Counted over 20 police at the bus station alone. There is a truly tense atmosphere on the streets of Wolverhampton. Just witnessed in excess of 30 policemen leave Bilston St police station in group formation. Although there are a lot of rumours going around they are obviously expecting trouble. We heard that there was a group of 100+ moving into town from Whitmore Reans but we just don’t know. It’s so surreal leaving work and not knowing if the building will be there tomorrow. 

Police just swooped on a group of youths right in front of our bus! Have them pinned up against the shop and are searching them. I just want to get out of Wolves. It’s horrible!

- Sarah Aldridge (my Aunt who works at Wolvo Courts)

And the West Midlands police haven’t made a statement about Wolvo since last night which was to say that nothing is happening in Wolvo....

No referendum for me.

Fuck you, Lincoln City Council, fuck you.


Because you seemed to lose my change of address application I now can't vote today. I'm one of the only people I know who actually cares about my vote and now I'm not fucking allowed to use it.


Clearly fucking bureaucracy matters more than democracy.

EDIT: One afternoon, two polling stations, countless phonecalls to the council and a visit to my old flat. AND I FINALLY GOT TO VOTE. :D

Is anyone really surprised at the £9000 fee hike?

Right now do I hate the Government more or The Inbetweeners for giving us so many ready made self-loathing headlines? "Second-rate education" "shithole"... fuck off, okay? Was anyone calling Lincoln this before the goddamn Inbetweeners? Lincoln is a gorgeous city, a tourist hotspot and the university isn't bad at all! We're not fantastic but for a relatively new university 72 in the league tables isn't too shabby.

All I know is I don't hate my university. What other option did they really have? It's not the university's fault that David Cameron wants to bugger our universities and strip the UK of quality education. The government are taking away all funding for universities... is it really any surprise that when they didn't have enough funding in the first place they'll opt to get all the money they can?

People have been complaining that the university announced they could afford £7500 fees yet still opted for the full £9000. I mean, wouldn't you? Would you be happy with your university unable to afford any improvements? I think my course is pretty good, yes we don't get a huge amount of contact time, and the computers are a bit dodgy but I know many people doing Biomedical Science at Lincoln, a course that seriously needs better funding. They have no lectures theatres meaning that 2 or 3 hours lectures that frequent their schedules have to be split up in hour sections where they're shoved into whichever lecture lecture theatres the media and humanities buildings can spare.

Why are people asking "Is the University of Lincoln even worth £9000"? How do you define what university education is actually worth? The dickhead politicians who are bringing in these higher fees got their degrees for free. At the time would they have happily paid £1000 for it? "No!" they cry in outrage, "Free education is a right! Why would I pay for something I could get for less?!"

Why would I pay £9000 for something I could get for £3000? You wouldn't! No-one would! Just like if you could earn £9000 instead of £7500 you bloody well would. Define worthiness for me. If this were as simple as how much the course is worth then £9000 wouldn't be such an infamous figure. It's all political. It's not the universities fault that they've been put between a rock and a hard place. The government took away their funding so they have to find it somewhere. Even with the government funding they didn't have enough so why not get as much as they can?

Stop blaming the universities. It's the government that's made this happen. And all of us foolish Lib Dem supporters who didn't foresee Clegg's arselicking tendencies. Politicians are at fault here.... as fucking always.

Choo choos making me blue.

I'm only on my second train of the day but already I've waited around the hellhole that is Birmingham New Street for nearly an hour, freezing my tits off and eating a twirl, been offended by the people (many people) who insist upon pushing onto the train before the previous passengers have gotten off and therefore pushing in front of myself whilst I politely wait and now Cross Country trains are hindering my ability of type due to the distinctly wobbly nature of this train. The only light at the end of the tunnel (other than on exiting the dark, dank underground of New Street) was the delightfully friendly ticket man and the fact that I rather like the colour of the seats.

The delightful Birmingham New Street, well overdue for a revamp.

This is all from a person who is very much in favour of public transport.

I don't take a lot of train journeys but once every 4 weeks or so I return to my family and friends back in Wombourne for a weekend of heavy drinking and heavier washing machine usage. I'm the same with buses... I only really used the bus to get to and from Wolverhampton train station. Basically, I'm not a commuter but nor do I shy away from the ticket office.

With all the furor over green technology and one's "carbon footprint" the last Labour government tried to push public transport (not that the current establishment is taking any notice) but it wasn't a success. As always what the buses, trains and metros need is funding and we're not exactly going to get that from the Tories. In January train tickets went up, mine regular one by a fiver but I have seen no improvement. Wolverhampton bus depot is being renovated, it's a beautiful modern building but with the single bus tickers going up it seems (if anything) the service has deteriorated. And the local buses are still as vile as ever.

It seems that in the current economic climate public transport is going to be shoved to the bottom of the pile. It's going to be ignored and stay the same until greater prosperity returns to Britain's economy. That is of course not including London which no doubt will be picture-perfect in time for the Olympics. I'm not against the Olympics it just feels as thought we're just fixing up what you can see at first glance as to impress the visitors. Just because it looks good doesn't mean it's working.

For now the trains and buses will sadly carry on with their work. I will continue to enjoy my journeys but push to the back of my mind the niggling feelings of disappointment.

Sorry, internet. I take you for granted.

It's seems so childish and pathetic that as soon as the pitiful internet connection I have at my student accommodation goes down, I instantly run to my Blackberry and moan about it on Facebook or Twitter. Most of the time my internet use is largely for procrastination, sometimes I'm writing a blog post, sometimes I'm actually doing research for uni... but most of the time I'm just pootling around the dastardly addictive Tumblr, mooching over the BBC news homepage, having the occasional glance at Reddit, all whilst flicking backwards and forwards to goddamn Facebook.

Sometimes I think I take the internet for granted. It's possible to do so many good and wonderful things but here I am reblogging a picture of a dog standing on his hind legs. "Reblogging", a word only really exists in the shallow end of the swimming pool of the interwebs.

Credit: Cristóbal Cobo Romaní

Egypt has no internet access right now. Yeah, they can use dial-up to get their voices heard but it's the protests that are still being stifled in a massive way. The internet is such a symbol of freedom and I... we... take it for granted. The Egyptian people are being oppressed and this huge thing, this brilliant form of communication has been shut down in a blink of an eye. This shows how important the internet actually is. Not for online shopping or talking to your friends but as an actual force of good, a way of spreading a campaign or message. Egypt is offline and the rest of the world are chipping in, free dial-up is being offered from all corners of the world, photos and videos are managing to get out and people are sharing and sending information to keep this moving.

Sometimes I think the way I use the internet is a little pathetic. I need to stop updating and staring at Facebook all the time. It's pointless. See me demoralised.

Photos from the London Demo

Click to go to my Flickr

My Millbank Experience (UPDATED)

I've now been up for 13 hours. 13 hours of coaches, fast food and one hell of a protest.
A/N: By the time I got home to edit this it was 17 hours and counting. Disorientated doesn't even cover it. I'm not good at this not-getting-sleep malarky.

52,000 people attended the protest in Westminster but the rioting that was all over the news was a tiny minority of people. Don't get me started on how many of those were actually students. Probably about 1000 people were assaulting Millbank Tower. And how do I know? I was bloody well there. Right in the middle of it. Purely as a journalist of course.

When I heard about the riot at Millbank the journo in my heart only wanted to be in one place. I headed straight to the building.

The rioting itself was in the centre of the courtyard, the outer area of the courtyard and the road was populated with non-violent protesters.

With a lot of ducking and diving I managed to make my way near the front, around 2 metres from the entrance. Next to the entrance was a huge glass door/window thing that was completely destroyed by the rioters. They got into the lobby and caused huge amounts of damage. It didn't take long after the entrance was breached for a few renegades to make their way to the roof of the building. The chaos continued on the ground floor though. A bonfire burned away in the middle of the courtyard and police were swarming through the crowds to reach the violence.

It was so exhilarating to be right in the centre of such a massive news story as a journalist. I got brilliant footage an images and saw things I'd only ever seen on the news before.

Now I'm back home (finally) I've had chance to watch the news. Some of the pictures are incredible. I find it strange that the crowd was so chaotic that though I was in the middle of it all I didn't see any of it. I just heard it. The sound of that glass breaking really chilled me to the bone. But more importantly than any of that I want to know... did it make a difference? Or did a few bad apples ruin the whole barrel. I think the news coverage kinda tells that story.

Dang nabbit, imma gonna get ma protestin' boots on!

Do I like having to pay student fees? Of course I don't. Especially on a day where one tutor rambled is way into a corner prompting me to tell him that "the EDL aren't a rock band" and another demonstrated such a complete smorgasbord of incompetence that I wanted to cry and bang my head repeatedly against my desk. And don't get me started on the god-awful computers in the newsroom that froze every time I had the temerity to click on something.

I didn't feel like I was getting my value for money today. But at the same time, surely the logic goes that if I'm suddenly paying triple the price for my degree then maybe I'll get better tutors, better computers and better sandwiches in the Atrium. Maybe if I was paying £9,000 a year for my degree my only issue with the facilities would be if I accidently orgasmed at the sight of a whole newsroom full of fast, magnificate and most importantly competent(!) Macs?

So why am I getting up at 5am tomorrow morning to wave a placard at some Tories? To report on it? Partially, I am a journalist afterall. To have a free day down in London? No, I have more morals than that. In order to skive off work? 5am, my dears, 5am is no laughing matter.

No. I'm going because of the principle. I know this protest won't do anything for our cause. I know enough about politics and economics to know that it's stupid to think the country can afford to keep spending this. It's a necessary evil. Necessary, yes.... and CERTAINLY evil. All I really want to do is let the government know, "you're spoiling the gosh darn fun of it all!"

Bullet, The Linc, an MP and I do some journalism.

Click to go to the original article on the Linc website.

I'm not much into news journalism. I like tech blogging, I like features. Running after people with a dictaphone and a notepad is all too effortsome for me. But last night I was in a pub up the hill and guess who was sat on the table in front of me? That's right, MP of Lincoln, Karl McCartney. Only a hour or so before had I read this article on the Bullet website. I managed to grab Mr McCartney for an interview to find out what he thought of the Bullet article. You'd think I was a journalist, wouldn't you?

To be fair I actually sympathise with Karl McCartney (moi!? sympathising with a Tory... where have my liberal beliefs ran off to?!). He was told the interview he did wasn't to be online until next Wednesday but it was essentially "leaked" to Bullet.

Hmmmm.... I don't really like the rivalry between The Linc and Bullet (and the SU). It's petty. But hey, I can be an unbiased journalist... even when it comes to Tories!

Rally to Restore Sanity

The Rally to Restore Sanity finally happened. The demonstration happened yesterday on the National Mall in Washington where an extimated 250,000 people gathered. But they weren't shouting about terrorists or health care or anything like that, they want sanity.

The rally, led by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert (in character as his satirical self-obsessed right-wing commentator alias) was a call on America to return some commonsense to politics.

On the website they call on people who if they had to sum up their political view... they couldn't. "That's sort of the point."

"We're looking for the people who think shouting is annoying, counterproductive, and terrible for your throat; who feel that the loudest voices shouldn't be the only ones that get heard; and who believe that the only time it's appropriate to draw a Hitler mustache on someone is when that person is actually Hitler. Or Charlie Chaplin in certain roles."

Stewart wanted to come out against the over-exaggerating American media. The Beeb quoted a Tony P, from Maryland. He said: "This is about moderation, and less about right and left. There is too much hyperbole and not enough sanity." Which I think describes it nicely.

It wasn't just about sanity though. The event poked fun at the extreme views in American politics. and it was also seen as a counter rally to right wing Fox presenter Glenn Beck's "Rally to Restore Honour" back in August and Sarah Palin's Tea Party protests in 2009.

This wasn't about politics. It was about commonsense.

Miliband Schmiliband: Should we actually care about the new Labour leader?

The Miliband brothers: more than just a depressing look into Tim Henman's future? Or is a Miliband just a Miliband?

When two brothers, brought up by Marxist parents, both join the Labour party, both rise through the ranks and both have a shot at party leader can they really be that different? Well, apparently they can be. Simultaneously rising through the ranks the brothers remained on separate sides of the Brown/Blair divide.

Now, I've read through pages of information comparing the brothers and I think the party made the right decision. Ed Miliband is not a left wing activist but nor is he a Tory-smoozing let's please everyone politician. I'm fed up of politicians sticking to the middle ground. We're in a pluralist democracy and opposition creates debate and accountability. David Miliband wants to create "Next Labour" which sounds essentially like New Labour without the bad press. Whereas Ed wants to "rediscover radicalism" (Don't worry, not in a scary extremist way.) and I can't help but think, "Good on ya, Eddy!"
What happened to the opposition actually being the opposition?  My own beliefs are annoying Liberal.

Before the Con-dem coelition I was annoyed by the left-centre nature of the Lib Dem policies but now Clegg's turned into a Tory flag waver, I'm annoyed that they can't make their mind up. I'd be happy when the Tory's are back to stealing our milk and favouring the rich, when Labour are back to loving the NHS and the Libdems are back to.... well, they've never really been that Liberal anyway. Actually. I probably wouldn't be that happy. But at least I'd know where each party stood, and that it wasn't on the same square of pavement staring lustfully at that symbol of power we call Downing Street.

Apathy, my friends. This boils down to political apathy. What happened to huge ideological divides?

Everyone's singing to the same boring tune now.