Theatre in London is not all it is made out to be. Firstly the majority of shows are musicals and old reliables aimed squarely at the tourist and corporate entertainment markets. Go to New York and you see the same money spinning shows on Broadway. Secondly the bulk of the 60 odd theatres in Central London are controlled by a small number of companies who have rather quaint and somewhat spivvy attitudes, such as ludicrous booking fees when you use their websites (i.e. they charge you to do their admin for them) and silly discount schemes to maintain high headline ticket prices.
So it is refreshing to see new and innovative drama and as a Labour activist I eagerly looked forward to seeing A Walk on Part; The Fall of New Labour brought to the West End by the ever lively Soho Theatre but performed at the small 350 seat Arts Theatre near Leicester Square. Its subject, Chris Mullin, was well known as a journalist before becoming a Labour MP for his pivotal role in campaigning for the Birmingham Six, who were convicted and imprisoned on false evidence.They were sentenced to life imprisonment in 1975 in England for the Birmingham pub bombings. Their convictions were declared unsafe and unsatisfactory and quashed by the Court of Appeal on 14 March 1991.
In 1986, Mullin's book, Error of Judgment: The Truth About the Birmingham Pub Bombings, set out a detailed case supporting the men's claims that they were innocent. It included his claim to have met some of those who were actually responsible for the bombings.
Chris Mullin was first elected as a Labour MP in 1987, and was returned at every subsequent election until 2005. He did not seek re-election in 2010. Michael Chaplin’s A Walk on Part dramatises the fall of New Labour as documented by his diaries. It is an insider's view of the last and most turbulent decade in politics; this is a fast, funny and furious theatrical ride based on his critically acclaimed diaries. With a huge host of well-known characters including John Prescott, David Cameron, George Osborne, Tony Benn and Tony Blair.
Tony Blair entering Downing Street as Prime Minister in 1997
Blending gossip, insight and details of the frustrations of ministerial and backbench life alike, the show is excellently performed under Max Roberts's direction. John Hodgkinson, with his awkwardly buttoned-up jacket and air of inquisitive bemusement, admirably captures Mullin's mix of decency and self-doubt. The other 60-odd characters are also evoked with lightning skill by the top class cast in a piece that shows political theatre at its entertaining best and leaves Mullin asking "Was anything done?"
It was an excellent evening’s theatre which kept the audience right there with its wonderful blend of insight and wit.John Hodgkinson plays Chris Mullin brilliantly with his bad buttoned up suit echoing the description of the subject as "looking like a deck chair which had been left out over the winter." As a narrative on New Labour it covers a lot of ground really well and I suspect with its pace, cast and complex weaving of references is a far more reliable guide to those halcyon years when Tony Blair led Labour to a historic three General Election victories, an achievement never equaled by any other Labour leader. A must see both for the political aficionado and for those who enjoy good new writing and excellent acting.
John Hodgkinson as Chris Mullin.
With Tracy Gillman, Hywel Morgan, Andi Osho & Joe Caffrey.
Channel 4 Political Correspondent Michael Crick quizzes the ex-PM over the recent West End transfer of A Walk On Part; the hit political comedy adapted from the diaries of Chris Mullin.
Picture of London UNISON Convener Gloria Hanson and NEC member Irene Stacey (left) with Labour Mayor Candidate Ken Livingstone. In my (totally unbiased view) it is absolutely vital that everyone who cares about public services in London goes out next Thursday and votes for Ken and all Labour candidates.
Dark days have arrived in Britain. The coalition government and their toxic flotilla of cuts are ruthlessly hacking away jobs, damaging vulnerable lives and chipping away at the very fabric of our society. We cannot afford to stand by and let this country sail towards a future of inequality.
Fear Not! Captain SKA and his ship have arrived to fight this coalition, but more crew members are urgently required, there is strength in numbers. Pass this video on to other potential shipmates.
The Tory Party: defending the rich and attacking the poor since 1678. Put please forgive us Irish for we are responsible for them – even the term Tory comes from the Gaelic word for a Highwayman or Robber!
The word derives from the Middle Irish word tóraiche; modern Irish tóraí: outlaw, robber, from the Irish word tóir, meaning "pursuit", since outlaws were "pursued men". It was originally used to refer to an Irish outlaw and later applied to Confederates or Royalists in arms. The term was thus originally a term of abuse, "an Irish rebel", before being adopted as a political label in the same way as Whig.
Historically, the term Tory has been applied in various ways to supporters of the British monarchy. The term was applied particularly to the isolated bands of guerrillas resisting Cromwell's nine-month 1649–1650 campaign in Ireland, who were allied with Royalists through treaty with the Confederate Irish Parliament, signed at Kilkenny in January 1649.
Mobbing the Tories - print from a 1921 history of the United States
Tonight Aylesbury is deserted at the end of a tense and economically damaging day after English Defence League protestors descended on Aylesbury's Market Square chanting 'England' repeatedly and engaging in some audible racist chanting. As I predicted the effect on Aylesbury of this racist Rent-a-mob descending was fairly dramatic with the Town Centre in a complete lockdown and over 600 Police on duty including mounted police, Police from Wales and the Police Helicopter overhead. For a Town Centre where a normal policeman cannot be found on a Saturday this is a dramatic and expensive change. No Market took place in Market Square, The main shopping centres and bus station closed as did most shops in the Town Centre, many of which were boarded up. EDL members wouldn’t quiet appreciate the economic damage they have done as few of them appear to be economically active.
However their attempted invasion of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire failed today. The EDL’s racist, swaggering; Islamophobic supporters hoped they could take over the town and intimidate Muslims and ordinary people. They failed.
They hoped Asians and black people and trade unionists would be too scared to demonstrate against them. They failed. Around 200 anti-EDL demonstrators, overwhelmingly local people including trade unionists and 75 Asian people, gathered in the town’s Vale Park in a show of anti-racism and support for multiculturalism.
Twelve people have been arrested during the protest which attracted more than 800 people. The EDL, which says it opposes "militant Islam", organised the protest in Aylesbury's Market Square. A police spokesman said that "on the whole" the protest had been peaceful but there had been "some disorder". Eight of the people arrested were being held on suspicion of carrying offensive weapons.
Several "disorders" were dealt with by riot officers as more than 800 English Defence League supporters gathered in Aylesbury, Thames Valley Police said. Demonstrators were believed to have hurled coins, glass bottles, plastic flag sticks and cans at officers. Officers had to deal with a surge against police lines in the Market Square.
The EDL protest presented a "major challenge for the town", officers said. The organisation, which describes itself as "a counter-Jihad movement", has held several demonstrations in recent months in Manchester, Bolton and Dudley. Police said there were fewer protestors than the EDL had anticipated.
Supt Richard List, of Aylesbury police, said: "We made it very clear to the EDL at the outset that we would not tolerate any disorder on the day and that there would be a significant police presence. "The police operation will continue until we are totally satisfied that there are no risks or threats to public safety. “He added “We are a tolerant, successful and proud town - we all need to remember our tremendous strengths at this difficult time. I would like to express my sincere thanks to you all."A counter protest was held in Vale Park earlier, but has since dispersed.
Andrew Grant, the chief executive of Aylesbury Vale District Council said afterwards that “a range of entertainment has been organised for Monday by the Town Centre Partnership to help welcome people back to the town". Indeed – the vast majority of local people will be glad the EDL have gone.
Aylesbury last Saturday was its usual relaxed weekend self enjoying a sunny day enlivened by St. George’s day celebrations on a subdued scale. In Kingsbury Square the cafes and pubs had plenty of tables outside as people enjoyed the weather with their children and had a drink or snack whilst enjoying the Morris Dancing. There was also a Dragon roaming around attracting the kids and a little street train with a loco called “George” bringing the kids around the pedestrianised centre of the town. In the Market Square, overlooked by the statue of the local MP John Hampden whose refusal to pay the “ship tax” (Buckinghamshire is not on the coast!) to Charles I precipitated the English Civil War, the market traders jostled for custom from their colourful stalls as they have done for over four hundred years in this the County Town of Buckinghamshire. In the courtyard of the King’s Head, an ancient coaching inn owned by the National Trust, locals and visitors were enjoying the live music and the traditional ale from the Chiltern Brewery.
Market Square, Aylesbury
But what a difference a week will make in this town of 70,000 people. There is a sizable minority of Muslims in Aylesbury who are mostly from Pakistan controlled Kashmir where they have fled from conflict and work hard to provide a better future for themselves and their children. We have a Mosque and some of the best schools in the UK and by and large everybody rubs along quiet well. There is, as in any large town, a lumpen proletariat and there have been in the past some racist incidents whose reports generally include the words “skinheads” and “drink” but we pride ourselves on community relations and have had a Muslim Mayor.
Aylesbury has a mixture of London commuters and busy local employment and is set in the attractive and rich farming area of the Vale of Aylesbury close by the Chiltern Escarpment and the area of Outstanding Natural Beauty known as the Chiltern Hills. It is a good and improving place with a good quality of life which is appreciated by the inhabitants who include sturdy yeomen of Buckinghamshire and many who have moved here from elsewhere including a large Italian and Irish community and more recently Polish. It is an inclusive place and we are particularly protective of disabled people who are very visible in the Town Centre on a normal Saturday as Stoke Mandeville Hospital with the National Spinal Injuries Centre is nearby. That was last Saturday. Next Saturday will be different, very different.
The borrowed iconography of the EDL including Constantine the Great's motto " In this sign I will conquer"
On Saturday 1st May our town is being high jacked by a self appointed Rent-a-Mob called the English Defence League or EDL. The effect is palpable. Aylesbury Bus Station will be closed, many small shops are closing at 12, they gave been advised by the Police to not have chairs and tables outside, keep shutters down and consider if they want to really open. The fear is well founded as the video taken by a neutral outsider at a recent EDL “Rally” in Stoke on Trent where 17 people were arrested shows. So next Saturday May the 1st these strangers are going to use our town to contrive conflict where none exists. So next Saturday in Aylesbury Town Centre there will be no buses, no old people, no children, no disabled people and no shoppers. There will also be no pubs open in the town. Here are the details from these Brave English Defenders own website;
“Initially, point 'A' was chosen as a muster area due to it having a small cluster of pubs that would serve as a meet point for our supporters to socialise in before the demonstration. However, the local licensing authority has visited these pubs and as an upshot of that, they have decided to close on the day. We would like to point out that at every single EDL demonstration; no pub has ever received any damage whatsoever. A business that could take three weeks worth of business in the space of a couple of hours deciding to close? I don't know what was said to them, but it sure must have been scary.”
Some Brave Army the EDL marching on its accelerated alcohol consumption?
Kingsbury Square, Aylesbury where all the pubs and cafes will close next Saturday
Some England, some defence? And who are the EDL? Well they have no discernible policy, have not been elected or stood in any democratic process and their web site consists of one long sneer against Muslim people quoting liberally from extremist and unrepresentative Muslim preachers to justify their obsessive fixation with “defending” the English against Islam?
The national leader of the English Defence League has warned that Saturday's demonstration in Aylesbury could be the first of many after a bitter row erupted with police and council bosses. Officers were hoping to keep EDL members on the outskirts of town before a rally in Market Square, to prevent skirmishes with counter demonstrators. But yesterday Tommy Robinson – not his real name – said EDL protestors are now planning to evade police and instead gather in Vale Park – where an anti-EDL demonstration is due to be held.
King's Head Aylesbury
He said: "If our demonstration doesn't go how we want it to go, we'll come back in six weeks. No other place has tried to block us like this one has." The EDL fell foul of police and council chiefs after trying to put up a stage and use loudspeakers – which they need a licence for. At a tense meeting on Monday, they were also told that they were not allowed to carry wooden framed banners. Coach loads of EDL members would have been met by police and escorted to Market Square, where they would have been contained inside solid barriers. Robinson said ominously: "We don't think they're doing well if they want it to go peacefully."
Here is a thoughtful article in the Guardian about this entirely bogus “protest” which is hijacking our town next Saturday by local resident and Labour Parliamentary Candidate in the forthcoming General Election, Kathryn White.
So in Aylesbury next Saturday let us keep our nerve with these unwanted and unwelcome visitors. As Communities Minister John Denham pointed out, “The tactic of trying to provoke a response in the hope of causing wider violence and mayhem is long established on the far-right and among extremist groups.” Let us remind ourselves of the EDL’s origins which highlights the ambiguous position that the BNP holds in regards to this new combination of football hooligan gangs and street racists. The BNP, and the NF before it, used to openly embrace football hooligans as useful muscle with a fierce nationalist pride. However, demonstrations and punch ups no longer fit with the image that the BNP tries to project, and so the EDL has filled a gap in far right politics that the BNP voluntarily vacated in its pursuit of votes.
The flower of England?
So does England need these “Defenders?” Well, England has defended itself fairly well in the past and I presume will do so very well in the future and the EDL membership will make no contribution either way. Like the ludicrous Nick Griffin, the convicted racist who leads the BNP, who surrounds himself in photo ops with make believe soldiers in battle fatigues the EDL will seek to use the last refuge of a scoundrel and these shower of aggressive, unemployed yobs will wrap themselves in false patriotism, a patriotism which probably doesn’t include not being dole scroungers? You have to wonder about the mentality of people whose idea of a good day out on a Bank Holiday weekend is to hold a market town and its diverse inhabitants to ransom. There is no point in me telling them not to come to Aylesbury for their tribal cow stomping because, lets face it, these yobs didn’t get where they are today by listening to others. There is also the practical point that if they were to get themselves tanked up, fight the other side in a macho male tribal display and then go home and watch their yobbery on TV after a footie match it would cost them a lot more than these members of the underachieving Master Race can afford.
Preserve us from such sham defenders; preserve us from such sham patriots.
Few people, when we talk of Democracy, are aware of what a new idea it actually is and that the struggle for democracy went hand in hand with Labour rights and the development of the British Labour Party. Indeed it was only in the elections of 1918 in Ireland and in England that you had true universal suffrage for all without a property qualification for voting and votes for women, albeit over 30 – as women under 30 were considered too excitable and frivolous! Indeed!
The People’s History Museum tells the dramatic story of the British working class’s struggle for democracy and social justice - told at the only national museum in Manchester, the radical city where it belongs. The museum has reopened after a £12.5m redevelopment, which included the refurbishment of the existing Pump House and the construction of a four storey extension alongside it. The old and new buildings are joined together by a spectacular glass walkway. The museum galleries, changing exhibitions, education service, Labour History Archive & Study Centre, Textile Conservation Studio, corporate facilities, café and shop are housed in the new building.
Cotton Mill, Ancoats 1820
Two hundred years ago Manchester was at the centre of Britain’s Industrial Revolution. Based on the cotton textile industry, the town became the world’s first industrial city. Despite high wages in good times, workers endured appalling living and environmental conditions. Little could be done to improve these; there was no political structure and Manchester, for example, had no MP.
On 19 August 1819 a reform meeting held on St Peter’s Field in Manchester attracted over 60,000 mill workers and their families. Magistrates sent in soldiers to arrest the leaders. There were 17 dead and over 400 seriously injured. The event became known as the Peterloo Massacre and led to the first reform of Parliament in 1832. The People's History Museum tells the extraordinary story of ordinary people. It is the only national museum dedicated to the working people of Britain and the world-changing events they led to change society, improving life for future generations. The urbanisation of Manchester largely coincided with the Industrial Revolution and the Victorian era, resulting in it becoming the world's first industrialised city.
“Cottonopolis” as Manchester became known has a notable place in the history of Marxism and left-wing politics; being the subject of Friedrich Engels' work The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844; Engels himself spent much of his life in and around Manchester, and when Karl Marx visited Manchester, they met at Chetham's Library. The economics books Marx was reading at the time can be seen on the shelf in the library, as can the window seat where Marx and Engels would meet. The first Trades Union Congress was held in Manchester (at the Mechanics' Institute, David Street), from 2 to 6 June 1868. The economic school of Manchester capitalism developed there, and Manchester was the center of the Anti-Corn Law League from 1838 onward. Manchester was also an important cradle of the Labour Party and the Suffragette Movement. Indeed it has been an inspirational city in many ways from the development of Laissez-faire capitalism to the United Society of Believers or the Shakers as they are better known.
Railway Banner
In these days of Banking Crises and dismay at lack of values what better place to rediscover the role of honest labour as the source of values in society than this museum celebrating how ordinary people changed the world we live in.
Website;
http://www.phm.org.uk/
People’s History Museum Left Bank, Spinningfields, Manchester, M3 3ER, England.
