It’s been said many times in the past 12 months or so (in reference to the Gil Scott Heron track) that this revolution will be televised. And Facebooked and Tweeted. And indeed it was on Twitter that I heard Tom Morello was going to play a gig at the Occupy movement’s London tent city...
Read More »
It started with the fatal shooting of a 29-year-old North London father of four called Mark Duggan on August 4th, and a protest against his unexplained killing – allegedly the result of a gunfight with police – in his local area of Tottenham on August 6th. But when police arrived to disperse the reportedly...
Read More »
On a trip to Santa Cruz, California, in the summer of 2007 a 12-year-old girl from Texas dropped her digital camera off the pier. But where this story really begins is almost four years later and six miles away following two particularly stormy days in March. Peter Govaars and his daughter were beachcombing at...
Read More »
Oh, the irony. Graffiti icon Banksy has created a new piece in London – a tribute to the ubiquitous tagger and recently criminal damage-convicted, Tox. At Tox’s trial on June 6th, prosecutor Hugo Lodge told the jury: “He is no Banksy. He doesn’t have the artistic skills”, and he was subsequently found guilty on...
Read More »
“The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world.” That is the finding of The Global Commission on Drug Policy – whose 19 members include former presidents, humanitarians, as well as previous UN secretary general Kofi Annan and Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson – in a...
Read More »
Last night I experienced ‘a world of pure imagination’. In honour of this month’s 40th anniversary of the film ‘Charlie And The Chocolate Factory’ creative confectioners Bombas & Parr, known for their spectacular culinary events, launched the world’s first walk-through chocolate waterfall. The installation flows with five tonnes of chocolate at a rate of...
Read More »
London has seen more protests on its streets in the past six months than in the more than six years I have been living in the city. Students marched in November 2010 over news that Nick Clegg, deputy Prime Minister, had U-turned on his pre-election pledge to scrap university tuition fees, and was now...
Read More »
Last year saw a musical Christmas miracle in the form of an organic, grass-roots movement that toppled the multi-million-pound star-making machine of X Factor with an anti-establishment anthem that declared “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me”. For four consecutive years Simon Cowell’s progeny had taken the coveted Christmas number one slot....
Read More »
England and France declared war on Germany on September 3rd, 1939. My uncle John was 19-years-old, a Spitfire pilot in 74 Squadron, stationed at Hornchurch, on the eastern outskirts of London. John saw his first real action on September 6th, when he was scrambled at 7am to intercept an approaching enemy formation. Within moments,...
Read More »
This year the UK has witnessed a Christmas miracle. A miracle in the form of an organic, grass-roots movement to topple the multi-million-pound star-making machine that is the X Factor with an anti-establishment anthem that declares ‘Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me’. For four consecutive years Simon Cowell’s progeny have taken...
Read More »
