The downsides (and upsides) to being an activist

Okay, so this is one of the longest breaks from my blog that I have ever taken. I have been planning to post an update on things that have been happening for weeks, but somehow life has just kept getting in the way. I find that the longer I take to update this, the more important it is for there to be a good reason to write a new post. For example, I have been planning to write about my opinions on smoking for a while now, and maybe I still will, but I can't really do it in this post because there has been so much going on that it would feel a bit odd to start writing about that when there have been so many more important things to discuss.

Two weeks ago was my four-year anniversary of being a political activist (and yes, I have been working on this blog for all of the last two weeks). On 24 November 2010, at the age of 17, I participated in my first political demonstration, against tuition fees for students, and the adrenaline rush I got from this, coupled with the feeling that I was making a difference in this world, made me think that I wanted to do this in addition to my acting work for the rest of my life. In the last four years, I have done a lot of activism work in all forms, from marching to signing petitions to creating political theatre, and have campaigned on all kinds of issues. My interest in tuition fees went on to other cuts to public services that were being made by the Government (to the NHS for example); from there I went into being interested in political prisoners (specifically, the case of Chelsea Manning), I spent a lot of time opposing the Bedroom Tax and this summer I was heavily involved in the Palestine movement. (I have also done other things, but these have been the campaigns that I have most heavily been involved with.) On my anniversary, I posted on Facebook that I have not regretted a single second of my activism. I still stand by this statement, as everything that I have achieved, and hopefully will continue to achieve, is worth any negative consequences that this kind of work brings. However, there are some days where it crosses my mind that sometimes this is more bother than it is worth. A few days after my anniversary, these thoughts struck me. I thought, 'Is all of this really worth it?' That feeling quickly faded, so obviously it is worth it, but as with most ventures, there are good points and bad points to it. I had the idea for this blog when I was in the bad phase, and it was initially just going to be about the negatives. However, it quickly became clear that this wasn't a good idea, for two reasons: a) Because that would seem like I was advising people against it, and I would never do that and b) I don't want to suggest that it's an unpleasant thing to do. It is generally very rewarding.

So I'm going to post the top five downsides to being an activist, and then neutralise them with five things that really make it worthwhile. Those people who read this who are involved in political activism may be able to identify completely with what I am saying, and those who are not may gain an insight into how life is for me on a day-to-day basis. So, here goes:

The Downsides

1. Being contacted at all times to provide assistance with an impossible number of things
Out of all the downsides to being an activist, this is perhaps the most troublesome, and I really can blame no one but myself for it. What happens is this. I sign a great deal of petitions - more than twenty in a week probably - and they are generally for things that I care about, but naturally some more than others. The organisers of these petitions frequently get back in touch with me about other campaigns that they are working on and could use my help with. Now, I don't really mind them doing that - were I in their shoes, I would do exactly the same thing - but this year it has got to a stage where it is a little bit out of hand. I have decided that between now and the new year I will unsubscribe from a number of sites whose campaigns really do not motivate me quite as much as some of the others. I feel quite bad doing this, because I generally do support them 100%, but I find that I do not physically have the time or energy to be that enthusiastic about every single cause that I am contacted about. I find that a lot of the time I just skim emails, taking in very little. That's not how I want to do things. I want to read and feel passionate about what I'm signing - and a lot of the time I do, but it gets a little too much. Not to mention the fact that a lot of these causes ask for financial donations. I'm a student, and I do not have an income. I have enough money to make donations, but that money is being saved for my future. As an actor, I'm in an incredibly unstable profession, especially in the current financial climate, and when I leave University in 2016, I need to be able to support myself. And if I'm honest, that makes me feel guilty, because I would like to be able to financially contribute more, but there comes a point where I need to think about myself as well. And I think that recently I have been coming to terms with the fact that as an activist, you need to pick and choose which causes really interest you and motivate you to do something about them. It is possible for one person to change the world, but there is only a certain amount that a person can do, so quite frequently I need to think, 'No, that's something for someone else to take on.' It is hard to know when to do that, but I think I'm getting better at it.

2. People's frustrations, and harm to personal friendships
I am naturally very opinionated, and I tend to bring those opinions into social discussion quite a lot, both in person and via online formats such as social media. I think this has always been a part of my character, but in the time that I have been a political activist my convictions have naturally grown stronger, and as a result there have been times that people have been quite taken aback by my blunt approach. I'm really not the type to beat around the bush, or to water down my opinions because someone else disagrees. As someone who is quite frequently involved in quite heated debate, I have rather hardened to it, and I have a resolve to not take anything personally by someone else's opinion. As a matter of fact, I will request that no one ever raises their voice: I think it's a fair bargain to allow someone to say whatever they like to me, in as blunt, sarcastic or rude terminology as they like, provided that they express that in a calm, relaxed and professional manner, and I will make an effort to stick to that myself as well. It's a method of protection that one becomes accustomed to if they are involved in as many political debates as myself. Other people often don't have any method of handling such situations at all. Generally I think that that is their problem and not mine, as I believe that in this sort of conversation it is important to be able to handle oneself well however the other person is taking it, but the reaction to me does get depressing from time to time. There have been times that I have lost friendships for being too outspoken about certain things - for example, an old acquaintance of mine blocked me on Facebook, after she had recently uploaded pictures of her newborn and I left a comment expressing my distaste for people who upload baby pictures. In that instance, I wasn't too bothered as she hadn't been someone I have known especially well, but since then I have actually made an effort to rein that back a little, as it isn't something that is worth losing friends over. But there are times when people object to my political stances so much that they withdraw from me as an individual. I try not to be too upset by it; those people clearly are not worth being friends with, and I have just as many better friends who tell me that they really respect the fact that I tell people straight; but nevertheless it can get quite depressing.

3. Ignorance is bliss, and awareness can be torture
This is an interesting one. Being an activist, I am naturally made more aware of what is going on in this world than I would be otherwise. Generally, I would say that this is a good thing, but there are massive downsides. There are points when my desire to remain informed clashes head-on with my desire to remain sane. There have been times that I have literally had to disconnect from all forms of electronic media just to give myself a break from learning anything more about the terrible things that are going on, because there is so much that is wrong with the world that it sometimes feels like there is nothing that anyone can do to help. Fortunately this feeling is usually pretty brief, and after a decent sleep I normally wake up with the knowledge that whilst one person cannot do everything, one person can do enough, and the rest can be done by others. I think it has been at these points that I have become most aware of my spiritual side. I am actually a very spiritual person - some people are surprised at this fact, because I'm not sure it's the stereotype of an intelligent and earnest actor and political activist, but I think it is this that has made me so spiritual. There are times when I am so freaked out that all I can do is close my eyes and meditate, and I always come to the same realisation when I do this. The realisation is that I am able to work my damned hardest to make a difference in this world, but in order to be effective in that I also have to focus on making life worthwhile for myself. I said once before on this blog that when fighting so that others can have an enjoyable life, you also need an enjoyable life yourself, because if activism is making you depressed and frightened it isn't worth it. Now this would never cause me to give up on activism, but it does sometimes mean that I have to go about things a different way.

4. Not remembering what you've already done
This is another thing that is similar to the first point. When you're involved in as many campaigns as I am, it is quite hard to remember them all. I quite often receive phone calls from organisations who say, 'Hi, you signed our petition about such-and-such recently', and I'll think, 'Did I?' It sounds like something I would have signed, but I can't honestly recall it, as it doesn't stand out from all the others. Also, sometimes I get prompted to do things which I am not sure whether or not I have already done. I am prompted to write to my local MP about a certain issue, and I'll think, 'Now I know I've contacted him about five other things this week, but did I send him anything about this?' I think when I say it like that it sounds a bit like I don't really care about a lot of the campaigns that I'm involved with. Nothing could be further from the truth. I can honestly say that I do completely agree with every petition that I sign, or cause that I get involved with. But aside from the ones that I am the most passionate about, a lot of them seem to get filed in a similar place in my brain, and it is hard to keep up. Maybe I should think about making a written list.

5. The discussions about political and social philosophies
Now don't get me wrong, the people I meet in this world are great. I have met some amazing friends whilst doing this, and I will probably talk about that quite a lot in the 'upsides' section. However, there is one thing that is quite tiresome about the approach of some of the people involved, which is that a serious debate can quite frequently turn to discussions about specific philosophies and ways of thought. Now I realise that that sounds quite crude when I say it like that. I must clarify that it is not that I lack interest in those things; on the contrary, I have had some really fascinating discussions about them. However, I think that when one is discussing a serious political or social issue, that sort of line in conversation is not always especially relevant. It seems that certain people decide what to think about the issues in our society on the basis of whether this is an accepted viewpoint in their chosen philosophical view on life, and I think that that is not the way. It's the same as with agreeing or disagreeing with something because your religion tells you to - I think that if that is the case, you may have chosen that religion in line with your own opinions, but they should not be your opinions because your school of thought tells you that they should. I believe that plain old-fashioned common sense overrides all of this. I would rather people did not box themselves into a certain category that appears to coincide with their views, because it may not coincide with their views on everything and I think it's important to be independent-minded enough to make up one's own mind on a subject when one is presented with all the evidence. There is always a bit of pressure to label oneself as well, and I try to avoid it as much as possible. A lot of people ask whether I am left- or right-wing. If I had to answer that I would say left-wing because that is where most of my views tend to swing, but not all of them. A few of my views are a lot more conservative - I just agree with whatever I happen to think is right. There are people who will tell you that that is all really subjective, but in fairness personal opinion is all subjective. It doesn't make it any less legitimate, and it doesn't mean that you cannot still put forward a convincing argument to sway someone else.

Okay, those are all the most irritating things about this line of work. Now for a much more enjoyable series of paragraphs!

The Upsides (making a difference to the world is of course the main one, and that doesn't get a paragraph here because that should be obvious, so these are additional benefits):

1. Becoming a better and more informed debater
Political debate is everywhere. I sincerely doubt there will be a single person reading this for whom political debate is not a massive part of their lives, although many will probably deny that. I have been debating issues for many years - since I was quite a young child really, and certainly long before I considered myself to be an activist. Everyone likes to express their opinions on things. When I first came to live in Colchester, a lot of my fellow students claimed 'not to care about politics'. I find that an extremely irksome claim, because everyone does - you just need to get someone worked up enough to be able to put across their views. Whilst working on the political cabaret module of my course, there were a lot of political and social issues that came up that people felt very strongly about, which of course led to some pretty heated debates. As a matter of fact, I found this quite exciting as I felt that they had all had a glimpse of my world whilst this was happening, and in any case this was proof that the assertion that one does not care about politics is pretty false. But anyway, I digress slightly. The point that I am trying to make is that I have always been very forthright in terms of expressing my viewpoints, just as everyone is, but in the years that I have done this sort of work I have found myself to be increasingly capable at doing this. Because of the amount that I have read, heard and become informed about, I am now someone who is able to put a point across in a manner which is neither too timid nor too confrontational, back this up with evidence and also listen to another person's point. The more you do this, the better you get. I don't think it is exactly possible to handle a debate perfectly - I am actually quite self-critical, though privately so. After every debate that I take part in, I question whether I had done anything wrong and if so, how I could improve on that next time, and I bear all of this in mind for the next time that such a situation arises. If I have finished a debate and I feel that I have generally handled myself well, even if the other person has not conceded to my overall point, I feel quite elated and satisfied with how I have gone about things. When I was younger, I didn't get that; I would leave thinking of several more valid points that I could have raised and forgot about in the emotion of it all. Of course, that still happens from time to time, but not as frequently as it once did. This is something that I am really proud of actually. I want to be eloquent and articulate. On a personal level, this is the thing that I find the most appealing in another person, and of course the things that one finds appealing in others are generally also the traits that one wishes to incorporate themselves. Every experience that I have makes it easier to be able to handle myself with the proper levels of decorum in high-emotion situations such as this.

2. Immediate respect from people
In the downsides, I talked about the loss of personal friendships due to being outspoken. There is a flip side to this, which is that in certain instances, the term 'political activist' prompts other people to subconsciously view you as being someone important, which is quite a personal confidence boost as well. For example, whilst at WOMAD music festival I heard a pretty fantastic speech from a woman representing Greenpeace, and afterwards I approached her with a smile and said, 'Hi, I'm George, I'm an independent blogger and political activist.' She was immediately very warm and friendly, I found her an easy person to talk to and I felt that I learned something from that. Using those terms was also beneficial for me to subconsciously feel like someone who was entitled to express an opinion. This sounds slightly pretentious when I say it like that, but I don't think it necessarily needs to be. Everyone wants to be respected and to naturally respect themselves, and if you have something that naturally speeds that up a little, it is quite useful. Of course, when it comes down to it it doesn't make me stand out at all, because I'm not any more special than anyone else. Whilst I view it as one of my two main vocations (the other being theatre), 'political activist' just means that I actively and willingly take part in campaigns for various forms of social change. Anyone can do that, I'm just an ordinary person at the end of the day. But those words are an instant way to ingratiate oneself with other like-minded people, who otherwise may not have considered you very worth talking to (and for the record, I'm sure that the lady from Greenpeace who I refer to would have been delighted to chat with me in any case because she was very approachable, but it's a shortcut to getting to have these conversations in the first place that is key.) I like the term 'political activist'; it makes me feel like I'm making an effort to do something decent.

3. The friends I meet
I can honestly say that I have met some of the most amazing, awesome people that I have or will ever come across whilst doing this kind of work! People who are like-minded, people who see the world in a similar world to the way that I do. Being an activist is very social; you meet a whole lot of people through what you do, and if you want to continue being involved, it is important to network with them. A lot of people say to me, 'George, you do so much and I'd like to as well, but how do I get started? How do I find out about all these things?' And the advice that I always give in response is to say, 'Talk to people. Find out what people think about things, what is going on and what you can do to make a difference to something you care about.' I was given a bit of a boost when I started out; many of my friends happened to be involved in the tuition fee campaigns, and I joined them. I met people there who introduced me to other things, I started this blog to keep a record of it all and it all went from there really. You can't really be an activist on your own; we all contact one another, give each other ideas and organise things like that. After four years, I am really quite a well-known political activist in the Bristol area. I wouldn't go as far as to call myself a public figure, but many people who are involved in any sort of social change know me either personally or through reputation, from things that I may have posted on social media, and if they don't know me they will know some of my activist colleagues. It's a different sort of friendship to most others; you can sit in a bar with them and discuss social issues anecdotally, and you are all aware that you are welcome to disagree with one another and no one will take it personally - it will just spark a debate. Well in any case, you may get different experiences from other people, but this has been mine.

4. The personal satisfaction
That feeling. It's impossible to describe in words, but that feeling that I got at my first demonstration I continue to feel every time I'm in the middle of fighting for something I care about, expressing a point succinctly in a debate or when I get the news that something I have been campaigning about has taken off. It is not unlike that tingly feeling in one's stomach when one is in an aircraft about to take off, although I realise that for people who aren't too keen on travel that may sound like a less pleasant comparison. There are only three things in life that give me that level of excitement: the aircraft example that I just gave, being onstage in front of an audience and being engrossed in a campaign. I don't just do activism for personal satisfaction, of course I do it to make a difference to the world, but the enjoyment that I get from it is undoubtedly a big part, I'm not ashamed to admit it.

5. A greater understanding of the world
As I said in the 'downsides' column, this can also be a negative as it can really get on top of me sometimes. However, the majority of the time being an activist means that without trying, I learn a great deal about how this world works. I am a lot more knowledgable than I was a couple of years ago, and this is not just the fact that I am a few years older than I was that. I read a great many articles about things that are occurring in various countries. I gain a greater understanding of what is ethical and what is not, and I have a considerably more mature viewpoint on most issues than probably many others of my age. I also think that I have learned quite a lot of practical skills as well. I know how to talk a lot and say very little (a tactic I occasionally use with police officers trying to gain information). I know how to be the most influential person in a large group without being the leader. I have a realistic idea about what I can get away with and what I can't, and I am able to remain a prominent figure or to keep my head down accordingly. Perhaps surprisingly, in the years that I have been an activist I have never been arrested - I have rarely done anything illegal, if ever (I cannot be entirely sure, because I don't know the law well enough to be able to judge on technicalities - however, for the most part I take care to remain within the parameters of what is legal, provided I am able). The closest I came to being arrested was during the Palestine conflict, when I was pulled out of a supermarket and kicked to the ground by a police officer, who claimed that I had assaulted him (I had not). Fortunately I managed to avoid being arrested, although there was a very scary moment when I thought I would be. I managed to keep my head down enough to avoid being noticed much for quite a few days afterwards, and I think that this experience taught me a lot. Every experience teaches me so much, and I think if this is how much this kind of work has shaped me within four years, the years to come potentially could contain so much more.

So in summary, despite a few tiresome episodes, being a political activist is pretty sweeting awesome! I'm not lying when I say that I rarely regret the number of things that I'm involved in, and I would honestly recommend it to anyone. It has been a good four years, and I hope I have many more to come!

I will try to update this blog more soon. I was honestly working on this one for the longest I have ever taken to write a blog. It is difficult to write so much in a short space of time - but I'm doing my best! Hope you enjoyed reading it x

Fracking consultation

Hello!

This will just be a quick post to plug a campaign by both Greenpeace and 38 Degrees in opposition to fracking. Tomorrow, new legislation could be passed that could potentially allow fracking underneath your home. There are numerous concerns with this, both for an individual's personal wellbeing and for the Earth as a whole. There are numerous alternatives to hydraulic fracturing that would not put our future as a species in danger, but of course the powers that be don't consider that as they are all in the pockets of the energy companies. Only when there are no natural resources left will man learn that he cannot eat money.

So anyway, to get started, just click here.

Consultation closes at 11.45 tomorrow morning (14/08/2014) so please get a move on! I'm not going to bore you here with the details of why you should do this, because I feel that right now the priority is to get people to contact the Government Fracking Consultation. If you'd like to learn more about this subject, there are numerous articles all over the Internet that are at your fingertips if you wish to search for them. But for now, suffice it to say that if this legislation goes ahead, our personal wellbeing could be in serious jeopardy, as could the future of Planet Earth.

This is extremely important, and I hope that everyone who reads this will go for it! Thanks for reading, and I do hope that you take part in this consultation. Thank you.

150,000 people, united in a common cause

'Presently she said, "Dears, when you say your prayers, I think you might ask God to show His pity upon all prisoners and captives."
"To show His pity," Bobbie repeated slowly, "upon all prisoners and captives. Is that right, Mother?"
"Yes," said Mother, "upon all prisoners and captives. All prisoners and captives."'
from The Railway Children by Edith Nesbitt

Hello! This blog should have been written a couple of days ago, but I just haven't found the time. In fact, I haven't updated it at all much recently. I think that the reason for this is partly that I've been busy with things in my personal life, and partly that there haven't been any major developments in things that have been happening to me politically. I have continued to be very involved with the Palestine demonstrations, but not quite as frequently as before; I'm still just as passionate about the cause as ever and I will defend it to anyone, but I have had personal commitments such as holidays and other projects to attend to. In general I try not to let things like this interfere with my work as a political activist, but at the same time it is important that I have a personal life in addition to that. That's something I'll mention first actually, before I get on to the most important point; political activism is one of the most important things in my life, but in order to do it well it is important that I do also have a life. I will say that to anyone who works in this field, that it is very important to strike a fair balance between the two - don't be so selfish as to avoid campaigning so as to indulge yourself, but be aware when you need to focus on yourself individually as well. After all, my whole intention behind doing this is to make it possible for other people to do just that, so it is entirely fitting that I have other things in my life besides it. I think I strike a fair balance most of the time.

Anyway, I have still been doing quite a lot of work in the Free Palestine campaign, which I'm going to talk about here. The quote at the top of this page is from The Railway Children, and I've used that quote on this blog in the past - I'm not a religious man, I just think that's a really lovely quote, and very appropriate to the sort of things that I write about. It is certainly relevant to the issue that I'm fighting for at the moment regarding the people of Gaza. I feel like the awareness of this issue is picking up a lot, and people are realising that you don't have to be pro-Hamas or anti-Semitic to understand the fact that people in Gaza are dying and this is not a war but a massacre, that has been initiated continuously by Israel. I have been involved with the camp outside the BBC on Whiteladies Road in Bristol (it's not there anymore, but it did some fantastic work), I now boycott companies that I know to support Israel, such as Nestlé, Starbucks, Hewlett Packard, Marks and Spencer, Coca-Cola and McDonalds (though I made a point of never buying the last one anyway, because it's ghastly), and perhaps most importantly, I took part in the massive protest in London on Saturday afternoon.

There were so many people at this demonstration, it was unreal. I was lucky enough to be very near to the front of the stage in Hyde Park, and I could see the speakers very well. The speakers included Owen Jones, George Galloway, Diane Abbott, David Ward and Natalie Bennett, among numerous others. I wish that I could use everything that was said in this blog post because it was so inspiring, but I can't, partly because it would keep me up all night and partly because I think it would crash Blogger's servers! I will say though that I wish that everyone could hear the speeches that were delivered, as they made so many amazing points: about Israel's approach; things that Benjamin Netanyahu has said in interviews; the plight of people living in Gaza (I have contacts out there myself, so I do hear quite a lot about it first hand); how our Government and the United States are studiously ignoring the situation; and what we can all do to help. I was especially proud of how many Jews there were there. I'm not Jewish, and I don't generally support tokenism, but I think that when Jewish people come out and say that this is not right, it goes to show that this argument is not about nationality or religion. This is about discrimination and oppression, and that is something that the Jews more than anyone know about. I actually find it baffling that Israel feels morally able to do this given that as a Jewish nation, its people have felt the impacts of this kind of oppression in the past. I would have thought that they would be the last people to treat a group of people in that way, given the mass slaughter that they suffered in the 1940s. Having said that, it is so fantastic that there are so many Jews who have stood up and said that they are not in favour of Israel's actions. I was actually labelled by a friend of mine recently as being anti-Semitic due to my condemnation of Israel's actions. I will always say in response that there is a huge number of Jews who believe exactly the same thing that I do.

Whilst we're on that subject, I'd like to direct you to a very impressive young speaker and activist called Barnaby Raine. He spoke passionately and emotively outside the BBC, and I have made contact with him online and done a little research into his work in the activism world. He is a practicing Jew, and could very easily front this campaign. But there is no point in me discussing him here, as I can link to his speech:

I didn't really get to speak to Barnaby face-to-face, but I was very taken by his speech, as were we all, and it has been a pleasure and a privilege to speak with him since. I always respect young activists, mainly because I am one myself and have been since the age of seventeen. It is people like us who will ultimately change this world for the better, and I hope that Barnaby and I get to work together on such things in the future, along with other similarly-minded people.

I used to have a feature on this blog that I called 'People I Respect and Admire', which essentially meant just referring to a few people in each update who had really touched me. I stopped doing that because it felt a little bit commercial, as people who touch you ought to do that genuinely and spontaneously, and not just because you're looking out for it. I can honestly say though that I am eternally proud of everyone who went to that demonstration. If you were one of them, you deserve to feel proud of yourself. And if you weren't, there will be many more, as this campaign will not stop. I am especially proud of the fact that no one was arrested. Of course, if anyone had been that would not necessarily mean anything, as generally when violence escalates it is initiated and exacerbated by the police more than by the protesters - sad, but true. However, I think the fact that the major newspapers had to write that no arrests were made in a demonstration this size shows the public what protesters and activists are all about. Of course there is the odd person who latches onto it to cause trouble, but at the end of the day what we want is for the demands of our cause to be met. That does not come with instigating aggression. So I feel that the fact that it was 100%  peaceful is a great achievement for us. It did help, of course, that on this one the police were unusually co-operative. They do that sometimes, though not as often as I'd like.

Before I go, I should like to promote a petition. Many people reading this will know that recently the American actress Joan Rivers publicly made some horrendous comments about how 'Palestinians deserve to be dead' (and no, I am not exaggerating here). The full video can be found on YouTube if anyone cares to search. Ms Rivers claims that her comments were taken out of context. I personally do not buy that, as I have seen the video myself and it is hate-filled and despicable. Anyway, I have signed a rapidly-growing petition demanding an apology from Rivers and for any of her employers to terminate her contract. I think that a message needs to be sent that this sort of comment is unacceptable for someone in the public eye. I do actually preach freedom of speech more than any other social freedom, but if that freedom impacts on other people's liberties I think that sometimes barriers have to be drawn - but certainly on a case-by-case basis and probably only on rare occasions, such as this one. I feel that this case is exceptional, as Rivers is such a public figure, this is such a contentious issue, and her comments could change attitudes the wrong way, therefore exacerbating the situation.

Thank you for reading this, and I shall see you on my next blog! (Or you'll see me, rather.) Take care, rabid readers!

The strike and the Palestine demos

Hello, rabid readers!

Recently, I have had some truly spiffing times, as Enid Blyton would say (incidentally I have discovered the awesome Famous Five parody Five Go Mad In Dorset - for someone who has read rather a lot of Blyton, it is very entertaining!) Anyway, I have gone off track. Yesterday was great because I took part in two very exciting demonstrations. The first was the big strike concerning the public sector that I talked about last week; the second was a fantastic demo outside the BBC building on Whiteladies Road in Bristol to complain about their bias in Israel's favour when reporting the Israel/Palestine conflict. And with regards to the second, I attended another event this evening, and will be working on the project again tomorrow. I will discuss all of this below.

First of all, the strike. I was out in the early morning outside Amelia Court in Bristol, picketing, selling Socialist Worker newspapers and gathering support. I have to say, to start out with I did not sell as many newspapers as I would have hoped, but by the time the rally actually started at 10.30 I was gathering a lot more interest. I think it was because at that point I had the 'Stand Up To UKIP' petition to generate interest. It's actually a lot easier to sell newspapers if you have a petition or something else to engage someone. If you approach people on the street and say, 'Excuse me, would you like to buy a newspaper?' a lot of the time people are saying no before they even find out what you're selling. If you have a petition, you can say, 'Would you like to sign my petition?', you can get them talking about that for a while and at the end say, 'By the way, would you like a newspaper? They're only £1.' Getting signatures is more important than selling newspapers anyway. As I was saying, the one I was publicising yesterday was to get people from every party to say no to UKIP. I think that a lot of the mainstream parties are channelling UKIP's ideals now, as they have proven to be such a force to be reckoned with. It was quite comical actually, because quite a lot of the time people started to walk past me, only to double back when they found out what the petition was for!

Another thing that came up a lot was that people said that they are part of other political parties that the Socialist Workers. This made me question my own values quite a lot. Over the last year or so, I have been very supportive of the Socialist Workers - I have been to a lot of their meetings in Bristol, sold their newspapers and been actively involved in their campaigns. However, this does not mean that I consider myself to be a part of the Socialist Worker party, not that I have anything against it - as a matter of fact most of the things that I have seen about it so far has been very positive - but because my stance as a political activist is that I must remain entirely independent, and therefore I will not be loyal to any party. I support the Socialist Workers in their campaigns because so far their campaigns have tended to be things that I would support anyway, and they are a platform from which I can keep myself informed about things and work with people in order to help the situation. It is difficult to make a difference on your own, and in this sort of work keeping contacts is crucial in order to move forward. So I respect the Socialist Workers, in the same way that I respect some other parties such as the Green Party, and I will continue to support their campaigns for as long as their campaigns are about things that I personally agree with. If I'm collecting signatures and someone says that they are hesitant because they don't really like the Socialist Workers or they belong to a different party, I say that generally I don't think that the person who created it matters so much as the issue that we are fighting for. If the Conservative Party or UKIP created a petition for something that I actually agreed with, of course I'd sign it, despite my general feelings towards those bodies.

Now to discuss Israel/Palestine. Recently I have found that a lot of my news feed on social media sites has been taken up by people complaining about the BBC's reporting of the conflict, saying that they are entirely biased in favour of Israel. I don't personally watch the news very much as I source much of my information about current events from the Internet, but I am aware from personal friends and colleagues of mine that in this situation, Israel is a lot less innocent than the mainstream media makes it out to be. Two days ago, I was called to an emergency three-day demonstration outside the BBC to protest about the way in which the news portrays Palestine in an overwhelmingly negative light and Israel in a generally much more positive one. Personally I am very much on Palestine's side in this, as I believe anyone who actually knew the facts would be - I used to be a lot more neutral about things, but having spoken to people who were a lot more informed than I am, I have been made aware that Palestine are very much the victims here. This is rightfully their land, and whilst I do not personally have any issues with Israeli people being there on principle (just as I do not object to people of any nationality being anywhere), it is quite clear that the state of Israel is the instigator of all of the violence, and that any violence that comes from Palestine in response is a proportionate reaction.

Yesterday, I arrived and there were about forty or fifty people there. We led some fantastic chants, we got a lot of support from passers-by and I really hope that the BBC sit up and take notice. It culminated in us raising two Palestine flags right above Broadcasting House, which I thought looked amazing! It certainly upset someone at the BBC, who shouted 'Can you take it down please?' from a window, but of course no one paid attention. It was naturally gone by today, but frankly I would have been astounded (but delighted of course) had they left it up.

Today, it was even more successful. We had an even better turnout than yesterday, and I feel a lot more enthusiasm for what we were doing. I led a lot of chanting, and quite a lot of people made speeches - we had an open microphone, so anyone who wished to could talk to the group. I also read out a list of the 98 people that have been killed in Palestine since Tuesday, and their ages when they had been compiled - I'm sure that I mispronounced a lot of the names, but I did the best I could and I feel that the message had come across. At the end of it, I revealed that since the list had been submitted, there had been 9 more deaths - I am sure that there will have been more by the time I have written this blog. There was a lot of emotion involved, but also a lot of optimism and team spirit which is marvellous. We received so much positivity from passers-by, I think the BBC were listening and it really felt like we were getting somewhere. There is another event tomorrow, where we are protesting against supermarkets selling products that are either made in Israel or in Gaza under apartheid rule.

I am so proud of everyone who has attended any of the events that I have talked about here, but in particular the Palestine demonstrations as this is something that I am particularly passionate about at the moment. I will blog again soon about the next event, and about any other political projects that I work on.

Take care, readers!

TTIP resistance and Henry Miller

Hi everyone

As I'm sure many of my readers will know, at the moment the door is open for something called Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which will allow corporations to sue elected Governments for decisions which affect their profits. This is obviously an appalling idea, and I have talked about it in the past. There is currently consultation available about this, but it closes within the next day or so. On the off-chance that anyone sees this who has not yet responded, please do immediately.

http://action.sumofus.org/a/ttip-comments/3/2/?akid=6025.1153623.ar134p&rd=1&sub=fwd&t=1

Just click on the link, enter your details and your comment. All of the text on the left will explain more about it. I won't go into it here, because I have discussed it in the past and the website explains it all anyway. But please be assured that this could be a terrible onslaught on British democracy, and I strongly urge anyone to do whatever they can to prevent it.

Now that that is out of the way, I want to move on to Henry Miller. Now, two months ago Henry Miller made international headlines - he was a 19-year-old gap year student who took a substance called ayahuasca whilst holidaying in Colombia, had a very severe reaction and tragically died as a result. This was a very big news story and many people know that I went to sixth form with Henry. I knew him, not especially well, but I spoke to him a few times and he was always pleasant and friendly, we were friends on Facebook and we have quite a lot of close friends in common with one another, so despite the fact that I did not know him especially well, I was deeply saddened by his death and this has been on my mind for a while.

I had considered writing a blog about Henry's death, but I never have until now because I don't feel that there is anything really that I can say that has not already been said. I didn't know him well enough to comment on him personally save for saying that he was always polite to me, and anything else I think has already been said on other media. I am writing this blog to clarify something about Henry's death that has not been reported in the news at all. I obtained this information from a personal source, and I feel that it should have been reported, but by the time it came to light, Henry was yesterday's news.

I was recently informed that Henry Miller died purely because of an allergic reaction to the ingredient in the ayahuasca that he took. This is something that the post-mortem revealed. I think it's important for this to be recognised, because a lot of the comments on various forums suggest that Henry was foolish and stupid, and that whilst it's a sad occurrence he got what was coming to him. The fact is that ayahuasca has very spiritual properties and prior to Henry, there was very little information on it causing harm to anyone, so I feel that these comments are very unfair. Not that I can blame the people who made them, because the news media suggested that it was something that could have been predicted, and the results of the post-mortem were not reported. I am writing this blog because I feel strongly that in these situations, the full story needs to be told so that people do not misinterpret what happened. I don't expect this blog to change very much because I don't get a huge readership (although hopefully it is increasing) but if it changes the opinion of one person, it is in my opinion worth it.

I will just say one more thing. Another thing that I found out is that the news media have been very intrusive towards Henry's family, and have employed tactics which involve secretly approaching his house and hiding in the area watching and listening to things that people are saying. Personally, I think that this is an absolute disgrace. No one should employ tactics like that, and especially not on people who are grieving for their loved one. Unfortunately, I don't think that there is a way to legally prevent this from happening without it being abused - freedom of the press is very important, and I think that any attempt to regulate them will ultimately lead to the truth not being told in a political context. On the whole, I think it is best to allow the press to do what they like. But I would hope that journalists would use their professional integrity and personal sense of human empathy not to do that sort of thing. It is absolutely disgraceful, it hurts people and I think it is generally very unfair.

Anyway, that's all for now. I haven't written as much as I usually do, but then I didn't really intend to. I just had a few subjects that I wished to speak about. I will write more soon.

Preparing for revolution

'If you're feeling low, stuck in some bardo, I, even I, know the solution: love, music, wine and revolution.'
Stephin Merritt in the song World Love from the album 69 Love Songs by the Magnetic Fields

Hello! I thought I'd start off with that quote from one of my favourite songs (will put a link at the bottom of this blog) as I thought it was appropriate, because today I have been preparing for revolution. On 10 July 2014 there will be a huge strike by numerous people who work in the public sector across the country. I myself am rather independent and do not have a union or anything active to strike against, but naturally I very much support the work that is done in the public sector, I will be attending the demonstration and I entirely condemn any suggestion of pay cuts, pension restrictions and any other measure which is harming the lives and wellbeing of those who provide the vital services that our present Government is privatising in back rooms. In this blog, I will discuss the events that I have taken part in today, talk a bit about some of the people I have met and listened to and possibly go a little into my own interpretation on things.

My action concerning this has really taken two forms. Firstly, this morning I stood opposite Bristol Royal Infirmary with a petition to raise awareness of the strike, encouraging people to sign and show support and hopefully leave their contact details if they are interested in taking part. I cannot say I achieved a huge number of signatures, but I think I collected a reasonable amount for the amount of time I was there - the petition drive was wrapped up quite quickly so I did not get as many as I would have liked, but I think I did raise some awareness. One woman in particular really intrigued me by saying that she actually supports the cause and is a member of the Socialist Party, but was in two minds about whether or not to sign because she does not feel that striking is the way to go about making a difference. Her approach is more concerned with discussion and negotiation. This interested me in particular because that is exactly my stance when discussing whether it is ever ethical to go to war. I am very anti-military, and I think that negotiation is a far preferable approach than bombing or sending drones. If someone says that that isn't feasible because people won't listen, I say that it is down to those in power to make them listen. Having said that, I support striking if work or pay conditions are not being met. I wonder why that is? I must confess that I have never really considered the two standards before. My argument in favour of striking is exactly the one that I counter when discussing war - that the powers that be are actually not prepared to listen, so sometimes a strike is necessary for the greater good. I suppose I think of striking as being a less drastic measure than going to war, but now that I have considered the two, I hope that as I grow older I do not become cynical enough about such things that I will ever condone war, because I think that that is immoral. Anyway, I think I have possibly gone slightly off-topic there. Ultimately, the lady in question did sign the petition, as did many other people, which I very much appreciate.

The other relevant thing that I did today was attending a planning session for the rally next week. At this event, numerous people tuned up at the Create Centre in Bristol to listen and contribute; these people represented various unions around Bristol and the surrounding areas such as South Wales, as well as independent people who just wish to get their voices heard and to make a difference to this world, such as myself. There were five key speakers whose speeches I shall comment on a little below, and then guests were allowed to speak. I did not contribute anything myself, partly because we were very pushed for time and partly because I did not feel that there was anything that I could say which had not been said. I did not take written notes, as I do not usually do that at this sort of event; I find that notes are more effective when taken mentally, as to me at least, anything written down tends to look a bit out-of-place afterwards, and hard to put in a sentence. I must stress that it is impossible for me to sum up everything that the principle speakers said; I will comment on the things that stand out, but I am not physically able to express their sentiments in quite the way that they did. I will also post links to the blogs of all of the bodies which these people represent.

The first speaker was Steve Timmins of Protect Our NHS. I had spoken to Steve a little before the meeting began, and I found him an intriguing and politically and morally aware individual. In his speech, Steve talked about how the Protect Our NHS campaign started through 38 Degrees in 2012, how confusing the changes that are currently being made to it are and how it needs to be protected or else we will lose what we have. I have done a lot of work in the past for the Save The NHS campaign, including two invisible theatre spoofs, one in which I played the embodiment of the NHS being wheeled from an ambulance, and one in which I played a junior manager at Virgin called Dick Price, involved with publicising healthcare services that Virgin would be offering post-privatisation.

The next speaker was Jim Delaney from Lambeth College. If I remember correctly, he talked about raising awareness of the rally, as many companies within the public sector have not been balloted about it. (If that was someone else who said that I apologise - it was definitely brought up and I think it was during Jim's speech, but it could have been a different one.) I find Jim's to be one that I cannot recall as much about as some of the others - I have no idea why, it has no reflection on Jim Delaney's speaking abilities or the subject of his discussion, it just did not resound as personally with me as some of the others.

Third to speak was Anne Lemon of National Union of Teachers (NUT). Anne was another one that I spoke to before the meeting - I helped her set the chairs up! - and I was very impressed by her speech. Anne spoke passionately about the plight of teachers today, which is something that I can entirely understand, it being not so long since I was in the education system myself. She discussed how a lot of schools, particularly those in more working-class areas, are getting barely any applicants for jobs, because of shortages of teachers due to many new student teachers dropping out of the system within the first five years. The Government says that this is due to unruly children, which not even going into how insulting that is to people of my generation and slightly younger, is entirely incorrect. The real reasons are to do with payment, retirement ages and targets. In the past, teachers could retire at 60 with great pensions, which naturally attracted many people to the job. Now, teachers retire at 68. Naturally, it will be hard for a teacher of that age to have the same amount of energy and charisma in the classroom, so many will be laid off long before that, but they will still not be able to access their pension until 68. Also, head teachers are free to pay teachers according to their own systems, and many are assessed on performance and targets. Anne discussed how some teachers have a certain number of classes per week observed, and if it does not reach 'good' or 'outstanding' (in short, if anything at all goes wrong, which anyone who has ever been in a classroom knows can happen to the most fantastic teacher) they are not performing up to standard, which is of course extremely stressful and leads to teachers doing a worse job as a result. I myself happen to have a friend who was training to be a teacher and left because of the immense stress that he was put under, and I think that is an absolute disgrace. Not to mention teaching assistants, who are in my opinion the unsung heroes of our society - even more so than teachers really, as they are the ones who will work with the students who are having more problems with certain things and help them overcome any learning difficulties that they have. I think that they could certainly do with more appreciation. (I actually feel a little bit awkward that I remember this much about Anne's speech compared with how little I remember about Jim's! I think education is just something I am extremely passionate about, and Anne's speech touched a very personal note with me.)

Steve Preddy of Unite the Union was the fourth person to speak. He talked some more about the NHS and other bodies affected which are striking. He also touched on the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). I talked about this in my blog of 30 March this year (http://actorandpoliticalactivist.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/lord-kitchener-edith-cavell-and-ttip.html); it is something that I have signed numerous petitions against, and I would encourage others to do the same, if they would. Steve said that if this goes ahead, our NHS will be gone forever as it would open the door for parts of it to be involved in international trade agreements, and no future Government would be able to prevent this from happening. Whilst I am sure that Steve is more informed than I am on this issue, I'm not sure that it could never be prevented in the future, as I think that anything can potentially be made law if someone powerful enough wants it to me. However, that's a moot point, and I'm sure we can all agree that none of us want this to happen in the first place, so that is definitely something that we should include in our campaign.

The final speaker was Huw Williams of UNISON South Gloucestershire. This was undoubtedly the most engaging speech of the night. It was very much a speech of encouragement and motivation, and I felt that Huw did a sterling job on this. The overall points were that we need to get out there, force the Government to back down, and that this needs to be the start of something, not a one-off. Next week's event will hopefully be massive, but ultimately it won't be successful if it stands on its own. Beyond it, there need to be more strikes, more protests and ultimately we will have control. I probably cannot express it quite as well as Huw did, but I think that his words echo a notion that I have been feeling and expressing for some time, in that progress can be made if only people remember that and make an effort to make it. Going back to how I felt when I started getting involved in this sort of work, I realised quickly that people will only protest if they feel that progress is happening quickly, and if it feels futile, they will stop and the group mentality will be lost. Of course, that creates a self-fulfilling prophecy, for it is thinking that way that prevents progress from being made. If it is something that I care about and am passionate about, I will continue to fight for it even when all seems lost. That is how political and social progress gets made. Nothing happens overnight; it takes time and persistence to achieve these things, and if people don't have that motivation to work over an extended period of time, nothing is going to get better.

There was a little more discussion beyond this, including a mention of how if Labour win next year things probably will not change a huge amount, but I think that that is something for another time. I'd like this blog to focus primarily on the rally next week. I don't know a huge amount about what is happening nationally, but the Bristol one will start outside City Hall (the new name for the Council House) and be moving in a circular direction. (I believe it starts at 10.30, but I'm not sure on that - I may have to get someone to clarify that.) I'd advise anyone who is around to come, and to publicise it as much as they physically can. It's a fantastic cause to get involved with, something which will affect each and every one of us.

Before I sign off, there is one comment that came up that I'd really like to talk about. I believe it was either Jim Delaney or Steve Preddy who commented that it is very motivating for young people to take part in a march like this. That really struck a chord with me, because I can personally identify. I'm 20 years old, which is unusually young for someone to be this involved with political and social change projects; a lot of my peer group are neither as informed nor as involved as I am, and I am very used to attending events where I am clearly the youngest person there (I think I was tonight, in fact) and people come across as a little surprised that someone as young as I am is this passionate and this opinionated about things. I think back to how I started all this. I was 17 years old, just starting my A-levels, not really any more politically aware than anyone else my age, and someone asked me if I wanted to come to the student demonstrations with them, and I just agreed because everyone was going and it sounded like fun. At that first demonstration on 24 November 2010, it suddenly struck me how much I cared about what we were doing, and how angry I really felt about being screwed over by the new coalition Government. I realised, then and there, that I wanted to be a political activist, to have my say in this world and to change things for the better. Of course, after the fuss around that died down, my friends just went back to their lives. But I continued to get involved in whatever projects I could, I soon started this blog, I met and talked to relevant people and I did a lot of informing myself about the various issues going on in the world today. It all started with that one demo, and it is really quite surreal to think about how much that changed the course of my life. I think it changed my life for the better, and I would encourage anyone to get involved with these kinds of things. It may feel sometimes like nothing is changing - and you know, if nothing changes the only person you can blame is you for not making them change. Anyone can make a difference. I wish more people would remember that.

Okay, now I have a few links to post.

Protect Our NHS: http://protectournhs.wordpress.com/
Lambeth College's position: http://lambethcollegestrike.wordpress.com/
Information from NUT's perspective: http://www.teachers.org.uk/campaigns/protect-teachers
Unite the Union: http://www.unitetheunion.org/
UNISON, South Gloucestershire: http://www.southglosunison.co.uk/

And, as promised, a link to the song I referenced at the start:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE_5eI7g3Cg&feature=kp

Thanks for reading!

The latest in my life, and the world

Hello!

This will just be a quick one; I just thought I ought to update this blog on some things that have been happening lately. I sometimes see things and think, 'Ooh, I ought to write about that...' and then something happens and I don't. It's really bad, isn't it?

I will start off with some good news. In my last blog I discussed spikes that were being put up around the country to prevent homeless people sleeping there, a measure which I needless to say disapprove of. I am happy to announce that due to the outcry, many of these have now been removed. I'm really pleased about this. I think we talk so much about bad things that go on that it goes unnoticed when actually, a public outcry is successful, as this one apparently has been.

Talking of public outcries, on 21 June there was a huge anti-austerity demonstration in London. I couldn't actually go as by the time I found out about it, I had already committed myself to something else (I'll talk about that below), but I am glad that such events are still taking place. I sometimes worry that we accept the status quo too much, and these things give me hope. What does concern me is the lack of footage that the BBC have given it. I feel as though this is a tactical way of minimising the amount of anarchy this country has. I don't especially like feeling that way especially as I try to give people the benefit of the doubt whenever I can, but I feel that on this occasion I have no choice, as there is no other reason that I can think of for this to happen. What I do find laughable is how people still complain that the BBC are very left-orientated! Seriously, I think that the BBC ought to be completely fair in how it deals with things. This does not mean making sure that both sides of a debate get an equal amount of coverage when science has proven one to be far more accurate, but it does mean not sitting and obeying the status quo.

What was I doing on that day? I was here in Bristol, promoting Global Education Partnership and petitioning Justine Greening to uphold her pledge to commit £525 million (yes, I did a double-take as well, but it is actually a very small percentage of our total budget - which we spend on garden parties and the Royal Family whilst there are people that can't afford to heat their homes). I was surprised at how unsuccessfully this particular event went actually. It seemed that very few people were actually willing to talk to me and my colleague, and I think we only got about five signatures in the whole day. Although I have heard that whilst this day was rather a fail, the campaign as a whole actually went really well, and I was recently informed that the funding has gone up by 50%. I think it's a really important campaign actually - it's not necessarily the sort of thing I generally get actively involved with, but when you actually consider it, there would be violent outcries (quite rightly so) if there was the merest hint of a suggestion that this country could not afford schools. So yes, I certainly think that we should be helping promote global education for all.

I have more projects to talk about, but I think they will have to wait for a later blog. This was just to briefly update on the sort of political work that I have been doing lately. Will be updating more soon, take care all!

Lucy Fey and homeless spikes

Hello!

Once again, I have been letting this blog fall by the wayside. I'd apologise, but I think an apology means that you are committing not to do something again, and my track record suggests that this probably will happen. All I can say is that I have been busy of late with my University course, and also that if I don't blog for a certain amount of time, I get very demotivated to do this. I need to update this more in order to keep my own motivation going. So anyway, I am going to attempt to add more content to this in the coming days. I can't guarantee that I'll be successful in that endeavour, but I will of course do the best I can.

There are really two things that I want to discuss on this blog, and the first is as follows. I was really struck the other day by news reports about someone called Lucy Fey, a primary school teacher from Bristol who has quit her job in protest of the immense pressure put on students by our education system. As most people know, our education system, led by Education Secretary Michael Gove, prioritises core subjects, what we might call old-school academic subjects, such as what used to be known as 'the three Rs', over and above things like arts, literature, human interest subjects and physical education. There has been a lot in the news recently about Gove's intentions of removing texts by non-British writers, such as Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck, from the GCSE curriculum, in what actually comes across to me as an attempt to promote works that Gove likes personally over and above a wider variety of cultures, nationalities and eras of literature. I'm not sure if I have spoken much about Gove's education ideals on this blog, but that kind of attitude I needless to say disapprove of. I enjoy reading, but a lot of people my age do not, and I think that this kind of decision is not going to help people enjoy good literature in any way.

I may talk a little more about that in future blogs, but that isn't really what this one is about. When we hear about Gove's controversial changes, we generally think more about secondary education. It appears though that primary school children are just as affected, if not more so. Lucy Fey quit her job teaching in a primary school because apparently she was angry and fed up with having to prioritise subjects that her students were struggling with over and above subjects that they could potentially take much further, and demotivating them in the process. When she left her job, she wrote an open letter to Michael Gove, which I think everyone should read. I'll copy and paste it below, as that will be more effective for the purposes of this blog than me summarising it:

"There is nothing better than a class full of buzzing pupils, excited about what they are learning, taking ownership of the lesson.

"This is becoming increasingly hard to achieve when we expect so much from them. There is little time to have fun, to enquire, to be intrigued, to be children. They have too much pressure. They must, 'compete with the world's best'.

"Why are we not letting them grow as individuals? Why are we damaging their self-esteem and confidence by trying to make them all fit into the same box?

"To ensure a successful future for our country we need to give children a broad, balanced curriculum which enables everyone to excel at what they are good at.

"They need to feel empowered and valued for their individual skills to be able to take risks and push the boundaries to be successful. How is that possible if they have had a restricted education?

"How will all those talented people who are not necessarily 'academic' excel in their different industries if they were not given the opportunity to hone their skills throughout their education?

"How will this improve our country? What sort of adults will they turn in to? I know I never had those pressures when I was a child.

"I handed my notice in last week. I can't do this to them anymore."_

"Until recently, I was not adept at data analysis. I now know that the pupils we are teaching are not simply children, they are numbers, percentages."

"The hours I have spent analysing data to decide which children need intensive afternoon intervention groups, those who need that extra 'boost.'

"Those children do not take part in the afternoon history, geography, art, science, music, PE or RE lessons as they are struggling with maths, reading and writing.

"They understand that they must miss out on subjects they are more likely to engage with, feel confident in, so they have the opportunity to achieve the required level in writing, reading and maths.

"They spend all day, every day struggling. Slowly feeling more and more like a failure, becoming more and more disengaged.

"It is amazing that every one of my pupils knows what level they are working at and what level they need to be at the end of the year.

"Children are so desperate to achieve and to please others that they naturally put themselves under a huge amount of pressure.

"If they are not working at age related expectations they believe they are not doing well despite the amazing progress they have made. They are in tears. They feel the pressure.

"They know they are not where they 'should' be. They know already, at primary school, that they may not be 'successful' in the future.

"They know that the only subjects worth anything are reading, writing and maths. They know that their options are limited."

There is no doubt that I agree with every word. I think that there is far too much of a focus on achieving exceptional marks in an academic sense, and nowhere near enough on the subjects that make a person think, consider and grow on an individual basis. We're all different, and our education system needs to reflect that. Having a system based around a dog-eat-dog situation where only the most conventionally 'bright' students succeed, and those who are having a bit of trouble fail is simply not feasible, not only because it puts everyone who doesn't fit into a certain box a massive disservice, but also because it means that our future is in the hands of people who were not taught effectively about the varying ways of looking at the world and considering situations. I think we're putting our own future in serious jeopardy, actually. This could severely harm the next generation of authors, actors, musicians, artists, sportspeople - in fact, anyone whose talents lie in anything that requires creativity and intellectual capacity, and not merely being able to dot the Is, cross the Ts and circle numbers on a spreadsheet.

I consider myself very lucky to have had an excellent education. If any member of staff or former pupil from my secondary school reads this blog, I don't think anyone will disagree with my assertion that the senior staff there made a very conscious effort to look out for me specifically, and to make sure that I always received any support that I needed with any subjects that I was struggling with, or with any social or emotional issues that I was having. I suppose that it could be argued that it was possibly unfair on the other students that I in particular was looked out for in that way - I sincerely hope that the same went for every student and it seemed to quite a lot from what I saw, but I imagine that must have been difficult with around 1000 students and I think it likely that I was particularly lucky that certain decision-makers took a shine to me early on - but I think overall my school was very good for allowing people to be themselves and being there for students who need support. My experiences there have stayed with me, and as a result I tend to have very high standards of people. I expect people to do their jobs properly, and to fulfil any duty of care that they may have to those using their facilities. Our beloved Education Secretary is one of those people. Of course, he would say that he has 'high standards' as well, but his form of high standards are different to mine. His form of high standards centres around everyone achieving a certain grade on a tick sheet and being especially good at certain subjects. Mine are more about providing services to those that need it, encouraging and supporting people who are struggling, and making sure that students are able to think creatively, enjoy their education and take something really valuable from it. This is what I was lucky enough to be provided with (predominantly by my secondary school, but in fairness probably by the schools I attended in my younger years as well), I think that everyone should be able to get as much out of their education as I did, and I think that it is actually a serious disservice to have a system which is only tailor-made for a certain type of student. If any one student is not able to take what they should be able to take from their school years, I think that is an absolute disgrace, and there are some people who really need to answer to that.

As for how to change the situation? Well, I think that at this stage, the best thing to consider is how to put the parties under the spotlight on this kind of issue at the General Election next year. I believe, rightly or wrongly, that Michael Gove's approach is more about how he personally feels about education than what would suit society at large. Who is to say that we won't get someone better next year? I'm idealistic, I know, but I think that one has to be, otherwise we'll just sit complaining and not get anything done.

There is another thing that I'd like to discuss before I sign off for the night, and I'll try not to go on and on about it (although knowing my general writing style, that may be something we'll just have to wish for)! It has been widely reported lately that there are housing estates in Britain in which spikes have been erected to prevent homeless people sleeping there. As far as I am aware, this has not been implemented in a huge number of places thus far, as there is only a small number of images being used in reports - and one of them isn't actually in the UK, which I do feel is a little misleading even if it does make a point about something that is happening in the UK. I have written about homelessness a lot on this blog in the past. It makes me angry how homeless people are essentially being treated as pests. Spikes like this are used on roofs to deter pigeons - is that how we see homeless people? In a day when people's benefits are being cut and it is actually really hard to find jobs, educate oneself or gain experience in an industry for those of us not born with a silver spoon in our mouths, I do find it rather sickening that this is even considered. In fact, the money spent on these spikes could surely have been put to better use providing services to these vulnerable people? I'm not convinced that this is the way forward at all, and that is putting my thoughts mildly to say the least.

It's hard to know what to do sometimes. Personally I find it incredibly difficult not to give a homeless person money. People tell you not to give to beggars because they will apparently spend it on the wrong things and that it is better to give to a charity. Charities do great work, but ultimately that doesn't help that one person who you shake your head at. I think assuming that people like that are heroin addicts and alcoholics is very unfair actually, as in this climate it could potentially be any of us who end up on the streets. I would suggest to anyone who has a bit of spare time to sit down with a beggar and chat to them for a while. I have done that a few times, and it is generally quite illuminating.

Well, I don't think that there is a huge amount else that I can say about that, so I shall sign off now. Thank you for reading, and as usual, please share this around, leave me any feedback you'd like to give me, and hopefully I will blog again within the next couple of days.

Peace out x

Lord Kitchener, Edith Cavell and TTIP

An excerpt from War Game by Michael Foreman:
Later he saw a pale ball of gold in the misty sky. 'There's a ball in Heaven,' he thought. 'Thank God. We'll all have a game when this nightmare's over.'
At home when he had a bad dream he knew that if he opened his eyes, the bad dream would end. But here his eyes were already open.
Perhaps if he closed them, the nightmare would end.
He closed his eyes.


Hello! I've been sitting on this blog for a couple of days, but my studies have just got in the way and I haven't had time to write it - until now! Anyway, as everyone knows, this year marks the centenary of World War I. In the past I haven't thought a huge amount about this war - I have learned more about the Second World War, and I confess to not being quite as knowledgable about this one as I possibly should be. However, recently this subject has begun to interest me more and more, quite possibly because it is being talked about so much this year. I was born in 1993, and it has hit home to me that were I born 100 years earlier, I would most likely have been caught up in it. If it happened in this day and age, I would probably declare myself a conscientious objector or even an absolutist (which is a step up from being a conscientious objector, where you don't do anything to assist the war effort in any way). However, I don't think I would have grasped that concept was I alive at that time, so I think it extremely likely that I would have been among the countless young men who lost their lives at that time, which is a very sobering thought indeed.

Now, it is my belief (whether or not I am proven correct) that this year is focussing on something contrary to what I think it should be focussing on. I feel that the intentions are not to remember the sacrifices made by the people of the day, but more to justify the reasons that we went to war, therefore giving the public more faith in warfare and making it more likely that they will support the wars that we are taking part in today. There are many reasons that I feel this way, but one of the key ones is the fact that there are plans to release a new £2 coin featuring an image of the then Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener, saying 'Your country needs you!' the way that he did on recruitment posters at the time. I find this pretty immoral actually. At the time, it was not known by those young men what this form of war would be like, and I believe that many of them expected it to be an adventure as such. These posters were designed to encourage and entice new blood into taking part, and as a result countless numbers lost their lives. It is not that I have any objection to a commemorative coin, but I feel that having this particular image gives the wrong impression of the war.

I saw a petition recently for an alternative WWI coin which I thought was a fantastic idea, and I wanted to share it with my readers. The idea is to have a coin which features Edith Cavell instead of Lord Kitchener. Edith Cavell was a nurse in the early stages of the war. What made her notable was that she treated everyone, regardless of which side they were on. Ultimately, she was executed for treason with regards to aiding the enemy in 1915. The person who created the petition feels Edith to be a hero, and I agree. She is certainly more worthy of a coin than Lord Kitchener. So, I have decided to share this petition with you. I really hope that this convinces someone with decision-making power to listen and commemorate someone who deserves to be remembered and recognised, rather than someone who promoted an immoral war.

The petition is here (thanks to Sioned-Mair Richards for starting it):

http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/the-british-treasury-issue-a-2-coin-with-the-face-of-edith-cavell-on-it

There is another thing that I would like to discuss on this blog. There is a proposed Government Bill being discussed at the moment called the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). This is a free-trade agreement between the European Union and the United States, and essentially means that Europe and the United States would be run under a single market. I believe that the idea is to remove the regulatory differences between the USA and European nations. However, with this scheme there is something considerably more sinister at work. There is a mechanism involved called investor-state dispute settlement. I have been researching it over the last couple of days in preparation for writing this blog, and what it essentially entails is that corporations would be able to sue Governments for legislation which affects their profits.

Consider this for a moment. A corporation, acting in its best interests, is able to sue a Government for impacting its profits. This would essentially mean that if a corporation was making money out of harmful or dangerous activities (and as I'm sure you know, there are quite a few that do), our Government would not be able to pass any legislation to prevent them from doing that. It could cause huge sabotage to environmental campaigning in particular. When a company wants to engage in fracking, collecting of fossil fuels or the destruction of the rainforest, it would be very hard for them to be stopped without paying a huge amount of compensation. Similar things have already happened internationally, in countries such as Argentina, El Salvador and Canada. It could also severely scupper the idea of ordering cigarettes to be packaged plainly (this is not a definite plan in the UK as yet, but it is being talked about, and I for one very much hope it goes ahead.)

Personally, I feel that this is not acceptable in any way. What I like about the UK is that we have one of the least corrupt law and justice systems in the world (and I'm not suggesting that it is not corrupt at all - it is far from that as we all know that dirty things go on behind closed doors, but I think that compared to numerous other countries we have a better deal, though it still could use some vast improvements.) I find the idea of a corporation acting in its own interests having more influence than the Government, who may be acting in the interests of its people, pretty sickening actually. There was recently a Bill passed to prevent lobbying of the Government by pressure groups around election time; I disagreed strongly with that as I support numerous pressure groups and I think that anyone should be able to put the Government under pressure if they think that their policies are unfair, but there are positive elements involved with that general idea as well. Corporations should be all means be able to state their viewpoint and how they will be affected by any law, but that is only one of many things that the Government needs to take into account. If the corporations themselves actually had the right to sue for compensation as a result of legislation, that would make our legal system considerably more corrupt than it currently is. I should also note that the bodies making up the arbitration panels which examine the claims will be composed of corporate lawyers, who will be considerably more invested in the interests of the claimants than of the people.

I am strongly against this whole idea, and I would encourage anyone else to be as well. I have summarised it here as best I can; if you'd like to learn more about it, there is a mine of information on the Internet. Whilst researching the subject for this blog, I read a few really good articles by George Monbiot for the Guardian. The Wikipedia article has quite a lot of information, and obviously that can be tracked back to its sources. The one positive thing is that the final decision on this will not be made until the end of 2014, so we have a good few months to work on getting this to stop. I believe that it can happen; these things have been stopped before, such as SOPA and PIPA out in the States. This can be as well; it just requires a lot of people raising a stink. When this started, it was kept very quiet specifically so that that would not happen; the information is getting a bit more public now, so I remain cautiously optimistic. I implore readers to share this information with everyone, look it up online and just watch out for anything that you can do which would help keep our legal system fair. I will update with any petitions or other means of protest tactic that I hear about. We can stop this, but only with the right information and enough people standing up for what is right.

Just before I finish, I'd like to end this blog on a positive note. I am so happy that equal marriage has finally come through! It has been a long time coming, but the right side triumphed, and I wish anyone who is now able to marry their partner the very best in their life and their relationship. I am so satisfied when such things happen; as a political activist, you come across so many campaigns that seem entirely futile. When something like this happens, it restores my faith in humanity.

Will blog again soon! Please share with your friends if you think they'd be interested, it would be great for this blog to get a bit more known.

The return of this blog, Moazzam Begg and the Future

Hello!

This blog has been falling by the wayside again, hasn't it? I do the best I can to keep it up to date, but numerous things seem to stand in my way. Firstly, I don't have a huge amount of time on account of my being a University student. Secondly, since I moved away from Bristol I find that coming by the information to blog about it harder to come by. Bristol is such a free-thinking city that living there, the ideas about current affairs and such like landed in my lap quite a lot of the time. In Colchester they don't so much. I still hear about things through Facebook and from various exploits of my own, but not as much as I did once. There is less going on here, or appears so anyway. I don't go to many demonstrations or political talks anymore, not because I have lost interest but because there appears to be less of those events for me to attend, so it is a lot harder. Nevertheless, I have had ideas to discuss with you, and in the coming weeks I intend to blog quite a bit more than I have been. my intentions are to write at least a couple of blogs per week, although I realise that this is rather ambitious, and with my life and also my track record on this blog, it is very possible that I won't keep up with that. But I'll try!

My main idea for this blog is a man named Moazzam Begg. Moazzam Begg is a British man, originally from Pakistan, who was once held in Guantanamo Bay for allegedly being involved with Al-Qaeda and reportedly tortured there, along with numerous other detainees. It cannot entirely be clear whether or not he was actually involved with them, but from what I have read, the evidence against him was rather circumstantial, and certain confessions he gave were given under duress. The circumstances were enough for him to be released in 2005, and since then he has vehemently maintained that he was innocent, given numerous talks on the subject and declared that the war against terrorism can and does contribute to Islamophobia. Recently, he has again been arrested on suspicion of attending a terrorist training camp and facilitating terrorism overseas. He has pleaded not guilty, and faces a plea hearing on July 14, provisionally followed by a trail at the Old Bailey on October 6 of this year.

Now, there is a lot of evidence to suggest he is guilty, and a lot to suggest he is innocent, so we cannot at present be certain either way. Personally I believe him to be innocent. Why? Because I have met him. When I was at secondary school he came to give a talk at my school - prior to writing this blog I thought that it was when I was in Year 11, but whilst researching it I discovered that he went on tour to talk about his experience in early 2009, when I was in Year 10, so it could have been then - I can't be entirely sure. I cannot remember a huge amount of what he actually said, but I did find his talk to be hugely inspiring to me. It was not long after that - just under two years at most - that I started this blog and started the work that I do on social change and political activism. I think that Begg's talk played a part in me realising that there is much wrong with the world that needs to be put to rights. I can't prove his innocence, or even be entirely sure of it in my mind, and if new evidence comes to light that shows beyond doubt that he is guilty I will of course admit to having been wrong. But as it is, I consider myself to be a pretty good judge of character, and the evidence appears circumstantial enough to believe his innocence. Any further developments in this case will come to light in time.

The other thing I want to discuss in this blog is the Future. Now, in my introduction (and just then) I have used a capital F with this word, and this is because it's about the future of our species, and of the planet. This is something that I have been reading and thinking about a lot of late. There is evidence from scientists to suggest that we as a species may only survive another 100 years or so, because we continue to make the planet uninhabitable for ourselves. I have thoughts on this which I will express below, and I confess that they stem from the logic of my understanding of human nature and my own spiritual beliefs rather than the actual science behind it. I'm not an expert, and I can't blog based purely on the science because I don't even understand it if I do read it, and that's not really what this blog is for anyway. But these are my thoughts, both on the future of the planet and on the future of us as a species, because they are two entirely different things.

I'll start with the planet. I believe that Planet Earth is tougher than we think, and is able to survive most things. I think of it as being an entity - it looks out for its own survival, its inhabitants are there and are given life by it, but Earth will always do what it needs to in order to protect itself. I'm not sure that it is possible for humans to destroy the Earth. We can certainly make it so that we cannot live on the Earth, but the Earth needs to protect itself, and my personal belief is that the Earth will wipe us out before we are able to destroy it. In the past, whatever harm humankind has inflicted on itself, nature has shown that it can go one further. For example, thousands of people died in the First World War, but not as many as in the 'flu epidemic that arrived shortly afterwards. I am not religious, but I am very spiritual, and recently I have taken to talking and praying to the planet, almost as a goddess-like figure (I say 'goddess' because I very much view the Earth as being female - I learned about the idea of Mother Earth when I was a child, and I think that it represents the ideals of birth and life-giving, which are very much represented by the female form.) I'm not entirely sure that I believe in God, but I have to believe in the planet because there is no doubt that it exists, and you cannot disagree with the fact that it breathes life into all of us.

Now, the future of our species. I don't think that there is any doubt that we will become extinct at some point; that is what science says, this is what has happened to the vast, vast majority of species within history, and I don't think that there is any species that can avoid extinction indefinitely actually. There is evidence to suggest that this could happen very soon - within the next 100 years. Will this happen? Well, I don't know. There is evidence pointing one way, and evidence pointing another way. Certainly, the more harm we do to our planet, the less inhabitable it becomes, especially with rising population numbers. I actually think that the human instinct for survival is very great, and the only reason that we continue to harm Mother Earth so much is because we haven't realised how grave we are making the situation for ourselves. I think that once it becomes obvious that we need the Earth to survive and that we are threatened with extinction sooner rather than later, there may well be a huge global move to clean up the Earth and sort things out - this would require a great deal of scientific knowledge (which we have already) and motivation from the vast majority of people (which we don't currently have, and that's the problem.) I think that the Earth will ultimately heal itself - whether that happens before or after human extinction remains to be seen - I like to think before, but who knows? I'll be honest about the fact that the idea of being part of the final generation of human beings very much frightens me, probably more than most other things that have occurred in my life to date. I want to leave some kind of legacy when I die for future generations to aspire to, and it very much concerns me that there might not really be any future generations to take anything from that. But, there is a part of me that is secure in the trust that the planet will do whatever is right in order to protect itself, and in the meantime I will do whatever I can in order to assist in that. I feel that we have to assist in the preservation of our planet, because there is nothing else to live for really. The planet does not belong to us, we belong to it. I suppose in a way, the best thing to happen would be for a great deal of the world's population to die off somehow, and for the remaining humans to start again. It would be a way of protecting both the planet and our species without resulting in our extinction. But who knows?

I realise that that last paragraph sounds a little bit preachy. It's not how I'm trying to be; it's the way that I see it. And also I feel that we have a whole lot of negatives concerning 'it's already too late' and 'we face death very soon' thrown around; I want to see how we can look at that in a different way, whilst not being unrealistic. And I don't think that I have been, though as I said, it's mostly just based on personal beliefs - albeit ones that I have thought about a great deal, and have strong reasons for believing in.

Well, thanks for reading my blog. I'll do my best to keep it up-to-date - we all know that I don't always succeed in that, but I have ideas to blog about. To be honest, the more I update this the more motivated I feel to carry on updating it. If it falls by the wayside, I feel less and less like doing anything. But I have no intention of stopping blogging any time soon.

Thanks for reading, everyone!