Open letter to Will Quince MP

The is the email that I have just sent to my MP, Will Quince (Conservative) concerning bombing Syria. You can also write to your local MP before tomorrow's vote. Click this link and go from there.

Dear Will Quince MP,

My name is George Harold Millman, and I'm an actor, student, blogger and political activist based in Colchester.

As you no doubt are aware, tomorrow (or from your point of view, probably today, given the time that I am writing this) is the vote on Syrian air strikes. I don't know exactly what your views on this matter are, but I would like to ask that you vote against the strikes, for the following reasons. I feel that for want of a better term, we have an 'all guns blazing' (or in this case, all planes bombing') approach when it comes to managing international relations in the Middle East. This approach has not been helpful in the past. I was only nine when the Iraq war started, and I vividly recall being taken to demonstrations calling for peace, and my parents explaining to me, in age-appropriate terms, the consequences were the war to go ahead. I'm now in my early twenties and as I have matured, I have been able to see the damage that the decisions taken by Blair and Bush twelve years ago has caused. The poverty and devastation suffered by civilians in Iraq has become even more grave than it was in the days of Saddam Hussein. I can see very little that has actually been achieved out there, and it would appear that these decisions were made more to prove that the Western world is doing something than because anyone actually thought it would help matters. I feel that the same can be said with regards to Afghanistan and Libya, and I am deeply concerned that Syria will be next on the list.

I cannot see what bombing Syria will achieve. What I can see is the levels of devastation it will cause. We are frequently told that we need to close our borders to immigrants; I personally disagree with this notion, but regardless of anyone's opinion on the matter, bombing Syria will only make matters worse. Civilians there will continue to flee for their lives to countries such as the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe - France has already closed its borders (unsurprising, given recent circumstances, but I still consider it a major blow as I think that this is what ISIS hoped to achieve). Any air strikes in Syria will not help to bring about democracy, and would undermine the UK's position as a diplomat helping to bring about a stronger political settlement. I highly doubt that it will cause any harm to ISIS, because I actually believe that ISIS expects us to bomb Syria, thereby justifying its own twisted agenda against the West. I do not think that it would put the UK into a position where we are less likely to be victims of terrorist attacks; in actual fact, most terrorist attacks have come from individuals who come from the country in which they take place. The instigators of 7/7, for example, were from Leeds. The BBC reports that the main perpetrators in Paris came from either France or Belgium. Prior to 9/11, terrorist attacks were not even considered to be synonymous with the Islamic State.

My political stance is that I will not join any political party as I wish all of my views to remain independent and not swayed by the views of the majority. I will not deny that in recent years I have found it very difficult to find any sympathy with the Conservative Party generally. However, I realise that it does contain some very good eggs - I am hopeful that you will prove to be one of them. This is not about party politics, this is about standing up against those misguided people at the top and voting the right way. I understand that David Cameron is already facing disagreement from around 20% of the Conservative Party - I implore you to be a part of that. At the vote, please take heed of what I have said, stand up and vote against bombing Syria. I will be extremely appreciative if you do.

Thanks for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

George Harold Millman

Let us take a moment...

'Oh my God. HORRIFIED and TERRIFIED by what's happening in Paris. Any person involved in this terrorism who claims to represent Islam is a LIAR. Islam is a religion of PEACE. Muslim people are a BEAUTIFUL people of peace. These acts are an outrage against ALL people, Muslims included. Allah IS great and is MERCIFUL. These murderers do NOT represent Allah. They represent no one but Satan.'

Sinead O'Connor

In light of recent events, I knew that I had to write about it, but there are so many elements to this that I'm not entirely sure where to start, what angle to take or where exactly I'm going to go with it. In fact, at the time of writing this first paragraph I have not yet given this blog a title, because I think my mind will be a lot clearer once my thoughts are down.

I suppose I should start by saying that I am absolutely, without any question of a doubt, thinking of anyone who has lost a loved one in France or in any other part of the world recently. I have a couple of friends in France myself - thankfully, all are fine - and I honestly cannot imagine the worry that must have inhabited so many people's minds over the last couple of days. I think that these events have emotionally affected everyone who has heard about them, whether they had any sort of personal involvement or not.

I think a lot of people who know me will (whether they would appreciate this or not) expect me to write this blog in the angle of pointing out the many other terrorist attacks that do not get this level of coverage, such as in Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq and any other country in the world. I will quite truthfully hold my hands up and say that this is how I normally respond to this kind of occurrence and the reactions that it provokes from the media. On this occasion, however, I would say that this is only partially true. Whilst I do absolutely believe that it is disgraceful that the world seems to believe that this is tragic in Paris and normal in other countries, I would not say the reaction to the events in Paris is in any way extreme. I would say more that the reactions to terrorist attacks normally is unnecessarily low-key, rather than reactions to specific situations being extravagant.

For me personally, I feel that senseless acts of violence are senseless acts of violence, and are not indicative of any sort of wider problem in our society. I am of course entirely disturbed by the question of what causes a person to commit a suicide bombing or a mass shooting, but I am almost as disturbed by the way in which casual news consumers in the West react to something like this. Very quickly, I start to see new stories in my Facebook news feed: 'Islam is an evil evil cancer', 'Deport all terrorists' and most unpleasant of all, 'Let's close all our borders'. The fact that anyone would use the deaths of innocent people to bolster their own twisted political agenda is so disrespectful that it makes me feel physically sick. There is of course the argument that most of these people don't realise how disrespectful this is, but if anything I think that makes it even worse. There is a deliberate attempt to mislead people into scapegoating a minority group (in this case Muslims), even though anyone with any sense is aware that these people do not represent Islam in the slightest. I was going to give a lot of information on this blog about how they don't represent Islam, but frankly I actually can't be bothered. I feel like I spend half my life explaining this to people, and right now I'm just too angry to feel any motivation to change anyone's mindset. All of the information is out there, if you actually want to find out anything (and feel free to ask me for any material on the subject if you wish, I will happily oblige). If you don't, just remember that there are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, and if Islam was actually a terrorist organisation, the rest of the world would probably be dead by now.

I now know a lot more about this blog than I did when I started (and I have named it now). I had expected this to be a lot more informative than it has turned out to be. I suppose in that way you could argue that it isn't exactly one of my better blogs. There are other elements to this to discuss, and I may well write a more cohesive blog tomorrow or in the next few days to go into detail about them, but I feel that right now is not the time. On my Facebook profile, I generated quite a lot of controversy a couple of days ago for explaining that I don't wear poppies or actively contribute to the silence on Remembrance Day. I'm not going to go into detail about the reasons for that now, but it ultimately boils down to the fact that I think that reflection should be done in one's own time, on one's own terms and in a way that breeds positive action to prevent the things one is reflecting on from happening again. So for the moment, I would like to invite all of my readers to take a moment with me, in one's own time, to reflect on anyone who has been hurt in any way by any form of senseless violence, whether in France or any other part of the world, whether in a medium commonly described as terrorism or not. And then let us wake up to a world that we are ready to make better, not by espousing hate or prejudice, not by alienating sections of the community, but by realising that we are all human beings and ultimately share a common goal of peace and love.

I started this with a quote from Sinead O'Connor. Out of all the quotes that I have read about this, I chose hers for two reasons. One is that Sinead sums it up amazingly, as she of course always does. The second is that she is a Catholic priest, and still understands about Islam. This is the attitude I think we could all do with adopting a little bit more just now - the attitude of celebrating one another and learning, regardless or whether or not we consider ourselves to be within the same individual group. And much as I love Sinead, I'm going to finish on a Katrina and the Waves song. Enjoy!

Peace and love x

Criminalising peaceful protest

There have been many instances in recent times when I have felt that peaceful protest is being cracked down upon, both here in the UK and internationally. This is obviously something that threatens those in command, which is precisely why we must stand up for these rights no matter what is thrown at us. I'm going to focus on two things that have struck me about the subject this week.

Firstly, I read a report posted by an acquaintance on a Facebook page supporting solidarity for Palestine  (complete article here) concerning the convictions of a group of Palestine solidarity activists for publicly encouraging people to boycott Israeli products. The actions took place around five years ago, and from what I can tell, essentially involved the campaigners congregating around supermarkets and educating the public about exactly what these products are funding and how to recognise them. The activists were initially acquitted, but were eventually sentenced under an old law prescribing up to a year in prison and large fines for anyone who 'provokes discrimination, hatred or violence against a person or a group of people by reason of their origin or their membership or non-membership in a specific ethnic group, nation, race or religion'. This sentence is even harsher than what would be given in Israel, which at least restricts itself to fines, and not jail.

This form of action is no more than that in which I myself have participated in the UK. Fortunately I have never been arrested or charged for it (although I was kicked to the ground by a police officer once). Personally, I absolutely cannot understand how the boycott of items supplied by a nation which commits international war crimes against civilians can be considered under the umbrella of 'discrimination'. I feel that were this Iraq or Syria, no one would bat an eyelid. At what point does something stop being fact or opinion, and become discrimination? I would argue that it is at the point where an individual or a group is victimised for something which causes no one harm. In the numerous anti-Israel demonstrations that I have attended, I have rarely heard anything said against people who come from Israel itself; merely against the brutality that Israel has inflicted upon the people of Palestine.

One cannot prevent people from issuing warnings about where the profits from certain items ends up; if we do that, we start crossing even further into territory whereby the people are controlled by the powers that be. I have not written much about Israel and Palestine in the last year, simply because I have not come across very much new material to write about. I still do what I can; I continue to boycott all produce from Nestlé, Starbucks, Hewlett-Packard and any other brand which I know to support Israel, and anything that I know to come from Israel itself, and I encourage others to do the same. The reason why this form of action is targeted by those who benefit from cruel regimes is because it works. This right must never be given up.

Well done to all my friends and acquaintances who were at the #grantsnotdebts London demonstration yesterday. As people may or may not have seen (given the low numbers of news sources who reported it even in a negative light) it has the perception of being quite violent. Unfortunately, I had to pass on this one, but I know from personal experience that when political demonstrations are put across in this way, it is often a vast exaggeration. Therefore, I contacted an acquaintance who was at the demonstration to get some more accurate information.

This is what my acquaintance said:

'The demo yesterday wasn't violent at all, literally all that happened was flares thrown and some stink bombs. Police presence was entirely unprecedented and they got so hands-on. They essentially stopped the demo. Most people were kettled, and a lot of us were running from cops for a long time. Other than that though, it was a wonderful demo! Fantastic turn out and brilliant solidarity/atmosphere/enthusiasm. Some amazing chants as well. When we got near any parliamentary buildings the police came down hard, and some people started chanting "fuck the pigs, but not like that'.

Now of course this is the experience of one person and so cannot be said to be reflective, but having attended many such events only for the news media to put across that my side behaved appallingly violently, I have no trouble believing that there is a great deal of truth in that. An official statement of the events from the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC) can be found here. I admire the fact that no one is giving up on this. There is a big part of me that wishes that I had been there, but it appears that the next event is on November 17th. I believe I will be able to attend that one! I shall write more about it nearer the time.

As with France's reaction to the Israel boycott, this is another example that stinks of an unnecessarily heavy-handed reaction to those people who are merely sticking up for what is right. I feel that this ought to be recognised for what it is. History teaches that people who involve themselves in social protest are the ones who generally tend to be remembered as heroes. The recognition comes, in hindsight possibly but it comes. We must not allow ourselves to be intimidated and bullied into a place from which we cannot fight injustice. I certainly do not intend to be, anyway.

Why I am proud to be British

At the Conservative Party conference, the Home Secretary Theresa May made a speech concerning immigration, which claimed to endorse humanity for those who need our help and being tough on those who abuse it. What the speech actually did was reiterate a continued diet of rhetoric and fear-mongering designed to blame minority groups. This has of course happened frequently for quite a long time now, but on this occasion the true intentions were so blatant that it has resulted in an outcry so large that even the Daily Telegraph (commonly referred to as the Torygraph) has criticised Mrs May's stance.

There are many articles clarifying exactly what is wrong with the speech, but the one that I have found the most well-written and informative is this one from the popular political blog Another Angry Voice. I have enjoyed reading AAV's articles for some time, but I feel that Tom has really excelled himself with this one. There are many, many points excellent points raised, quite a lot of which related to things that I was already aware of, but also a few that really opened my eyes to exactly how ludicrous May has made herself look.

I strongly encourage anyone to read the AAV article as Tom sums up the situation a lot better than I can, but for anyone who doesn't have time, I'll just summarise the key points:

• Theresa May is making exactly the same promises that she made when the Conservatives were first elected in 2010, and since then the number of immigrants into this country has actually gone up, not down.
• The remarks claimed to be 'facts' have actually been proven to be wrong by an independent analysis funded by Mrs May's own party.
• The draconian immigration laws which are endorsed here actually cause just as much, if not more, trouble to British nationals as they do to anyone else, with examples including - but not limited to: the amount of healthcare required by an ageing population (which we are, especially given that this very same Government are cutting child benefits for third children onwards); British duel heritage children having their families broken up by one of their parents not being allowed in the UK; the burden to the economy caused by targeting foreign students, who can potentially bring talent and skills to this country; potential issues for British nationals living in other states, given that these states may feel no incentive to allow British nationals access to things such as Tax Credits and sick pay if their nationals are not entitled to such things in the UK.
• Despite May's claims of being humane to those who need help, many smaller countries have done considerably more to help refugees than we have, and their Governments weren't even responsible for the situations that drove those people out of their countries in the first place.

Tom said a lot more than this, but I'm not here to just repeat his article. I thought it was worth mentioning because I think it is exceptional and I encourage everyone to read it.

Personally, I find it really curious how many of my friends, even some very intelligent people, say, 'I'm happy with immigrants who actually contribute something, but not with those ones who just come over here to claim our services and give nothing back'. It is quite evident to me that these people have spent very little time with anyone who has come to this country from abroad, as this line could be taken almost in its entirety from our mainstream media, which is always controlled by the Government at the time.

I am really not an economist, so the AAV post will give you much better commentary on that perspective than I can, but a lot of people consider this to have a distinctly social point as well, and I feel that I probably have a more realistic viewpoint on that side of the debate. The reason for this is that I have spent most of my life with foreign nationals. I grew up living with a multitude of students hailing from many different parts of the globe, both in the EU and outside, and I went to a secondary school in Bristol where at times, I was actually the ethnic minority in my classes (and that didn't bother me at all). A lot of people seem to have this perception that having large groups of foreign nationals over here (I refuse to use the term 'migrants') causes a great deal of corruption to British values, but I have never quite understood what these 'values' actually are.

I can honestly say that I have never met anyone from another culture who has objected to Christmas or Remembrance Day. I have met a lot more British people who have objected to the existence of mosques. But there also seem to be a lot of things that have been brought over by other cultures that no one seems to have a problem with. Curry houses, for example. Curry is a traditional Indian dish, yet it is so commonplace in the UK that it may as well be considered British by this point. My point is that culture adapts and develops over time. I remember seeing an old sitcom called Love Thy Neighbour, about a white couple with black neighbours next door and the white man's struggle with anything remotely foreign, such as eating mangoes. This sitcom was broadcast in the 1970s, which really hits home the fact that we seem to be stuck in the culture of our time whatever the era. If this is an issue so old that there was satire about it twenty years before I was born, I really don't understand why we're still talking about it.

The only social point anyone makes concerning negatives of immigration is the fact that some people live in communities together and never attempt to integrate themselves or learn the language. That is an important point and one that I think needs to be tackled. But what I would say is: when we constantly scapegoat these people for every problem in society (they somehow appear to be both stealing our jobs and being lazy and taking all our benefits) can you blame them? If I felt that unwelcome, I probably would do the same.

My understanding of Britain is that we're a country that is really proud of its culture, and the really special thing about it is that our culture incorporates the cultures of numerous different peoples and nations. I consider us to be a country of people who are willing to adapt and develop with time, and refuse to get left behind or dragged back to the Dark Ages. It can be argued that this is a rather idealistic understanding of this country, given what Theresa May has said, but I believe that culture is something greater than what is wanted by those in power at any one time. It goes deeper than that, it goes into the territory of how people think and learn. I very much hope that in the fullnesses of time, the majority of people will come to realise how wrong this 'us and them' perception is, but in the meantime, I am content in the knowledge that I myself grew up in a world that taught me that diversity is equal to security, and prejudice is ignorant and foolish. So long as there are still people in the UK believing that, there is hope.

That is why I am proud to be British.

Musings of a disjointed activist

Over the summer, I felt quite politically distant, which is why this blog was not updated for two months. I didn't intend for that to happen; there was so much that I intended to write about - Jeremy Corbyn getting in (yay!), EDL protests (boo!), Pig-gate, refugees, more garbage spouted by those wonderful people Theresa May and George Osborne... yet somehow it felt to me like whatever I wrote about it, it would not make any difference in the slightest.

This was very disconcerting, given that this is precisely the attitude that I preach against. I don't know why this came upon me in such an ungracious fashion. There were, of course, certain personal things that distracted me, but this is always the case and I rarely become apathetic, even if I don't have time to update my blog for a while. Going through this has made me consider a little bit more why others are so apathetic. I know many very intelligent people who somehow, just cannot bring themselves to do anything about this world. I never thought I would be amongst them.

I suppose when I really think about it, the catalyst for me becoming like this was because I felt a lack of control and structure. I have still been reading the news and I have many friends and associates who have kept me updated on things that I need to know about. I have even been to a few political demonstrations this summer, and done some public speaking into the bargain. It has just felt at times to have a lack of momentum, as if I am doing it more because I consider it my duty than because I actually feel that I am going to change anything. It has occurred to me that this may be a mark of me ageing and becoming more cynical - I very much hope not, I think I stand a much better chance of making a difference to people's lives when I am actually expecting to, not least because that is my core motivator.

But... I think I have the solution. My lack of structure is what one of my previous directors would refer to as a 'self-licking lollipop' (which I think is a little odd, how would one go about it? But anyway, I digress.) If I feel disjointed, I fail to give my political side the care and attention that it needs to thrive, therefore I don't feed myself any motivation, therefore my lack of structure continues. Structure is something that comes from within. When I write on this blog, obviously I want people to read my work, but a big part of it is to help me make sense of things on a psychological level. The action of writing these things down and putting them in the public domain allows me the feeling that I actually am doing something positive, and that feeling means that I can continue to involve myself in campaigns without feeling as though my actions are worthless. So from now on, I am going to aim to update this more than I ever have before. I have said that to myself numerous times in the five years that I have been writing this, and very often it doesn't work, but on this occasion I will try harder than I ever have done in the past. I have realised that this blog is my sounding-board, and it is only through frequently writing down my own opinions in a structured way that I am going to maintain the mindset that I need to be a successful activist.

This has been quite an unusual blog post, as it is entirely about me and has very few references to what has been happening. I did wonder briefly if it was even worth posting, given the marked tone difference to how I normally write - but after thinking on it, I realised that it is something that is important to talk about. A lot of people that I know who come across as quite apathetic have proved (probably as much to themselves as anyone else) that they are actually very passionate, if they feel like they are achieving something. I used to feel quite scathing towards people who said that 'nothing I do will make a difference', but I realise now how easy it is to slip into that mindset. If I can do it, anyone can do it. I need to learn from my mistakes and move forward. So please continue to watch this space - there will be more blogs coming, very soon.

George the activist has returned!

Labour and Jeremy Corbyn

Apologies for the late update. I actually started writing this a week ago, but some important things in my personal life made it difficult for me to write for a while.

Cuts to welfare. Increased use of food banks. Threats to our civil liberties. NHS privatisation. 10,600 people dying within six months of being declared fit for work by Atos over a ten-month period. This is what we have been subjected to by the Conservative Party and what I have been working against. It would appear that the 'opposition' is now that in all but name, as from what has been shown in recent weeks, the Labour Party has been disgracefully weak in opposing the Tory agenda. This is not very far from what I was expecting actually, but is still a huge blow (and much appreciation to the 48 Labour MPs who defied Harriet Harman's decree that the new Welfare Reforms be abstained by Labour, and voted against them anyway).

I recently read an article that suggested Labour could be led just as effectively by an automated out-of-office email, and to be honest I find this hard to argue with. It really does not seem just now that they are the opposition that they claim to be. Harriet Harman, instead of being the inspirational figurehead that Labour really does need, appears to be playing a political game that I really struggle to understand. According to the Independent, Andy Burnham abstained from the vote on the Welfare Reforms despite being vehemently opposed to them, because that way he can unite the party against it, and get Labour's wishy-washy amendments pushed through. Presumably he will therefore be telling people in the leadership elections to support him but abstain from voting in order to unite the British public in his favour.

However, it may not all be bad news for Labour, as the popularity of Jeremy Corbyn has taken the media by storm over the last few weeks. I know anecdotally of people who have eaten their words and registered as a one-off supporter of the Labour Party in order to be able to vote for Corbyn in the election. There has been much discussion from all different angles - we have, for want of a better term, the 'new Labour' politicians threatening to leave if he gets elected, displaying an arrogance and lack of respect for democracy that I really should not be surprised at by now; we have numerous articles claiming that Corbyn will be the best thing that has happened to this country for the last thirty years, and a few other left-wing social commentators concerned that the hysteria surrounding Corbyn will lead to disappointment, as he may be elevated into something too good to be true.

Underneath all of this, however, one thing is solid; we may not know exactly how he would fare as leader in the event of his election, but in Jeremy Corbyn, we have someone who appears to condemn the policies implemented by the Conservative Party in a way that promotes direct opposition to them, as opposed to the ineffectual attitude of the rest of the Labour Party, which to me does not show any of the backbone that an opposition needs to show. Over the last few months, I would say that the main opposition to the Conservatives has been the Scottish National Party. Labour are not currently doing anything to earn that distinction in Parliament. I do not know if history will remember Jeremy Corbyn as the hero who saved Labour or as the villain who was popular and let people down, but I believe that the only chance, however remote, that Labour has of earning back the status of opposition lies with him. For me, that is a good enough reason to elect him.

Click here for information on how to vote in the Labour election. You need to be either a member of Labour, an affiliated supporter (meaning that you support them through an affiliated party) or a registered one-off supporter, which costs £3. Ballot papers are sent out on Friday 14 August (two weeks from the time of writing) and the deadline for registering is Wednesday 12 August. You do need to be on the electoral register to vote.

I strongly encourage anyone reading this to do what they can to ensure that they are able to vote for the new leader of the Labour Party, and to vote for Jeremy Corbyn. I'm not so naive to think that with his election, everything will get better straight away. I've been in this game for long enough to know that every positive result involves a long hard slog. I prefer to think of each campaign as being one more step towards achieving a decent society, and I think that electing Jeremy Corbyn could be the next step right now.

I shall post further updates soon.

George Osborne's budget

On Wednesday the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne announced the Conservative budget for the coming financial year, and I am saddened by it, but not shocked, given how the Conservatives have proved themselves to be over the last five years. There were protests in London, Bristol and in other parts of the UK, and unfortunately on this occasion I was unable to attend any.

I'm not going to summarise the complete speech (it's here if anyone would like to take a look) but I have to say there was very little that I actively agreed with. Rather a lot of it made me feel quite nauseous, and there were a few things that I didn't understand fully and I would rather not comment on, but from experience I daresay will not in time prompt me to leap in the air with happiness.

There is far too much that I have something to say about to go into detail about on one blog, so I'm going to focus particularly on the impact that the new budget is likely to have on young people. The proposals that have been put forward include the following:

• Young people will not be included in the new compulsory living wage, which only people aged 25 and up will be eligible for.
• Under-21s will not be eligible for housing benefit.
• Education maintenance grants are being replaced by loans.
• Jobseekers' allowance is being replaced by a youth obligation scheme (commonly referred to as 'earn or learn') which requires young people to be in paid employment or education, despite the fact that the situation with tuition fees and grants makes it harder for those from less well-off backgrounds to attend University, and paid employment being hard to come by. (Osborne says that young people will be supported in finding apprenticeships, traineeships and the like, but I think that realistically this 'support' will most likely take the form of ultimatums and threats from Job Centres, in exactly the same way that it has done in recent times.)
• Families who have more than two children will not be eligible for child benefit for the third one and onwards.
• Tuition fees could potentially rise even further (admittedly I do n't recall seeing that in the budget itself, but I have read about it in other news sources and it would not surprise me one iota. And even if this one turns out to be false, the way that tuition fees are at the moment is problematic enough without adding more fuel to the fire.)

This article from the New Statesman highlights things to a greater extent, not just for young people but for many other vulnerable groups negatively affected by these proposals.

Being a young person myself, it would be easy to look at this situation very emotively, but I am going to take a step back from that and try to view this in as objective and rational a standpoint as I can. Not even taking into account the lack of empathy that this shows, it seems to me that if the aim is to reduce the deficit, this is not a very good way of doing so. It is such a cliche to say that 'young people are the future', but to me is does seem patently obvious that if we want to invest in securing our economy and sustaining our planet for subsequent generations, it would be quite a good idea to start with the generations that are taking that up. I suppose you could argue that these proposals will not hit every young person hard - the children of rich people will do very well out of it! And I daresay will go on to be the people in power, thus continuing this catch-22 situation that we find ourselves in.

I feel strongly that there has to be a better way to do this. I'm no economist (in fact I have issues with dyscalculia) but I would argue that it has been proven over quite a long period of time that a low-tax society simply does not work. In the aftermath of World War II, Britain had high taxes as a result of having to bail out the USA, and we managed to create a great welfare system and the NHS. In this day and age, I can't see how our recession is any different to what was going on in the 1940s, except that we seem to be completely incompetent in doing anything about it, and to be honest I question whether those in power are even trying. After all, they personally do not seem to have been damaged very much at all, and given the additional fact that our Conservative Government do not seem especially committed to protecting our climate and keeping Planet Earth liveable on for humans, I am drawn to no other conclusion but that they are focussed on themselves living an enjoyable lifestyle in the here and now, without any consideration either for how others live nor for anyone who occupies this planet after they have left it.

I myself happen to be in quite a fortunate position. I'm young enough to still be part of the generation that I refer to, but I'm old enough that I've just about missed out on most of the worst parts of it (I'm from a reasonably well-off household (which is not the same as being rich, I'm still eligible for grants), I went to sixth form before EMA was scrapped, I'm already at University with my grant without having to worry about loans, I know what I want to do with my life... What can I say, I'm lucky enough that I've been dealt a good hand in this life, which I try very hard not to take for granted. There is a wonderful article by Polly Toynbee that perfectly describes the unfortunate situation of a young man named Perry (I'm not sure if that is his actual name or a pseudonym for the article). These articles are depressing, and I think it would be very easy for me to mentally brush over that sort of thing and just focus on myself. I cannot justify that to myself morally, and I think that it is important for us to remember those less fortunate, and to extend a hand of friendship.

There are a lot of very informative articles on what is happening in this country and the world, which I read, and they normally depress me. My blog aims to be slightly different, in that I try to offer words of hope and encouragement as well. I'm a complete idealist, but I do still feel positive about making a progressive difference out there. I suppose that is why I write - you can write to depress yourself, or you can write naively to convince yourself, but I try to strike a balance there, to keep in mind everything that is going on and then work with what I have to change it.

As I mentioned, I was unable to attend the demonstrations on Wednesday, but I was told from someone who was there that noisemaking devices were confiscated as the protest was illegal because Westminster had not approved it (this is another foolish catch-22 situation - if Westminster needs to approve protest, what is the point of protest?) As far as I am aware, the next demonstration is in October, but if anything comes up sooner I will write about it on here, or if I have the time and cause to organise one myself, I shall.

Thanks for reading, further updates soon.

UPDATE: Since publishing this, a friend and occasional colleague of mine clarified to me that the tuition fee rise comes from allowing them to rise with inflation, not a direct rise. This was something that admittedly had passed me by at the time I read the budget.

The 20 June protest

It is now nine days since the protest on 20 June, and in true George style, I'm shamefully only just getting around to writing about it. There are two reasons for this - one is that despite finishing Uni, I've been backed up with two new creative projects that I've been devoting much of my time to. The other is that a lot of my time at the protest was spent talking to people and finding out about things, and I wasn't sure how much I actually had to say about it, so I've admittedly been procrastinating slightly. Nevertheless, I always write about days of action that I have attended, and write about it I shall.

We started out at the Bank of England on Threadneedle Street at midday on Saturday 20 June, and when I arrived I was excited to find a very large turnout. I'd hoped to meet up with my colleague Aaron whilst I was there, but it turned out that we didn't see each other - whilst that was a shame, it was of course in the long run a good thing, as you want there to be enough people that you can't find people you know! I did meet some very pleasant people there though - I spent around half an hour talking to a very pleasant and informed gentleman by the name of Phil, who told me a great deal about the history of our political system, and discussed some of the finer points of the most powerful figures in Britain today, such as Rupert Murdoch and Jacob Rothschild. There was also an open microphone - I stepped up and spoke for a little while about how I was very pleased to see so many people arriving, but that I hoped that we would not give up after this demonstration, as the pressure needs to be kept up if any social change at all is to be made. (More on that later.)

We walked, we marched, we chanted and I made some new friends. Many people seemed to enjoy the chants that I initiated ('Two! Four! Six! Eight! Tory cuts are very great! Great meaning 'large' or 'immense', we use it in the pejorative sense!' Anyone who watches The Simpsons will recognise that) and it was generally a very pleasant afternoon. After about an hour, I got talking to a couple of very pleasant ladies who are involved with creating political art - this is of course what I do with theatre, so there was a natural bond there. At this point, not very much happened that I am able to write about, because we stopped for a snack and lost the demonstration and we spent the next several hours talking to one another and debating political points - which was beneficial for me, but not very worthy of discussion within a blog.

Eventually, we did catch up with the demonstration, but I felt that it was drawing to a natural conclusion anyway. I talked to a few people, made some more useful contacts, heard speeches in Parliament Square by Jeremy Corbyn and Russell Brand, and then I went home.

It may seem that this isn't very worthy of writing about, and indeed this is certainly not the best blog I've ever written. Why am I writing it? Well, firstly because on an emotional level it is useful as an activist to keep a regular log of the work I have done, and secondly because I think that my experiences may still be useful for anyone keeping track of these things. I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that this demonstration was far more effective than the last one I blogged about. But as I said earlier, this is not enough. No political movement in history has been successful if the people involved quit early enough. As I have said before, I believe that this is where things went wrong with tuition fees. So here is the next event that I encourage people to attend if they can:

Protest: Osborne's Emergency Budget - #EndAusterityNow

George Osborne is going to announce a new emergency budget on 8 July, and you can bet that it will not favour anyone but the super-powerful. So it is very important that the pressure is kept up. It is on a Wednesday, so I realise that it will be difficult for some people to be there. I myself am not sure yet if I will be able to go, but I will if I can.

That's almost the end of this blog, and I apologise for writing it so late. I will just close on one important piece of good news - Lancashire said no to fracking! George is a happy bunny about that.

Saving the Human Rights Act

There is a lot to talk about, and it is sometimes hard to know exactly where to start. So yesterday, I decided to ask my friend and occasional colleague Joe Young (of the Joeverwhelming blog, which I highly recommend) to suggest to me what my next blog should be about. He suggested the Human Rights Act, and I have decided to take up that suggestion, as I respect Joe's judgement and this was one of the things I was intending to write about anyway.

The Human Rights Act is actually fairly recent; it was created in 1998 and came into effect in 2000, so it is one of the younger pieces of legislation in the UK, but it is one of the most essential, and also one of the most relied upon. It protects numerous things which are fundamental to a democratic society, such as the right to a fair trial, protection from torture, the right to liberty and security, freedom of speech and numerous other things (the full legislation can be found here). As a political activist, I naturally hold many of these things dear, as the consequences for myself and those I work with could be very severe if we started to dismantle this legislation. However, it is a piece of legislation that everyone could rely upon at some time, regardless of how involved one is in social change.

The occasions on which this Act has been used in court are too numerous to mention in one blog, but many can be found if anyone cares to use a search engine. However, whilst researching for this blog I did find one prime example:





The Government proposes replacing the Human Rights Act with a 'British Bill of Rights'. The proposed reasons for this centre around the suggestion that our Human Rights Act is vulnerable to the European Courts overriding British law (in actuality, there is a clause in the Human Rights Act concerning foreign powers interfering with our laws). It is my opinion that this is a smokescreen for abolishing the rights that have been fought for for centuries, and I will state firmly that this is not on. I'm not aware of precisely what the contents of this British Bill of Rights will be, but I have no doubt that it will not be as effective a protection for individuals as what we currently have.

There are some more positive ways of looking at this. Contrary to popular belief, the abolition of the Human Rights Act was not mentioned in the Queen's Speech when she opened Parliament (the British Bill of Rights was mentioned, but nothing about the Human Rights Act). Labour have been very vocal against this happening, and there is a very active 38 Degrees petition for the Human Rights Act to be saved, or at the very least for a referendum to be held on the matter. In recent weeks, the Government seems to have stopped advocating for its abolition quite as vocally - I have no doubt that it is still on the cards, but it seems to be on more of a slow lane now, which is encouraging. The pressure must not be taken off, however.

The subject of a referendum is a tricky one. I would rather have a referendum than it being abolished without one; however, I would not welcome a referendum because I simply do not believe that we need one. I feel that if we had one, the political rhetoric that would be spun may be enough to convince enough people to vote in favour of abolishing the Human Rights Act. I realise that there are some clauses in it which some people object to (I recall a video by John Bird, of Big Issue fame, a few years ago complaining about it being used in the favour of murderers, for example). Personally I am in favour of all of these sections being applied to everyone non-exclusively, but that is a moot point. To anyone who has any concerns such as these, I will ask only this: In what world does concern about criminals being treated better than they deserve outweigh the need for people who have done nothing wrong to be treated fairly? How is it reasonable that we place our rights in the hands of a Government that has proven on numerous occasions that it does not care about ordinary people, simply because there are some issues that a few people have with certain sections? I actually believe in ethical treatment being applied across the board to everyone, including to those who have committed horrific crimes, but even if I did not believe that, I would not be able to shake off the idea of how foolish this course of action would be in dealing with it.

Thanks for reading. Please sign the petition if you have not already done so, and hopefully together we can beat this attack on our freedoms.

I shall close by once again shamelessly plugging the National Austerity Demonstration this weekend. The link I shared is to the one that I am going to in London, but there are others happening around the country for anyone unable to get there. If you are able, please attend and do your bit!

The most poorly-organised protest I have ever been to

I'm going to talk about the most poorly-organised protest I have ever been to. It was so poorly-organised that I feel that this has rubbed off on me, as the demonstration itself was around two weeks ago and I am only just getting to writing about it now. (No, that's a joke - there are two reasons that I've been slightly lacking in this blog over the last few weeks. One is that I have been extraordinarily busy with Uni, and the other is that I knew that my next blog would be about this protest, and it was so depressing that I kept putting off writing about it. Stupid, I know. But I've now finished Uni, so I shall probably be able to make up for the last few weeks by updating quite a lot this week. Keep your eyes peeled!)

Perhaps in the title of this I should have referred to 'protests' (in the plural) because it actually took the form of three, and this was the biggest mistake of all which created a domino effect on everything else that went on that day. There were three protests in London, all at the same time, all within a mile of one another, focussing on slightly different things but generally based around the same principles - i.e. anti-austerity, anti-privitisation, pro-human rights, pro-socialism, pro-electoral reform etc. When I arrived in London, I met up with some colleagues that I had met on the previous demonstration, plus a couple of new people. We had agreed to attend the demonstration focussing on securing the Human Rights Act, but when we arrived, it became evident for several reasons that it wasn't for us.

The first thing that immediately turned my group off was that it seemed to be largely Liberal Democrat focussed. Now this actually didn't bother me that much, as I give the Lib Dems a little bit more credit than most left-wingers do, but the people I was with really did not want to be associated in this way. Also, the speeches being made were not very good, in all honesty - they weren't engaging people at all and the information given wasn't especially accurate. But the main reason that I was turned off from it was just that it didn't seem like we were achieving anything - the demonstration was very small, we were standing in a corner of the road with no one paying any attention to us. So we stayed for about half an hour, gave a couple of media interviews and then left for Westminster Bridge.

By the time we got there, however, the people there had already given up, as there was absolutely nothing going on. So with heavy hearts, we trudged over to the National Gallery. This was the only demonstration that seemed to be going anywhere, as we picketed the gallery protesting against privatisation for a while - it had clearly been successful, but was coming to a natural conclusion when we got there (I did get to see part of a speech by Kate Smurthwaite though, and I think she speaks very well, so that was a highlight!) Overall though, politically speaking it was a waste of a day, as by around 3pm all of the demonstrations were over. I stayed in London for a bit longer and it became a bit more of a social occasion getting to know my fellow protesters, which I enjoyed but it was not what I was there for.

I don't know how it was that three similar protests were organised in the same city, on the same day, so close to one another without combining all three. If all three had been combined, I think that there would have been a high chance of having a really successful day, but as it was, the people were spread so thin that I felt that little was achieved - with the possible exception of the National Gallery, but I arrived too late to really comment on that one. I'm annoyed about this, as I felt that this movement has lost a little bit of momentum. However, it is not over yet. This Saturday (20 June) is the big anti-austerity protest in London, which is expected to be big. As for what will happen after that, I'm not sure yet - I intend there to be more of these, and if no one seems to be doing anything, perhaps I shall organise it myself. I certainly have enough political contacts to be able to do that. In the meantime, let's focus on what is happening this Saturday.

Here is the Facebook event page. Please come everyone!

National Demo ANTI AUSTERITY NOW!

Thank you to everyone who was at the demonstration two weeks ago, and apologies that it has taken me this long to write about it. As I mentioned earlier, I now have a lot more free time, so I intend to write quite a bit between now and Saturday's demonstration, which I will be attending. Watch this space!

Being a leftie

Am I a leftie? I'm not sure. I suppose when you weigh up all my political views I probably am, although I personally prefer not to identify myself politically or any other way. I prefer to agree with the principles of political or social philosophies, such as socialism for example, rather than to say 'I am a socialist', because I think at the end of the day it all comes down to what you believe and how you act on that, rather than what you consider yourself to be. However, when it comes down to it, the vast majority of my political views tend to be very left-wing.

The thing that has really interested me the more invested in political debate I get is how much the word 'leftie' is accepted to be an insult. There have been times that I have heard some quite disparaging remarks made against 'pseudo-intellectual jumped up lefties', and in that context being a so-called leftie is apparently something to be ashamed of. I don't think I have ever heard the same kind of terminology used against right-wingers. Don't get me wrong, there is enough insult on that side as well, but that tends to be more on the side of 'selfish, capitalist, greedy' etc. I have rarely heard anyone insulted just for being right-wing. It may be that people whose views are more left-wing are just more open to others' opinions, and there probably is an element of truth in that, but I don't think that this is the only reason. In my experience, there is just as much lack of tolerance of the other side between people that I generally agree with as there is with those that I don't, and I try to neutralise this as much as I can, because I believe that it is only with reasoned debate that people will take on board the viewpoints of others.

It would seem that being left-wing is something to be ashamed of. Why is this? From what I can make out, the basis of left-wing politics is that it supports social equality and egalitarianism, whereas right-wing politics sees some forms of social inequality as, if not desirable, as least inevitable. I actually agree that some forms of inequality are pretty inevitable, as I don't think that our species has progressed enough to get beyond that, but I also think that it is really important to take a step back, examine the way that our society is run and at least attempt to iron out those inequalities where possible. With regards to the country and the society in which I live in the moment, these inequalities mean the rising levels of homelessness, the harsh economic situations that many are in and the suggestion that we are 'all in this together', when all evidence points to the fact that those in privileged positions really have not been hit very hard at all - quite the contrary, in fact.

I feel that a reason that 'leftie' is commonly used as an insult is due to a lack of understanding of what left-wing politics is actually about. This is hardly surprising, given that we have not had a truly left-wing Government since long before this blogger was even born and people are naturally afraid of what they haven't personally experienced. It's very easy to say that left-wingers are too idealist and that their principles sound cushy but wouldn't work in practice. This is a fair criticism, but I don't see what the evidence is for that. I have never really experienced left-wing politics in action, but from what I have seen from history going in with the intention to improve the quality of life for people has generally worked. In the aftermath of the Second World War, for example, this country was in a huge amount of debt to various others, but efforts were made to secure our position and to improve the quality of life for our citizens. It was at this time that the NHS was set up. We admittedly have more citizens to improve the quality of life for today, but in this day and age is it really so impossible to make things better? To be honest, I'm not in a position to call it. I haven't studied the philosophies in depth, and I think that even those who have probably can't say with any degree of accuracy whether this would work. The fact is that no one knows because no one has even tried. I think that social inequality is something that needs to be worked towards, and even if all of our dreams are not fulfilled (and I doubt they will be, as I think things tend to work a lot better in theory) there would still be more people in an advantageous situation, and therefore our society would still be more fair and desirable than it is today.

In my last blog, I talked about the Radical Left General Assembly in London, which took place last Thursday. I really wanted to go, but in the end it was just too much hassle with everything else that I have to do. However, there is a video of it, which I strongly encourage anyone reading this blog to take a look at. (It's an hour long, so if you're in a hurry don't do it right now, but at least bookmark it for later.) The first five minutes are a little chaotic, but I think that there are so many fantastically valid points raised. I wish that I could have attended, but c'est la vie:

General Assembly video

After viewing this, I really want to go to the next one, which is on Saturday. I'm not sure if I shall be able to, as I'm producing a play for Uni which is taking up a lot of my time, and I need to have enough space in my life for these things. I shall look into it though. I think it's really important to have an action plan right now, as the social change movement must not fizzle out. Please attend if you can, it's super-important!

Radical Left General Assembly (II)

That will be it from me for now - hopefully there will be another update at the weekend.

The revolution is here - Part 2

I attended an awesome demonstration in London yesterday, which will hopefully be the first of many. As I expected, much has been suggested from various media sources, and there are a lot of rumours flying around about what went on. I'm going to start off by responding to some of these, and clarifying whether they are true or false.

Rumour 1: The demonstration was very violent.
False. The demonstration started outside Westminster Abbey at 3pm, and moved through London. For the next three and a half hours, it was entirely peaceful. At around half-past six in the evening when the protest wasn't far from wrapping up anyway, there was a small amount of confrontation between the demonstrators and the police. I left when this started and stood outside the police cordon for a while with some friends, still demonstrating but in a group of three that was clearly peaceful and educating the masses. There were seventeen arrests - when you put that into perspective against the thousands of people who were there, this really is not a lot, and besides we don't know what happened after the arrests. Some of the people may never have been charged, or even if they were guilty of something may have been entirely provoked. As a participant, I can safely say that the vast majority of the demonstration was extremely peaceful, and for the most part everyone behaved amicably.

Rumour 2: A war memorial was defaced.
True. Someone spray-painted the words 'Tory scum' on a memorial dedicated to the women of the Second World War. I'll most likely never learn the identity of the person who did this, but whoever it was seriously harmed our cause and our reputation. Today when I've been debating this, this is the first thing that people bring up against me and what I stand for. It means nothing in the grand scheme of things. The actions of one person on the spur of the moment have no reflection whatsoever on the mindset or attitude of everyone else. I have actually heard it said that this was a plain-clothed police officer attempting to harm the cause on purpose - I don't know if there is anything in that, but it's what they do say. Personally I don't find the suggestion that implausible because it's the sort of thing they can do, but it's all irrelevant anyway. Someone was stupid, let's forget about it and focus on the issues that we're actually fighting for. As a matter of fact, I wasn't even aware that it had happened until after I got home and saw it reported.

Rumour 3: The protesters were complaining about a Government that has been democratically elected.
False. This Government was not democratically elected, not properly. The majority of people did not vote for the Conservative Party. One of the key reasons for this protest was electoral reform - we demand a system that allows the opinions of those whose first choice is outvoted to still count, and is not outrageously biased in favour of bigger parties. The other reason I'm protesting is the numerous unfair policies which the Conservative Party have introduced, and continue to introduce - I'm worried about the next five years, and I want to do what I can to minimise the amount of suffering they entail. That means getting involved right now as soon as they have been elected. Besides these things, I don't have an issue with the Conservative Party on principle; if David Cameron woke up tomorrow and decided to listen to what I'm asking of him, I shall happily take back everything bad I've ever said about him - after I've come round after my dead faint, of course.

Rumour 4: There were around 100 - 150 people there.
False. There were thousands - I initially thought around 3,000, though a friend of mine said it was more like 1,500. What can I say, I don't have an actual statistic and I may have exaggerated things myself! Far more than the mainstream media suggested anyway.

Rumour 5: There was some very aggressive chanting.
True and false. The chants at demonstrations can be quite unpleasant at times. There are some that I refrain from joining in, such as the one involving burning the Tories and Liberal Democrats on a bonfire, which I really do not believe is called for. I also tend to avoid being actively provocative towards the police - if I disagree with how the police are conducting themselves I will call them out on it, but there are some who say some quite nasty things before that has happened. I do realise that anger manifests itself in many different ways and I'm understanding of people who initiate this sort of thing, but I don't think it's the most effective tool. Although I occasionally engage in fun songs like 'You can shove the Tories up your arse' (sung to the tune of 'She'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes') I try to focus more on chants that are relevant to the issues at hand, such as 'Unemployment and inflation were not caused by immigration! Bullshit! Come off it! The enemy is profit!' (Which actually doesn't sound like much of a chant written on the page, but if you say it out loud it's poetic.) When confronted by the police, there was a point that we chanted, 'You're sexy! You're cute! Take off your riot suit!' I love that - it's not too confrontational, it's a bit more playful and humorous. It's on a case-by-case basis - the chanting can get confrontational, but the best way to respond to it is just to lead by example.

These are all the rumours that I can think of to clarify just now. Generally, I was really happy with how yesterday went. We did a lot of marching, a lot of chanting, some decent levels of debate and I felt that everyone I spoke to was pleasant and really motivated to make a change. I left with a couple of friends at around 6.30 when things started kicking off between the police and the protesters, and managed to escape before the kettling began. We stopped outside the police cordon, near enough to still be involved but far enough away that we were a separate group. Call us a mini-demonstration of three. In this time, we talked to passers-by, educating them about what we were doing and listening to their opinions. There was even a time when a group of Spanish schoolchildren passed, and their teacher asked us to talk about what we were doing, so we taught a class! It was a genuinely really rewarding experience - it was one of the most enjoyable pieces of activism I have ever done, I feel like we made a lot more progress than we would have had we stayed inside the kettle.

I stand by what I said in the last blog about 'The revolution is here' - if things continue like they were yesterday, I think we will be a very strong movement indeed (not that we aren't already). We must be careful though - I feel that many campaigns seem strong for a while, and then people lose interest. This is what happened with tuition fees and I was so disappointed when people stopped protesting about that, because it seemed to be going really well and I thought we were making progress. I stand by the thought that we would have won that one if we'd been a little more persistent.

Here is the next event:
Radical Left General Assembly

I most likely won't be able to attend this one as it's in the middle of the week and I have University commitments, but I will be there if I possibly can, and if I can't I shall help virtually via online media. Anyone who is able to attend, I strongly advise to get there.

Thank you to all of the people at the demo yesterday, with particular mention to Maia, who I hung around with most of the day, and to Aaron and Laura, who joined me on our protest of three at the end. I think we did really well, and I look forward to the next one.

The revolution is most definitely here... more from George soon!

The revolution is here - Part 1

'You live in the future, and the future is here. It's bright. It's now.' Regina Spektor

Today was Day 1 of the next five years under the Conservative Government - not something I or anyone who will take anything from this blog is looking forward to. I honestly am greatly surprised by the results of the election. I've heard it suggested that this was a rigged vote, and that is something that I've considered, but I feel as though right now there are more important things to worry about than potential falsifications in a thoroughly inefficient electoral system in the first place.

It probably isn't necessary to make any comments about why I have concerns about the Conservatives remaining in power, but for the sake of form I will anyway - I have fundamental concerns about the state that our public services will be in by 2020 (the NHS is the one that everyone talks about and I am extremely scared about what will happen to that as well, but we must make sure that the other public services, such as education and welfare, do not fall by the wayside on our agendas); I am concerned about TTIP going through; I want to remain a part of the EU; the social inequality, including homelessness is something that I have become increasingly aware of over the last few years; and perhaps most importantly, I am concerned about our impact on this planet. I have to say that environmental issues are the thing that concerns me the most out of all of them, because I think that if we cannot keep this planet sustainable for our species, all of the rest of the issues become slightly irrelevant. Having said that, this does not take anything from my passion about sorting out all the rest of these things. What I have mentioned is just the tip of the iceberg, and I will debate my reasons behind all of these things at a later time, but that is not what this blog is for.

The way I see it, at this point each of us needs to make a choice. We can complain, sit around, watch the news over our cups of tea and wait until 2020 (at which point all of the unhelpful rhetoric that surrounded this election will be back) or we can get off our backsides, leave our homes and make the next five years as bearable as they possibly can be. I choose the second option. The coalition was elected when I was 16, and shortly afterwards at the age of 17 I started joining in with demonstrations, set up this blog and declared myself a political activist. Five years on, and I feel that I have been quite successful in this role. There are of course campaigns where my side didn't win, or that I have gone about things in a way that I wouldn't today, but at the same time I have learned a lot myself, become a better debater, met some fantastic political contacts and gained skills which can only be put to better use. In short, whilst I'm very proud of everything I've done so far, I have the potential to achieve far more in the next five years than I have in the five years that I have already been a part of this game. And this is important, because if we're going to get any further with this we need a revolution.

I have felt for a while now, almost as with the foreshadowing in a book, that the revolution is not far off. Friends have said to me, 'The revolution is coming, isn't it?' and I've thought about it and said, 'Yes, I think so.' Of course, there are other friends who don't believe that at all, and I've had to think a lot about whether I actually believe in the revolution, or if I am merely trying to convince myself of that. In honestly it fluctuates between the two a lot, but this week with the election I've been thinking about this a lot, and have come to the conclusion that whilst I believe in the revolution, none of us have any right to want one if we do not each intend individually to be the one who makes it happen. Whilst I'm disheartened, angry and above all concerned about my future and the futures of everyone around me, there is also an optimism and positivity there. From now on, I am going to turn my efforts to create social change up to a new level, and when I have reached that, I'll take it to a new level after that. I encourage everyone to join me on this - it's all very well to say that one person can't make a difference, but it is my belief that in a community, each person is as important as the community at large, and together we are responsible for this.

I was going to title this 'The revolution is coming', but as I was writing this I realise that that is inaccurate. The revolution isn't coming, it's already here. Every time I log onto social media, I can see my friends full of passion and anger, furious about the results of the election and ready to do something to sort this out. I don't think that passion ever left, it just lay dormant for a while. It is now the responsibility of each of us to keep those that we know ready and enthused to continue this revolution. Note the quote that I put at the top of this: it's from a song called Machine, and it always reminds me that there is no point waiting for the future. This is the future.

But I'm not just here to write encouraging words that ultimately have little meaning. I've been annoyed with myself over the last few years for being so sporadic with this blog. It really is not helpful to anyone, and for the foreseeable future I do very much intend to write about as many things that I have been doing and things that are upcoming that I physically can. Here is the first instalment:

F*CK THE TORY GOVERNMENT - NO TO ALL CUTS - YES TO REAL DEMOCRACY

All of the information is on the Facebook event, but in short, it's in London at Tory HQ tomorrow afternoon, and involves placards, protest and demands - just what we love. I intend to go myself; I only learned of it today, but if I don't go, I'm not going to do anything but sit around and feel sorry for myself all weekend, and there's no upside to that at all. Unless you have a hugely important prior commitment or another very good reason, I expect to see you there!

This is Part 1 - there will be a second part over the weekend, talking about my more general thoughts about this election, and also how the demonstration went.

Who knows, maybe we can create the next Golden Age...

Why I'm voting Green

Hello to all my readers!

We have a general election coming up this week, and I have not written about it as much as I was going to. I feel slightly guilty about this, but on the whole perhaps this is a good thing. I have of course seen a lot of rhetoric about most of the parties over the last few months, bordering from the highly interesting to the 'I can't believe they're writing about that' (Nicola Sturgeon and doll's hair, anyone?) Generally though, whilst I have been keen to inform myself about people's views and opinions and a lot of them have been interesting, many of these debates have neither influenced who I am likely to vote for, nor stood out as being worthy of discussion amidst what I consider to be the most pressing matters. So in the run-up to the first UK general election since I started writing this blog, I am going to explain why I intend to vote for the Green Party.

There are many policies that the Green Party have that the whole of my approach to social change actively supports - aside from the obvious environmental reasons (which would be good reason to vote for them in and of itself) there are numerous other things that they stand for which I am very passionate about, such as their approaches to forward-thinking education, protecting the National Health Service, raising the Living Wage, decommissioning Trident, working to help Palestine get recognition as an independent state and numerous other things. To be honest, I could write an essay on each of these things and more besides (and have to certain friends) but I really think that doing the same here would do more harm than good. I shall leave a link to the Green manifesto if anyone would like to take a look, but I am going to stick to my previous resolution to make these blogs a little shorter, and stick to why I myself am voting for them, rather than preaching things that people can read in numerous locations other than on my blog.

The bottom line is that I intend to vote Green because I am tired of the rate of social change in this country. In the last five years, I have worked hard on numerous campaigns intended to benefit people in the long-term, and whilst I like to think that I have been reasonably successful, it seems that our present Government has been so blinkered about the decisions that they have made that they are unwilling to take on board pressure from any sides that don't involve a large cash settlement. As an activist, this is frustrating and demotivating - not that I'm hardening to this game, because I still think that if I don't do it, I have no right to complain about others not doing it either. I want a Government which I believe will represent the interests that I stand for, which the Green Party would seem to do. I have been impressed by the likes of Caroline Lucas and indeed Natalie Bennett (I realise that the latter has received quite a bit of criticism which I may respond to another time, but I personally believe that although she has become uncomfortably flustered on occasion, she talks a lot of common sense.) I do not believe that Labour, the Conservatives' biggest rival, are entirely likely to sort out the problems that we have in a particularly efficient way - although the Conservatives are largely responsible for the issues with welfare and inequality, the Labour Party were paramount to us getting into that situation in the first place, and although I will admit that a Labour Government would be better than the alternative, I feel that they would be too slow in sorting things out. I feel that we are swiftly reaching a stalemate with all of the leading parties as a matter of fact, and right now it is time to think radical.

One thing that the Greens are largely criticised for is the fact that they are apparently 'too ambitious', i.e. promising things that are far too much both economically and socially for them to deliver. I will concede that there is likely to be an element of truth in that, but no more than there is with each of the other parties. I don't believe that there is a political party in any country in the world that can totally live up to its reputation after coming to power, not least because there is always more red tape to work around in practice than there is in theory. There has also been criticism of their economic understanding. Economics is my weakest point when it comes to political debate, so it is not something that I can comment on too technically, but it strikes me that their economic plan cannot possibly be worse than the plan that the Conservatives are working with. We are living in a country run by a Government that cuts vital funding to public services, leaves working people relying on charity to survive, whilst spending inordinate amounts of money on its own interests, including bonuses and bailouts received by wealthy individuals who really do not need them and ceremonial events which help no one and we could easily do without. Bearing this in mind, I think that if taxes were firstly raised (and yes, I do agree with raised taxes) and, more importantly, enforced fairly and proportionally to individual wealth, it would be a very good idea to spend money on the sort of things that the Green Party proposes.

Another thing that I would like to bring up is the subject of tactical voting. Many of my friends and colleagues have said to me that they support Green policies, but intend to vote somewhere a bit safer such as Labour due to the Greens' smaller chances of coming to power. Now, I will be the first to admit that our democratic process is appalling, and does not reflect the changing times and smaller parties whatsoever. It is extremely unfortunate that the Alternative Vote referendum of 2011 was lost, and I sincerely hope that we will have another chance for Electoral Reform in the near future. Having said that, I think it is extremely important to vote from one's heart. I recently heard Caroline Lucas say, 'The only wasted vote is a vote for someone who you do not believe in,' and I agree with her absolutely. Our democratic process may be biased against up and coming parties, but every tactical vote makes this problem more profound. I seriously doubt that the Green Party will come into power at this election, but I hope that they will get enough seats in Parliament to make the next five years a lot more bearable than the last. As a matter of fact, the Green Party have been fantastic in Parliament even with just one seat. I have been genuinely very impressed with Lucas, and I hope that we have many more like her to come. And for those people who have (possibly justified) concerns that the Greens may be slightly out of their depth economically, perhaps the knowledge that they are highly unlikely to reach a Parliamentary majority in this election can be a source of comfort. Perhaps if they get a few more seats, by 2020 they will be more equipped to take the helm than they are today.

Here is the Green Party manifesto, it's well worth a read:

https://www.greenparty.org.uk/assets/files/manifesto/Green_Party_2015_General_Election_Manifesto_Searchable.pdf

I must also clarify that I do not work for the Green Party, nor am I a paid-up member. I am supporting them at this election, because at this point in time they seem to represent what I stand for. I am not loyal to them, and it is entirely possible that my allegiance will turn somewhere else in the future. And for the record, were I not voting Green I would be voting Liberal Democrat, because I think that although their position on tuition fees was a massive mistake on their part, generally they have not been too bad in this coalition, and I have heard that there have been some quite dangerous Conservative Party bills that the Liberal Democrats have blocked.

This will likely be my last blog before the election; it will be interesting to write after it is over! I have a new regime for this blog - I won't go into it here, but suffice it to say that over the next few months it will be updated on a more regular basis than it has been in the past. Also, over the summer when I have more time, I am seriously considering a rebrand, because I think that I look a little outdated and I could do with promoting myself a bit more. I shall say no more here, but watch this space!

Being young and successful

Hello, rabid readers!

A couple of days ago, I was engaged in a conversation with a friend concerning one of my previous blogs. This friend is someone who I disagree with on many things, but nevertheless is an intelligent person who has interesting opinions, whom I enjoy spending time with and whose opinions I respect even if I may not share. The conversation started when I wanted to gauge his opinion on one of my previous posts. We actually didn't talk much about the subject matter in the end, as the conversation quickly shifted into the quality of this blog generally, and continued to progress into other topics, but it was an interesting conversation and I'd like to share a bit of it. He gave me quite a few tips, some of which I agree with and some of which I do not, but all of which I will take into consideration when writing future blogs. One that sticks in my mind was the suggestion that I should condense this into something a bit shorter, which I think I should definitely consider doing! Not least because then I would probably be motivated to update this more, which can only be a good thing.

Anyway, one thing that we got onto quite quickly was my friend advising me to recognise the limitations of my own position when putting across my opinion on things. Now this is something that I generally attempt to do - everything I write on here is my own personal opinion. I am not working for anyone, often I have no formal qualifications to say what I do and I don't think I have ever claimed anything different. My friend did say one thing with regards to how I put myself across that really intrigued me: 'Saying you're an actor, political activist, blogger and former radio station presenter is ridiculous coming from a 20 something student.' There was an indication there that given the fact that I am a 21-year-old Creative Performance student, I am not as credible in being these things than someone who is perhaps in a different professional, financial or social position.

Whilst I disagree, I did find this an interesting sentiment to brood on, because I feel that it is a perception that a lot of the public quite likely have. There does seem to be a school of thought that if one is young, especially if they are a student, they are not yet in a position to be taken very seriously in certain fields, and if they wish to be they must be humble about it. Why is this? I actually think that it is a very good thing to be young and to take yourself quite seriously in a professional context. There are probably other people who may look on their achievements differently to how I do, and that's fine, but I'm proud of them and I think that I have the right to have them recognised. All of the things above about me are true. I am an actor - in all fairness, it would probably be more accurate to describe me as semi-professional rather than professional at this stage simply because it is not currently my main source of income, but in terms of the work I do outside of my University course I'm very comfortable calling myself an actor. The dictionary definition of the word 'activism' is: 'The use of direct, often confrontational action, such as a demonstration or strike, in opposition to or support of a cause.' I have engaged in this form of activity on numerous occasions, and continue to do so. And in the past, I have had a regular presenting role at a local radio station - not a national radio station, but I don't think that this limits the credibility of the work that I have done (in honesty, I think that bearing that in mind this is more impressive, because more recognised stations normally involve a lot more staff working on the technical details behind programmes, and the presenter may not actually do much besides the actual presenting. I wrote, organised and ran my programme entirely on my own, including driving the desk, and considering I was only 14 at the time, I have no qualms about being exceptionally proud of this accomplishment.) Therefore, I think I am entirely justified in calling myself an actor, political activist and former radio presenter, and I don't think the fact that I am 21 years old and a student should make any difference to that. I consider those to be additional facts about me.

Does this gain or lose me respect? It's a tricky one. I think that respect should be earned not by what a person says about themselves, but by what they prove to people. I make no bones about being quite straightforward about my accomplishments when I meet people, and some people may consider that slightly pretentious. I try not to bring it up for the sake of it in an arrogant way, because I think that this can be quite easily misconstrued. However, when it becomes relevant I will mention it, and I would hope that the skills and knowledge that I have gained from these things will be strong enough to present me in a positive light to whomever I am dealing with. Generally, they have done. Of course there is the odd person who I don't get on with, but I think that we all will occasionally meet people who one's approach will grate on, and that shouldn't mean that you have to change your style unless there is a really good reason. Overall, I think I've made some fantastic contacts just by being honest and being myself. I also try to respect people for their accomplishments regardless of their age and background, because that is how I want to be treated myself. Over the last year, I have worked quite closely with Tom Bennett, a Bristol film director who is quite respected in the world of film, and has some very high reviews and many exciting productions to his name. He also happens to be 19 years old and a student. It seems that this has not hindered him a great deal in becoming a very successful director in his own right, and from what I have seen he seems to be just as respected as someone older. Barnaby Raine, another 19-year-old and political activist who I haven't exactly worked with, but I've spoken to a bit, seen at public events and talked to a little online (I've mentioned him on here before) is also very capable and respected within the field that he works.

There are many others that I know of as well, and I think this is great. Obviously as a student I meet a lot of young people, and many seem not to believe that they can be respected in their own right for their accomplishments at least until they are a bit older. Personally, I believe that anyone can be whatever they want to be at any age, so long as they have the maturity, intellectual capacity and confidence with which to do it. I suppose it comes down to whether one sees oneself as a child or an adult at the end of the day. When one is in one's late teens or early twenties, this is something that varies from person to person. I am an adult. I have no doubt about this. I didn't become an adult when I became legally of age in the eyes of the law, it was around a year ago that I realised that emotionally I have matured to that level. I feel like an adult, I think I have the capabilities of an adult and I would like to be treated as one. Happily, the majority of the people in my life these days do.

Well, bearing in mind my friend's advice I tried to keep this blog shorter, and it is less than half the length of my most recent one, so I suppose that is something good. I have had a couple of comments from other people who have found my blogs a little inaccessible because I am naturally quite a wordy person, so keeping them shorter would probably be a good idea. Having said that, whilst I would like more hits on here it isn't so important to me that I would compromise the general way that I write for that - not least because most of the comments I get are positive, and I think that I am quite a good writer. I'll write what needs to be written, and if that takes up a lot of words then so be it. But I will try not to use more words than I need to to sum something up. Being concise is important as well, I understand that.

I'm on a break from University currently, so hopefully I shall have some more time to blog over Easter. Take care x

My opinions on smoking

Hello everyone!

This is my first blog of this year. Yet again, there have been numerous things that have come up, such as the Charlie Hebdo attacks and the aftermath, that I have intended to write about and somehow not got around to. I'm sorry. I want to keep this updated as frequently as I can, as it keeps me motivated to continue trying to achieve social change, and I actually think that I am a pretty good writer. I get good feedback from people, and when I re-read what I have done I am generally quite proud of it. I'd like to become a more frequent political writer and commentator, and I'd certainly like my blog to get more hits, which I know I can only do if I actually bother to keep it updated. Unfortunately, there are many other things that have been consuming my time and energy lately, and sometimes this blog gets left by the wayside.

However, there are certain moments when I know that I have to write, if anything as therapy for me as much as for others to read. There is a particular subject that I have intended to discuss on here for a few months. A while back, I re-read my first ever blog, back in 2010. I sound very young and amateurish there, but whilst introducing myself one paragraph caught my eye:

'I'm not scared of anyone. I'm not intimidated by anyone. I'm very fiery, volatile and outspoken - for better or for worse. I have some very controversial views on freedom, science and particularly smoking.'

Whilst much of that is still true, I wrote it at 17 and now I am 21, so naturally I have grown and matured quite a lot. The passage on smoking was particularly noteworthy to me. I have rarely mentioned it on here since, mainly because it is a very personal issue for me, and I find it hard to take an objective and balanced viewpoint on it. Nevertheless, it does occur to me that it may be very beneficial, both for myself and for my readers, for me to write about my viewpoint on it. Before I start, I must clarify that the next several paragraphs will focus almost entirely on my own experiences - later I will try to talk a bit more objectively as I realise that I can't write a political blog based entirely on something personal, but I have to start out with that, I think. So here goes:

Smoking is the worst thing in the world.

Right, well obviously my opinion is more complex than that, but that is the bare bones of it. I can already anticipate the questions that will be thrown in my direction in response to that statement: Why, George? Out of all the corruption and suffering in the world, why denounce smoking as being worse than everything else? I must just clarify that that statement is entirely subjective; of course I don't seriously think that it is worse to smoke than to do literally anything else in the world, when you actually get down to reasonable and objective opinion. But if you go past the logical part of my brain to what is deeply ingrained within me, on a really personal level there is absolutely nothing I loathe more.

I suffer from severe capnophobia, which is defined as 'An intense hatred, or fear, of smoking or having anyone around who is polluting the air in the immediate vicinity with tobacco smoke; whether from cigarettes, cigars, pipe, or from any similar process of smoke distribution'. I have lived with this since around the age of nine, and over time it has grown worse than it was when it started. I used to be able to deal with smoke a lot better - I was adamantly against people doing it and would cough a lot if exposed to it, but I didn't suffer from extreme lasting reactions beyond being exposed to it and I didn't avoid being in a room with people who had been doing it recently. These things are both the case now. If I am walking along a crowded street, I subconsciously look at people's hands instead of their faces. If I'm exposed to it for any length of time, I suffer nausea-like symptoms, my eyes run a bit, I find it hard to speak and to breathe normally and this can last for a long time after the smoke has passed. I think it has lasted around two hours.

I feel that as far as I am concerned, this is a bit of a double issue. My psychological fear is real and present, but that is not the only thing to it. I believe that I have done so much to avoid being exposed to tobacco smoke in any way at all that I do not have the physical resistance that most people do. I may be wrong about this, but I think that if someone from a country where there was no smoke came over here, they may not be as afraid of it as I am, but physiologically their reactions would be very similar. It's a catch-22 situation really: the fear of it I gained as a child has caused me to avoid it, and as I have avoided it I have naturally not had the exposure that most people have. Not having had that exposure has meant that I have little resistance to it, so it affects me more physically, thus fuelling my phobia and making it more severe than it was before. I think it is entirely likely that my sensitivity to smoke will continue to become more intense in the future.

The majority of my friends and acquaintances are aware that I have this problem and their reactions vary, from empathy and understanding to being positively aggressive about it. Everyone who tries to understand means a lot to me, and I really, really appreciate every one of them. However, I don't think that anyone who has not experienced it can fully understand how much of an impact this has on my life. It is more than just the feeling I have when I am around smoke, which is bad enough in itself. I can say, quite truthfully, that every single aspect of my life is completely affected by my capnophobia. It hinders my social life greatly - not just because not everyone is especially pleasant about it (which causes enough problems as it is) but because smoking is such a social rite. If I'm ever with a group of friends in an outdoor location, it is likely that at least one of them will be smoking at any one time, and I have to distance myself from the group as a result. This makes it harder for me to bond with people, and this is most likely a key reason why I am an outsider in the majority of the social groups that I am in - people get on with me and I may even have close friends there, but I generally have a better dynamic with most people when it is just them and I. In a group of many, the smoking culture is too rampant for me to socialise much at all. I can vividly recall a time a few years ago when I was with some friends, and this happened as normal. On this occasion, one of my friends also left the group and came to keep me company. It was such a small thing and my friend probably doesn't even remember it, but I will never forget it because this is an extremely rare thing to happen and the gesture meant so much to me.

Gestures like the one that I have described above are unfortunately very much the exception. The most common reaction is for someone to say something like, 'Yeah, I know people who don't like it' but not actually take in that it is an actual serious issue. This is the sort of person who will offer me a lift somewhere, and if I ask if they'll be smoking, volunteer to open the window. I realise that they aren't being inconsiderate on purpose, but I don't think it really occurs to them how serious an issue this can be. Some friends have given me open hostility - I find it interesting that if someone has a more commonly recognised fear, such as spiders for instance, they seem to be met with sympathy, but if it's tobacco smoke people take this as a personal attack. This is happily rare as well - most people are not actively hostile, but I do meet a lack of consideration a lot. For example, there is a group of people that sometimes I have reason to work with (for obvious reasons, I have to be extremely vague about who these people are and what I do with them), and there is one individual in the group who I actually get on quite well with, but I find it hard to really have respect for them given that they have pretty much prevented me from forming bonds, either personally or professionally, with anyone else there. The reason for this is that every time we are on a break from work, this person will light up, and continue to smoke until we are back to work. This person typically does this whilst chatting to the rest of the group, and I have to remove myself. Don't get me wrong, I am willing to move away from a smoker and I seem to spend quite a lot of my life doing it. But I do not see why it has to be me who always does this.  If someone wishes to smoke, why can't they go off somewhere to do it? They are the one who has caused the situation by making the decision to smoke, I have made no such decision. If my relationships with people are hindered as a result, I find this quite unfair, especially if the person knows my position full well (and they do, generally). In this example, I have not confronted the person, just because I find that in my position you really have to pick your battles. I have lost friendships as a result of this, and if I confronted people every single time, I'd do nothing else but talk about it.

So these are my experiences, and I realise that the majority of this blog has been subjective, but I cannot get on to what I am about to say without that. I would not outlaw tobacco smoking entirely (although if a Government was about to do that, I would certainly not try to prevent this) but I think that the laws we have at the moment need to be far more stringent. I am happy about the fact that it would appear as though the laws are gradually changing where that is concerned, not as much as I would like but that's a moot point. In 2007, we had the law preventing smoking in enclosed public spaces, which was a long time coming and was an immense relief. Soon it will be illegal to smoke in cars containing children (legislature which I actually cannot believe anyone is arguing against) and my hometown of Bristol has recently become to first UK city to ban smoking in a few outdoor spaces. I think that on the whole, it is a good thing that the world is waking up to the idea of making things easier for people like myself, because the thing that I always remember is that despite what anyone else might say, I am not the only one. I will admit that I am probably in the minority of people to have reactions as extreme as what I go through, but I am not the only person in the world who is affected by this, far from it. I have read accounts of many people who for one reason or other, really have issues with smoke being around them constantly- sometimes their experiences are similar to mine and sometimes they have been very different, but I am entirely able to empathise. I feel that being able to empathise should be something that everyone has, regardless of whether or not it is something that they go through themselves.

Regarding the law, I would push for it to be outlawed in public outdoor spaces. I think that people have a right to be able to leave their own homes without having to feel uncomfortable on the streets. A lot of people say to me, 'But what about cars?' which I do accept is actually a fair point. The two points I would raise in response to that are as follows:

a) Cars have a purpose which tobacco products do not. The benefit that they have to our society is considerably more than anything tobacco does, any benefits of which I would consider to be pretty debatable anyway, and

b) I have not heard of anyone having issues with exhaust fumes in the same way that I know people do with tobacco. This is not to say that people don't have them - it's not something that personally I take such a vested interest in, but if anyone did I would absolutely take steps to try to accommodate for them. I'm not affected personally by exhaust fumes (at least, not much) but having had the experience of people continually turn a blind eye to the position that I find myself in, I will always try to avoid doing that to other people. I'm all for pedestrianism, and if there was a demand for it I would support having more ways that people can walk without coming into contact with many vehicles - I'm not sure how practical that would be with how dependent we are on our vehicles, but we surely can do better than what we are doing at the moment.

I am actually willing to meet people who would like to smoke halfway here, believe it or not. I would entirely discourage it, support plain packaging on cigarettes and socially try to get it out of fashion. However, I will accept that currently there are still people who wish to smoke, and if they'd be willing to meet my view halfway, I will be willing to meet theirs. Privately owned spaces I would consider to be a different matter, within certain conditions. I would have no issue with people smoking inside their own homes, provided that the consent of everyone who lived there was given, and this includes from those who are underage. If someone is not in the position to be able to give consent, as with babies and young children, it must be assumed to be not given. I don't think I'd even mind people smoking in their own gardens - I wouldn't outlaw it straight away anyway, I'd leave it for a bit and see if there was still an issue with it once all the other things came into effect. Since the 2007 law came in, pub gardens are no longer pleasant places to be, which is a bit annoying but I'm willing to put up with that. If a pub owner wishes to allow that, I'm all for it, as those who have issues can remain inside. I do actually want a solution that suits everyone - because of my experiences, I'm so passionately against it in public that perhaps this is not always clear, but I think a fair medium should not be that difficult. And I am aware that my solutions are still not as accommodating towards smokers as they are towards people who wish to avoid it. That is just how things happen; I feel that if someone has made the decision to start smoking, they need to take all of the inconveniences that may come with it, rather than inflict those inconveniences on other people.

Another thing that often comes up is my viewpoint on smoking cannabis. This isn't exactly what this blog is about, but I feel that I ought to touch on it. I do think that it is a major inconsistency that tobacco is legal and cannabis is not, given that tobacco has been proven time and again to be much worse. I will confess that I myself am not fully informed as to the benefits and downsides of using cannabis, so I am probably not the best person to judge this. However, I consider that given the comparisons it would be only fair of me to at least consider it in the same camp as tobacco if that remained legal, if not above it. So I would most likely begin by allowing it on the same terms as tobacco, and in time potentially consider it to be more socially acceptable. But I would have to take advice on that one, as I really am not informed enough to call it fairly.

So there you have it. My opinions on smoking, and how I think it ought to be considered legally. This has been one of the hardest blogs I have ever written, because it is something that affects me personally. I have tried, during the paragraphs where I discuss policy at least, tried to keep my own experience out of it. I do realise absolutely that my phobia should not dictate legislation, and that there are certainly some irrational parts of what I go through that I need to sort out myself. For example, I don't especially enjoy it when people smoke E-cigarettes. I even find it hard to look at people's breath on cold days. This is my personal stuff, and that's something that I need to deal with myself. I can understand that. I am willing to work with other people on this progressively if they are willing to work with me. All too often, people are not willing to work with me on this one, they just seem to think that their opinion is right and I need to put up with it, and I don't think that that helps anyone. And whilst we're on that, I'd like to close this with an important point. Something I quite often hear is, 'George, walking through a cloud of smoke won't kill you.' In response to that, I would say that what I experience when I am around smoke cannot really be put into words - there have been times (thankfully brief) when being alive does not feel especially worth it - but more than that is the lack of empathy I get from people when they find out that I threaten their habit. There seems to be a culture of 'the smoker is in the right, and everyone else must live with it.' Therefore, rather than argue with the science behind passive smoking, in reply to the statement that it will not kill me, I will question whether that person's opinion would change in the slightest if it would.

I shall hopefully do some more blogging soon, if I find the time alongside the play that I am writing and my University course. This being an election year, I hope to talk a lot when that comes up. This will be the first General Election since I started blogging, I began this a couple of months after the last one.

Watch this space x