Review of Counting Stars by Atiha Sen Gupta - Stratford East

Atiha Sen Gupta’s play Counting Stars takes n oan original setting to address a number of societal issues.

The focus is the work setting and romantic relationship between two migrant lavatory attendants Abiodun  (Lanre Malaolu) and Sophie (Estella Daniels).

Abiodun does not like the job and brings out the elements of exploitation, racism and bullying by his manager. Sophie on the other hand likes the job, with the opportunity it offers to meet different people and further herself. The uniting theme is the burgeoning romance between the two conducted through the toilet wall.

The dialogue is strong, with a good line of humour illuminating an overall narrative about the exploitation of migrant labour.

Again Sen Gupta hits on contemporary issues, focusing on ethnic minority groups who are so often stereotyped or quite simply ignored by the mainstream. She manages to bring a reality to the drama about much of the injustice that is going on, whilst not getting bogged down. The rattling humour helps lighten the atmosphere.

Sen Gupta is cutting out a definite genre for herself with this play (first performed last year) following on State Red (2014) and the debut piece What Fatima Did (2009). She brings a cutting edge to contemporary  issues of social injustice.

It is important though that she retain that strong sense of authenticity that under writes her subjects and does not succumb to the tendency of some working in this field to take the stance of the middle class observer looking inward. Thankfully, there is little sign of this happening thus far, long may it continue.

*Counting Stars is on at Theatre Royal, Stratford East until 17 September  

West Ham United dumped out of Europa League by Astra Giurgiu - same opponents as last year

West Ham 0-1 Astra Giurgiu

West Ham crashed out of the Europa League at the same qualifying stage, against the same opponents, as last year.

Astra Giurgiu manager Marius Sumudica revealed that he has 25 players who receive a combined total of Eur 130,000 per month – less than some West Ham players get in a week. Sumudica admitted it to be “one of the best days of my life.”

West Ham boss Slaven Bilic admitted to being “frustrated” and “more disappointed than angry.”

“I won’t lose faith in the players on the basis of one game,” said Bilic. “The main problem is the players that are missing.

Despite the lack of Dimitri Payet, Aaron Cresswell, Andy Carroll, Manuel Lanzini and ”Andre Ayew, West Ham expected to comfortably come through this tie, having drawn 1-1 in the away leg last week.

The home side began in confident fashion without ever really pressing the Romanian side.

The first real chance came in the 8^th minute when Jonathan Calleri, put through for the second game in a row with only the keeper to beat, fluffed his lines and the chance went begging.

A further shot from Pedro Obiang was pushed round the post by keeper Silviu Lung.

The Romanians though stuck to the task, striking just before half time, when makeshift left back Reece Burke was dispossessed on the left, with Filipe Teixeira receiving the ball and striding on to drive the ball under keeper Darren Randolph.

The second half saw West Ham ringing the changes bringing on Enner Valencia and Ashley Fletcher in an attempt to break down the visitors. The impressive Fletcher came close to achieving the feat with efforts from the edge of the penalty and goal areas – the latter chance being saved at point blank range by Lung.

Lung was the hero of the night for Astri Giurgiu, keeping his side in the game with a series of excellent saves  though annoying home fans with his blatant time wasting.

So West Ham bow out of the Europa League once again before the proper competition has even started. The result will make it more difficult to attract top European names to the club, though also stops the distraction of Thursday night games that have proved so costly for a number of English clubs over recent years, with resulting effects on their Premiership form.

What is for sure is that Bilic has a job on his hands to get his West Ham squad firing in the way that they did last season. The new recruits thus far appear a mixed bunch, with those like Fletcher showing promise, whilst the jury is most definitely out on the likes of Gokhan Tore and Jonathan Calleri. But early days.  

How sad to see the once great bastion of liberty, France, showing such appalling intolerance to Muslim women on the beach

How incredible to see the once tolerant land of France being reduced to a scene where armed  police officers can stand over a Muslim woman insisting she take her clothes off. You could not make it up.

If this ludicrous act of intolerance is in some way intended to deter terrorism – it won’t work. This act shows France effectively giving into the tyranny of the terrorists, reducing the human rights of its citizens at the behest of the perceived threat.

Britain can provide the evidence of what happens when a single religion or nationality is made into a suspect community. The British did it to the Irish during the war in Northern Ireland. A community under attack closes in on itself, providing harbour for those who might move to extreme actions and be radicalised.

The call of give me your liberties and I will provide security has been the cry of dictators down the ages – it would be sad to see the great nation of France succumbing to such a call.. and in the process destroying the very liberties it has fought for so many centuries to preserve.

Review of the film "Bobby Sands - 66 days"

The film Bobby Sands – 66 days highlights the pivotal nature of the 1981 hunger strikes in the Republican struggle for independence.

The essential argument presented by Brendan J Byrne in this excellent documentary style film is that the hunger strikes set the path that ultimately led to the Good Friday Agreement and peace.

The structure of the film is to see the whole period through the focus of Bobby Sand’s life and his death after 66 days on hunger strike.

It is a cleverly worked, looking at Sands, just 27 when he died, but already a deep thinker when it came to the nature of the struggle going on in the north of Ireland and beyond. Whilst the Republican prisoners were focusing on other liberation struggles such as Cuba, Vietnam and Russia, Sands was one of those calling for reflection on the Republican tradition, particularly epitomised by Padraig Pearse, James Connolly and the other rebels of 1916.

The idea of the winner of the battle ultimately being the side that could endure more rather than inflict most damage on the other is another concept that came to have influence in the Irish struggle.

The wider aspects of the whole hunger strike episode are told via a timeline counting down by each day of Sands hunger strike. So there are the physical updates as he loses weight and his medical condition worsens.

The narrative is told via a whole succession of talking heads. The range of voices impressive - from Thatcher's biographer Charles Moore and Thatcherite Cabinet minister Norman Tebbit to Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams and Danny Morrison.

The medical expert who explains the deterioration of the body through the hungers strike offers a chilling insight. He tells how the body copes up to the 28 day mark, and then the terrible deterioration takes place. The body starts, in effect, eating itself and shutting down. The eyesight deteriorates and the bodily functions breaking down.

The political context looms large in the discourse. The decision to go on hunger strike, after the failed earlier attempt. Then, how with the election of Sands as a Westminster MP really changed the nature of the whole struggle. For it was that decision which moved the tactics of the Republican movement to that of the gun and ballot box.

Sands has become an iconic figure over the years and this film will help enhance that status even more. The linking of the 1916 rebels to Sands and the other Republicans continuing the struggle in the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s is illuminating. One of the most fascinating factors is the strange phenomena of the hunger strike with its unique position in the Republican tradition - bringing together martyrdom and sacrifice with their deep roots in Catholicism and the liberation struggle.

The film leaves the viewer with a feeling of respect for the sacrifice made by the hunger strikers but also of a huge waste of life. The hunger strikes turned out to be a pivotal event in finally ending the war and bringing peace to Ireland. They also represent ofcourse the loss of 10 young lives among the 3000 plus over 40 years.

“I am standing on the threshold of another trembling world. May God have mercy on my soul" - Bobby Sands, 1/3/1981 - the start of the hunger strike
 

Response to Brexit shows Capital once again never slow to take advantage of a crisis

Guardian writer Larry Elliott is right when he highlights how the world has not stopped turning since the Brexit vote. However, this has not stopped certain businesses seeking to use the perceived crisis for commercial advantage.
Take the banks, who threaten to leave the country -it's funny because they never do actually leave. Instead, they stay and screw out some more benefits from government, with the tax payer footing the bill.
We have already see the subsidies start to f...low-with cheap money via quantative easing and funding for lending schemes. The banks once again given a free hand to screw savers.

Others also seek to use Brexit for commercial gain, like developers commiitted to projects who then try to cut the affordable housing element because they just can't afford it in the new world.
It 's time to wise up to the way that certain unscrupulous businesses -having helped fuel a belief in the Brexit crisis -are now seeking to profit from the results

End this internal party feuding

The call in the Ilford Recorder’s leader for effective opposition to the government from the Labour Party is long overdue.

The behaviour of the 176 Labour MPs in launching a coup against the leader, virtually as the result of the EU referendum was being announced, was reckless and irresponsible. It has done a huge amount of damage to the Party in sending out the message to the public that they are not fit to govern.

Since then there has been the leadership election, which Jeremy Corbyn looks set to win. However, many of the 176 – including I imagine Wes Streeting and Mike Gapes – have made it clear that they will not accept a second mandate from the membership for Mr Corbyn. This is a very strange take on democracy, namely we will only abide by the result of an election if the outcome is the one that we want – it smacks rather more of the fake exercises engineered by dictators to legitamise their own rule.

If Mr Corbyn wins, there can be little doubt that both Gapes and Streeting should consider their positions. Both have openly called for Corbyn to stand down, with Gapes using the pages of the Recorder to openly praise the Prime Minister whilst describing “another poor display by Jeremy Corbyn.”

Following the result of the leadership election, the Labour Party has to come together and get behind the leader. Then an effective opposition can at last be mounted. Those who seek to continue internal feuding in the Labour Party may be deselected by their local parties, if not they will undoubtedly be turfed out by the electorate come the next general election. What is for sure is that the present shambles cannot go on.

published Ilford Recorder - 18/8/2016

Secured Energy Bond investors were expecting their £7.5 million investment back at the end of this year - instead they have faced two years of getting the run around from regulators, with little sign so far of getting their money back

Secured Energy Bond investors must be wondering whether there will be any resolution of their problems in time for what was due to be the maturity of the bonds at the end of the year.

Lest we forget, SEB were launched in 2013, paying 6.5% over a three year period. The first three payments were made on the quarters, then the alarm bells began to ring in January 2015, when the company defaulted on the interest payment.

Since then, it has been an uphill struggle, with the investor’s campaign group seeking to get the money back for those who originally invested in good faith.

The £7.5 million pledged by investors was to finance the fitting of solar panels on 22 schools across the country. All would have been fine, had the parent company CBD Energy not siphoned off the funds provided for other purposes in Australia, in total contravention to the stated purpose of the bond.

Ever since SEB was put into administration, investors have been struggling to get justice.

Appointed administrators, Grant Thornton have tracked down six schools that had the panels fitted. They continue with efforts to recover proceeds but it is a slow process.

Meanwhile, investors seem to have been passed around the regulatory framework, from the Financial Conduct Authority to the Financial Ombudsman and back.

A number of MPs have become involved, raising investors concerns with the authorities.

Last autumn, it looked as though the FOS could look favourably on investor’s case against the Independent Portfolio Managers (who approved the financial promotion of the mini-bond and acted as Corporate Director and Security Trustee) but then then the process slowed. 

The appointment of a new FOS adjudicator saw an about turn on the first adjudicator’s decision, declaring that they did not think the FOS could look at the issue. Investors then brought in lawyers to contest the views of the FOS.

Since then there have been delays, with the latest communication from the FOS on 28 July explaining that more time was needed by the appointed ombudsman to consider the situation and determine whether SEB investors are “eligible to complain”. There will be more in September.

So what is going on, when can investors expect to see their money back? At the moment it just seems to be delay after delay – the more cynical might wonder whether the whole run around that investors have been given since the company went into administration last year has not been about exhausting their efforts in the hope that they will just go away.

This is not going to happen. At the end of this year investors should have been receiving their final interest payment and capital back. A number of investors are really struggling, as they put a large amount of their savings into what at the time looked like a bona fide investment. They expected the interest and capital back by the end of 2016.

The way this issue has been dealt with thus far by the regulators is far from satisfactory. They appear to have moved from acknowledging that a wrong has been committed to trying to find a way out of helping in any meaningful way those severely affected by what has happened.

It seems savers are to continue to be punished and made to pay for the fall out of the financial crisis of a decade ago. The SEB case raises important questions. There are likely to be more SEBs in future – in this low interest environment, savers are being pushed toward more risky investments and other mini-bonds continue to be promoted with the same so called “protections” that the SEB mini-bond came with which all seem to have amounted to nothing for investors thus far. The denial of any sort of responsibility from the regulators thus far does not engender much confidence.