Firebox run by Counterfire: Champagne socialism.

[DaveCinzano]

How much could you scrape by writing to everyone you know?

I once wrote to Anthony Wedgwood Benn. He sent me £5. I gave it to Claire Fox.

 

[Firky]

Of course you did.

 

[Idris2002]

Face squared.

Densely wooded area.

 

[Captain Hurrah]

jesus fuck

Face, now more than ever.

 

[love detective]

it's only a matter of time before it is officially back

 

[sihhi]

Wonder what private school he went to. His brother is Tom Kingsley who claims that his fillum Black Pond was made "by accident" which is almost certainly a mix of lies and grating posh self-deprecation.

Note the use of the word fluked

I fluked my way into being editor of this very august student newspaper called Varsity and I was lucky enough to work with people who were much more talented than me. Riding on the coattails of my team I got a special award, student journalist of the year at the 2009 Guardian Student Media Awards. That was one lucky break. My second lucky break was getting six weeks of work experience at The Guardian.

Studied English at Cambridge University, where he edited the student paper Varsity. Incidentally Johann Hari was also an editor of Varsity.

Three years ago, I was at the end of an English degree, and wondering what to do next. I'd edited the student paper, and I'd always wanted to be a journalist, but the industry seemed impenetrable. A journalism masters looked expensive, and freelancing appeared to involve long spells of unemployment. Panicking, I applied instead to be a teacher in Liverpool. I got the job - and in a parallel universe, I'd probably still be there.

But the Guardian student media awards changed my life. In the 2009 competition, several of my colleagues from the student paper won prizes. Because I'd been their editor, the judges for some reason felt I deserved a prize, too. With the prize came work experience, and so, in the holidays before finals, I found myself first on the news desk, and then upstairs in features.

Sample early journalism:

"The desk is not just a one-off: the rest of the library is also utterly stimulating. Completed in January 2008 thanks to a generous donation from inventor and alumnus Dr John Taylor, its design makes innovative use of a very small space. Labyrinthine and split into three levels, it is essentially a building within a building. Beautifully bewildering, the visitor is never sure when classical facades will give way to adobe-like cubes. A series of quotations, inscribed on windows and stones around the building, aim to encourage the academically minded. An excerpt from Dr Faustus by Christopher Marlowe, himself a student of Corpus, takes pride of place: “What a world of profit and delight, of power, of omnipotence, is promised to the studious artisan”. An image from the Peterborough Bestiary (housed in Corpus' other library, the Parker) also features prominently, noting that “the pelican (Corpus' symbol) feeds its young with its own blood”. Visible, too, are letters from King Alfred to Pope Gregory lamenting the disregard for knowledge among young people, as well as an ominous quotation also inscribed on the chronophage outside: “The world will pass and earthly pleasures with it”.
None of this attention to detail is sententious, however. Far from alienating, it gives the library a welcoming feel; the bookshelves, coupled with the smiling statue of Taylor himself, seem to exude an aura of positive warmth. At every turn, there's something to catch one's interest, whether it's a set of David Kindersley's alphabet prints housed sporadically throughout the building, an assortment of Classical gems or a showcase of Matt Sanderson's tied wire silver collection. And if you want a break, there's a sofa area and a Media Centre. So while the desk upstairs is undoubtedly the highlight, the rest of the Taylor Library is still a stunning place to study. It houses 30,000 books, providing the perfect excuse for an afternoon lost among its shelves." Patrick Kingsley is a second year English student in Cambridge News.

Interviewed David Mitchell
http://www.varsity.co.uk/arts/871

Many ex-Footlighters are reluctant to lend their support to their comedic alma mater, but, to their great credit, Mitchell and Webb are quite possibly the most supportive alumni, regularly showing their faces at Footlights events and often supplying Cambridge comics with positive quotes for their Edinburgh posters. So what do they make of Mark Watson’s suggestion in Varsity last month that ex-Footlighters are somewhat stigmatised within the comedy industry?

Mitchell certainly agrees. “When I was in Footlights,” he says, “it was at its least fashionable. Rob and I had to pretend we hadn’t been in it. You’d often hear people say, ‘Oh we’re not going to see that bunch of fucking toffs,’ because they’d assume that it has some sort of nepotistic link with the comedy industry. But that’s just not true. To be a comedian, it helps to be bright and Cambridge simply has lots of bright students. I think the Footlights situation has now reached a happy equilibrium. Agents and producers will still go see the show but they won’t be biased in their treatment of it. It’s OK to be in Footlights again.” Numberwang, evidently.

Poor David Mitchell, partnering in comedy with Robert "hugely spoilt" Webb, married to private school Victoria Coren whose brother Giles Coren went to private school.


For the Guardian he visits Occupy London a lot and even the Bristol anarchist bookfair in the wake of the Bristol Tesco riot:

Gus Hoyt, the local Green councillor, compares building a Tesco in Stokes Croft to "plonking a Whisky World in the middle of a Muslim area". If Tesco is a Whisky World, then the local mosque can be found at the headquarters of the People's Republic of Stokes Croft (PRSC). A group of volunteers, their goal is to encourage pride in the area by imbuing it with a distinct cultural identity. They have installed "Welcome to Stokes Croft" signs, and also run galleries, studios and a Dutch auction house – all available for use by the local community. Additionally, PRSC volunteers in hi-vis jackets patrol the streets picking up litter.

The PRSC is the brainchild of Chalkley and, unsurprisingly, a large part of his strategy involves making and selling china designed by local artists. "It's like Royal Doulton on acid," he says, showing me round his warehouse.

Perhaps the most unifying group in Stokes Croft is Coexist, a company that provides facilities for other community groups to use. It currently manages a building on Stokes Croft called Hamilton House, which incorporates a popular bar, canteen, and enough studio space, workshops, offices, conference and rehearsal rooms for around 170 local groups. The Saturday I visit, the Bristol Anarchist Bookfair is in full swing – three floors' worth of radical literature.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/may/26/stokes-croft-protest-tesco-rioting

Here is his puff piece on Avaaz/38 Degrees, not a single mention of where the money really comes from to have dozens of paid activists.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/20/avaaz-activism-slactivism-clicktivism

Another puff piece about making school children into entrepreneurs in the North East

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jan/01/school-open-for-business

"Cynics will be wary of instilling such careerism into kids as young as 11. But the ones I meet aren't scary Young Apprentice types. They are simply good-natured, confident – and better equipped to deal with the outside world. Some are even considering their own solo projects"

He also has a properly published book out about Denmark
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1780721331/

No sign of school but London:

As a child I remember seeing all these different newspapers in the newsagents on the way to school and asking my mum what the difference was. One day she said, “Why don’t we buy them all and analyse the differences?” and so we spent an evening going through The Times, The Guardian, The Mail, The Evening Standard and looking at what the difference was between a tabloid and a broadsheet, a rightwing and leftwing paper.

in the Guardian:

I’d been sitting at the news-desk for about a minute when they asked me to write 500 words on strip-club licensing laws. I had two hours to write on a subject I knew absolutely nothing about. Somehow I did it and it was in the paper the next day.

That's how journalism works.

Sadly he won't get a fraction of the abuse LP has received over the years. He won't get told off David Starkey or derided as a know-nothing.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

"Cafe culture" needs to be counterposed with working class clubs in the late 19th century:
http://hackneyhistory.wordpress.com...-club-life-and-politics-in-hackney-1870-1900/

"The 1880s was the era of growth of the clubs and in Charles Booth’s survey Life and Labour of the People in London, in a chapter in the first volume on “Religion and Culture”, he adduces the number of clubs in East London and Hackney as being 115.

What is common to them all, social and political, is ‘the friendly mug of beer – primordial cell of British social life’, and whilst finding the language of the membership rather coarse at times, his final understanding of the complex dynamic which informs club life, the space created by the clubs for working men to come together and make some choices about the social meaning of their lives, is generous and intelligent:

'And something more may be said. Coarse though the fabric be, it is shot through with golden threads of enthusiasm. Like Co-operation and like Socialism, though in a less pronounced way, the movement is a propaganda with its faith and hopes, its literature and its leaders. This, it is true, applies to a few individuals only, but to many more club life is an education.'"

[apologies for the long quote! EDIT, bollocks to an apology if Sihhi is going to paste up thousands of words about a Guardian journo ]

 

[DrRingDing]

Anyhoo back to Firebox.

The workers do not get breaks.

 

[cesare]

I remember one of the times I was allowed to go to the CIU. My bf and his dad arranged it. Wasn't allowed to go to the bar though.

 

[Idris2002]

Why has this eejit chosen Denmark in particular, then?

 

[butchersapron]

"Cafe culture" needs to be counterposed with working class clubs in the late 19th century:
http://hackneyhistory.wordpress.com...-club-life-and-politics-in-hackney-1870-1900/

"The 1880s was the era of growth of the clubs and in Charles Booth’s survey Life and Labour of the People in London, in a chapter in the first volume on “Religion and Culture”, he adduces the number of clubs in East London and Hackney as being 115.

What is common to them all, social and political, is ‘the friendly mug of beer – primordial cell of British social life’, and whilst finding the language of the membership rather coarse at times, his final understanding of the complex dynamic which informs club life, the space created by the clubs for working men to come together and make some choices about the social meaning of their lives, is generous and intelligent:

'And something more may be said. Coarse though the fabric be, it is shot through with golden threads of enthusiasm. Like Co-operation and like Socialism, though in a less pronounced way, the movement is a propaganda with its faith and hopes, its literature and its leaders. This, it is true, applies to a few individuals only, but to many more club life is an education.'"

[apologies for the long quote! EDIT, bollocks to an apology if Sihhi is going to paste up thousands of words about a Guardian journo ]

Yep, see also Club Life and Socialism in mid-Victorian London from History workshop.

 

[Delroy Booth]

you're right y'know, there's far far worse out there than Laurie Penny.

 

[butchersapron]

They're all Laurie Penny, that's the point.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Yep, see also Club Life and Socialism in mid-Victorian London from History workshop.

That's referenced in the link, as is this:

John Taylor : From Self-Help to Glamour, The Working Man’s Club 1860-1972. Ruskin History Workshop pamphlet, 1972

Keep meaning to pick them up, so thanks for reminding me!

 

[articul8]

They're all Laurie Penny, that's the point.

they love that stuff, "we are all Greek", "we are all asylum seekers", "we are all Laurie Penny"!

 

[butchersapron]

they love that stuff, "we are all Greek", "we are all asylum seekers", "we are all Laurie Penny"!

Yes, that's why i said it.

 

[Hocus Eye.]

Why has this eejit chosen Denmark in particular, then?

I have an idea that it might be humorous. I liked the logo on the cover that is clearly inspired by Hagar The Horrible. Remember we are dealing here with a man who can recognise with only a little uncertainty that PD might be 'some sort of parody'. He will never get to play Hamlet but through his writing he can reference Shakespeare. Or should that be "channel" to use the word du jour.

 

[rekil]

Remember we are dealing here with a man who can recognise with only a little uncertainty that PD is 'some sort of parody'.

That was some other guardian fellow, commenting in the comments.

 

[Hocus Eye.]

OK that's clarified.

 

[Firky]

I remember one of the times I was allowed to go to the CIU. My bf and his dad arranged it. Wasn't allowed to go to the bar though.

My dad used to take me to the CIU every couple of weeks for a bowl of soup and a glass of pop, I had to sit in the lounge with the women. There was a red line across the carpet separating the bar from lounge which women were not allowed to cross.

We have had this conversation before haven't we

 

[cesare]

My dad used to take me to the CIU every couple of weeks for a bowl of soup and a glass of pop, I had to sit in the lounge with the women. There was a red line across the carpet separating the bar from lounge which women were not allowed to cross.

We have had this conversation before haven't we

Have we? Probably. Your experience will be a lot more recent than mine though.

 

[Firky]

Why has this eejit chosen Denmark in particular, then?

Freetown Christiania and like 40% income tax and stuff? I don't know.

 

[Firky]

Have we? Probably. Your experience will be a lot more recent than mine though.

Yes, definitely been here before! The Comrades in Morpeth, I would have been about 14/15. So about five years ago. Cough.

 

[cesare]

Yes, definitely been here before! The Comrades in Morpeth, I would have been about 14/15. So about five years ago. Cough.

It'll probably be like the last conversation then. You and I talking about working men's clubs and everyone else going lalala

 

[Firky]

It'll probably be like the last conversation then. You and I talking about working men's clubs and everyone else going lalala

It was quite posh as for as working men clubs' go, it had a carpet for one and not lino!

Was given membership to Fell em Doon WMC for my 18th birthday, that is PFWC kind of establishment. Someone did a photo-essay on it that you can see online.

http://www.mikcritchlow.com/photo_9178955.html#photos_id=9178955

 

[cesare]

Some great pics there, firks

 

[love detective]

Sadly he won't get a fraction of the abuse LP has received over the years. He won't get told off David Starkey or derided as a know-nothing.

I'm sure if we put our minds to it it could happen

 

[articul8]

that is some freakily disturbing shit

 

[butchersapron]

 

[butchersapron]

Watch out, we'll have articul8 and his nuanced views on what people look like and if they can make him cum in a sec.