Evening Standard Online – Balham Comedy fest

In the run up to the Fringe in August it seems that there are Edinburgh preview shows everywhere. But, there are few smaller festivals as widely acclaimed as the Balham Comedy Festival.

With a mix of full length shows and short snippets of comedian’s material, the Balham Comedy Festival allows the people of London to experience the Edinburgh Festival right at home.

With a long list of comedy giants already confirmed it won’t be long until this festival is firmly on the comedy map.

Over three days starting on July 5, The Bedford (just around the corner from Balham Underground Station) will host some of the UK’s greatest comedy talent. Here’s our pick of what not to miss:

Harry Hill

The hero of Saturday night TV is performing two shows in what promises to be an exciting evening of badger-filled frolics. Hill has been entertaining us for 20 years, and is a veritable veteran of slapstick comedy.

Paul Chowdry

Star of Channel 4’s Stand of the Week, Paul Chowdry will be trying out some of his new Edinburgh material. If you want the chance to see some exclusive, maybe never seen again material, then come along to this one.

Ardal O’Hanlon

This award winning Irish comic and star of Father Ted will bring his unique brand of comedy to the festival. As part of his latest tour, this will be a full length show you won’t want to miss.

Al Murray

The nation’s favourite pub landlord returns with a preview of his Only Way is Epic Tour, set to begin later this year. Murray will entertain with his own take on old school British humour.

Milton Jones

Mock the Week and Live at the Apollo star Milton Jones will provide his signature humour laced with deadpan puns and one liners. This comes after his massive sell out tour in 2011.

Stephen K Amos

With his smooth style and relaxed attitude, Stephen K Amos is set to wow the crowd as he closes the Saturday night. Having just returned from a successful stint in Melbourne, Amos will bring the goods for a cracking end to the night.

Diane Spencer

Having been compared to Joan Rivers and Sarah Millican, expectation are high for this comedienne. With her dark autobiographical humour and unfaltering honesty, she is one to watch for the future.

Ed Byrne

An established staple of the stand-up scene in the UK, Ed Byrne has been touring around the world, and recently performed a stand out show in New Zealand. He has proven his worth, and is considered one of the most popular comedians around today.

Original available here.

Daily Mail Trainee Scheme – Further News

Via Flickr by Howard Lake

I have just been informed that I will be spending my trainee period at the Evening Standard in London.

This is doubly exciting, as it means I can stay in the capital and it is also a great paper to work on.

I have also got the opportunity to work on the Evening Standard website over the summer in preparation for the scheme. This will let me get to know the office and the people, and will stop me from getting too lazy over the summer!

I start on May 20th, 3 days after my media law exam. It is going to be a bust few weeks!

Jaymi

London Pedal Pushers – Up to 10,000 cyclists join London’s Big Ride

Photo i b i k e l o n d o n via Flickr

Up to 10,000 cyclists congregated yesterday for the London’s ‘Big Ride’ as part a campaign for a safer cycling environment in the capital.

The ride was organised by the London Cycling Campaign (LCC) and went for 4 miles through the centre of the city.

The LCC want candidates for the forthcoming mayoral elections to sign up to the ‘Love London, Go Dutch!‘ campaign, which is dedicated to promoting a cycling friendly infrastructure, similar to that in the Netherlands.

The petition already has nearly 40,000 signatures.

The ride passed by many of the capital’s most famous sites, including the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus and the Houses of Parliament before ending at the Victoria Embankment.

Nearly 40 ‘feeder’ rides guided participants, including both professional cyclists and families, from the outer boroughs.

Guardian Live Chat

I am organising a live chat at the Guardian professional networks. It will be on the subject of social media fatigue within higher education and will feature experts from around the world.

If you would like to join in just go to HERE at 12pm on Friday.

Jaymi

London Pedal Pushers -Addison Lee chairman criticises London cyclists

From Holster via Flickr

The chairman of London based minicab company Addison Lee has claimed that drivers of his taxis are not responsible for accidents involving cyclists on the roads.

In a column for the company’s in house magazine Add Lib, John Griffin wrote: “This summer the roads will be thick with bicycles. These cyclists are throwing themselves on to some of the most congested spaces in the world. They leap on to a vehicle which offers them no protection except a padded plastic hat.

“Should a motorist fail to observe a granny wobbling to avoid a pothole or a rain drain, then he is guilty of failing to anticipate that this was somebody on her maiden voyage into the abyss. The fact is he just didn’t see her and however cautious, caring or alert he is, the influx of beginner cyclists is going to lead to an overall increase in accidents involving cyclists.

“The rest of us occupying this road space have had to undergo extensive training. We are sitting inside a protected space with impact bars and air bags and paying extortionate amounts of taxes on our vehicle purchase, parking, servicing, insurance and road tax.”

“It is time for us to say to cyclists, ‘You want to join our gang, get trained and pay up’.”

This comes just days after a memo was discovered, showing that the chairman had ordered his drivers to break the law by using bus lanes while working.

The comment has sparked outrage in the cycling community. What do you think?

Original available here.

London Pedal Pushers – The great red light debate: what do you think?

Photo from myrrh.ahn via Flickr

One of the biggest issues for cyclists in busy cities such as London is the decision of how to approach red lights.

Should cyclists deal with these intersections in the same manner as heavier vehicles such as cars, or should they be able to use their own judgement to sense when it is safe to cross?

A study was suppressed by TfL last summer which showed that female cyclists were more likely to be involved in road accidents as they obey the rules of the road and sit at junctions during red lights, placing them in drivers blind spots.

The study says: ‘Women may be overrepresented in [collisions with goods vehicles] because they are less likely than men to disobey red lights.’ By jumping red lights, men are less likely to be caught in a lorry driver’s blind spot. Cyclists may wait at the lights just in front of a lorry, not realising that they are difficult to see. In more than half the fatal crashes, the lorry was turning left.

The issue has a tendency to spark debate amongst cyclists. Some believe that the choice to cut red lights is related to personal safety, while others argue that cyclists should obey the same rules of the road as motorists.

Emily Wight, 23, from Sheffield cycles from Bethnal Green to Islington everyday. She says: “You can’t just have a rule for one person, everyone has to follow the law. I don’t think it is safe, I think it’s unfair that some people do and some don’t. So the people who are law abiding pay the price because it takes them longer.

“We are more vulnerable than drivers, but at the same time there should be one rule for everyone.”

Paris has recently decided to allow cyclists to run red lights for this very reason. A trial in the East of the city will allow cyclists to go through, and turn right at 15 specially chosen junctions.

While it has been argued that cyclists should have a head start at traffic lights but studies in France show that adding extra directions can confuse motorists.

We at London Pedal Pushers want to know what you think? Do you run red lights? Do you not? What would be a good compromise?

Original available here.

Daily Mail Trainee Scheme – Exciting News!

Via Flickr by Edmund Wells

I got a place on the scheme! I am so excited about it, it is unreal. I know that Simon Murphy, a course mate of mine has also won a place but not much more. I believe that around 6 people got positions, out of approximately 1000 applicants. So I am pretty thrilled.

It has been weeks since the final round of interviews, so I imagine it was a difficult decision making process, but I am very pleased to have made it.

For 6 months of the scheme I will be at a regional paper, possibly the Scottish Daily Mail (in Glasgow, where I am from), the Manchester Evening News, the Evening Standard or, I think, the Birmingham Post.

I will just have to wait and see how I get on

Jaymi

Return from Brussels

Me enjoying the square in Brussels

So we have returned! It was an extremely exciting weekend In case you didn’t know George and I went to Brussels as representatives for the UK at a conference ran by the European Parliament.

It was over 2 days and featured a variety of workshops which were very interesting and showed different areas of research into Active Ageing and different approaches that have been taken by the EU member states.

George and I’s video was chosen to be shown at the conference and we had to go on stage and answer questions on what young peoples’ relationship with the elderly is in the UK.

The only criticism I would have about it is that there seemed to be a lack of focus for what the conference organisers hoped to achieve. This is something that quite a few people commented on.

Overall it was an excellent experience and I am delighted to have been able to go.

Jaymi

Brussels bound – an exciting opportunity

From Flickr by the European Parliament

In some rather exciting news, my friend George Lindsay-Watson and I have been selected to attend a conference held by the European Parliament in Brussels.

The conference subject is on the European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations, which aims to help find a solution to the worlds ageing population and the effects this has on the job market.

We will be representatives of student journalism in the UK, so this should be an exciting opportunity to meet some interesting people, experience a large conference and visit a cosmopolitan European city.

More details soon!

Jaymi

Hackney Post -Iain Sinclair travels from Hastings to Hackney by pedalo

Sinclair and Kötting struggle to launch their pedalo on Hastings beach. Photo: Anonymous Bosch

Iain Sinclair’s home is full of books. That’s probably to be expected from the celebrated author, chronicler and defender of Hackney’s history who began life as a second hand book dealer and went on to win the James Tait prize for his novel Downriver. But nevertheless…there really are an awful lot of books.
He walks up the rickety staircase, into his living room and passes me a cup of tea. “This house is backwards. A living room upstairs!”
This is a fair description of his home, an early Victorian townhouse which he bought for £3000 in l969, with the money he’d made making a film about the famous sixties poet Allen Ginsberg. The walls are adorned with paintings, while every surface features a variety of trinket boxes and ornaments. Novels provide a splash of colour against the mahogany furniture.
The 68 year-old grandfather was born in Wales but is most well known for his work, Hackney: That Rose Red Empire, a book that captures the spirit of the borough before it became the ‘happening’ place that it is now.
But his most recent achievement is riding a swan-shaped pedalo from Hastings to Hackney, “a Homeric voyage, an epic journey through England” which finishes at the Olympics site – he has condemned London’s hosting of the Games as “catastrophic… a farce”. The journey took the entire month of September, when they were blessed with an Indian summer.
He travelled with his friend, and director, Andrew Kötting, who filmed the voyage which will broadcast later in the year.
“I had known Andrew for a long time. When I was writing Hackney Rose I wanted him to swim around the borough. But he thought that was a bit too crazy. So we walked it instead.”
Sinclair admired Kötting’s energetic style of direction, and had been searching for a project they could work on together, but it was their walks inspired them to embark on their remarkable journey. “The best thing about the trip was the magic of just doing it.
“We found the pedalo in ‘Swan Lake’ in Hastings, an adjunct funfair. To move the swan alone was a physical challenge.
“It took us three days to launch. We were with a singer called Kirsten Norrie who sang on the second night and by the third morning the water had calmed and we had that remarkable late summer.”
But importantly, the journey allowed Sinclair to re-evaluate his own relationship with Britain, and more specifically England.
“Just gliding along easily: experiencing the full spectrum of Englishness is hugely entertaining, but it gives you a new sense of your place in the world.”

Sinclair and Kötting on their ‘Homeric voyage’. Photo: Anonymous Bosch
“We discovered secret Britain. We met the communities that live just off the river: people in narrow boats, in tiny villages or squatting in the woods. We would talk to them, invite them into our pedalo and hear their stories.”
Sinclair’s love for his adopted home of Hackney was the reason they decided to finish their project at the Olympic Park. But Sinclair couldn’t be there for the final leg. “Andrew actually got out of the pedalo and swam in Hackney while the swan floated gracefully through the final tunnel. Just as I had wanted him to do in the first place,” says Sinclair wistfully.
Reclining in his living room, it is clear that Sinclair is most comfortable when talking about Hackney.
“It was an athletic feat of absurdity. The whole thing was just crazy but that’s why I did the ride. The eccentricity seemed to fit with the nature of Hackney.”
“The area has changed dramatically in the last few years. When I moved here it was cheap. The council were planning to destroy these period Victorian and Georgian houses. Most people actually wanted to live in tower blocks.”
Sinclair and his family have lived in Haggerston for over 40 years. “This house had an outside lavatory and a tin bath. But it felt good to live here with a burgeoning family, and almost overnight it became a conservation area. Many of the people who moved in back then are still here.”
Sinclair’s love for the borough and its history has made him openly critical of the developments that have taken place in Hackney, particularly those surrounding the Olympics.
“The council want to sweep things away, sterilise them. They create block like structures rather than regenerating what was already there. They knocked down a beautiful old building at Dalston Lane to make way for that transport hub and Barratt Home houses. It’s all part of the same.”
“You just have to look at Broadway Market. It used to be grimy and dingy but now it is like a more sanitised version of Portobello Road. London Fields is full of wine parties.
“It doesn’t connect with the community. It becomes just ‘happening’, nothing more.”
He disputes claims that the Olympics will be beneficial for the community, describing proponents arguments as a “whitewash” over the truth.
“It is an insane use of money and resources. There were factories there that used radioactive material. There was machinery from the Queen Mary. Now the dangerous material isn’t confined anymore.
“It was no man’s land, and now they expect people to live on it.”
When he was a young man, Sinclair worked in the factories on the site, but it was his journey on the pedalo that made the capital’s pollution most clear to him.
“When we started to enter London we saw the full effect of what’s happening.
“The colour of the water changed, it was full of weeds and plastic bottles. There were dangerous metals leaking into the soil. It is the most polluted water in Britain but the contrast with the healthy countryside really showed the absurdity of these vast developments.”
To him, the developments that politicians claimed would benefit the community have actually contributed to the widening gap between Hackney’s richest and poorest residents.
“One end of my street is inhabited by pop stars and high court judges, on the other there are post-code shootings.
“People pay thousands to live here. But somehow a lot of the estates are still run down. The two worlds can’t coincide. You saw it with the riots. The worlds collided. It was a theatre of the streets.”
He is quoted as having thought the riots could have been predicted, something that caused some controversy in the media. He believes that the lack of opportunity for young people in Hackney were a huge influence on what happened.
“There was a sense of entitlement in some communities. They were in denial. It was a consumerist riot. There was no overt political message. People just grabbed what they had never had. It was to do with frustration with society and the police.
“People who are from here can’t afford to live here. My kids grew up here. They can’t afford to stay in their home borough. My two daughters, Farne and Madeleine are in Bow and my son, William, is in Forest Hill.”
Despite this, Sinclair does acknowledge that this financial inequality has gifted Hackney with a uniquely diverse and varied population.
“It is a huge borough, a patchwork which takes in the Hasidic Jews in Stamford Hill to the edges of the City, to Hackney Marshes. This is what makes Hackney special. It’s a reflection of Britain: it’s even shaped like Britain. An extraordinary place to live.”
Iain Sinclair’s novel, Ghost Milk, is out now. Andrew Kötting’s film will be released during the autumn.

Original available here.