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Blog: An Exciting Evening
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YES! It was for a meeting organised by the Make My Vote Count people who i mentioned a while back. After the LUDICROUS CHARADE of democracy we got after the last election they're trying to WHIP UP a movement to finally CHANGE the electoral system, and this was sort of a LAUNCH meeting for it. To be honest i was mainly going because it was at The House Of Commons, and was a bit nervous in case me and The Speaker In My House would get turned away. So nervous, indeed, that she cleverly directed us to the PUB beforehand for a quick NERVE EASING SNIFTER.
We asked a policeman the way to go, queued up at the St Stephen's Entrance, went through a metal detector like in an airport, and we were IN! We were amazed at how easy it had been, and how we seemed to now be allowed to wander FREELY through the COrridors of POWER, but then there WERE police at pretty much every junction, so i doubt you could have RUN AMOK, even if you'd wanted to. Still, it was quite impressive that we could have such relatively easy ACCESS to the centre of government, and it DID look pretty amazing. Oddly, despite my LIFETIME of being a MASSIVE POLITICS GEEK it didn't feel particularly ASTONISHING to be there. I guess I've seen SO MANY programmes and read so many books and articles about Parliament that it all felt very familiar to me. This was ESPECIALLY so when we got to the committee rooms and walked down the corridor that, only a few hours before, I'd seen Tony Blair walking down on the news. It's more exciting TODAY to think about than it was at the time, funnily enough.
We got in and got sat down in the PACKED ROOM and the meeting began... and was just like all the other political meetings I've ever been to. There were parts of it when things PEAKED and it felt like we were going to RUSH OUT and start a REVOLUTION, there were parts that made me want to stand up and hurl abuse at everybody there, and there were many parts that were just a bit dull.
It started with the chairman introducing people, then Polly Toynbee pretty much Stated The Obvious, and then BILLY BRAGG spoke, and was GRATE. I mean, he always is as far as I'm concerned, and I generally enjoy his talking bits as much as the SINGING, so it was BRILLIANT to hear what he had to say without drunken people behind me going "SATURDAY BOY!". ALARMINGLY, perhaps, he was the most sensible speaker there - he was Quite Nice about Tories and the need to get them involved, for instance, where everyone else had SLAGGED THEM OFF throughout. One of the speakers said "I just wish we could get more Conservatives on board... even tho they are useless lying tossers who are doomed to oblivion, which is a GOOD THING." OK, I paraphrase, but it amazed me that these people hadn't realised that you're not LIKELY to get Conservatives involved with a Campaign when you spend most of the time slagging them off.
Similarly the next speaker, a Labour MP, was INCREDIBLY rude, and DEVASTATINGLY dull with a range of statistics to prove a point that we all KNEW anyway i.e. that the electoral system is unjust. If we didn't already know that, we wouldn't be there would we? There were LOTS of people doing this - after the speakers had spoken they went round the room for comments, and half the people talking basically wanted to say "LOOK! Look at ME! I am HERE!" but did so by restating the facts that had made us turn up in the first place. Perhaps all meetings like this could START with everybody taking it in turns to say their name, and then make a 5 second Pointless COmment? It'd get it out of the way AND it'd make sure people turned up on time!
The final speaker was, I think, a Liberal Democrat PEER, and he was ACE. I warmed to him immediately because he said "I joined the Electoral Reform Society at 15 - i was a bit of an STV GEEK!" and i thought "HA! Me too!" If the meeting persuaded me of anything it was to retain my membership of the Lib Dems, as they are THE BEST, even if he too spent rather too much of his time saying "Actually, if people really want electoral reform they should vote Lib Dem, haha ha!"
And that was one of the DESIRE TO HURL ABUSE points - many people were rather TOO happily satisfied with themselves, and it reminded me why i LEFT the Electoral Reform Society when my first year's membership expired - it was SO VERY posh middle class, slightly smug, and devastatingly inactive. They'd spent DECADES preparing policy documents and signing petitions, but to NO GOOD WHATSOEVER.
That's why it was EXCITING when Peter Tatchell spoke. HOORAH! It was like being at a Rolling Stones gig and waiting for SATISFACTION - would he demand DIRECT ACTION, we wondered? Bless him, YES HE DID! He said that you NEVER got reform by talking about it and palling up to those with a vested interest in the status quo, you needed to INCITE people and TAKE TO THE STREETS! YEAH! He was BRILLIANT, and then another (i think) Lib Dem guy stood up and suggested a campaign of not paying taxes - NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION. What a GRATE idea - my vote counts for nothing, yet i pay the same taxes as someone in a marginal seat whose vote DOES, but why should i? As Mr Tatchell said, The Poll Tax got REMOVED because people REFUSED, so why shouldn't this work! EXCITEMENT! YEAH! LET'S GO!
And then straight back to Hurl Abuse time as the whole idea was pooh-poohed by all the organisers. Oh no, we couldn't have that, that might ACHIEVE something, it might INCONVENIENCE some of the lovely ministers who they were pals with. He said the best way to make change was making it an Electoral Issue, so that MPs knew they'd lose votes if they WEREN'T for electoral reform. Yes. He suggested that we put our faith in the very electoral system we'd all agreed was corrupt and useless. GRR! Shortly after that some idiot got up and said "But we have to be careful! With proper democracy the BNP might get seats, and we don't want that do we?"
ARGH! SCREAMING PILES OF GRR AND NYAAARGH!!! I can't STAND people like that - it's DEMOCRACY pal, not a JUMBLE SALE COMMITTEE - if people VOTE that way you have to make it COUNT, you can't just count the votes you LIKE. Rather brilliantly, in the end speeches, Billy Bragg addressed this VERY POINT, saying that many people voted BNP as a SOD YOU to everybody else, as otherwise their vote was impotent - if they had a CHOICE then they could vote for someone who DID echo their views WITHOUT resorting to Fascism. ALSO i personally think that if people thought that their vote would actually make a DIFFERENCE they'd consider what they were doing, but anyway. GRR!
Things carried on in the mostly slightly dull/slightly pompous vein (although a bloke behind me DID say "You should use EMAIL! And i agree with Peter Tatchell!" which was good) until a VERY ANNOYED MAN said "Are you going to let me have MY say?" as the CHAIR had ignored him. EVENTUALLY, after he'd shown off a bit about being ignored, he said (basically) "This is all pointless - there's no POINT in politely signing petitions, you want to take ACTION and get on TELLY!" YEAH! I agreed with HIM! Then we had the end speeches, where everyone returned to form: Billy Bragg said YES to getting it on telly and "I wish I had a song about all this, it'd be a lot less dry", and everybody else slagged off the tories.
Outside The Fire In My Engine and i LURKED a bit, and discussed whether i should go and say hello to Mr Bragg. I wasn't going to, but thought "Hmm... maybe i should at least see if he's busy" and went back for a look. NOTING he was hanging around i STRODE OVER and said "Bill?" and he said "Yes mate?" and I said "You said about singing a song about proportional represention" and then someone interrupted so I politely waited and then said "Well i DID! I saw you in Cambridge and you talked about Englishness so I wrote a song and here it is" and handed him a copy of "This Is Not A Library". He was LOVELY about it, said "Which song is it?" and I pointed at "Things'll Be Different" - only realising shortly afterwards that it ALMOST slags him off in the first verse (it doesn't, but it nearly does) - and he said "I'll listen to that then" and SHOOK MY HAND. Only then did i lose it slightly and say "Thanks Bill - THANKS FOR EVERYTHING" and then WISELY RAN AWAY back to The Beer In My Pint Glass. "How did it go?" she said, and I said "itwentverywellispoketohimandnowwereallyhavetogo. PUB!"
THUS we retired to the PUB to get over it all, walking alongside David Davies as we left the building... yes! ... but the excitement had not ENDED even THEN, for LO! Peter Tatchell turned up. I passed him on the way to the bar and said "You were RIGHT!" to which he, very wisely and in a very COOL way said "About what?" GOOD POINT i thought, so explained, and he said thanks, and went on his way. I later discovered that he'd NEXT bumped into The Signature On My Petition who'd said "I think you're GRATE - all the things you stand up for, it's BRILLIANT!" and he'd replied "Well, we all do our bit." HOORAH!
And that'd be the main thing I'd take from the evening - sometimes you meet people like Billy Bragg or Peter Tatchell who DO things and are famous FOR A GOOD REASON, and probably have to deal with pillocks like ME coming up to them all the time, but do it with good grace. It's like when I met John Hegley on the TOOB and he was REALLY NICE - it only takes a little bit of effort for people like that to be NICE, and it really makes your DAY when they do it. Also John Otway, and indeed Mr Steve Lamacq, people who are Proper Famous and talk to Other Human Beings in a PROPER and POLITE way that just makes you RESPECT them even more. Compare this with some of the ARSEY TYPES you meet in INDIE ROCK, and they are found WANTING.
Especially Billy Bragg - i mean, look at HIS life! He started out as a Solo PUNK complaining about things (admittedly in an ACE and BRILLIANT way) and in later life has turned to ACTUALLY DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT. In a hundred years time he might or might not be remembered for his albums, but he WILL be remembered, if all goes ahead, as the person who reformed the House of Lords. It's amazing, and also FANTASTIC that a DECENT person with the will to do so CAN change the world around them.
It was a pretty amazing and exciting night all round really. YEAH!
posted 12/5/2005 by MJ Hibbett
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