Gogwit's Blog

This past Bank-Holiday Monday saw the weird and wonderful calendar of oddball traditions and activities in Britain move to Coopers Hill in Gloucestershire.  Though the world media concentrates on sporting events such as Wimbledon, Badminton Horse Trials, Sailing, Formula 1 and The Open what most of us are interested in are much more low-key events spread throughout these few summer months.  Whether it be nettle-eating contests, conker championships, worm charming tournaments or a variety of other idiotic pastimes, there is something for everyone in the oddball sporting calendar in Britain.  Perhaps one of the highest profile of these is the annual Cheese rolling event in Gloucestershire.

Coopers Hill is a steep hill of about 500 feet (with an approximate 70 degree incline and sees the madcap and ever so slightly suicidal sport of chasing a giant circular cheese down the hill with the person who first grabs the cheese at…

(satire?)

Forged in suburban English gardens and targeting what they see as divisive horticultural barriers separating communities, back-yard fence extremists and anti-plastic railing splinter groups are returning to the streets in an increasingly violent form.

In the back room of a sparsely decorated pub in Bolton a man with a bald head and a petunia tattoo poking out above his shirt collar is giving a speech. It is just after 11am but behind him the pub is already packed with middle-aged, mainly white, men and women.

Suddenly it erupts.

“We are being swamped by a wave of artificial fencing from Asia and elsewhere. Bring back our hedges … down with PVC-covered chain link fences and wood plastic composite lattice-fence panels. We will de-fence England or die trying!” The chants ring out as tables are thumped and wine glasses are thrust into the air.

“It is going to be a…

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/council-shelves-plan-find-firm-4020338

For everyone who missed the article in the Birmingham Mail yesterday, Birmingham City Council has been put the defensive in a big way with its plans to privatise Birmingham’s new central Library. Our campaigning is paying off. While it was on the 9th April that the Leader and Deputy leader of the Council took the decision to pull back from the tendering process (see press release below), it was us who spotlighted what was going on behind the scenes, in particular by our press releases on the 28th April and our interview on the Radio WM Adrian Goldberg show on 30th April. The important thing to note about the stopping of the tendering process however is that they still plan to privatise in the long-term, so we need to keep a close eye on things.

We have to ask, what is the Labour Party doing in moving towards privatisation? They have…

Hi readers,

What a strange, sad and worrying week it has been.  We have seen everything this week.  Police raiding the homeless in co-ordinated assaults, confiscating their food and shelter; G4S being invited in to profit from rape; the first bailiff notices coming in for Bedroom Tax victims; brutal murder; racial conflict…it’s been a weird week. It feels like the whole context of the week has been atrocity.

A reminder though that even when the context is atrocity, we can find love, joy and hope in our lives by sharing with each other.  Sharing our time, our food, our love, and our ambitions for ourselves and our communities with each other makes the difference.  We feel less alone, because we become less alone.  We feel less angry because we have a productive outlet for our rising frustrations.  It pays to get involved.

It also feels like the whole world has…

David Cameron isn’t even among friends in his own cabinet now | Andrew Rawnsley | Comment is free | The Observer.

There must have been lightning,
Or a flash of light at least,
Across the skies,
The day that I met you, my sister.

There were unknown threads,
Lines of silver yarn,
That already tied us together.
There was a bridge constructed,
Between my Derby,
And your Abassan al Kabir,
Joining our hearts,
In something that felt like justice,
In the middle of this occupation.

We lined warm embraces,
With the exchange of stories,
Of lives,
Of all the things that tore us apart,
And the ones that built us back up.
There were secrets from the depths of us,
There was hope – she was smiling at us both,
And in its centre you stood there,
Always,
Smiling in the face of defeat.

You taught me Arabic – the Gazan type,
So I speak to your Ummi now,
And I told you about my motherland,
You Palestinians are the only…

Some have suggested that Woolwich is a reason to resurrect the Communications Data Bill – the Snoopers’ Charter. Indeed, not only have the usual authoritarian suspects on all sides of the political field – Theresa May for the Tories, Lord Reid for Labour and Lord Carlile for the Lib Dems – spoken in favour of the resurrection of the Snooper’s Charter, but the latest suggestion is that Ed Miliband would be willing to help the Tories bring in the bill, even in the face of the planned opposition by the Liberal Democrats.

That, to me, is not only worrying but very foolish. The tragic and hideous events of Woolwich do not make the case for the Snoopers’ Charter. Indeed, precisely the opposite: they make a stronger case against the Snoopers’ Charter. They support the position taken by opponents of the Snooper’s Charter. What we need isn’t the clumsy bludgeon of…

(satire?)

The government has announced plans to hand over the running of the whole of England and Wales to private security firm G4S in a move which ministers say will bring significant improvements to their workload and personal bank balances.

The international company – which has already been contracted to run everything from rape referral centres to children’s homes in the UK – will take over the entire management of the two countries from government ministers on a contract which is expected to run for 30 years.

The company announced that trained G4S workers working on an hourly rate of £6.50 an hour will help man the two countries, assisting with making decisions about foreign policy, running the countries’ health and education services as well as providing advice on how members of the public can access optional services such as provision of water, gas, electricity and air for an…

Reminder! We are showing Ken Loach’s new film at the University on Wednesday 29th May (ignore the typo on the poster).  7pm in the Arts Main Lecture Theatre. R14 on Campus maps.