Thursday, December 21, 2006

Last night's carol service and SOCPA demo

It was freezing, but excellent. First off, the final lone mass demonstration of the year outside the House of Parliament on Parliament Square, with a good crowd led by Mark Thomas and his elves, followed by illicit carol singing by the statue of Winston Churchill. Hipflasks of sherry, cognac and hot mulled wine were produced and mince pies handed round to keep out the chill, then we tumbled into a pub to thaw out and to hear more about Tim from Bloggerheads exciting new project, National Service.

Photos can be found here , here, here, and here .Davide at Netherworld has written it up here with photos here. Rabbit Strike has written it up here. As they have both covered it so well I advise everyone to go and read their accounts rather than have me write it all up again here, badly, with a hangover. Big huge thanks to everyone who came. It was especially lovely to meet some of the readers of this blog. We raised £85.93 and 75 euro-cents for Medical Aid for Iraqi Children and we had a very good sing song busting bureacracy to defend democracy. Small things, foolish things, but important things.

UPDATE: More coverage from D-Notice, Bloggerheads and another very good, thoughtful write up from Disillusioned Kid

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

wtf!!! you weren't even there. wee favour, i'm trying hard to try and pin mark thomas down and chat about the direction of the arms control movement. after the 'discontinuation' of BAE's Virgin Island slush-fund operations, I think I've had it, I really have!

none of the arms control groups, even those i admire and respect, were targetting ALL the stakeholders involved, not even requesting a meeting to make a representation. i think with a few thousand pounds dsei next september WILL be called off and despite getting to within an inch of having a ballsy letter published in the ft, i feel like a voice in the wilderness. caat, control arms coalition, iansa etc are all pretty inaccessible whilst being, to varying degrees, useless in the effectiveness of their campaigning.

when i met mark briefly before a show a couple of weeks ago he seemed interested in what i was saying about lobbying strategies and the application of the range of research findings on different aspects of the arms industry in britain. i sent him a couple of emails (though i realise how busy he is) and he hasn't yet replied.

i was advised by a green party lady last night to send the email 5 times in one go, that that's how to get his attention. i don't want to piss him off but would like the honour of a one-on-one 'natter'. i've been told i give good nat.

in short, rachel, how can i get hold of him. is there any chance of a nudge, or is this too cheeky. i'm at my wits end, am seeking (with some success) funding and looking to complement rather than replicate what is being done at the moment.

any help will gratefully recieved.

sincerely,

leopollak@gmail.com

December 21, 2006 12:59 pm  
Blogger Rachel said...

I certainly was there,as you can see from the blogs about it and the photos on several sites of me there. Mark Thomas has a forum, you should be able to leave a message there if you can't get hold of him, or discuss it with others on the forum perhaps? I have to say I am not entirely sure what you want from me?

December 21, 2006 1:03 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow! That was quick! Thank you for the links. It was great to meet everyone.

December 21, 2006 1:20 pm  
Blogger Disillusioned kid said...

I've posted my report here. There's also some photos on my Flickr account.

December 21, 2006 1:31 pm  
Blogger Unknown said...

Hi

Nice to meet up with you again.

Hopefully the next one will have a more reasonable weather!

PS. Thanks for the muffins!

December 21, 2006 8:07 pm  
Blogger Rigmor said...

Yeay! Thanks for putting up those links! Where did all these people hide?! (So many posters I didn't see when I was there. I must be blind)

December 21, 2006 9:40 pm  

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