Citizen Lembit launches campaign video
They may be in government with the Etonians nationally but here in London the Lib Dem’s frontrunner for London Mayor is a real man of the people.
Or at least that’s what Lembit Öpik’s new campaign video would have you believe:
Citizen Lem from Mancha Productions on Vimeo.
The video is a parody of the opening sequence to BBC sitcom Citizen Smith.
The Lib Dems were set to begin their selection process last year but delayed it for up to a year due to a shortage of credible candidates.
Apparently the party executive were worried that Lembit would “become the story” if selected, and so are holding out for a better candidate.
Although after seeing Citizen Lembit in action I really can’t understand why.
01 Mar 2011
Domestic Violence incidents up 18% in London
Domestic violence incidents have risen sharply across London, new figures reveal.
There were 119,794 reported incidents last year according to figures released by the Met. An increase of 18% since 2008.
The rise could indicate that more people are now confident about reporting domestic violence to the police.
However, despite the steep rise in reported incidents, the number of actual offences has risen by just 2%.
This means that just 43% of all reported incidents are now recorded as offences by the Met.
Lib Dem London Assembly Member Dee Doocey, who obtained the figures said today:
“People need to feel confident that when they report incidents of domestic violence to the police these will be followed up with the full force of the law. There have to be questions asked as to if this is happening.”
01 Mar 2011
Watch: The Concretes
Concretes – Crack In The Paint
Indie filmmaker of choice Jamie Harley strikes again with this lovely video for The Concretes.
01 Mar 2011
Five brutal tyrants that the West can't help finding hilarious
Brutal dictators are no laughing matter. Except when they are. From Hitler to Idi Amin, the West has a long tradition of finding humour in the most savage places. Does it demean the suffering of their victims, or display a healthy attitude towards men deserving of ridicule? You decide…
Colonel Gaddafi
The man of the moment. Vanity Fair goes to town with, it must be admitted, a very funny slideshow of his most outrageous outfits. Slide 1 has him “channelling Saturday Night Fever”, which gives you some idea of the flavour.
Hosni Mubarak
Google “Mubarak hair” and you get over 3m results. That’s about the man’s hair!! Who says our culture is superficial? Here is a nice take from the Beeb: “He is in his 80s now but his hair is dyed to a rich, deep shade of darkness and still gleams like a polished boot.”
Kim Jong Il
From Team America trying to prove that racism could be funny if you were willing to go with it, to “gone viral” tumblr blogs of him looking at things, Kim Jong Il has become a firm favourite of the satirical class. Just cos it’s hilarious, does that make it right? A moral quandary for our time.
Islam Karimov
There’s not too much laughing at Mr Karimov, after all there’s only so much comic mileage in boiling dissenters alive. But his daughter has received plenty of attention, not least for appearing in her own music video where, in the words of the Guardian she “cavorts in a cartoon wonderland where she travels to a secluded castle and a tropical island in a limousine that floats through the air.”
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
He’s doubtless not personally responsible for the whole “the Olympic logo spells out Zion” nonsense, but it’s probably fair to say the guy has set a tone of utter insanity which other members of the Iranian political class are seeking emulate. Here is a list of deeply unfunny jokes at his expense by David Letterman, Jay Leno, and other late night American talk show hosts – a veritable Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Comedy Roast in fact. If this is the best we can do, maybe we should give po-faced seriousness another try.
01 Mar 2011
London agenda for Tuesday 1 March
1. Watch medical experiments on tourists at Whose Blood [Le Cool]
2. Get lost in David Lynch’s fantasies [Run Riot]
3. Gaze up at the Duke of York Column [Tired of London]
4. Watch as The Quintet of the Unseen updates the formal beauty of the Renaissance painting into a modern video work [Flavorpill]
01 Mar 2011
Mopey Monday quote: David Foster Wallace is being ironic
Today’s ironically depressing quote is ironically about how depressing irony is.
“Postmodern irony and cynicism’s become an end in itself, a measure of hip sophistication and literary savvy. Few artists dare to try to talk about ways of working toward redeeming what’s wrong, because they’ll look sentimental and naive to all the weary ironists. Irony’s gone from liberating to enslaving. There’s some great essay somewhere that has a line about irony being the song of the prisoner who’s come to love his cage.”—David Foster Wallace, 1993 interview
28 Feb 2011
Will Boris Johnson leave anything behind for the next Mayor?
Boris Johnson was interviewed by Tim Donovan on the London edition of the Politics Show yesterday.
Boris boasted that he will have overseen a record number of affordable homes by 2012.
Donovan responded by pointing to figures showing affordable home-building crashing to zero by 2012 as a result of government cuts.
Donovan also pointed out that Boris’s police budget is totally unsustainable, relying on £70m of reserves built up in police and fire budgets over the previous ten years.
Once that money runs out (after the election) police numbers will fall and housebuilding will grind to a halt.
In fact Boris will create exactly the kind of “black hole” that he accused Ken Livingstone of creating in TfL’s budget before the 2008 election.
As Donovan said to Boris: “this is money that you can’t use again.”
And it’s not just money that will run out after Boris’s first term but ideas as well. I mean what major new transport projects conceived by Boris are set to go ahead over the next five years?
We’ll have a few extra bikes and a few new buses with a hole in the back, but where are the big ideas for London going into the next few years and decades?
Of course there’s still time for Boris to spell out those big ideas, but even if he does they would be too far down the pipeline to be seen under a second Boris term.
Because the sad truth about Boris as Mayor, is that rather than be the triumph or disaster many predicted, he has actually been something of a non-event.
By doing as little as humanly possible, Boris has been able to take credit for past investments whilst adding little or nothing to future plans.
And while that may be enough for his re-election, it will leave little for future Mayors and future Londoners to be getting on with.
28 Feb 2011
London agenda for Monday 28 February
1. Hear the brash and zany Lykke Li for free at Rough Trade East [Le Cool]
2. Hear Niall Ferguson reason why the West dominates the world—at least temporarily [Run Riot]
3. Celebrate the launch of RESET Magazine at CAMP [Flavorpill]
4. Get fit at York Hall [Tired of London]
5. Get en pointe with Alice in Wonderland [Time Out]
28 Feb 2011
Jensen Sportag - New EP on Cascine now streaming.
Here’s some nice electronica on the Cascine label that flits between various subgenres from the last few decades. It starts on crackling dubstep and finishes on a sleazy pop number that could have been written for Prince.
27 Feb 2011
The Week in Books: From Jewish Book Week to Hastings
The Best of Jewish Book Week
Jerusalem, the Biography 7.30pm Saturday 26th
What better way to start JBW than learning about the history of this iconic city. Simon Sebag Montefiore leads you through its captivating past, charting its rise as a capital of three faiths, its place as a jewel in many an empire and its current position as the eye of a religious storm.
Royal National Hotel, Bedford Way, WC1 0DG. £10
Community Buildings – Alan de Botton and Alex Lifschutz 11am Sunday 27th
Despite its mundane title, Alan de Botton is always a fascinating individual whether he’s talk about love, travel or in this case the wellbeing we gain from our surrounding architecture.
Royal National Hotel, Bedford Way, WC1 0DG. £8
The Death of Eli Gold – David Baddiel 7.30pm Saturday 5th March
That funny man Mr Baddiel reads from his novel and talks about his literary heroes and making people laugh at religion.
Royal National Hotel, Bedford Way, WC1 0DG. £8
From Hackney to Hastings 6pm Wednesday 2nd March
Hackney resident, writer and all round brilliant chap, Ian Sinclair reads poetry and shows film clips about Hastings and his favourite London borough. Let’s hope he talks about his plan to travel from Hastings to the 2012 Olympic site using a swan pedalo.
The Last Tuesday Society, 11 Mare St, London, E8 4R. £7
Micheal Longley 7.45pm Wednesday
Michael Longley, winner of the prestigious TS Eliot Prize, reads from his new collection ‘A Hundred Doors’. This is sure to be an evening of beautiful lyrical poetry.
Purcell Room, South Bank, London, SE1 8XX. £10
25 Feb 2011
Snipe Highlights
Some popular articles from past years
- An interview with Desiree Akhavan
- Silencing the Brick Lane curry touts could be fatal for the city's self-esteem
- Nice Interactive timeline lets you follow Londoners' historic fight against racism
- Peter Bayley has worked for 50 years as a cinema projectionist in East Finchley
- Only 16 commuters touch in to Emirates Air Line, figures reveal
- A unique collection of photos of Edwardian Londoners
- Nice map of London's fruit trees shows you where to pick free food
- Hope and despair in Woolwich town centre
- The five best places in London to have an epiphany
- Summer Camp: Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days
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