Tony Benn trying to have a conversation with David Cameron.
i don't do bad sauce passes
wallacepolsom
will byers stan first human second
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open
trying on a metaphor
AnasAbdin
Keni

Product Placement

shark vs the universe
Peter Solarz
đȘŒ
cherry valley forever
Cosimo Galluzzi
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
Jules of Nature

blake kathryn

titsay
Monterey Bay Aquarium
we're not kids anymore.

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@nuttyxander-blog
Tony Benn trying to have a conversation with David Cameron.
I think that the withdrawal of the grant and the implication of student loans necessarily limits people that want vocational careers and produces a generation of people who feel that only the purpose of education is to earn money. And you already see it happening, right? Itâs changed the vibe of campus and it changes the kind of people that want to go to college and I think it was done deliberately.I think it was done deliberately to rid us of all these troublesome thinkers and artists, and of conscientious people. And I think that if Thatcher could have done it she would have done, because I remember a really famous bit of televisionâwell I donât think it was famous, but it was famous to me:It was in about 1988 and she was being shown around a womenâs college in Oxford, and she said to this girl, âWhat are you studying?â And it was just broadcast as just a bit of like, filler footage. Thatcher went, âWhat are you studying?â and the girl said, âAncient Norse literature.â And Mrs. Thatcher went: âOoh, what a luxury.âAnd this wasnât pointed up as meaning anything, but it does mean something. What it means is that the Prime Minister attached no intrinsic value to knowledge of another culture, or of the past, or of its language. And its a clichĂ© to say, but you understand the modern world through its echoes in the past.And obviously, thereâs not a huge financial future in studying ancient Norse literature, but we do need people that know about these things, and the âtrickle-downâ effect of their knowledge enriches a culture and the people in it. And to say that, what she saidââWhat a luxuryââindicates that if she didnât believe there was a direct financial value to it, that it was of no value and the pursuit of that information should not be subsidised by the state, and thatâs wrong and I think it was done deliberately.In the end, [Lord of the Rings, a film trilogy that wouldnât exist without Tolkien who studied English literature at Oxford on scholarship funds,] that made a lot of money, didnât it? But you know what, the problem with that is then youâre being drawn into fighting the war on their terms:When Battersea Arts Centre was threatened with closure because of its withdrawal of funding from Wandsworth Council and when the Bush Theatre was threatened with closure because of the withdrawal of its grant from the Arts Council, the bigwigs from both those places engaged with their detractors by saying, âBut look, we developed Jerry Springer: The Opera and that went on to the West End and made loads of money for businesses,â and the Bush went, âWe developed this play about whatsit, and so-and-soâs in it,â and whatever.But actually, what they should have said was: âLook, we put on, for a week, a bloke blowing into a balloon and dragging it around on the floor and making funny sounds. And that didnât transfer to the West End because it has no commercial future, but it is inherently worthwhile.â Thatâs what they should have said: âAnd thatâs why it needs funding.âBut instead they engage on their [detractorsâ] terms and theyâve already lost because they talk to these people as if the only point of the art were to make money for shops in the West End because people on the way to the theatre were buying crisps. Itâs like youâve already lost because instead of going, âWell we feel this has an inherent value in and of itself,â youâve gone: âYes, but look, it made loads of money!â So itâs a problem.
British writer and comedian Stewart Lee, creator of Jerry Springer: The Opera, discusses current levels of student debt and how it is affecting the careers of potential comedians and other writers/artists/performers. He also discusses the importance of arts funding and grants and the need to defend art for artâs sake.
Lee studied English at St. Edmund Hall in Oxford on a full grant between 1986 and 1989. The Lord of the Rings mention comes from the fact that Tolkien himself studied English at Oxford under a scholarship.
(via letitbemorning)
Town Centre, Stevenage (1958) by Leonard Vincent and Clifford Holliday.
One of the first and most prominent projects Vincent completed, alongside Clifford Holliday, was the new Town Centre inspired by the Lijnbaan in Rotterdam. The pedestrian town centre features covered walkways as well as a variety of public art such as the central clock tower designed by Vincent himself. It was the first traffic free town centre in Britain and set a template for pedestrianisation in town centres that is still being followed today. Â
Image from Berkeley Archives
"Fight Blight", Charles McKean, (1977).
FAB Featuring MC Parker - Thunderbirds Are Go
 - in which someone who's just read The Manual starts humming the Thunderbirds theme and goes top 10.
Top Gear on Cycling in short...
Top gear are making a feature about cycling!
Oh it might be OK, maybe that was just the jokey intro. Maybe if they ride bikes...
...they might stop victim blaming...
Yeah, alright, never mind.
"The dancing scarf and ball lady meets the foam caterpillarâÂ
A. R. Philpott, Letâs Make Puppets, 1972
Hourly Comics 2014 - D O N E.
More babies and me talking to myself than previous years. Also I drew in pencils only this time to speed myself up a little HAHAHAHAHAHA. I might ink them up just for kicks a little later this week. We shall see!
It was strange doing autobio again, I was so burnt out from doing it with Ellerbisms but itâs nice to dip my toe back into the genre now and again. I do have plans for another book but thatâll be a while off I imagine.
If you liked the above then you can read a couple more HCD strips from previous years herrrreeeeee.
More fine Marc Ellerby comics. Love the pencil look on this.
Ipswich, 1979
(Note the night club in the centre of the roundabout.)
The UK government is now *literally* getting its immigration policy from Judge Dredd
(Via @CraigGrannell)
Weâve been unable to confirm reports that Nick Cleggâs been warning people: âDonât make me angry. You wouldnât like me when Iâm angry.â
Project for Hook New Town, UK, 1960-61
(London County Council Architectsâ Department)
This is a letter I got from John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants in about 1989. My parents wrote a letter to them on my behalf with a photo of me in front of the TV with a TMBG video playing. I was 3 years old at the time.Â
I'll print this out and pretend it was for me...
i love marvel unlimited
(marvel wha⊠huh?)
The Conservatives plan to announce a new attack on immigration or benefits every single week ahead of the general election, under plans formulated by election strategist Lynton Crosby
Disgusting, cynical, racist and electorally idiotic. So far Lynton Crosbyâs main influence on Tory fortunes has been the party shedding a ton of votes to UKIP at the European elections. The main effect he seems to have had is to prime the public that xenophobia and racism are mainstream now, leading to - surprise! - a move into the mainstream for the party that best reflects that. Having completely fucked up the Toriesâ appeal to their right wing by handing the terms of debate to UKIP, heâs now desperately trimming rightwards to try and get the advantage back. Optimistically this will mean a further drift towards UKIP from the Tory right, and the loss of any centre support.
The reason UKIP will keep benefiting from this isnât just that they already agree. Itâs that there isnât actually a âproblemâ here to âsolveâ - UKIP votes track higher in less âmulti-culturalâ areas; immigration is helping the economy, not hurting it; benefits tourism is a myth and the scale of benefit fraud is grossly exaggerated in the public imagination. Meanwhile everyone âknows ofâ someone living the life of Riley on benefits, but everyone (except the most cossetted) also ACTUALLY KNOWS working families and unemployed people being forced below the poverty line - the people who further âcrackdownsâ will actually hurt.
Building up a phantom menace is an excellent political strategy if youâre in opposition - the aim of opposition is to get power so it doesnât actually matter if you canât solve the problems you are shouting about, which you obviously canât if they donât exist. You get to power, you pronounce them solved, you muzzle your attack dogs in the press, all is rosy.
But the Tories are not in opposition. They are the Government. Majority partners in a coalition - which they hate and feels like opposition maybe, but tough shit, the buck doesnât stop with anybody else but the Tories. Weekly policies from the Government to solve a problem that does not exist will have no effect on the actual situation any of the idiots maddened by said âproblemâ experience. (It will have an enormously negative effect on the victims of the policies, though.) So the government look ineffectual, like UKIP says, and promise-breakers, like UKIP says, and UKIP look like the people with a real grip on the âproblemâ. And the bigots who care about the âproblemâ - because theyâve been told to care by the Tories - vote for UKIP. Endgame: further vote splits.
Except itâs impossible to be happy about the Toriesâ bizarro strategy because a) massive collaterial damage to poor and marginalised people on the way; b) general drift rightward of public debate (itâs not like Labour arenât moving this way through fear too); and c) playing with loaded guns is dangerous and stupid even if they probably wonât go off.
Edgware Road station by Ltvphoto/Excamera on Flickr.
Damn this was fun.
Do you remember where you were when you heard the news? We were looking at Twitter, like we do every day.
And the 3 best replies?
1.
â@nick_clegg: Ed Ballsâ « VERY FLAWED POLITICIAN ON THE END OF TWITTER GAG FROM FAR WORSE, UTTERLY SPINELESS WORM
â this is my england...
'sniff. Doge reply is good tho'Â
Studio Ghibli + Bikes