It was an achingly cold day, and I spent far too much of it outside.
25+ of us - mainly students - gathered with our antiwar banner and placards at 1430. We walked the half mile to the WW2 memorial, made a few short speeches, read out the names of the 100 British soldiers killed so far in Iraq - mentioning the 2000+ American soldiers and 100,000+ Iraqi civillians - and laid a wreath at the centerstone.
The local news media were there, and we appeared briefly on the BBC, together with others doing the same thing elsewhere in Britain. It was a national event - lots of simultainious small local events - called by Families Against The War.
A successful event, for what it was, marred only slightly by Richard L. He's a good ethical man, with admirable political devotion and knowledge. But he will insist on coming to every single outside event with his clattery old guitar and belting out his self-penned songs with a voice like a wounded sealion.
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Later I visited Simon M as arranged, and we went through our parts in The Investigation. It may be that he as Prosecution and me as Defence will be the two best rehearsed parts tomorrow.
Speaking of which, we don't have a map, but have been assured that the arts centre is easy to find from the train station. We will presumably recieve the final version of the script in time for a quick runthrough before the actual performance.
And we just have to hope everyone turns up and doesn't miss their cues. And dear uncle Max doesn't bore everyone rigid with one of his interminable speeches. And basically the paying audiance don't mind that we're crap.
I'm not easily embarrassed, and I don't usually drink alchohol, but I suspect I shall be crimson with shame and keen to obliterate the memory with vodka tomorrow night.
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More politics in the evening - this time local not global. A Respect meeting with a representative from the FBU (Fire Brigades Union) about protest action against the government's planned closure of a fire station.
Portsmouth has 2 remaining fire stations, in the areas called Copnor and Southsea. If you have a fire in Copnor, the delay between calling the fire service and the fire engine arriving is roughly 1 minute for the station to be informed, plus 1 minute for the fire crew to scramble, plus an average of 4 minutes for the engine to get to you.
The council plan to close Copnor station and retain Southsea station 'with no loss of service' - meaning 'arrival time within government target of 10 minutes'. It takes 8 minutes to get from Southsea to Copnor, plus the 2 for processing and scrambling. Barring the traffic jams for which the city is infamous.
It takes on average 2 minutes for a fire to spread through 1 room.
The council have held a 'consultation' with local people, informing them that rapid response wasn't necessary because most people who die in fires do so within the first 6 minutes. Which isn't even true.
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"...he will insist on coming to every single outside event with his clattery old guitar and belting out his self-penned songs with a voice like a wounded sealion".
ReplyDeleteHahahaha!
Good luck with the play. I'll keep my fingers crossed.