Aw man. Ranking Roger has died. Only 56: too young.
New passport arrived. The proper, dignified burgundy colour.
That’s me set as an EU citizen till 2029.
That’s how it works, right?
The European Parliament’s outreach team (or “institutional, non-partisan communication action”) is encouraging us to sign up at This Time I’m Voting. I will be, as I always do — assuming, of course, that we in the UK are able to.
I’m approximating the colours of the flag today. And my tiny banner is ready to go. Off into town for the #PeopleVoteMarch.
(Error loading gallery)The petition has crossed the three million mark.
Rafael Behr has a great piece in The Guardian about May being finished.
It even has a Hamilton reference.
Parliamentary petitions, including “Revoke Article 50 and remain in the EU,” have a “Show on a map” feature. I note without comment that the second-most signatures of any London constituency are currently in Islington North. Its MP is one J Corbyn.
As the big “Revoke Article 50″ petition approaches 600,000 signatures:
Petitions is down for maintenance
We know about it and we’re working on it.
Please try again later.
I think we broke parliament.uk. Which feels like some kind of metaphor.
Good thread from Mitch Benn (@MitchBenn) here, setting out how the conversation around Europe could improve if Brexit is stopped. Just six tweets. Go read.
OK/Cancel
The other day I was explaining to my daughter why I thought a second referendum would be right and democratic. I reached for an analogy, and came up with the idea that you don’t (usually) do something as serious as deleting a file without getting a confirmation dialogue to confirm that you really mean to go ahead.
So now I’m planning on making a banner with some version of the image below for the “Put it to the People” march on Saturday. Just trying to perfect the wording. All suggestions gratefully considered.
Not shown: my Unix-based joke alternative, which would be something like:
# Leavers be all like:
rm -rf britains-special-place-in-the-eu/
Though maybe “Abort, Retry, Fail” would be more in keeping with the times.
I love Star Trek: Discovery, but the latest episode, ‘Project Daedalus,’ was infuriating, because they didn’t use an obvious and well-established feature of the programme to get out of a fatal situation.
Partners
We went to Parliament Square this morning for the passing into law of Equal Civil Partnerships (the Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths (Registrations etc) bill — or now, act — to give it its full name).
It has taken a long time, but different-sex couples can now have a civil partnership if they want to. Or will be able to, later this year or early next, once all the paperwork has been processed.
It’s not the biggest issue in the world — it wasn’t even the most important thing happening in Parliament Square this morning (those kids were noisy, and rightly so) — but it means a lot to us. Those of us who have problems with traditional marriage. Which just means that it isn’t right for us; it’s up to everyone else what’s right for them.
Rebecca & Charles Addressing the crowdRebecca Steinfeld and Charles Keidan, who took the case to the court, and ultimately the Supreme Court, were there, as was Tim Loughton, the Liberal Democrat MP whose private members bill it was. The government supported it, which is why it was able to get through; but of course they had to do something once the Supreme Court had told them that the existing situation was unlawful.
Tim Loughton MP addressing the crowdThe stupid thing is that all the time and money and stress could have been saved if civil partnerships had included mixed-sex couples in the first place. I was sure I’d had this thought back when they were introduced for same-sex couples. I thought I had written about it here. Not much, it turns out. There was a post expressing disappointment with a setback at the Supreme Court before the final decision.
But there was this post about Tony Blair’s legacy, where I said in an aside, “though why not for het couples?”
I took a few pictures. Did you know there’s a statue of Abraham Lincoln in Parliament Square? I didn’t. Seems rather strange, but why not, I suppose.
Statue of Abraham Lincoln in Parliament SquareAfter a week of Brexit insanity and a on a day of horror in New Zealand, it’s good to have some positive news.
What's Next for Brexit?
Parliament has again voted against May’s deal — the only one on offer. If, as is highly likely, they vote tomorrow against leaving the EU without a deal, doesn’t that leave only one option?
The one we’re all hoping for: revoke the triggering of Article 50.
Or at the very least, take the whole thing back to the people for a second referendum.
Finally, some good might come of the Brexit fiasco:
From a senior Tory: “Feels like the last rites of the Tory party”. Slightly overstating perhaps. But captures the mood
— Robert Peston (@Peston) 12 March 2019
Realistically, of course, they’ll cling on at all costs. But “the last rites of the Tory party” is such a pleasant thought.
The Beats: a Very Short Introduction (Books 2019, 4)
Since I announced back in October that I’m writing a novel called Delta Blues: Beat Poet of the Spaceways, I thought I should learn a bit more about the Beats. Not that my character is necessarily going to be very like the actual Beats, and maybe her poetry won’t be like theirs either, but you need to know about what you’re using for inspiration, right?
Books in the “Very Short Introduction” series do exactly what their shared subtitle suggests, and this is no exception. You get a brief prehistory and history of the movement, then a look at the major novelists, another at the major poets, and then a piece on their influence.
In common with the last two books I read, The Clash get a mention, because Allen Ginsberg worked with them, adding spoken-word part to “Ghetto Defendant,” on the Combat Rock album.
I know more about the Beats now than when I started, and that’s exactly what I wanted out of this book.
I hadn’t even seen this story about Morrissey and his politics and collaborators when I made my last post. But I’m baffled by this quote:
Representatives for Lydia Night of California band the Regrettes offered no comment, but the 18-year-old told punk magazine Kerrang!: “I’ve grown up loving the Smiths – my cat’s name is Morrissey!”
Emphasis mine. When I were a lad — and, indeed, when it was launched — Kerrang! was a heavy metal magazine. A flagship of one of the enemy camps in the Punk Wars. Has it really changed, or is The Guardian just misinformed?
Or maybe the lines are more blurred than ever before, so it doesn’t really matter.