Labour Live and Kicking.


There’s been a lot of mockery of the festival Labour Live in the media lately, but imagine what the Tory equivalent would be like, with music from James Blunt, comedy from Jim Davidson - and lectures on keeping your hair as soft as goose-down from Boris Johnson, how to form all opinions from a point of utter ignorance from Katie Hopkins and how not to change a nappy from Jacob Rees-Mogg.

Not everything has to be an instant landslide success to be valid; at least the Labour Party are trying to connect with younger supporters, and while it’s not had the massive interest they might have hoped, even the most lackadaisical Labour arts event would cack all over a Conservative one; and if the Tories need a social gathering, wasn’t Thatcher’s funeral enough?

I just find the Tories so out-of-step. Take my local MP Bim Afolami for example, who’s on Twitter and Facebook, but practically in a broadcast only sense. He also manages to smile identically in every photo with an Etonian joylessness. It probably doesn’t help that he’s younger than me, as being this and Conservative makes me deeply suspicious. I know I’m biased, but I can never get on board with a politician who regularly praises a prime minister who made repeated references to not having a magic money tree she could shake to give NHS staff a pay rise that takes into account the rise in the cost of living, as if speaking like this would bring them on side. The Tories are a party of gimps, and the day Michael Gove runs a face-painting stall next to George Osborne’s acoustic stage is the day I seek Dutch citizenship.

Popular posts from this blog

Shakerpuppetmaker.

Image
Have Parker from Thunderbirds and Noel Gallagher ever been seen in the same room? The resemblance is uncanny. So much so, I think something’s afoot. If my suspicions are correct, I've stumbled across a secret that will blow the music and puppet industry wide apart. In the mid-60s / mid-90s at least. It doesn’t take long to see the signposts. There’s the similarity between the name of Oasis’ first single, Supersonic, and Supermarianation, Gerry Anderson’s puppetry technique. The Gallagher brothers would often wear Parkas . Live Forever was clearly a reference to Captain Scarlet and Standing on the Shoulder of Giants to the size difference between Noel and his bandmates. The more you think about it, the more brazen it gets. It’s fishier than Area 51, Paul is Dead and JFK's assassination put together. The only glitch to the theory is scale . According to Wikipedia, Anderson’s marionettes were 1’10” and Gallagher is 5’8”. How does he maintain an illusion of avera
Read more

Stevenage: A (Tiny) River Runs Through it.

If ever a river was mis-sold, it’s the Roaring Meg in Stevenage. I just walked past it on my way to the retail park that has taken its name. They’re similarly uninspiring. The river is less of a roar and more of a dribble; cystitis sufferers produce greater flow. The retail park is soulless. What was once a thriving enterprise is nearly devoid of atmosphere, save an underlying essence of emptiness and despair. With a Toys R Us. When it was first built I was excited. Back then, the thought of a bowling alley, an ice rink, a Harvester and a Blockbuster Video within a small surface area was enticing. I celebrated many birthdays on site. There was an indoor cricket pitch there for a while where I once had a joint party with a friend. Why someone with an almost pathological fear of sport would agree to such a venture is beyond me, but I did it. Now, there’s very little at the Roaring Meg of note. The river would be a metaphor for the shopping ce
Read more

Hoo-ray and up She Rises.

So much has happened since my last post in March that this blog risks sounding like an itinerary. The main news is that Hitchin Mostly Comedy will return in the summer at a new venue, the Queen Mother Theatre . The road to this decision was convoluted, though enough fell into place en route to leave me optimistic about this new start. The catalyst was a survey I ran via our mailing list a few months back, in which I asked, "If the club returned in the current climate, with tickets still around £15 (and with similar line-ups), would you still attend?"; the response to which, in simple terms, was a resounding yes. Nearly 250 mailing list subscribers responded in a single week, with around a hundred also taking the option to leave some feedback. And only two people were abusive, which counts as a win when you consider they posted their comments online anonymously. Imagine how many more insults we would have received if the comedy club was a woman. Particularly if she was Diane
Read more