R.I.P. Elisabeth!

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

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

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

Bradley and Big Brother

Hello, and welcome to this week's post!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See you next week, peoples!

London Protests and The Big Questions

Hello people

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

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

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

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

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

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

Check back soon!

Why I call teachers by their first names

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

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

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

Just life and all

Hi guys

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Twitter and sit-ins

Hi guys

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy New Year!

Hello everyone

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

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

I also have a few new people to commend:

1) Laurie Penny

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

2) The Stephenson Five

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

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

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

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