I have spent a few hours on several occasions with Brian Haw, the UK Parliament Square peace protestor, more time than I have spent with the British Queen.
I think his Christmas message is more direct than Her Majesty’s so I filmed it and posted it on YouTube. Video work’s still a bit ropey but I’m getting the hang of it.
Is this journalism? I think so. I am bringing you an interview with someone I feel is qualified to talk on his chosen subject. See what you think.
The following link picks up an hour-long interview with Tony Benn, the longest-serving Labour MP bar none and the man who left parliament to spend more time on politics. Much of the piece is concerned with history and serves up some useful thoughts on the IMF’s pressure on Britain in the 1970s. The story sounds similar to what the Fund is now infamous for, namely advancing a big-business agenda at the expense of the rest of us.
For me, though, the nugget of several nuggets was Benn’s quote from Hitler’s Mein Kampf (which the little swot read at age 11) which had the moustachioed one concluding that too much democracy leads to socialism. It is a conclusion I share.
Eek, does that make me a Fascist? No, because I believe that we should have more democracy, real democracy that entails real power being handed to the voting public, and a more socialist society would emerge automatically without having to bother with any political titles.
Weeks without visiting the Guardian’s excellent comment is free pages and suddenly, one little mouse click into a leader article on BAE naughtiness, alleged of course, I’m stuck back there like some dog at the butcher’s shop door (though I suppose that sort of lame Olde Worlde reference doesn’t work in 2006, the dog would be skulking outside Insainsbury’s or BadAssda, but I digress).
Somehow my post, signed-in as hotairhead, started turning all evangelical at the end. I told one of the challenging posters to think about where his life was headed (I assumed he was a man, your average poster there is), something I can only assume comes from the 10 days I recently spent on a silent meditation course.
I went there, there being near Hereford in western England, for personal and professional reasons. Personal because meditation gives me some peace and calm to think and professional because the moral underpinning of the type of meditation taught there, called Vipassana, lends itself to what I think journalism needs. I would recommend it to friends and enemies alike.
As for NoSurrenderMonkey, who was advocating basically anything goes in defence of the realm against the enemies of Britain, I’m not sure he was really listening.
A major driver of my journalism is my concern for the environment and the damage that we are doing to it. A big part of that draws on my rural roots in the north of Scotland, where I spent the first 20 years of my life. I shot, fished and occasionally helped out on farms during that time, meaning that in one way or another I was in direct contact with nature.
I gave up shooting in my 20s, deciding I no longer wanted to exercise the hunting instinct I believe is deep inside all of us. I did not turn anti-blood sports though, which would have been hypocritical given that I’d enjoyed all the times I’d gone shooting and had friends and family who still went. I also always accepted the arguments of shooting friends who ate what they killed – that the animals on their plates had led much less environmentally damaging lives than your average factory-farmed pig or chicken.
When still with Reuters, I volunteered to cover the implementation of a hunting ban in England and Wales, going on two hunts, on foot and on four wheels. I wrote this piece before the ban became law and this one the day it came into force. The absurdity of the eventual law did nothing for nature and served only to convince me of how poor our political system has become.
The pro- and anti-camps – be it on hunting, shooting or fishing – share much in common in their love and respect for nature yet most are too busy slagging off their opponents to realise.
The arguments spill over into vegetarianism, as I know only too well having recently been on the end of a withering from Agnes, a nine-year-old, aspiring vegan who was appalled to learn of my occasional meat eating.
And so to the point of this post. I don’t intend this blog to become a plug fest for the Guardian unlimited news site, and yet this excellent article was too good to resist.
The first time I met Brian Haw, he told me to fuck off and let him sleep. I should have known not to come before noon. I hung around though, for when he did wake up and emerge from his cocoon. A man who’s done what he’s done is worth spending time with. I was not disappointed.
Haw’s home since 2001 has been the pavement of London’s parliament square, which if you’ve never been to has a wonderful view of Big Ben and the House of Commons that is rather spoilt but the constant rumble and fumes of passing traffic. His aim is to shame the government into changing British policy on Iraq.
“I want to go back to my own kids and look them in the face again knowing that I’ve done all I can to try and save the children of Iraq and other countries who are dying because of my government’s unjust, amoral, fear – and money – driven policies. These children and people of other countries are every bit as valuable and worthy of love as my precious wife and children.”
He’s no quitter and no trendy issue-chaser either, his protest began before 9/11 and before the spurious use of that attack to justify invading Iraq.
Haw’s website, from which the above quote is taken, tells you all you need to know about his campaign, and the government’s farcical efforts to get rid of him and anyone who cares to support or join him.
I suspect General Sir Richard Dannatt, head of the British army, would be a fan. He’s just put his job on the line by also rubbishing government policy on Iraq.
Tony Blair’s position becomes trickier by the day, his state of denial less tenable, something the Lancet’s latest Iraqi death estimates and the responses to them make starkly clear.
He’s going, the sooner the better. The questions we should address are what Britain could best do to try to make up for our crimes in Iraq and how we should re-jig our political system to prevent it falling into the hands of a future Blair. The coming Labour leadership battle and how much we can trust tree hugger Dave is not where we should fix our attention.
Give us Brian, give us Sir Dickie, though the latter would mean a military coup so maybe not.
Hi, my name is Patrick Chalmers and this is the public face of my efforts to contribute something to the development of real democracy at the local, national and global levels of our society.
I am 40 years old, was born in Scotland and am living in France having left a staff reporting job with the Reuters news agency in April 2005. I will get into more detail about all that in due course.
What revolution do I mean? The one needed to transform our existing democracies into something worthy of that name.
And what talking? Basically, the journalism – underpinned by the necessary honesty, integrity and humility too often missing in my trade – needed to support and nurture democratic revolution at every level of our societies.
Part of that process will be to research, write and publish a book on democracy and journalism, offering anyone who fancies it a chance to contribute their ideas and suggestions.
Another will be to try to walk my talk by learning how to be an independent multi-media journalist, outside the embrace of conventional news organisations. This process is in no way unique and I will reference, credit and draw on all the examples that I think are useful.
For the French speakers among you, here is my first attempt at TV news reporting, which came about during a three-day TV training session I did in Brussels in September 2006 :
Low bandwidth and high bandwidth.
Chuckle if you must, it’s no Pulitzer winner.
I look forward to hearing your views/ideas/abuse with one request – if you want to criticise feel free but please pause a moment to think of a better idea that you might suggest.
talkingaboutarevolution 