You know that things really have got fucked up when the joke currently  calling himself the prime minister starts to use bots to post approving responses to his social media output. Presumably Johnson wants to counteract all the negative responses he gets to his Facebook posts,  but it doesn’t take a degree in media studies to tell all the nearly identical posts are produced by bots.

It appears that Bojo has announced he will delay Brexit, but only if MPs agree to hold a general election in december. While part of me suspects this could be some kind of trick, surely this is the best news we’ve had in a while: not only  is this another step towards Brexit’s ultimate and inevitable demise, but it also gives us the opportunity to get rid  of the jokes currently running the country.

When I was growing up I used to love the fields of cheshire. Every school day I was driven, in a taxi, the fourteen miles from Congleton to Winsford, a patchwork of fields stretching each side of the winding road into the distance. I also used to drive my powerchair up the lanes to Swetenham. I loved how tranquil the fields  looked, how they smelled in the peaceful country air. It’s the only thing I have really missed since moving to London: of course there are  plenty of wonderful  parks, but they aren’t really the same.

Today, however, I found something special. I was out on my usual stroll this afternoon when I decided to check out Eltham Palace. I  hadn’t really gone that way before, and I felt like a bit of exploration. What I  found, I must admit, amazed me: a beautiful 1930s house built onto a medieval tudor hall. It was  highly  romantic  and evocative, instantly transporting me back to the hot golden summers of the twenties and thirties. I half expected Ian Fleming, Earnest Hemingway  or (dare I say it) Mr. Toad to appear from somewhere.

The real treat for me, though, came when I went down the lane past  the house and gardens. It was ancient, completely untouched by the metropolis; fields, populated by grazing shire horses, stretched either side. For a few moments as I drove my powerchair along it, I was back in Cheshire on my way to school, or heading up the lanes to Swettenham.

I have woken up quite early today for some reason. It may be due to going to bed  so early yesterday, after a long, tiring day.  I’m still sorting things out in my new home, and most  of yesterday was spent trying to get my computer online. My new Wifi router will come on friday, so, long story short, I’m currently having to use my Ipad as a hotspot. It’s slow, but does the trick. Between that and 1001 other things  I need to sort out, I don’t think I’ll have much chance to write any good long blog entries for a few days. But don’t worry: my usual ill-informed ramblings will resume in due course.

This is my first blog entry from my new flat in Eltham, probably the first of many. I have finally moved. To be honest saying goodbye to Lyn earlier was bloody hard: having lived with her for nearly ten years, I am still very fond of her, but  parted on good terms, and it probably won’t be too long before we see each other again. For nw though, I really must thank  my parents for busting a gut to help me set up my new home; they have really been incredible. Thanks  to them, this place is already starting to feel like home: rather different to Lyn’s, but more like mine.

In the end, I decided to go up to Westminster yesterday. It was towards the end of the day and so I missed the main protest. Yet I felt I couldn’t just sit here and do nothing. I got there just as most people were starting to go home, but there were still plenty of people there. The thing is, whenever I go up there, I always get so agitated and angry, I feel compelled to argue with every Leave campaigner I see. This issue makes me fly into uncontrollable rages: do these morons not care what Brexit will do to the country, or that those of us with disabilities stand to suffer particularly badly because of it? But then, from the looks of the pictures of the People’s Vote yesterday, I’m not the only one who feels so strongly about this. The question now is, how can the scumbags in parliament have the gall to pretend such protests and such anger does not exist?

I’ll probably not go to the big Remain march tomorrow. I know I  should, but these days I find I get so angry about politics that I just boil over and lose control. Besides, I have so much stuff to do here that I cannot afford to spend time going on political protests, as strongly as I feel about the issue. In a way, I feel like the country itself, on the verge of a huge change which it didn’t really ask for and about which it  is by no means sure. I can’t help thinking it’s all a complete mess.

No sensible person can now deny climate change is real, but where do you draw  the line between protesting to draw public  attention to it, and disrupting public transport and pissing commuters  off to attract media attention to one’s pressure group? If you ask me, the disruption on public transport in  London today had nothing to do with climate change – there are, after all,  far more efficient ways to protest – but everything to do with a pressure group made up of middle class privileged egotists feeling neglected and wanting to get their  faces on telly.

I took a roll up to the Olympic park late this afternoon, just to see what was going on there. I noticed quite a bit of building work in progress, so, getting home, I did a bit of Googling. I found what I came across very exciting: East Bank looks like a fantastic project, combining universities, museums, music and culture. If all goes to plan, that entire area looks like it has an exciting, vibrant future ahead of it, and I’m now wondering if I can somehow get involved as a writer and/or filmmaker.

I think the most amusing thing I can link to today is this story  in the Metro. A poll ITV ran asking viewers whether Piers Morgan should be fired over his intolerant views has backfired spectacularly: they voted  by 58% to  say he should be fired. As you might guess, the dipshit is not happy, claiming that the poll was somehow hijacked by leftist snowflakes. If you ask me, though, that scumbag had no business being on TV in the first place: ITV wanted him to spout all that fascist bullshit merely to get attention and ratings. They wanted to tap into a sense of neglect felt by a certain minority, left behind and confused by modern liberal social trends. It’s exactly the same minority Farage and Trump pander to. By spouting all this bigoted shit,  they tell people it’s ok to be reactionary morons who don’t have to engage with or accept any form of culture other than their own; it lets them off the intellectual hook. Sucking up to intolerant halfwits may attract certain viewers, but it’s something which should  have no place on British TV, and I’ll be pissed off if ITV don’t do as the poll asks and fires the piece of shit.

As far as I’m concerned there was no queen’s speech today; there was no queen’s speech because we don’t have a government I respect.  Instead, squatting in Downing street we have a total asshole; a proven liar whom we should all be ashamed was allowed to rise to the position he now holds. Besides, as I explained yesterday, I’m currently far too preoccupied to  concern myself with politics; and whenever I do these days I always get so  wound up it’s embarrassing, so it’s probably better to just ignore the entire farcical mess altogether.

If change is necessary and inevitable, why am I feeling like this? Tomorrow I  start the move over  to Eltham,  out from Lyn’s into my own place. I know it’s for the best: after ten years with Lyn, we both need our own space. She remains one of my best friends, and I agree with her that this change is what our friendship needs. Yet I currently feel very insecure, as though the securities I’ve been used to over  the last decade have now vanished. I know that, in time, I’ll re-establish them, but this evening, on the cusp of change, that task seems a daunting, frightening one. At the same time, I’m looking forward to having my own home, yet I’m worried about screwing it all  up.

I was strongly considering going up to the Roundhouse last Saturday, to see what I could observe of the attempt to set the record for the most gumbys in one place. In the end, though, I opted to stay home: as much as I adore Monty Python, I decided it wasn’t worth the effort  of dressing up and heading halfway across London, merely to participate in a gathering of  similarly clad fans. Had it been a larger  event, and had the other Python cast members other than just Terry Gilliam been there, then perhaps it would have been more enticing; but having been to their full reunion in 2014, I wasn’t that fussed. However, I am starting to regret my decision a little, having just come across this video of the event. It might not have been a full on reunion, but such events keep  Monty Python alive: from the  look of it, it was great fun. Now that we have  probably seen the last ever performance of the parrot sketch by it’s original creators, fan events like the one last saturday carry the Python spirit on. I should have gone. Then again, getting a knotted hanky to stay on my head might have been rather tricky.

Zark knows whether it’s authentic or not, but when I saw this earlier, browsing Facebook on the bus, I burst out laughing so loudly that I got a few concerned stares from my fellow passengers.

Two or three weeks ago, John mentioned going to see a show with Sir Ian McKellen: Naturally I leaped at the idea: I’ve been a bit  of a fan  of McKellen’s since he played  Gandalf. After that, though,  I put the idea to the back of my mind and concentrated on other things. But yesterday afternoon I got a message from J inviting me to meet him up at Green Park to see McKellen’s one man show. Busy though I am with the move, how could I refuse the opportunity to see one of my favourite actors?

I met my friend at the Harold Pinter Theatre. Going  in I didn’t quite know what to expect, but nonetheless I was in for a treat. McKellen gave a very, very impressive  solo performance, essentially talking on stage for three hours with a fifteen minute break, covering a range of topics from religion to sexuality. He is clearly a very intelligent man with a vast amount of experience. Of course, the parts I enjoyed most was when he spoke about Tolkien and the filming of The Lord Of The Rings: he opened the piece with a recounting of the bridge at Khazad Dum, and Gandalf’s fight with the Balrog. It was a treat for both the Tolkien geek and film buff in me. He went into quite a bit of detail, which I found fascinating.

He rounded off the evening with Shakespeare, reciting many, many soliloquies he knows by heart from almost all the plays. I found myself amazed by his memory, but also by his deep knowledge of the plays and their histories. While some might dismiss shows like the one I saw last  night as an old thespian’s ego trip, or his attempt to earn a bit of  cash, nonetheless  I feel   I gained a valuable insight into a great actor, his personality and life experience.

You’re probably quite relieved that it has been a while since I wrote anything about the Olympics or the 2012 opening ceremony on here. That’s just as  well; the moment has passed. Yet I can’t help noticing  the stark contrast in the social atmosphere between then and now: just seven years  ago, the country, and London especially, felt abuzz with friendliness and warmth. We were one country working together  to put on the  world’s greatest show. Now look at  us: it’s frightening how divided we are, with one side  protesting against the other. Of course I’m not the first person to note how angry people are becoming. I get stupidly angry as an effect of my cerebral palsy, but everyone else seems to be becoming just as pissed off over Brexit, It’s as if nobody can abide anyone holding a contrary view any more. Massive protests are held by either side,   both viewing the other with something approaching white hot hatred, hurling  insults and abuse. Think back to  2012 and the contrast in the atmosphere really is chilling. More to the point, though, we should all be very worried about where this is heading.

I think the best thing I can do on here today would be to direct everyone here. The new Picard trailer was released online yesterday,  but it’s far too exciting for me not to flag up. Of course,  there are already a shitload of fan reactions on the web, trying to break it down,  shot by shot. You’ll forgive me if I don’t try to emulate them, apart from saying that it’s good to see a few more of our old TNG friends returning too, alongside their captain. To be honest I’m going through a bit  of a dark time at the mo; I’m just glad the return of Jean-Luc Picard gives me something to look forward to.

Staying on the subject of Monty Python, how about this for a contemporary take on a classic.

I wonder what it would take for John Cleese and the two Ronnies (or anyone really) to perform such a sketch. I daresay  it would make an interesting comment on the current political state of affairs.

Today is a very auspicious  day in my opinion: today marks fifty years since Monty Python’s Flying Circus was first broadcast, an event which arguably  changed British  comedy  forever. Apart from an attempt to break the record for the most Gumbys gathered in one place, I haven’t seen much to mark this  anniversary – there don’t seem to be any programmes about Python on  tv tonight, for one. However, I think the best thing I can  do to mark the occasion would be to flag this outstanding article by my old friend Chris Flacket up.

While  I can’t say I agree with every point he makes (I think he goes slightly too far in the  explanation that not all intelligent people live in London) I have to say I feel a bit embarrassed by my old university friend’s  work. This is a proper, scholarly article of two to three thousand words which puts the superficial things I mostly spew on here to shame. It is quite a deep analysis of python, looking at both it’s history and structure. And like all good analysis, it leaves the reader even more interested than when one started. I hadn’t really thought, for example, about  Python’s relationship with the music industry, and about how, in a way, the comedy troupe grew to resemble a rock band, producing records and going on tours.

Chris, like me, is a Python fan. I’ll always count watching those guys live in 2014 as one of the greatest moments of my life. Reading Chris’ article/essay just now again put that evening in perspective. Imagine getting to see  a legendary rock band whose music you love, thought to have split up forever years ago, get  back together to perform virtually on your doorstep. It was quite, quite incredible: one  of those events which  demonstrate how awesome life can get. For me, for Chris and for countless other people, there  is something  about the humour of Python which sets it apart: it is very random and zany as well as having a weight of intelligence behind it. Yet there is also  something else: a humanity and empathy to it. Whether it’s to Always look on the bright side of life, how to arrange  flowers or what to wear when felling trees, Python has something to say about the human condition we could all learn from.

I can barely believe that today marks five years since I met  Sir Patrick Stewart (lucky I just checked my archive!) Time really does fly, and so much has happened since then, but I nonetheless still count  those few seconds with Sir Patrick, telling him about my MA, as the greatest moment of my life. Whenever I need to remind myself just how incredible life can get, I just look at this entry.

I just saw on bbc local news that, for the first time in the play’s 50 year history, the lead character of  A Day in the Death Of Joe Egg will be played by an actor with CP. I’m afraid to say this is another one  which has crept under my radar, but, according to the report, the role has always been taken by an able bodied actor, even though the character is supposed to have cerebral palsy. If so, then this news is certainly a step in the right direction, as well as giving me something else to  go and check out. The report also mentioned the  problem of so few actors with disabilities appearing on our stages and screens. With the actor, Storme Toolis, now drawing our attention to the issue, hopefully it can now start to be put right.

Not that I want to function as free advertising for them, but earlier on facebook I came across an ad for Monty Python Sings, a new album of Python’s songs, and I was pleased to see that it included Stephen Hawking singing The Galaxy Song. You might remember that Hawking did a version of the Galaxy song on his communication aid for the 2014 Python Reunion. That they’re now including his version on their new album seems to me really quite touching: it’s a catchy, upbeat song which also makes a comment on the human condition; to have Hawking  sing it seems quite an apt tribute to the  now late professor. He is still one of my rolemodels, and for the Python guys to choose to remember  him in this way seems to me very decent of them.

I think the best  thing I can do on here today would be  to direct everyone to this long overdue Guardian article.   At last someone has raised the issue of children’s books not having enough characters with disabilities: probably to draw attention to his most recent publication, David Baddiel has noted that, apart from a few exceptions  like Tiny Tim, children’s literature is almost  devoid of  characters with disabilities. This is something I’ve been saying for years: the best way to increase kids’ knowledge about people like myself (apart from inclusive education) would be to include positive disabled rolemodels in their literature.  As the article says,  though, the problem is, publishers are so often trapped by safety and convention that  they see doing so as a risk. I’m just relieved that at last a relatively well known writer has spoken up on this  issue; perhaps things will now start to change, and children’s literature will begin to reflect the diversity of modern society.

Yesterday I enjoyed another of London’s theatrical treats. Truth be told, I haven’t encountered much Agatha Christie before, apart from the odd episode of Poirot on TV, so when John suggested going to see one of her plays called Witness  For The Prosecution I didn’t know what to expect. I met him up in Southwark yesterday afternoon, and quite to my surprise he walked me to an old London council building rather than a theatre. What I saw then amazed me: rather than being under your usual proscenium arch, the play was performed in the round, in an old courtroom. The audience was really drawn in to the action – about a man accused of murdering a wealthy old woman he’s been having an affair with in order to get her fortune.

The action took place entirely within the courtroom, so while this made the trial scenes feel very real, when the plot went outside the court case, the audience needed to use a bit of imagination. Nonetheless, the overall effect was really immersive, and the audience was really drawn into the action. I felt very caught up in what these solicitors were saying, and the fate of the guy on trial. It was a really effective, creative use of a space which, in a way, was built especially for dramas like that.

Thanks to my friend john I have had a great couple of days, going to The Globe on Saturday and then to see a quite wonderful piece of contemporary theatre yesterday. It made me think of my drama student friends from university: I could see Ricardio or Rockie directing a production like the one we saw yesterday. If you know where to look, the capital is a creative, inventive space, kind of like a vast university campus. After all, who but a contemporary arts student would think of using an old, probably victorian, courtroom as a theatrical space?

You know that you live in a great world city when you can just hop on a tube train and go see a Shakespeare play in a replica of the theatre where they were first performed. John  and I went to see The Merry Wives of Windsor  at the Globe last night. He’s over from Poland and suggested we go take in some Billy S, and who was I to decline? It had been a full  eight years since I last visited that magnificent theatre with Lyn Andrejz and Natalia. I just checked my blog archive, though, and coincidentally we saw the same play on the same day of the year. Last night, however, we were among the groundlings at the front  rather than up on the balcony, so it was a completely different  experience: much more visceral and intimate.  It was a much more physical performance last night, with a lot of  singing, dancing and choreography. The Globe is unlike any other theatre  I know, and I came home thinking I had visited one of London’s treasures. Mind you, I better point out that I was rather jammy because I could sit in my powerchair on a metal platform by the stage, while John and those around me had to stand  for  the whole show. Being me often has it’s advantages…

Although I was too young to get into Spitting Image when it first aired in the eighties, I daresay there’s  never been  a better time for this news  of the revival of the legendary satirical show. As the article says, with absurd characters like Trump and Johnson doing the rounds, this is an era  which virtually satirises itself. Something to look forward to watching, then, if just  to see what the real puppet masters can tell us about the wooden, soulless mannequins currently up on the political stage.

I had another of my random, crazy ideas this morning. I still like to help out at Charlton Park Academy, a local special school. Believe it or not, I’ve now been volunteering  there for nine years. Heading there this morning, I started to wonder about somehow putting them into contact with my  old special school in Winsford. I haven’t visited Hebden Green in over fifteen years, so it’s probably totally different to the place I  knew; but it seems to me there could be a lot of potential in introducing the schools to each other. Hebden always had a strong communication and AAC focus, something I doubt it will have lost. If that is so, think what both schools could  organise together. As well as that, imagine  what they could generate artistically.

Of course this is just another of my off-the-wall ideas; nothing may come of it,  although Caroline, the lady I work with at school, seemed quite  keen on the idea. I suppose part of me is looking for ways to hook my old world up  with my new one. Yet life has  taught me that there is always potential  for awesomeness.  In establishing links between two fairly unique schools on different sides of the country, who knows where we could end up or what could be created.

This was too witty and apt for me not to steal

Seriously though, it takes a sick, dark mind to try to twist the tragic murder of an mp into a motivation for something she was trying to stop.

With impeachment proceedings finally beginning against trump and Boris’ shenanigans over Brexit slowly being unravelled, it seems  at last  both messes began in  2016 are finally being cleared up. At last the two blonde assholes currently in charge of the UK and USA are being brought to  justice. It’s quite clear both Trump and Johnson are two over-privileged white men with no right being where they are, and  that they both should face justice. In trying to prorogue parliament and in trying to get Ukraine to interfere in US politics, what both men did was clearly unlawful, so let’s hope both spoiled  blonde pricks are held  to account. Rather than being above the law, it’s good to see the law catching both men up.

While I could of course post a rant about the ongoing political farce, Caroline, the lady I work with at Charlton Park Academy, has sent me  something far, far more interesting. Google has started to develop speech recognition software for people whose disabilities distort their  speech. According to the link she sent me ”if you have a speech disorder cause by a neurological impairment like ALS or multiple sclerosis, then using Google Assistant or Amazon’s Alexa will be off-limits to you. In today’s tech environment, that means missing out on a lot.

”That’s why Google is launching a new initiative to make speech technology more accessible to those with disabilities. It’s called Project Euphonia, and it incorporates a wide array of research directions, alongside collaborations with nonprofits and volunteers.”

Google is asking for volunteers whose speech is distorted to go in so it  can model the patterns of  their speech. Frankly though, I’m not sure how useful such an approach would be, since speech like mine isn’t that consistent: I might try to verbalise the same word or phrase twice, but it won’t necessarily sound the same. Nonetheless, this is certainly worth keeping my eye  on: being able to use things like Siri could make stuff much easier and faster.

At a  time when the Tories are a laughing stock facing their possible demise as a party, Labour not only fail to capitalise, but try to upstage the Tories by having a crisis of it’s own. The majority of labour voters and members want  to remain; Brexit flies in the face of everything the party stands for. Why, then, did it today vote not to openly back remaining in the EU? More to the point, can anyone tell me what the smeg has happened to British politics?

One of the things I like most about London is the number of ways you can get around. It’s quite a big city, but there is all kinds of public transport you can use to get from place to place. John and I ended up  using three of them yesterday. Lovely, sunny day that it was, we decided a day trip to Kew gardens was in order; but rather than just using the boring old tube to get there, we opted to go by boat up the Thames to Westminster. We could then take the District line down to kew. Although it wasn’t the quickest route, it certainly was pretty: the  city looked stunning in the autumn sunshine yesterday.

We eventually got to Kew at about four, but that still left plenty of time to have a look around before the gardens closed. I’d been there once before on a solo visit last year, but I only got a brief look then. Yesterday John and I started to explore the gardens properly, looking around the famous glasshouses and palaces. I say ‘started to explore’, of course, because the place is so vast that you could never fit it all in  in  one visit. Nonetheless, what we saw was sublime: I especially liked the Japanese pagoda, and the range of plants was truly mindblowing. Kew definitely is one of London’s treasures, and John and I are planning a return visit (perhaps with Lyn) soon.

London’s variety of public transport may be cool, but the range of places you can visit here is even cooler.

I agree with what Mark Kermode has to say about Ad Astra here, having seen it up at The Barbican with John  last night. I’d only add one detail: Ad Astra is  utter, utter crap. It’s written by someone who is only semi scientifically literate at best, and was so keen to ram Christian dogma down our throats that I almost walked out. And would  someone please explain how that violent monkey   got onto an  adrift space ship?

If you somehow still need convincing that we in the UK are bloody lucky to have the NHS, and that we should fight like hell to preserve it, check this out. It’s a clip of an Elisabeth Warren interview with  Stephen Colbert, in which Warren describes just how dire the American healthcare system is. There, insurance companies deny people the care they need, just to reduce costs. It is an utterly sickening system which has no right to call itself civilised, but it’s exactly what the Outists want to impose on us if they get their way.

I’m not sure what to make of the Lib Dem’s new promise to cancel Brexit if they’re elected outright. As much as I passionately oppose Brexit, I worry that this move is just a stunt to get votes. The Liberal Democrats know how vehemently some people oppose Brexit, and think this promise will make such people vote for them. My worry is, it will end up splitting the remain vote, and the tories will end up winning the next election by default. Either that or it will backfire and they’ll end up losing votes: after all, I don’t think even the most hardened Remainer would be quite comfortable if Brexit was just cancelled without a second referendum. It would look completely undemocratic and only serve to enrage the Outists. As much as I would like to see Brexit stopped, I worry that pledging to do so just to win votes in an election is clearly a ploy which may well backfire badly.

I have heard it said that London is not just the UK’s political capital, but also it’s centre for economics, media and culture. More than in most other western countries, London dominates the rest of the UK. Our biggest theatrical district is here, as are the BFI and the main TV stations.  Thinking about that recently, as fond as I am of this sprawling metropolis, I’m not sure that I like that: why should one city be so dominant over all others in a country? As I discovered yesterday (albeit via youtube) there are towns and cities in the UK which have just been allowed to go to ruin, and that that disparity was probably one of the main factors behind the Brexit vote. It is, of course, unfair that London should get all the attention while other places in the uk are left to fail?

Perhaps I’m as guilty of this as anyone else: after almost a decade living here, I’ve began to tend to think of London as the epicentre of the UK; the place where everything cool happens. But why should that be the case? Why shouldn’t places like Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool or indeed stoke be just as culturally significant as London? I’ve also heard it said – by more than one person – that London isn’t really a British city but an international city alongside Paris and New York etc. I certainly see what they mean: there’s an exotic, unique mix of cultures here from all over the world. Yet that exoticism brings with it a differentiation with the rest of the country: international cities, by definition, cannot be said to have one single culture or belong to one nation. London has a different feel to it than the rest of the UK. I daresay that difference, both financial and cultural, is illustrated in the fact that so many people more voted remain in London compared with other parts of the country. If that is the case, though, how might London be reconciled with the rest of the country?

As much as I love this vast, multi-national metropolis, i’m really starting to get the sense that the London-centrism of the powers that be in this country is becoming problematic. London has been allowed to boom while other places have been ignored, and people outside the capital are starting to resent that disparity. London gets all the new buildings, transport projects and sporting and cultural events while everywhere else suffers from lack of investment. Surely it’s time to redress that balance, before even more resentment is provoked.

This morning I was messing around on google maps, as I often do, when I came across Stoke-On-Trent. It’s somewhere I went to quite often in my childhood and adolescence, but I haven’t been there in years. On a whim, media buff that I am, I decided to tap ‘Stoke-On-Trent’ into Youtube. I expected to find the usual range of city tours and local business adds, but I have to say what I found appalled me: video upon video  documenting an abandoned, derelict city. From what I saw, the city has been totally left to ruin. The contrast with what i’m now used to in this clean, shiny metropolis, is what strikes me the most: I mean, what on earth happened? How could any local council or government let a city go to waste like that? Of course, the reasons behind such a collapse in a city’s fortunes will always be complex, but with cities like London and Manchester clearly booming (for the moment at least) why are cities like Stoke-On-Trent being allowed to go through such harsh, devastating declines? The Guardian has done an interesting video series  looking at the city (second link), and  you have to see their point when they speculate that such mismatches in investment may have been one of the reasons why so many people in Stoke voted for  Brexit. Either way, I find the sight of such dereliction, with row upon row of boarded up shops and houses, chilling.

Perhaps the best thing I can do on here today is to direct everyone here, to the Captain Ska Youtube channel. I just came  across it, and was  instantly taken with it’s political yet catchy music. I better warn you, some of their songs will get stuck in your head. If you ask me, though, things like this are precisely what we need in terms of politics and culture: the tide of public  opinion is now quite firmly against brexit, and that tide is growing stronger every day. The problem  is, people on both sides of the argument are getting angrier and angrier, and I’ve started to see talk of a civil war being bandied about. I’m not sure how serious such talk is, but nobody wants to see this stupid little farce turn violent. It’s far better,  surely, to resolve this debate creatively, through art, which is why catchy little tunes  like ‘F**k Borris’ and ‘Nigel Farage is a Racist’ are certainly worth getting into.

It was great to see so many EU flags at last night’s Last Night Of The Proms. I only caught a bit of it, but I had to raise an eyebrow at seeing so many EU flags at such a traditionally patriotic event. Of course, there are those  who will try to dismiss it, and  put it down to London being such a fervently Remain city; but I think this is a clear sign that the public is rejecting brexit, If people are now so passionately opposed to Brexit that they politicise an event like Last Night Of The Proms, surely the tide is turning and it’s days are numbered

I don’t think this should come as a surprise to anyone. The Tories have admitted not considering the impact a no-deal Brexit will have on disabled people. From losing out on European funds  to losing access to potential  personal assistants from the EU, as usual those of us with disabilities stand to be the hardest hit by Brexit. But does the government give a toss? They haven’t even carried out the proper impact assessments! They are so concerned with achieving brexit, just so they can maintain the integrity of their party, that they let even the wellbeing of the citizens  of this country fall by the wayside. How deplorable can a government get? They can’t even guarantee than nobody will die as a result of brexit, but they still want to continue with it. Surely it is clear to any thinking person that they are utterly unfit to govern this or any other country,