Residents of Democracy Village, a protest camp in Parliament Square, were evicted in the early hours of this morning.
What is it with the Police doing this sort of thing in the middle of the night?
I've always had an interest in artificial intelligence and I'm still gutted that I didn't get to study my holy trifecta of AI, Latin and Computer Science at university, instead settling for a dismal Multimedia course at London Met.
After a quick flick through them they seem pretty interesting. Hopefully I can use some of the concepts to improve the AI for one or two game projects I've had kicking around my head.
On my way home from work the other day I stumbled across a bike in Stoke Newington. Chained to a lamppost and painted white, it didn't look like it was to be used, so I snapped a photo with the intent to find out if it was part of any particular street art project.
Coincidentally I ran across another, this time on my way to work when I got off the bus a stop early to grab some breakfast. This one's purpose was more clear, as there were the remains of some flowers and a laminated placard. It turns out these were ghost bikes placed in memory of cyclists killed on the road. The one in Clerkenwell was for Rebecca Goossen:
The colleagues of an architectural assistant killed by a lorry at a notorious central London junction paid an emotional tribute to her this week by placing a “ghost bike” at the scene of her death.
Rebecca Goossen, a 29-year-old German who worked at Farringdon-based Metropolitan Workshop, was struck by a cement mixer turning left between Goswell Road and Old Street two weeks ago.
Goossen, who was cycling from her home in Bethnal Green to Metropolitan Workshop’s office, was pronounced dead at the Royal London Hospital.
Last night I saw Atari Teenage Riot play at The Electric Ballroom in Camden. They were one of the bands I used to love as a Kerrang-reading teenager but I'd never managed to make it to one of their few shows in England. It was their first gig in the UK in about a decade and as it's being sold as their final tour I figured I'd catch them while I still had the opportunity.
Did they live up to 10 years of anticipation? Well, yes - they played an absolutely blinding gig, belting out the classics and all the expected tunes from their last few albums. With nothing but a banner as a backdrop, the music was at the forefront as the various members would screech the lyrics and alternate running back to the decks or drum machines. The set overran and after closing with the anthemic "Revolution Action", descended into unadulterated chaotic noise.
I was just happy they played "Ghost Chase" although a little disappointed I didn't hear my favourite - "You Can't Hold us Back".
There were two downsides to the night. Hanin Elias was conspicuous by her absence (as well as Carl Crack but that can't exactly be helped). Support act Ulterior were one of the worst acts I've seen, boring music and no stage presence, even after the heckling started. Who on Earth booked them to support someone like ATR?
Just got back from doing my little bit for democracy (for today, anyway). I was pleasantly surprised to find a queue on my arrival and so I had a friendly little chat with two of my Hasidic Jew neighbours while we waited to cast our votes. I'm only mentioning their ethnicity because a few weeks ago one of the prospective Labour councillors came canvassing. During his sales pitch he asked me to vote tactically in the local election as the Greens and Liberals poll badly in this ward, while the Jewish population tend to vote to en masse to the right of centre. The fellows I talked to seemed keen on UKIP but didn't sound too impressed with the Conservatives. We spoke about Nigel Farage's plane crash and the riots in Greece, the three of us remarking that Britain might not be so far from a similar situation before heading to the booths.
I voted for the Liberal Democrats in the nationals despite this probably being a "wasted vote" as this borough is pretty much a safe seat for Labour. But as my MP is Diane Abbott I'd be fairly happy if she was reelected and so my vote goes a little way to shore up the popular vote for the Liberal Democrats.
In the local elections my vote went to two of the three Labour candidates, the gentleman who came a-canvassing and his female counterpart because I'm all about equality/special treatment for women. The last vote went to the only Green candidate because she's got such a delightful name - Precious Martini-Brown. Well, that and the Greens have done some good work here in the 7 or so years I've been living in Hackney.
The final vote was for the Mayor of Hackney. My first choice was for the Liberal Democrat candidate, second choice went to Monty Goldman, finally fulfilling a childhood wish to vote for the Communist Party.
As I left the polling station the queue was even longer, meaning it's likely I've lost the money I put on a bet of a low turnout a few months back. So a bad day for my wallet but hopefully a good day for democracy.
I'm trying to find a decent drinking game for tonight's festivities. So far I've found this one by Army of Dave:
Drinking One Finger:
- When a seat’s result is announced. Now, there are – I think – 649 seats so this might be A Very Bad Thing. Alternatively, you can drink a finger whenever a seat changes from one party to another. Mind you – the way things are going – this could also be dangerous.
- “Thirteen Years”
- “The BNP are twats”
- “Shiny”
- “Michael Gove must be sad that his work experience placement is over”.
- “Hopes & Fears”
- Any other album by Keane is mentioned.
- George Osbourne is allowed to say ANYTHING AT ALL.
- Jeremy Vine’s big shiny machine does something it’s not meant to do. (That is NOT a euphemism)
- Anyone accidentally calls Nick Clegg “Nick Griffin” (Though, if it’s someone from a Murdoch publication, this may be deliberate)
- Anyone accidentally calls Nick Griffin “a massive c*nt”. Sorry. I don’t mean ‘accidentally’.
- An argument breaks out (Extra finger if there is actual violence)
- You utter the phrase “What the fuck’s he/she doing on this?” or “I thought he/she was dead.”
- You laugh at something the Monster Raving Loony Party or similar do or say (You also need to go and take a long hard look at yourself in the mirror)
- You involuntarily cringe at anything.
- You can lip read someone saying a swearword behind the Returning Officer when the vote doesn’t go their way.
- Sleep deprivation causes David Dimbleby to announce “I’M DAVID BUMBLEBEE!” and attempt to drink nectar from Michael Portillo’s face.
There's also this contribution from Danger Man on Cooked & Bombed:
- 1 sip of alcohol for every Lib Dem gain.
- 1 sip for every reference to 1974 or 1983.
- 1 big glug for every 'Portillo moment'.
- 1 shot of tequila when Jeremy Vine is on.
- A bottle of scotch if LfBarfe wins his seat.
- Down a case of 1945 Chateau Rothschild if the Libs win a majority.
I'm going to try and compile bits of the above and other ideas into a little system we might use at our shindig tonight.
Anyone have any other suggestions?
A quick, dirty and downright lazy response to the front page of tomorrow's Sun.
Edit: thanks for the retweets guys! Now I wish I'd made a better funny. If anyone is interested in the font, I used Arial Black and slightly reduced the width. Now to try and think of something funnier involving DOPE/NOPE/etc.
Edit#2: Star Wars themed. And now bed.
I have voted Liberal Democrats at the national level in every election I've been eligible to take part in. Local votes have been split between the Green Party or the Liberal Democrats, with no real thought behind them. I've voted once for Labour when it came down to the London Mayoral elections as despite some reservations with him (particularly when he rejoined Labour), I thought Ken Livingstone was the best man for the job - he's also on my list of Fantasy Dinner Party Guests.
In case that doesn't make it clear, I'm a massive lefty liberal.
Yet I now want the Conservatives to "win" the 2010 General Election.
Before people start lighting the torches and looking for the nearest collection of pitchforks, I should clarify that. Ideally I'd like the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party to form a tag-team government, work out the best of each of their policies and implement them after finding a huge wodge of cash down the back of the sofa in Number 10.
Obviously this will never happen, so I'm having to look for more likely outcomes instead.
The reality of the situation is that the UK is a bit shafted. The purse is empty and we're going to be facing severe cuts across the public sector and a rise in taxation. If we're to believe Mervyn King and various other economists and civil servants, the measures required to sort out Britain's budget deficit will be so severe that whoever has to do them will suffer such a backlash that they'll be out of power for a generation. I don't want that to happen to the Liberal Democrats or even Labour, so I guess that means I want the Tories to "win".
So for me, the least worst outcome is:
Whoever wins this election loses out overall - and that's why I want the Conservatives to just scrape through. Just don't remind me of this once the BBC is neutered so Murdoch's empire can take over, the NHS is ripped apart, tax-funded faith schools spread like the plague, the welfare safety net is removed and anything that hasn't already been privatised is flogged to one of Cameron's mates for a knockdown price and then has to be subsidised anyway.
Does it show that I'm a pessimist?
