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Boris drops anti-racism music festival

How about a festival against inner city poverty? Or something similar against violent crime? No, scrap that last one - I can see the headlines now. "Riot at festival against crime."
 
Slogans may not work but....

I walked thru what was then an NF hotbed - well judging by the number of deranged fist waving skinheads on the route - for the RAR gig in Victoria park in 76 or 77 prob 77 I think- I was already convinced of the message but I think that the sheer number of peeps on that march and at the event did give yer neo-Facisti a bit of a heads up as to what they were up against, ie the majority
While they all sit about together repeating stories of how the socked it to Johnny Foreigner it is possible for the BNP etc to believe that secretly all agree with them - it aint fucking true and events like this to a certain extent show them in a way that empty slogans do not. Even if a large proportion are there for the music, they are prepared to assemble under that slogan - thats the point it makes.

Boris would not see that because he is merely a clinker on Camerons arse
 
KeyboardJockey said:
It didn't prevent one bnp voter from going to the polls and putting their cross in the fash box.
Click to expand...

It does not matter one iota if LMHR did not prevent one voter from putting their cross against the BNP box. LMHR festival is part of the way that the vast majority of Londoners are not willing to tolerate racist behaviour or attitudes from any section of the community in London. By cancelling LMHR Mayor BoJo the clown is just showing the Tories to be still as toxic & nasty as they ever were. It is a very petty act & gives the impression that in London "Political Correctness" is dead & it is again okay for you to laugh at lame "Chalky" jokes & call your neighbour a "darkie".
 
Andy the Don said:
& gives the impression that in London "Political Correctness" is dead & it is again okay for you to laugh at lame "Chalky" jokes & call your neighbour a "darkie".
Click to expand...

how you draw this conclusion is beyond my copmrehension. So by cancelling the LMHR element of a festival Boris Johnson is giving people carte blanche to call people 'darkie' & 'chalkie'. Thats honestly what you're trying to argue.

:D

This sensationalist bullshit is counterproductive in the extreme.
 
hipipol said:
Slogans may not work but....
I walked thru what was then an NF hotbed - well judging by the number of deranged fist waving skinheads on the route - for the RAR gig in Victoria park in 76 or 77 prob 77 I think- I was already convinced of the message but I think that the sheer number of peeps on that march and at the event did give yer neo-Facisti a bit of a heads up as to what they were up against, ie the majority
While they all sit about together repeating stories of how the socked it to Johnny Foreigner it is possible for the BNP etc to believe that secretly all agree with them - it aint fucking true and events like this to a certain extent show them in a way that empty slogans do not. Even if a large proportion are there for the music, they are prepared to assemble under that slogan - thats the point it makes.

Boris would not see that because he is merely a clinker on Camerons arse
Reply With Quote
Click to expand...

But the RAR events all those years ago inspired you and me to join in, and got paulie thinking in his faraway bedroom and made a difference because they had a spark of immediacy and rebellion and standing up for something important. As said above, the Viccie Park nostalgiafest earlier this year was just tired and embarrassing, because that's what happens when good, positive initiatives get institutionalised, commercialised and organised by committees of bureaucrats more interested in production values and balancing budgets than saying something important.

IMO it's unrealistic to expect these top-down events to have any political spark- they're a modern equivalent of the Lord Mayors Show or something, just an entertainment with a worthy label. To mean anything it has to come from beneath, and has to catch a fleeting moment. RAR did. The moment passed long ago, probably even before Ken used to put on all those events at Jubilee Gardens.
 
Andy the Don said:
It does not matter one iota if LMHR did not prevent one voter from putting their cross against the BNP box. LMHR festival is part of the way that the vast majority of Londoners are not willing to tolerate racist behaviour or attitudes from any section of the community in London. By cancelling LMHR Mayor BoJo the clown is just showing the Tories to be still as toxic & nasty as they ever were. It is a very petty act & gives the impression that in London "Political Correctness" is dead & it is again okay for you to laugh at lame "Chalky" jokes & call your neighbour a "darkie".
Click to expand...


I'm afraid that it does matter. If LMHR was supposed to act as a way of galvanising people against the rise again of fash parties and activities then it has manifestly failed.

Its a bit hyperbolic to draw comparisions with Chalky jokes becoming mainstream again. But then this is what I've come to expect from those who backed the previous administration - no sense of proportion.

I think that there should be a big festival that brings Londoners together but it shouldn't be a gravy train for musos who want to be seen in the right 'right on' gig.

The whole LMHR / RISE thing was just an ego wank for the previous mayoral incumbent and had bugger all to do with reducing racial and relgious tensions in London the fires of which have been stoked in recent years by groups such as the bnp/respect and the Murdoch and Rothermere press.
 
Racism isn't a political thing though. It's only because it's been hijacked by some lefties that it has been made out to be one.
 
ajdown said:
Racism isn't a political thing though. It's only because it's been hijacked by some lefties that it has been made out to be one.
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That is one of the daftest things I've read for a while. Racism, especially in the context of organisations like the BNP and their ilk, is an intensely political matter.

I would also be interested in your explanation of how this group called "the lefties" (catch-cry of those with ill-formed political sensibilities) have "hijacked" racism?
 
I also have concern about Boris' renaming/refocusing of the festival. Most funding for this festival has previously come from various unions. To rename and refocus this is a broadside attack on the involvement of unions in festivals that the mayor deems to be 'political'. If the political or anti-racist message is down played and it becomes another cultural festival, then various unions, rightly, will see no need to participate in, or fund this gathering. And so begins its demise. I would wager that this festival won't happen next year.

So whilst Boris is 'a laugh', he has a sinister, not that well-hidden, neo-con strategy which is also promoted, but hidden by Cameron. What you're seeing is an insidious shift towards anti-unionism and anti-collectivism, which so marked out the awful Thatcher and Major years. But the Tories have been clever, get in an affable buffoon, who'll fool the voters and then drive in a neo-con message, using London as an experiment, for the final putsch in 2010.

Perhaps I'm an old fashioned paranoid lefty, but I don't think so.
 
Nah just hold it on Clapham Common and give em some nice ice cream stands and they'll flock to it :rolleyes:
 
Does this mean it's going to become a classical music festival now?

I bet they won't allow any drinking at the new Boris festival
 
don't think this has anything to do with the BNP tbh, probably just decided there are better uses for this money. seems like there were way too many schemes endorsed by ken that favoured minority groups, time to even up the balance a little. good job boris
 
dtb said:
don't think this has anything to do with the BNP tbh, probably just decided there are better uses for this money. seems like there were way too many schemes endorsed by ken that favoured minority groups, time to even up the balance a little. good job boris
Click to expand...

My pov as well there. A lot of KL's largesse was quite frankly designed to a) pay off political favours in the past and b) build up a voting base for KL for the future. These are actions that we would rightly criticise if they were underaken by a banana republic.
 
dtb said:
don't think this has anything to do with the BNP tbh, probably just decided there are better uses for this money. seems like there were way too many schemes endorsed by ken that favoured minority groups, time to even up the balance a little. good job boris
Click to expand...

((((oppressed white majority))))
 
KeyboardJockey said:
My pov as well there. A lot of KL's largesse was quite frankly designed to a) pay off political favours in the past and b) build up a voting base for KL for the future. These are actions that we would rightly criticise if they were underaken by a banana republic.
Click to expand...

If you expect Johnson not to do exactly the same you're an idiot.
 
KeyboardJockey said:
My pov as well there. A lot of KL's largesse was quite frankly designed to a) pay off political favours in the past and b) build up a voting base for KL for the future. These are actions that we would rightly criticise if they were underaken by a banana republic.
Click to expand...

I reel in astonishment at your perspicacity, you are clearly the preminent political thinker of modern times. Why did it never occur to me that Boris would be above all that petty party political nonsense that has dogged our lives here in London?
I look forward to the bias and bigotry free society that BoJo is sure to usher in - where all races will join hands and sing lauditory anthems of joy to our new utterly independent saviour
 
hipipol said:
I reel in astonishment at your perspicacity, you are clearly the preminent political thinker of modern times. Why did it never occur to me that Boris would be above all that petty party political nonsense that has dogged our lives here in London?
I look forward to the bias and bigotry free society that BoJo is sure to usher in - where all races will join hands and sing lauditory anthems of joy to our new utterly independent saviour
Click to expand...

There is every possiblity that Boris will make political appointments and they should also be criticised if they adversly affect London or are solely there to massage the Mayor's ego.

Whats sauce for the goose should be sauce for the gander.
 
At least Boris is introducing Londoners to a new set of slogans.

Those of us who remember the GLC recall the 'GLC - Working for London' etc

Now theres a new one.


'Boris Johnson - Working for Londoners not foreign dictatorships'
 
KeyboardJockey said:
At least Boris is introducing Londoners to a new set of slogans.

Those of us who remember the GLC recall the 'GLC - Working for London' etc

Now theres a new one.


'Boris Johnson - Working for Londoners not foreign dictatorships'
Click to expand...

What dictatorship? The one where Chavez got a higher proportion of the vote that BoJo?
 
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