Honorary Proletarian

I see Bill Clinton has said that Barack Obama might win the Democratic nomination.  Well, no shit, Sherlock - though unfortunately I think it’s more likely his wife will get it.  But Bill’s remark must have made for some interesting conversation at the breakfast table.  I can imagine Hillary saying (in true US soap opera fashion): “Honey, I’m prepared to put up with the odd bit of fellatio and the business with the cigar.  But if you try to fuck with my political career you and I are finished, buster!”

Meanwhile back in the real world, there’s still a man up a tree just down the street.  You can only admire the powers of endurance of environmental protesters.  He’s been there for ten days now, in a flimsy treehouse made of cardboard and plastic sheeting, in January.  He must be having a horrible time.  I’d get him some food and a hot drink if his tree wasn’t surrounded by fencing and security guards, and thus impossible to get to.  And he does have a point - all the Council want to do is tidy up and repave the square (badly needed) and plant some new trees, so they might as well save time and money by leaving the old ones there.

It does annoy me, though, that so much effort and dedication is wasted on what I consider marginal causes.  At the height of the anti-vivisection protests, every month I caught the bus to the monthly Campsfield demo in sight of hundreds of people protesting in Broad Street in solidarity with animals in cages - and I thought that if even a fraction of them would come to protest in solidarity with people in cages we might be getting somewhere.  Ditto if the man prepared to spend ten days up a tree would occupy a bit of the “detention estate” instead.  Not that animals don’t deserve rights, of course they do - but priorities, guys, priorities.

Update (14/01/08):  I notice the tree has been cut down.  This is a pity, because entirely unnecessary, but again I hope those prepared to endure such discomfort for a tree will at least turn out to support oppressed human beings.  The next demo in solidarity with imprisoned migrants will be on Saturday 26th at 12:00 at Campsfield immigration prison, Langford Lane, just North of Kidlington.  Bus from Magdalen Street at 11:15.