Lansley is doing this 'listening exercise' so that when he announces plans to privatise the NHS, he can claim he's talked to the public and listen to what they have to say. It actually doesn't mean anything at all like that, because all the meetings have been kept very secret and hushed up, so not many people actually get a chance to make their voices heard.

However, 38 Degrees (I can't remember if I've mentioned them before? Anyway, they're an NGO that tackles this kind of nonsense) have made a petition to sign, and a feature where people can write to the Government to make it very clear that our National Health Service is not being privatised. Here is the link to the petition:

http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/Protect_our_NHS_Petition#petition/

And here is the feature where you can send your comments:

http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/speakout/nhs-listening-response?js=false/

Please respond to both of these at once. The exercise ends on Tuesday, so it is important to get as many names as possible. On the last day, 38 Degrees with deliver Andrew the petition - in full view of the media! So come on guys! Be part of it! Take a few moments to sign your name.

I don't have anyone to love and admire today. Okay, that sounds very harsh, and it didn't sound like that in my head. I'm just not going to mention someone in every single post. Suffice it to say I will love and admire you if you sign the petition!

See you guys!

I'm going out in the world to save our planet, and I ain't coming back until she's saved!

Hello my lovely readers

I am so, so sorry for the gap. As you probably know, I'm in my first year of A-levels, and I've been really busy with exams recently, so I haven't had time to update this blog much in the last month or so. It's been heartbreaking, because there are so many things I wanted to talk about, but there you are.

Anyway, to make up for this, over the next couple of days I aim to put lots more content on this blog, with talks about the royal wedding, the death of Osama, the AV referendum, Andrew Lansley's 'listening exercise' and anything else that comes to mind. I really want to start updating this blog more regularly, I hate it when I fall behind.

Anyway, for the first time with this post, the 'people I love and admire' section is going to be the main bit, because I have quite a lot to say this time. My person to love and admire this time is someone called Axel Ehnström, better known by his professional name, Paradise Oskar. He is a Finnish singer, and I first came across him nearly two weeks ago when he represented Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song 'Da Da Dum'.

Now, if you watched it, you will know that the title of this post is a lyric from the song, which he wrote himself and sang solo with a guitar. The song was about a nine-year-old called Peter, who is told that the planet is dying and someone needs to save it. He naively tries to tell everyone to stop what they're doing and to save the planet with him, but no one listens to him because he is just a child. Peter decides to continue to persevere, no matter what anyone says.

I think the message in the song is that anyone can be Peter. We have all become so cynical, and whenever it seems like we could help, we think, 'Oh it's more complicated than that.' I feel that I am Peter in a way, because I am persistent and I never will give up on what I believe in. Maybe it's just because I'm a young idealist, but I actually do want to save the world. And I want everyone to know about it.

So come on, people! Join me! Make a difference! Do something decent with your life! I'm doing it by being a political activist and writing this blog! Come on, don't let the world down!

And of course... here is the song!

R.I.P. Elisabeth!

Firstly, apologies for no posts at the weekend. This time it wasn't that I just didn't get around to it, but just because I couldn't think of what to write about - but I can now. This blog is called 'George Millman, Actor and Political Activist' and over the last few months I have written a lot of political stuff, but not so much about being an actor. So this post is dedicated to a really legendary actor, who has just sadly died an untimely death from cancer at the age of 63: Elisabeth Sladen, best known for her role as Sarah Jane Smith in Doctor Who and its spinoff, The Sarah Jane Adventures.

I've always thought Elisabeth was good. I'm obviously not old enough to remember her from classic Doctor Who, but in more recent years I've enjoyed watching her stuff. I was very surprised when I realised how old she was, because she always seemed really sprightly and fit for her age, and I was actually quite shocked today to learn of her death, particularly when I never even knew she had cancer. Credit to her for keeping her illness quiet really. Anyway, I just thought that as I didn't post at the weekend, I should do a midweek post dedicated to an acting legend who will be remembered for a long, long time. R.I.P. Elisabeth, you will be much missed.

There are no prizes for guessing who is featured in people I respect and admire this time!

Bradley and Big Brother

Hello, and welcome to this week's post!

Now, a few days ago I was wondering what to dedicate this week's post to, when an email from avaaz.org (which you might know is an international civic organisation that promotes activism on issues such as human rights) basically answered the question for me. The email was a link to a petition against the brutal treatment of WikiLeaks whistleblower Bradley Manning - which needless to say, I immediately signed.

I don't know much about Bradley Manning, so I was going to do a lot of research about him before I posted this, so I can talk about the things that he has done and exactly why this is cruel and inhumane. However, as soon as I started, I came across a really wonderful article that completely hit the nail on the head. The writer of this article, Ryan Gallagher, describes it much better than I can, so I will simply leave a link to this article so everyone can read it. Here it is:

http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/bradley-manning-is-uk-citizen-we-have-a-duty-to-help-him

And of course, here is the petition calling for Manning's release:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/bradley_manning/?cl=1008236539&v=8793

I absolutely urge you to sign this immediately. I don't care who you are or what you do, but this is a man's life we're talking about here. Please don't click off and plan to do it later; you might forget. Come on, you'll feel really good about yourself afterwards!

There is one more thing I'd like to talk about this week. It has been announced that popular reality TV show Big Brother is returning on another channel, only a year after what was meant to be the last series ended. I personally am a bit of a fan, so I'm quite excited about this, even though I think this has happened much too quickly.

Anyway, last night I was having a conversation about elections last night, and I had a marvellous idea: elections should be like Big Brother! We get all the candidates into a studio house for a few weeks, get them involved in silly tasks, film them non-stop, vote off all the annoying ones and then the winner becomes Prime Minister, or whatever it is we're electing them for.

Yes, I know saying it like that sounds really stupid, but I think it would be a much better system than what we have at the moment. It's a much better way of finding out things about a group of people you know nothing about. The big problem at the moment is that we don't see the candidates under pressure until they've been elected in. If they were all involved in a confined situation that brings out the worst in everyone before the election, the whole country could see what they're really like and know which one they want in charge. I actually think this could work?

For people I respect and admire this week, I have to go with Bradley Manning - who else? And also Ryan Gallagher, because he wrote a really great article about him. And made this post much easier for me to write.

See you next week, peoples!

London Protests and The Big Questions

Hello people

Now once again, my blog is falling behind a bit. I am really sorry about this. I am trying to keep it up to date, but I have loads of work at the moment. I can't believe I've missed a whole week on this blog, particularly considering the subject matter of this latest post.

Anyway... I was at the London protests last Saturday! It was a full day of it, with the trip from and back to Bristol. I was with a gang of a few people - both my parents were there and some friends, and a few new people. I helped with holding a sign that one of our party had made saying 'SAVE OUR NHS'. There was some wonderful placards around. There was one that said 'Be careful where you cut' and the placard was cut into the shape of an enormous pair of knickers!

There were also some incredible chants. ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) was being led by a very loud and eccentric woman who was leading a chant of, 'ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR! KICK THEIR CUTS RIGHT OUT THE DOOR!' She was doing the sign language as well. I went and helped them out a few times. There was also an American woman with a vocoder and a load of kids near her who was going 'There ain't no power like the power of the people 'cause the power of the people don't stop!' Then the kids go, 'Say what?' I joined in with that as well, it was such fun! But seriously, I was very excited by this march. These things really make you feel part of something. Maybe it's just because I'm young and naive, but I'm actually very positive about the potential impact of these protests. Historically, people have got through a lot worse by protesting, so why could the same effect not happen now?

We didn't actually get as far as Hyde Park, we had to turn around so as not to miss our coach.

There is another thing I just want to talk about in this post, and that is The Big Questions. I've been meaning to talk about it for ages, but I haven't had a chance to - until now. The Big Questions is a faith and ethics show presented by Nicky Campbell on Sunday mornings on BBC One. Every week they have three debates - a political one, a moral one and a spiritual one. They have had some fantastic arguments in the past, and I watch it every week. I would really recommend it to anyone who likes debating the issues - and if you're reading my blog, it falls within the same category. I will probably talk quite a lot in future posts about things that they've discussed, so seriously, give it a try (although it's not on for most of April.)

For people I respect and admire this week, I really have to just mention the people I was on the protest with: Gill Frost and Chris Millman (my parents), Melanie MacIntosh, Mark Smalley, Caroline Naysmith and Tim. There are also some friends who I didn't meet there, but who I know were there - so thanks to Will Taljaard, Sammy Tikly and Alina Muszynska as well.

Check back soon!

Why I call teachers by their first names

As you probably know, I am an A-level student, and when I got into college for the first time, I made a decision: I would call all my teachers by their first names! I got the idea from my law teacher and tutor Stephen (who I commended in my very first post, because he's a legend) who walked into class on my first day and said, 'My name is Stephen.' It got me thinking that by the time you get to sixth form college, you are really on more equal terms with your teachers. I have talked to Stephen about this since then, and he completely agrees with me about being equals. However, I was a bit unprepared by the amount of shock that came from people at the college - mostly students actually. I have heard people say that if someone is teaching you, then you should show them respect. I say that the kind of respect that comes from a title is actually only a false perception of respect, as opposed to real respect, which is what I show people who I really admire. Maybe it's because until I was eight I was at a school that actually encouraged its students to call teachers by their first names, so maybe I have been brought up with different values, but the way I see it, it's much better to respect and admire someone enough to commend them on your blog than to only respect someone enough to call them by a title - which is what you're being told to do anyway, so that's not even respect.

So anyway, I thought I would write a blog about this to see what people thought. Please feel free to leave a comment or something to see what you think about my views.

Again, I'm not mentioning any people I love and admire this week, simply because I don't feel like it. I will do it sometime soon, I have a few people in mind. Ciao!

Just life and all

Hi guys

Now firstly, HUGE apologies for not posting in over a month. I have been really busy with exams (I'm in the first year of A-levels) and I haven't found much time for being a political activist or for updating my blog in the last few weeks. I'm hoping that with this post I can return to my regular posting.

Now, over the last few weeks I've thought of loads of things I could talk about, but there are too many to really talk about in one post. Suffice it to say I utterly condemn Edward Woollard's harsh sentence and I have signed petitions in protest, I will be going on a London march next month and I think Prince William and Kate are being extremely selfish to make a load of students, such as myself, take a day off from their studies just so that they can get married. They could have done it in the summer.

Now, I'm just going to give a little anecdote that happened to me tonight. Basically, I was the administrator of a Facebook group for the theatre workshop that I am part of to discuss what is going on, and also to socialise. Anyway, tonight I got really annoyed with a few of the members who were basically spamming the Wall and making a nuisance of themselves, so I removed them from the group - not as a permanent thing, just so that everyone including myself could cool off. Anyway, someone else re-added them and everyone was calling for me to be stripped of my admin post, so I emailed the group creator and I asked her to look over the conversation to see if I should leave my post as administrator. She made another group member administrator instead, and I stepped down.

The thing is that I have no regrets at all about what happened tonight. I was obviously quite a dominant leader, because that is my leadership style. I stand by what I did in removing those people, because I felt that they were vandalising the group. But at the end of the day, I do listen to other people, which is why I agreed to step down when the group called for it. If they didn't want me in charge any more, who am I to contest that?

The point of this anecdote is that the way I see it, I did not do anything wrong. All leaders have to make controversial decisions, but the trick is to know when to trust one's own judgement and when to listen to everyone else. I didn't want to be a dictator and continue to run things when the group had made it clear they didn't want me to anymore. This is where David Cameron goes wrong: he always thinks of his own values beyond everyone else's. This is why, much as I enjoy thinking of things I would do, I would never, in real life, want to be Prime Minister. That would go against everything I stand for.

Now, I don't feel like mentioning any more people I admire in this post, but I do have a few in mind for future posts, so please stick around.

Once again, I apologise for leaving it so long to update this :)

Twitter and sit-ins

Hi guys

How are we all? I know you can't answer that... except possibly in a comment

So, the big news at the moment is that Twitter has been ordered to release the details of every account registered to Julian Assange, Bradley Manning, Rop Gonggrijp and Birgitta Jonsdottir, including user names, screen names, mailing addresses, residential addresses and private messages. The US actually had the cheek to tell Twitter not to tell these people, but good old Twitter boldly took legal action and told them anyway.

Of course, this means that it is also likely that the US has sent similar things to Facebook, Google and other social networks, and it is also possible that these networks have just quietly handed over their precious user's contact details like good little bunnies. I guess it's a good thing that Twitter have announced it to their users. I'm not on Twitter myself (well, I am technically - I signed up as part of a pact I made with a mate to get them to join Facebook, but I've never logged in since I started.) In my opinion, Twitter and Facebook and all the others should just say no. What can the US do? They'll arrest them, maybe have them convicted - then what? Doing that won't suddenly make the user's information appear in the authorities' minds as if through a wormhole. If I ran Twitter, I think I'd wind them up when I received the subpoena by sending them back something that looked completely automated, like this:

Hi Bob (or Jim or Dave, or whatever their name is)

Glad to hear your enjoying Twitter. Have a great 2011, and don't forget to save time for tweeting!

Anyway, Birgitta (who I mentioned above) is a member of Icelandic parliament, former WikiLeaks volunteer and self-descibed activist, who is determined to challenge this in any way she can. She has written, 'Talked with the Icelandic minister of Justice - he is now looking into the case of demands of DoJ wanting my Twitter details. If anyone from Twitter legal is reading, I'd like to confirm that I am contesting any subpoenas - I do not consent. My lawyer will call.' In fighting it, in my opinion, she is being a total legend, and for that reason, you can officially consider her part of my 'inspiration' list.

In other news, the Stephenson Five (who I commended in my last post) have finally left their University building with their heads held high, just days before they were forced out. I guess this is a good thing - they didn't get everything they wanted, but they felt they had done all they could and plan to reconvene once it opens again. There are a few people in the press who are challenging them - I got into an argument with this bloke called James Lyle Findon on their Facebook page, who was going on about how stupid these people are and how the protests have gone much too far, and how he supports what the Government are doing anyway, and he sounded like such an arse. Overlooking the question of what he's doing in that group in the first place if he doesn't agree with it, he was also being really horrible to someone else in the group who was dismissed from the University for his opinions, believe it or not. Eventually I told him straight exactly how I felt, I said that I'd told him everything I could and then I said I wasn't prepared to debate it any further!

Well, that's it from the George-monster for this update. Please check back regularly to find out what else I have in store...

Happy New Year!

Hello everyone

Well, first off I would like to wish everyone a really amazing new year. Anyone have any resolutions? Mine is not raising my voice during arguments.

The other day, I was talking to one of my friends and I gave them my 'I hate the Government - EVERY Government' policy and they came out with, 'Would you prefer a dictatorship?' That made me think that maybe my motto is a bit misleading, so basically I'll explain it here, if anyone was confused. It effectively means that I would not trust anyone who was running a nation, because power is enough to make anyone corrupt. Agreed, a dictatorship would be even worse, but it doesn't make the idea of the Government any better. The world only runs smoothly when the public are there to remind the Government who's boss.

I also have a few new people to commend:

1) Laurie Penny

Laurie Penny is a really wonderful journalist and blogger who often writes for the Guardian. Her tagline is 'Pop culture and radical politics with a feminist twist'. I first came across her when I discovered an article she wrote about what it is like to be stuck in a kettle in a London protest, which a friend of mine described as, "She comes at it with a much more truthful angle than the BBC who wrote, 'Police eventually surrounded a group of around 150-200 people in Trafalgar Square, where fires with lit, graffiti daubed on statues and missiles thrown at riot police.'" Her blog address is http://pennyred.blogspot.com/ and please check out the list of things that she's written for the Guardian as well.

2) The Stephenson Five

The Stephenson Five are five students who are currently occupying the Senate building at the University of Kent. Student occupations have been happening around the country for weeks now, but most have fizzled out - except this one. The sit-in started on 8 December after Julia Goodfellow, the university's vice-chancellor, signed an open letter condoning the impending rise in tuition fees. The students demand that Goodfellow remove her name from the letter and publicly condemn the rise on the University's website. Although the students could initially come and go, the University has made the independent decision to treat them like criminals and has hired private security guards, from a company known to all and sundry as Campus Watch, to ensure that no one can re-enter once they have left. As students decided to leave for the Christmas holidays, there are now only five students remaining. They are known as the Stephenson Five because they are all going by the surname Stephenson, to make it harder for legal action to be taken against them (which the university are attempting to do.)

I have also found out that my favourite voice actor, Steven Webb, is in a relationship with the veteran actor Stephen Fry! I'm not sure which of them I envy more...

I am considering going to a London protest later this month, but nothing's decided yet.

I think that's about all for now - keep your eyes tuned to this blog, I will hopefully be adding some more stuff in the near future.