– that was Charlie Brown’s plan to change his life and stop being wishy; it also seems to be the Church of England’s plan over the St Paul’s protests. To their credit, some clerics have come out in support and the chief bod (can’t remember his name) has resigned but other clergy seem more concerned about the day-to-day functioning of the cathedral. To be honest I was surprised how much they seemed to accommodate the protesters as I would have expected them to be very sniffy and patrician; very establishment about the whole thing, so in some ways it’s been a pleasant surprise. The trouble about an occupation of protest like that is that it doesn’t have an immediate goal: they’re not saying ‘unless X happens we will stay put’ except in terms of wanting the whole situation to change – and that ain’t gonna happen in the short term. The value of it is to bring attention to the issues and to express strong feeling – but unlike, say, the Greenham Common occupation, whose goal was to close down the nuclear base (which was eventually achieved) – this occupation has no immediate goal and no direct connection with St Paul’s cathedral. They’d have done better to occupy the Bank of England or the Stock Exchange as the guys in America have.
Or so it is reputed, though apparently there’s a media blackout. Shows how serious things in the media are over there.
Meanwhile, life in Leicester continues: a pleasant few beers in the Ale Wagon with Peter last night, where I was pleased to see an elderly couple, both drinking pints! That’s not something you come across every day. It gave me hope – for sadly, at the moment, my pint-drinking days appear to be over. I just can’t handle it.
Mark says I’ve become neurologically interesting – not because of my failure to drink pints but because of a habit I have of sometimes letting my hand drop to my lap as though everything is hopeless and I just can’t take it any more. I’m not aware of doing it at all, so it seems that the hand-dropping and the lack of awareness are part of the same thing. We were discussing the ‘Hitch-hiker’s guide to the Galaxy’ and ‘Adrian Mole’ and saying that this kind of observational comedy has been taken over by stand-up comedy.
‘A stand-com,’ quipped Mark.
Lol.
Today I shall be mostly… reading the Guardian. Time to put the kettle on as the post is late this morning…
Kirk out
Sarada Gray 