I came across this yesterday, and it struck my interest. Russian people apparently dislike the Daniel Craig incarnation of James Bond, saying it is ”too serious”; they prefer a more jovial, comic 007. That to me is rather telling: Russia at the moment seems to be trying to reinstate itself as a world power. It still seems to think of itself as a superstate, on a par, culturally and politically, with the US. They see the Bond franchise as threatening: the world’s greatest spy is not Russian, but British. It does not fit their narrative – bond is not one of them. To have him go back to being more of a comic figure, as he perhaps was in the Moore era, would be more in keeping with their worldview: they are the powerful, serious ones; other states are just pissing about. Thus you can read quite a bit into a statement like that: they want Bond defused, portrayed again as a joke. They want to be the ones to have the world’s greatest spy on their side, and they want everyone to laugh at other countries.

I think I’ll flag this up today. ”Proposals to introduce new legislation which would pardon gay men convicted under historical gross indecency laws will be brought forward ‘in due course’, the government has said.” While I am a bit wary of such retrospective legislating – imposing contemporary values on the past – I think this is somewhat overdue. The work done by Alan Turing and his colleagues not only helped end world war two, it also arguably lead to computers. I do not think history should record Turing as a criminal just because he loved men rather than women. He was a great man, a genius who deserves our gratitude and respect. Thus this is one of the (very) few things this government has done which has my support.

Even though the gig I was so looking forward to yesterday never materialised, it still turned out to be a pretty awesome day. I have recently been working with Chocolate Films on their 1000 Londoners project, meeting every Tuesday in Woolwich for group work. While my individual film is going ok, the group was still looking for a subject for our film. Lyn had been mooted, but since there is already a film about her – this one – I thought it best to go somewhere else. Then yesterday, I had a great idea: the guys at the cafe in the park would make ripe material for a Londoners film. I suggested it, showing the guys my blog entry about it, and we all got on the bus for charlton. Mind you, to be completely honest, my suggestion could have been influenced by the fact I was dying for a cappuccino, but hey ho.

I’m pleased to report that, once we got there, my colleagues were as enthusiastic as I was. It is a charming, very photogenic little place, full of books and the smell of coffee. They have Japanese staff there though, so there is also a strong oriental influence. The guys were very taken by it, and the owner of the cafe, Mike – an excellent chap who I have become quite fond of in recent weeks – seemed quite enthusiastic. Hopefully we’ll soon get rolling on a script and/or shooting plan; I really think this will make a great addition to the Londoners project.

I rolled home feeling quite pleased with myself. Between this, my own Londoners film and the film festival, it is turning out to be a very productive few weeks. I feel busier than ever. On the cards today, for example, is getting the dialogue I’ve written onto my Ipad. But I now know I can sort it; things like this make me more and more confident in what I’m capable of. And this is only the start: hopefully making these films will lead on to even bigger things. I can’t wait.

Lyn told me yesterday that we are going to see Kate Tempest tonight. Never having heard of her, apart from my usual optimism at the prospect of a night out, I didn’t know what to think. But having just seen this example of her linguistic incredibleness, I’m now suddenly really looking forward to it.

I can’t give the Rio Paralympic closing ceremony a proper review as I can’t find it online yet, but I just watched the highlights. Of course, for me personally, nothing could compare to actually being there four years ago, so perhaps I’m biassed. However, from what I just watched, the Rio ceremony was incredible. It was an extravaganza. While I unfortunately didn’t spot a Brazilian Paraorchestra, I especially liked the wheelchair dancing, and will certainly have to take a closer look at them. I wasn’t so sure about the inclusion of Calum Scott though. Whoever told that tuneless dude he could sing needs their ears examining. I thought the ‘taster’ from Tokyo was quite intriguing.

So, there we have it: another paralympic games is over. Much has been said about how London 2012 was a real game changer for the paralympics, bringing it up to the same level as the olympics in terms of esteem. I think Rio continued that; at least, I hope it did. Now it’s on to Tokyo, and judging by their submission last night, they seem eager to add to that trend. I’m looking forward to seeing what the Japanese do in four years’ time. As for 2024, my money is still on Paris, but that remains to be seen.

I have the great pleasure of reporting that the inaugural Charlton and Woolwich Free Film Festival came to an end last night a tremendous success. It has been an outstanding couple of weeks. The final event yesterday, a walking tour of the locations used in Antonioni’s Blow Up (1966) was fascinating. It was filmed in Maryon Park, just down the road from here – a park which I go through quite regularly on my way to Woolwich. Never having seen Blow Up, I’d never thought much about it; but yesterday morning, ahead of the event, I thought I’d give it a watch (in the process discovering how to ‘rent’ films on Youtube). I’m very glad I did: for one, that tour wouldn’t have made much sense had I never seen the film; but more importantly it’s quite a fascinating little text about photography. It’s about a fashion photographer who finds he has accidentally captured an image of a dead body in one of his photos. You can therefore read it in the context of the idea of Punctum. Moreover, the film also has a lot to say about urban life, capturing much of the area around Woolwich as it was fifty years ago. That’s what fascinated me: the way the run down, industrial, mostly victorian landscape contrasted with the green seclusion of the park. I even learned yesterday that there is an entire area of grass in that park, up some stairs, that I never knew existed.

After the Blow Up event, I came home to have a bite to eat, before heading to the White Swan for the film festival wrap party. I’m still not drinking, so I was in two minds about going, but I’m glad I did. I’ve made so many good friends on this process; Gavin, the guy running it, is one in a million. There was laughter, speeches, and hearty congratulations. The plan now is to let the dust settle for a couple of weeks before meeting to discuss what went wrong and what went right. We’ll then start to plan next year’s event. After the success of last saturday, I’m already trying to come up with ideas for what I could do. I have really, really enjoyed these past couple of weeks. I was thrilled to be able to participate as I did, and I can’t wait for more.

You may have noticed that I haven’t said anything on here about politics for a while. That was deliberate: I’ve been avoiding the issue. Politics in this country has become too fucked up for me to comment; I’m getting too angry about it. On the one hand, we have a government trying to reintroduce a draconian system of streamed education which reinforces class devision and dooms kids as second class citizens based on an essentially rigged test. On the other hand, we had to watch as a bunch of semi-nazi stains on humanity, calling itself a political party, congratulated itself for completely fucking this country by ‘winning’ the referendum. They only did so through lies. I wanted to hit every xenophobic piece of shit in that room as they grinned their brainless grins, and welcomed their new leader. Anyone capable of coherent, independent thought knows this country is fucked because of them! And meanwhile, where is Labour? Where are the voices pointing out the stupidity of it all, calling for a second referendum on the grounds that the first was won through lies? Nowhere! Nowhere to be seen. There is nobody currently standing up to these bullies and xenophobes. It gets me so angry that I start yelling at the tv whenever it comes on; so angry, in fact, that I better just avoid politics altogether.

Congratulations are in order today. It gives me great pleasure to announce the engagement of Alex Thomson to my friend Charlotte Jones. They have been courting for some time, and I have watched their relationship bloom over facebook. Back at uni, I always knew C would one day make some lucky guy very happy indeed. I wish them both all the happiness in the world. I will have to insist, though, that Lyn and I are invited to the wedding.

Last night saw my second public speaking engagement as part of the Charlton and Woolwich Free Film Festival. A few months ago, the guys I work with at school asked me to do the introductory address to their screening of Shorn the Sheep. It took me a while to get hold of a copy of the film, but eventually I penned it and delivered it last night. I think it went really well: it wasn’t a very long speech, but I think I made some quite salient points, noting the link between the contrast between urban and rural in the film to the work of Walter Benjamin, and also suggesting that that could be read as a metaphor for autism. Tracey and Kathryn, the teachers I work with at school, seemed really pleased. As with my talk on Saturday, hopefully a video will appear online soon. My second public talk went as well as the first, and I must admit, I’m now hooked.

A few days ago I tweeted the following question: ” The 5 biggest franchises: bond, lord of the rings, star trek, star wars and harry potter. Do any other film series come close culturally?” I genuinely thought those were the five biggest franchises. Yesterday, though, I was made aware of something even bigger, but which I hadn’t bothered to take a second glance at: Marvel. Growing up, I was never into comic books, preferring prose, film and tv; so I suppose characters like spiderman and superman didn’t capture my imagination in the same way as Frodo Baggins, James Bond and captain Picard did. Yet, glancing at the Wikipedia entry on it just now, the Marvel universe is colossal. As a single fiction, it spans characters and worlds; it comprises many different stories, all intertwined. Here at last might be the new fascination I’ve long been looking for. It seems ripe for exploration; I’m curious about what people see in this set of superheroes that I’d previously dismissed as ”for kids”. Not only is it a departure for me in terms of plots and characters, but the base material – comic books – is entirely unexplored terrain, an art form I’d never even considered. The question now is, where to start. Apart from having seen X-Men, I know almost nothing about this labyrinthine set of interwoven fictions.

Quite late last night, my brother Luke sent me a link to this video about music as it is used in the Marvel films. I thought I would flag it up here, not because I’m particularly interested in the marvel comic book franchise – although, given it’s now bigger than bond, star wars and harry potter, a closer look might be in order – but because this video constitutes the type of thorough close textual analysis I’m interested in. As I said in my reply to Luke just now, ”In terms of proper theory, not much has been written about music in film. Recently though, there have been quite a few bits of good analysis about it. It’s interesting to see how forms of analysis are emerging online which are no less engaged with film than more traditional forms.” New manifestations of filmic love are emerging online which, while taking the form of chatty, upbeat ‘fun’ videos, are no less intellectually rigorous than that undertaken in prose. Mind you, I have yet to see anyone in a video reference someone like Lacan or Bazin, but it’s still early days yet.

Starting to think again about the olympics, the other day I began to wonder when it would be next held in the uk. It occurred to me that, now that London has hosted it three times, this might be a good time to start the campaign to bring the Olympic Games to another British city. The world already knows about London, so how about trying to take the games up north somewhere? Being originally a Cheshire lad, I’d like to propose Manchester. Having failed in its bid for the 2000 games, now might be the time to begin to try again. As much as I love London, I think it’ll be cool to boost the north-west’s international profile. As for when, might aiming for the 2032 games give us a realistic target? The ’24 games are already being fought over; ’28 might be too soon after 2012. Thus I’d like to launch the campaign for Manchester 2032. The question is, how do I get this off the ground? Has anyone else had this idea? All such ideas presumably begin somewhere, even with cripples drinking coffee outside south London cafes, so who does one consult to take such embryonic notions further? How can I tell if this is realistic, and whether there is any appetite for it?

I needn’t have been so nervous yesterday; everything went (almost) without a hitch. I’m pleased to report that my talk at charlton house went down a treat. We got there nice and early, giving us time to set up and get ready properly. Then Gavin, the guy running Charlton and Woolwich Free Film Festival, introduced us to the not-too-small, not-too-big audience. First Lyn did a set, playing four or five of her songs, then it was my turn.

I’m pleased to report that my nerves vanished as I pressed the buttons on my Ipad, triggering the commentary for the slides gavin was projecting. My only concern was over whether everyone in the room could hear me, as I was using Lyn’s bluetooth speaker. Nonetheless, we got through the slides at a good pace, the only delay being when it came to switching between the slides and the clips I wanted to project. I had chosen not to go into too much theory – there’s a lot to explore around cinephiliac moments, but I didn’t want to get bogged down (although perhaps I should have mentioned [i]punctum[/i]). I think I balanced it well, for a mostly lay, non-academic audience though, and it was warmly received. On the way out, Gavin told me he would like to do it again, and I now think I would be up for that.

So there we have it: my first taste of public speaking. While it took quite a bit of preparation, and there one or two hitches, I found it an overwhelmingly positive experience. Paul recorded it, so you can watch my little talk here. Nonetheless, I have a feeling that this is just the first such talk I’ll be giving.

I can’t remember ever feeling this nervous. In a few hours time, I’m due to give a talk on Cinephiliac Moments in charlton house. It’s only a short talk, and I don’t go into much of the theory behind the concept, but already butterflies are fluttering around my stomach like nobody’s business. How many people will be there? How will it be received? What if something goes wrong with my ipad? This is my first ever such talk, and while I keep telling myself it’s nothing compared to what Lyn did four years ago, performing before the world, I’m still fretting. I’ll let you know how it goes on here tomorrow.

I’m currently rather miffed. I have a new Ipad and needed to get the sim card working, so yesterday L and I went up to the o2 shop at the dome to get it sorted. There they swapped the card and told me it would be working within an hour, so I went off and got on with other things. While up there, I thought I’d ask about the forthcoming greenday gig I’d heard mention of, and was told they would go on sale today. While I don’t rate them as high as, say, The Cat Empire, I think Greenday are pretty awesome, having come across them through my brother in my early teens.

This morning my sim still wasn’t working, so I thought I’d kill two birds with one stone and go back up to the o2. Once there, I headed straight for the ticket booths: the internet had told me that tickets would go on sale at nine, and it was already gone eleven. However, there I was told the booths opened at midday, so I thought I’d just get my Ipad fixed while I waited.

The Ipad took ages though. There was lots of mucking about with sims and settings, but eventually it was sorted. By then, however, it was gone half twelve, so I rushed straight back to the ticket area, waiting patiently in the queue, only to then be told that they had already sold out. I looked at the lady in blank astonishment for two or three seconds, then turned and made for home.

What else could I have done? Perhaps I should have ordered the tickets online, like everyone else; but I prefer going up there, to make sure I get what I need. I was hoping for a repeat of my luck when I managed to get tickets to see monty python, although that was a bit of a fluke given they put on extra shows after the first one sold out. Nonetheless, I now feel rather hard done by. Who knew there were so many Greenday fans in the UK – or at least kids who think they are being ‘punk’ or whatever by professing to like greenday. Either way, I think the underlying problem is that there aren’t enough wheelchair spaces at venues like the o2.

I just caught up with the rio paralympic opening ceremony, having begun watching it last night before deciding to go to bed. As with their olympic opening ceremony, it struck me as remarkable. It both brought back memories of four years ago (especially when they struck up the paralympic anthem, a piece of music I’ll now forever link with the paraorchestra, charles hazlewood and puff the magic dragon) and seemed totally new and completely brazillian. While again there was no stand-out moment for me to fixate upon, there were one or two touches which raised my eyebrow.

The first were the boot-things they had those kids walking in. I’m not sure I liked the look of them at all. They basically strapped a child with fairly severe CP to their parent, allowing them to walk, kick balls etc. They didn’t look at all comfortable for either the child or the parent; in fact they looked very medical model, and rather ridiculous. Thinking back, I don’t think I’d have liked being strapped to mum or dad as a six year old.

The second moment, though, was rather more touching. As the paralympic flame was being carried to it’s destination, one of the disabled torchbearers fell. She looked unsteady on her feet, and used a stick. Two or three guys rushed to help her, and she was soon back up. As someone not unaccustomed to falling down, it struck me as a particularly endearing moment: The way she was straight back up walking on had me applauding at my computer screen. What a perfect metaphor for disability; what a beautiful accident.

I really hope rio has a great paralympics. The word is it should be equal to, or even better than, London. For my part, I won’t be able to help thinking back to 2012 that was such an awesome time for me. Yet I hope to see the Brazillians put their own mark on these games. As I said yesterday, it’s their turn to take centre stage. If, as I once wrote here, 2012 was about ‘us’, 2016 must be about not ‘them’ but their version of us.

Today for me has been about getting ready for saturday. The Charlton and Woolwich film festival is almost upon us, and I’m frantically trying to make sure everything’s in place for my little talk on cinephiliac moments (2pm, charlton house). However, I think I need to flag this news story up too: hundreds of disability rights campaigners have shut down Westminster Bridge today, protesting at the harm the tory’s cuts have done to disabled people. Part of me really regrets not going. Slowly but surely, we are being stripped of our rights, and even our means to live. Under any other circumstances, I’d have been there, but between preparations for saturday, school stuff and film writing, I thought I’d better stay home. Nonetheless, I’m itching to see what coverage – if any – it gets on the evening news. Tonight of all nights, this is surely a disability story the mainstream media cannot ignore.

Tonight’s the night things get going in Rio. Forget the Olympics, for people like me, the paralympics are the main event. Tonight, for once, disability takes centre stage. So often, disabled people are forgotten about: we are relegated to the back of the queue while the needs of others take precedence. The paralympics changes that focus. For once, the world’s attention is upon us, allowing not just disability sport but disability culture in general to take centre stage, not just where the paralympics is being held but globally too. Thus we have a great opportunity right now to say what ‘we’ want to say, show others what ‘we’ are capable of, and draw attention to the problems we face.

I’m really looking forward to tonight. I can’t wait to see what the Brazillians do for their paralympic opening ceremony. Frankly, I’m itching to see whether they have created their own paraorchestra, although given we saved ours for the closing ceremony, they might do the same. It’ll be great to see their take on disability culture, and how they present it to the world. This, for me then, is the one that counts.

Just a quick note to say that Lyn’s most recent track, Snappy Heart, will be played on Radio Caroline at about ten tonight. It’s a great track; please listen if you can. Caroline can be streamed here.

It may be a tad bleak, but I find this Disability news Service article pretty much spot on. It considers the paralympics and asks should we disabled people support it. It’s a good question: the government is depriving thousands of us of the means to live right now, but the paralympics gives them a tool to hide behind by. It will present people with disabilities as flourishing, when in fact right now many of us are finding things harder and harder. The government will say ”look at what these superhumans can do”, hoping the public forgets the fact that they are depriving many disabled sportspeople of the means by which they got where they are in the first place. Thus while the paralympics are a terrific celebration of disability sport, we cannot let them be used to obscure what the tories are doing to us at the moment.

I still have not found the new obsession I started my search for so long ago. As I wrote here three years ago, I need to shake myself away from things like Bond, Lord of the Rings and Star Trek, and try to get into something far more niche. The exciting thing about the internet, it seems to me, is that it is a breeding ground for creativity; artistically, the means of production no longer lie in the hands of big firms or the straight white male. It seems odd to me, then, that the narratives I’m most keen upon are still three of the biggest mainstream franchises. The thing is, no matter how hard I look online, I still haven’t found anything that gets me going like they do – no narratives or characters which capture my imagination in the same way. That makes me wonder what the difference is; what is it about these stories which has excited me since I was little? And why, with the plethora of new, niche creations now online, can’t I find anything to rival them?

I don’t feel much like writing anything lengthy on here today – it somehow isn’t that sort of day – so I’ll just direct you here, to Lyn’s last mix of the summer. She currently has it on in the living room, and it seems she has done it again: Lyn can produce the perfect blend of music, capturing a mood, calming one down, or just putting one in the right frame of mind on a saturday morning. She seems to have a knack of knowing what goes with what musically (although there are one or two interesting juxtapositions in this mix, too). Have a listen, chill out a bit, and enjoy.

I was in co-op this morning where I saw, on the billboard used to advertise local events, a poster for the Charlton and Woolwich Film festival. One of the events it listed was a talk by one Matt Goodsell, a local writer, about Cinephiliac Moments. I was thrilled to see that, although part of me got a little more scared.

On the whole, though, I’m excited; a week tomorrow I’ll be giving my first proper talk in front of an audience. The Free Film Festival movement is incredible: it’s about communities reclaiming the cinema, making film communal once more. Thus it constitutes a type of cinephilia. As it says here, ”The Free Film Festivals phenomenon started in Peckham and Nunhead, south-east London, in 2010. Founder Neil Johns, along with two friends, decided that monthly film clubs weren’t enough. They wanted to take films into schools, parks and housing associations, actively seeking out new audiences.” In a way this is an evangelical movement for the love of film; a love I share, and can’t wait to help spread next Saturday. I have a feeling it’s going to be quite a week.

I don’t usually believe in coincidences, but what happened yesterday was quite uncanny. For the last few days, I’ve been using my spare powerchair as the battery on my main chair was buggered. It’s a slow, awkward thing which I was fast developing a deep loathing for. You can’t turn easily in it, and it has no footplate. Lyn and I had gone to the park for a coffee, after which Lyn suggested we go for a walk. Ordinarily I would have been up for it, but my spare chair was becoming so tiresome I had to lift my feet off the ground due to the lack of footplate – that I got less than a hundred metres towards Blackheath when I decided to jack it in and head home.

I got back here feeling rather down about matters: a walk over to Greenwich park would have been lovely. The house was empty: we had left Dom here, but he had gone shopping. Forlornly, I settled down at my computer, checking the four or five sites one always checks when getting back to your machine. I hadn’t been here five minutes, though, when the doorbell rang. Wondering who it could be, I went to answer it. I was amazed to see Keith from Welling Mobility there, delivering my main chair, The Rotarran, back. I thought he was coming today, not yesterday. The weird thing is, had I not turned back precisely when I did, I would have completely missed him. It seemed that providence was smiling on me after all.

I thanked Keith eagerly. It might not be as fast as my old f55, but compared to my spare, that chair is the bee’s knees. I suddenly felt liberated; myself again. It’s funny how most people see wheelchairs as symbols of captivity, when for many people like myself they can be emblems of freedom. It is just incredible that I came home when I did, or I’d have missed Keith, he’ have taken my chair away again having found this place empty, and I would still be struggling.

I just watched a bit of live news on Iplayer. Apparently, from today they are cracking down on people without a tv license watching live tv on it, so I thought I’d give it a try. Of course, Lyn and I have a tv license, but I watch tv on my computer so often that I thought I had better check what I needed to do to watch it. All you need to do is click the button saying you have a tv license, and it lets you straight on. I was worried that it would ask for some kind of evidence. How silly: what is the point of a rule which you can so easily get around, and that there is no way of enforcing? While I firmly support the bbc and the principal of the license fee, I would have thought they would have tried a little harder.

I am now rather puzzled about TTIP. As I wrote here a few days ago, I thought that the reason why so many sensible, thinking people voted to leave the EU was because it was heading for TTIP, a barbaric trade agreement which would give private companies precedence over state organisations like the NHS. On those grounds I’d agree we needed to leave. Yet according to this turd of an article in the Torygraph (don’t worry, I haven’t started reading that rag – I just found a link on facebook) the EU is anti-TTIP, anti free-trade. It sings the virtues of TTIP and relishes the fact that the door is now open to it. That would imply that my original position was correct: the EU was protecting us from this abhorrent deal, which was one of the reasons we needed to stay in. Now we’ve left, the capitalist greed-mongers will be free to take over our public services and turn society into the unequal, unfair dystopia people who read the torygraph dream of.

I’m considering changing my blogging style, just for a while. I realise that none of my entries have been very long, only occasionally going over a thousand words (this one, for instance), but I try to write a hundred words or more. For variety’s sake, I now want to experiment with shorter, more frequent entries of only a sentence or two, perhaps with a theme or themes linking them. I think it could liven things up on here a bit. That, after all, seems to be the way things are going on the web. Of course, no doubt a longer entry will sometimes be necessary, but I just want to see how this more abrupt style pans out.

Spot on again, I think I’ll direct you to this blog entry from my friend Chris. It concerns the Rio Paralympics, and the infamous recent airbrushing of photos of actors to make them look disabled. Chris notes that things don’t seem to be going very well, and I must agree. Frankly as a disabled person, I find it pretty insulting that the Brazilians have done this. There must be loads of models with disabilities in Brazil they could have used. It is akin to sticking a bunch of able-bodied musicians in wheelchairs and calling it a paraorchestra. I’d hoped that, after London, things like this would be a thing of the past – obviously not.

I’m under no illusion how big my blog is. I know that, apart from a few random websurfers, my readership is probably just my family, and a few friends who I’ve cajoled into reading it. That’s fine by me: I don’t think I’m an internet megastar read by millions every day. And that’s fine by me.

Yesterday, though, I got into quite a heated online debate about a guy who intended to charge people for reading his site. It is a disability-based ‘news service’ focussed on people on benefits. It has a lot of articles about the cuts. The guy was talking about asking people to donate money to him to help him keep it up. While I know that, these days, we’re all struggling for cash, that really got my goat. It seemed to imply that he thought he was some kind of big shot, the main or only news source in the disability community, and we should all be paying him to keep his site up. Of course, I know the guy could be really struggling to make ends meet, yet he seems to appointed himself ‘our’ news service and, in a way, spokesperson. He seems to have the same access to the primary news sources as anyone else.

I keep this blog for fun; to let the world know what I think about things. It is free to read. Yet if I started trying to charge people to read it, the dynamic would change. It would imply that I thought I was writing things worth paying for, and that I had access to special information nobody else has access to. I don’t, and neither does this guy. It just gets my goat how some bloggers seem to think they outrank the rest of us, when the web should be about plurality, equality and the free exchange of information.

I’m not sure whether to feel excited or skeptical about this. ‘Comedy god’ and one of my all time favourite actors John Cleese is reportedly in talks with the bbc about a return to small screen comedy. If it works, that could be great; just remember how awesome Monty Python Live was. But this is another kettle of fish: a sitcom has an entirely different dynamic to a stage show or film, and the question is, does Cleese still have it in him to hold up something like that? Does he still have the old magic in him which made characters like Basil Fawlty so timeless? Or might this just end up falling flat, and looking like a retired master trying to rekindle past glories, or, worse still, some studio exec’s attempt to use a well-loved name to get attention for his pet project? Either way, this is one to keep an eye on.

I think I ought to clear something up today: It was wrong of me to brand every outist a xenophobe, and to get so furious at everyone who voted to leave the EU. Fiftytwo percent of the country – or at least those who voted – cannot be racist; I know that. They had other reasons for voting as they did – legitimate, left-wing reasons, such as trying to avoid TTIP. I did a bit of research about that yesterday, and now understand why so many people found the EU so repugnant: it was hurtling towards a trade deal which would have foisted the most sickening form of capitalism upon us. Under those terms, of course we had to leave.

Yet the thing is, there are one or two niggles I have with that. I had previously thought that the reason business people were so keen to leave the EU was that it’s rules and regulations were getting in their way. Yet under TTIP, the free market would reign; why weren’t the tories embracing it then? If the EU was heading in tht direction, surely people who are so keen on neoliberalism and business outranking the state would welcome it with open arms. Another issue I have is, while we may have evaded it for now, there is still a possibility TTIP could be foisted upon us. Left-leaning outits might say that it is much harder now, but, as pointed out here, conversely, outside of the unified block of the EU, we might not now have the power to prevent it. The paradox is, we needed to stay part of the EU in order to block the trade deal it was forcing upon us.

That remains to be seen, though. My point is, I understand a little better now why so many well meaning people voted to leave the EU. I hadn’t realised it was so bent on such a sick form of capitalism. Yet I still feel that, these days, humanity should be uniting, not cutting ourselves off inside our nation-states, and pulling up drawbridges to international organisations. The EU had huge faults, but I fear that, in withdrawing from it, we might have played straight into the hands of the type of people eager to see TTIP instated.

I have now been completely off the booze for about two months, and I feel a hell of a lot better for it. I feel fitter and more alert. I’m (slightly) less argumentative too. Yesterday I made quite an interesting realisation about what attracted me to pubs and drinking: sat outside a cafe in charlton park, I found myself staring at my cappuccino as I once stared at pints of beer. I felt the same reflexive, relaxed daze which made pubs so attractive. Part of the reason I went to pubs was that they gave me time to think – some quiet, me time when I could just chill out over a drink. I also loved to observe people. Yet, yesterday, there I was doing exactly the same thing, but instead of beer, in front of me was nothing as innocuous as a cup of coffee. That was why I had been going there for the last few days – the cafe was filling the same niche as the pub did. It’s a nice little place, with books you can read and friendly staff, overlooking the cricket pitch. But instead of going home too drunk to do anything for the rest of the day, I would go home alert and invigorated, the rest of the day still usable, with no possibility of falling, damaging stuff, or having a hangover in the morning. Thus, I resolved yesterday, cafes are definitely cooler than pubs.

I have to ask any french people who might be reading this, what’s so wrong about burkinis? Secularist though I am, I think people have a right to wear what they chose. The moment a government starts dictating how people dress, for whatever reason, a line is crossed; you have taken a step towards fascism. One may not like religion and the problems it causes – I certainly don’t – but to dictate something like this, to ban an item of clothing on religious grounds and then to fine anyone for wearing it, surely exacerbates the problem. It will just make these islamist nut-jobs feel even more persecuted. People have a right to wear what they choose: I mean, what if I suddenly took a shining to burkinis and decided to get one? It would have nothing to do with religion, if we had were the same ban here as they do in france, I could presumably be fined. While I know those who made this ban would argue that they are standing up for women’s rights in the face of oppressive religious doctrine, women should still have the option to wear burkinis; the choice should be theirs. Making rules about what people can and cannot wear is surely no way to solve our current problems.

Very, very scary though it is, I think I need to flag this Guardian article dealing with the rise of the so-called ‘alt-right’ in america up. In this day and age, I had thought racism and the whole concept of racial difference had died out, utterly discredited, but these people are trying to revive it. They claim not only does race exist, but there is a correlation between race and intelligence. Anyone who has even glanced at the data, as I did back in A-Level psychology, knows that such a position is absurd, yet not only does this group claim such a link exists, but it has been repressed by mainstream science.

I don’t think we can ignore such people. Their rise is symptomatic of a growing deep distrust of mainstream politics, both here and in america. White working class people are starting to resent the privileges they perceive minorities getting.”The founding myth of the alt-right is that the disadvantaged groups in American politics are actually running things through a combination of fraud and intimidation. By doing this, they’re actually oppressing white men.” We have seen that here in the growing popularity of people like farage. I worry that such people seek to turn back time to a point when society was less equal and discrimination was the norm; they seem to resent the progress made to equality and pluralism. As this group gets more and more traction, with fools like Trump validating their insane views, I think that is surely something we should all be very, very concerned about.

I can’t believe that some of the tory morons currently ruling over us still cling to romanticised visions of empire, but it seems that they do. According to this Guardian piece, congratulated the british empire on twitter, using a map and the words ”empire goes for gold.” The article explains: ” The map, which appears to be the same as one used to illustrate the Wikipedia entry for the British empire and highlights not just the American colonies but also Ireland, Iraq and India, was graphically superimposed with Olympic medal tallies showing how the ’empire’ had thrashed not just the ”rest of the world” but also the post-Brexit European Union.” She was obviously trying to tether the positive feelings for our success in Rio to her quazi-xenophobic anti-eu agenda, as if the empire was some sort of friendly, compassionate society and not an oppressive imperial power which subjugated a quarter of the world. Surely we should have better people than this anachronism running the country.

I just caught up with (most of) Rio’s olympic closing ceremony. To be honest, I wasn’t really taken by it, and was wondering what, if anything, I was going to write on here about it. But then came Tokyo’s segment, and I broke into a grin.

While I’m not sure what Super Mario has to do with either Tokyo or Rio – I thought the character was Italian – using him as a device to introduce the Japanese Prime Minister could only have been a nod to Happy and Glorious. Both use a fictional figure to introduce a head of state. I think the Japanese must have taken their cue from London: in both we experience the same feeling of shock at seeing an actual politician appear on stage. Yet if anything I think what the japanese did was even more bizarre than having the queen parachute out of a helicopter with James Bond. At least 007 is supposed to be ‘on her majesty’s secret service’; what connects Mario to Japan? Why use that particular mode of transport. Thus it struck me as strange, yet still rather cool. I finally have my wish for more meetings of fictional characters and real people. It also makes me wonder what they’ll do for their olympic ceremonies in 2020.

I must admit I was somewhat pessimistic when it came to Team GB’s medal chances this time around. In the heat of brazil, I reasoned, we’d be lucky to get just a few. But then, what do I know? I was quite astonished to read just now that last night we surpassed our medal hall for 2012. (By we, of course, I mean the team representing great Britain in Rio. I had nothing to do with it, and nor would anyone reading this probably, but you know what I mean). How we managed this impressive feat I can only guess: no doubt it had something to do with the copious amounts of money currently being sunk into british sport – money which, at a time of austerity, could have been used to buy, say, essential communication or mobility equipment for disabled people, but hey ho. Whether this great success will be repeated at the Paralympics remains to be seen, but going by the news this morning, all bodes well. Hey, with the tories in government and Labour fast tearing itself apart, we all need something to cheer us up.

It would seem that my entry yesterday was oddly portentous. Last night, it was revealed that the Paralympics in Rio are in grave danger: funds for it are being slashed and the money is being used to fix problems at the olympics. Ticket sales are pitiful. To hear that made me very sad indeed: after Beijing and London, where the Paralympics were every bit the equal of the olympics, it would seem that the Brazilians are treating the second event as an afterthought – something they think nobody is interested in, far less important than the main feature. To see that being made so apparent on the news last night made me very angry indeed. After the triumph of london, after that wonderful celebration of disability sport where ‘we’ at last took centre stage, to see the Paralympics treated this way really pisses me off. Fair enough, I understand that the political and economic situation in Brazil is rather dire right now, but nonetheless the paralympics deserves as much respect as the olympics, and by using it as a source of cash for what they clearly as the only event that counts, the Brazilians are not giving it that respect.

For anyone who is, like me, interested in space-related research, however casually, this is surely a good bit of news. NASA has announced plans to make all its research available for free on the web. While that won’t include patents and material governed by personal privacy, proprietary, or security laws, surely this freeing up of knowledge is a good step. I wonder what gems of information you’ll be able to find. The database, Pubspace, can be found here.

I still remember the events of four years ago with a great deal of joy. To have been here, in London, in 2012 was a once in a lifetime experience. Living in london as it put on arguably the greatest olympics and paralympics ever was awesome. Not only that, but to have seen Lyn and the paraorchestra play at the ceremony which capped it all off, having appeared with her in a documentary preceding it, was mind-numbingly cool. Much has been said about the effect the london Parallmpic had on the perception of disability sport, and disabled people in general: For the briefest of moments, ‘we’ were presented on an equal footing to non-disabled people; for the briefest of moments, disability became cool.

I cannot help but wonder whether the same effect will be achieved in Rio. Sadly I doubt it. As Chris notes in a video blog here, lots of questions remain. I get the impression that the paralympics will be relegated back to an afterthought – a secondary event after the main show. I hope I’m wrong: I hope Rio takes London’s lead and goes to as much effort with the paralympics as they did with the olympics.

All that, however, remains to be seen. I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes. I especially can’t wait to see if Rio has created it’s own paraorchestra. It would be wonderful if it has, as the legacy of what Lyn and I were involved in four years ago would be shown to have lived on. For now, though, all we can do is wait and see, and hope that the effect we achieved here in London will also be achieved in Rio.