Miscellany

Greencoat Boy

I’ve been following a bit of the mini-Twitter scandal about the Greencoat Boy. If you missed this read this report to get the gist.

While the reported homophobia is of course appalling, and it is good to see another example of new media being used as a weapon to fight bigotry, my main reaction to this story was to start reminiscing about my time working for the Commission for Social Care Inspection in 2008.

The Commission had its headquarters just round the corner from the Greencoat Boy so the pub became a regular after work haunt for a time. As it is for hundreds of office workers who work in that corner of Westminster. I always thought it was a funny sort of pub. It was obviously reliant on that office trade and had no real particular qualities of its own. I remember the service was often slow.

After a while we gave up on the Greencoat Boy and relocated to another regular venue. If you are in that part of London and fancy a drink can I recommend The Speaker. A friendly pub, with a good atmosphere, and proper beer.

 8th June 2010   09:00   0  Tags Miscellany 

The animated election

There has been some lovely use of animation by parties and other groups during the election. Below I’ve selected some of my favourites. I find it quite reassuring that new technology is boosting, and bringing to a wider audience, one of the oldest forms of political communication, that of the satirical cartoon.

First up is a re-run of the Gorvid Camerown video from the Labservatives:

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The second one is my favourite reaction to the first leader’s debate. If you didn’t watch it, don’t worry, this video will sum it up in 15 seconds:

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Then there is this really rather lovely one from ‘I believe in fairness‘:

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Finally, I rather liked this video of Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell struggling to “get” Nick Clegg. I wonder if his difficulty in being able to caricature Clegg has any greater significance?

 27th April 2010   19:30   0  Tags Miscellany, Politics 

Budget update: Labour writes off cider tax

A mere couple of weeks since announcing it the Government have scrapped their 10% tax rise on cider. So their attempt to write off the West Country has.. er.. been written off. The BBC has more; “Ministers drop plans for 10% increase in cider tax“.

The Wurzels are, apparently, “delighted”. So here is a video to celebrate:

 7th April 2010   09:56   0  Tags Miscellany, Politics 

“We’ll be the change that works for you”

The Liberal Democrats have released their election campaign song, “We’ll be the change that works for you” by The LD Community Choir.

It is available for download from iTunes at:

www.itunes.co.uk/theldcommunitychoir (you will need to have iTunes installed to use this link)

I will make no further comment other than “let’s get it to No. 1!”.

 17th March 2010   17:00   3  Tags Miscellany, Politics