http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-27649225
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/rhydyfelin-library-rhondda-cynon-taf-7200185

And so Bouncers is over and normality returns (is this normality I hear you ask?)....

On Friday I was in HMP Parc Prison in Bridgend for the end of their wonderful 'Hay in the Parc' week of artistic endeavours that takes place alongside that other Hay festival. 
I was launching a book of prisoner's poems. 
It was the culmination of many sessions with many writers. I thoroughly enjoyed my workshops and found the men involved (95% of prisoners are men!) incredibly honest and forthright in their views and they opened up with very raw emotion. It may appear ironic that prisoners should be heralded as being honest and full of integrity while they're incarcerated for acts of social deviance...........but then that depends how you view people in prison doesn't it?

Aren't we all in it together?

There but for the grace of god go all of us and all that (don't get me started on god.......who mentioned him............or her?).

It has long been my view, having visited many prisons, that they are not full of the middle classes but rather the impoverished, drug fuelled section of society that is struggling to survive. Various pieces of statistical evidence supports my theory too (30% of prisoners have been in care with all the fragmentation and pain that can cause... 80% of prisoners have writing skills below the level of an 11 year old).

And they were honest.

And then on Saturday 31st May  I was out breaking the law myself.... looking to join my new found mates in HMP Parc.
 
 This was in the shape of the renewed fight for libraries.............

100 people turned out at Rhydyfelin Library  for the closing ceremony and four of us chained ourselves to the library shelves until the police arrived, refusing to let the library go quietly. It was a peaceful protest but the library did not shut at the appointed hour of one o'clock and stayed open until 5pm. 

I hope the point was made. It is dishonest to talk of a Big Society and all being in it together when time after time services are being switched off . Maybe we'll all end up in prison or the workhouse........

The link above is to the BBC news report and Wales Online article and photos.

We certainly didn't wish to waste police time but we felt a crime had been committed. It was  one perpetrated by the RCT Council decision to decimate our deprived community by imposing yet more cuts and closures. So desperate times  call for desperate measures.............. 

Who are the real criminals? 

15% of Britain's prisons are privately run....that's people making money out of other people's misery.....

And it's not over yet....we have a Court hearing in Newport on Thursday in an attempt to be granted a Judicial Review..........................and so it goes on....watch this space!!

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/library-protesters-take-fight-senedd-7114973
http://www.aandbcymru.org.uk/2014-winners/
  http://southwalesliterature.co.uk/projects/award-winnin/


These three links follow on from the previous blog. One is about the library protest at the Senedd (Wales Online article) and the other two are about the Arts and Business Awards night at the Wales Millennium Centre.  The video at the Senedd was an instant on the hoof interview, the one for the Awards night was prepared and played as we collected the Award on the evening and put together by Orchard films. 


Hope you've got your Bouncers tickets?..........................I'll be checking...........

Yes it's another discussion about fame and fortune, topics which seem to crop up regularly, either linked to the destruction of community libraries, or sneaked in as comment around celebrity culture.

I read this morning that Britain is now the country with the most billionaires per head of population. We have 104 billionaires with a combined wealth of more than £301 billion. By any stretch of the imagination that is obscene isn't it? 

I'm often told in conversation they deserve it...they've worked hard to get it...they are the entrepreneurs that keep the cogs turning.
But I wonder....did Einstein do what he did for money? Or Darwin or Mozart?
The public servants I see seem to work hard too....nurses, doctors, bus drivers, the policemen and social workers...and the builders and oil rig workers...tell them they're lightweights in the economy.

The good old NHS sees 1 million people every 36 hours and the so called entrepreneurs are privatising it out of existence....what was the jewel in Britain's crown....the real wealth and health of a nation..........if only they worked as hard as those poor billionaires...............who access the best accountants to keep their hard earned cash in offshore accounts....probably on islands that they already own!

And the queues for food-banks and loans with incredibly high interest rates persist.
 
Even the sales people of Sky have  become whistle-blowers to their practice of targeting the poorest areas on behalf of their billionaire employers.

It is nothing short of scandalous.

Then there's me.

On Friday night I was invited to a £100 a head dinner at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay. This was the annual Arts and Business Awards bash and the sort of event I am regularly invited to...............well I say regularly.......
I would have been happy with a fish n chip supper and a seventies disco complete with Chicory Tip and Mungo Jerry.

A project I was involved in with older residents in Merthyr (previously alluded to in this blog) happened to win the much sought after section for arts and the community. And a great project and a very deserving winner in many ways (although I still struggle with a society that seems to value everyone solely as winners and losers)......................................but the smell of money and patronage of the arts worries me.......should it?....hasn't it always been so?

Still worries me.

Everything from kidneys to morality seems to sell as a commodity on the stock market these days. 

The battle for community libraries goes on (see other posts) and on Tuesday (13th May) we are demonstrating at the Senedd (Welsh Assembly)...please come if you feel inclined it's a 10.30am meet up outside.....let's make ourselves heard.........and hope the billionaires are listening over the airwaves of their helicopters and security fences.

Which brings me back to Bouncers the sort of security needed to ensure the riff raff and common people are held firmly in their place with a bit of rowdy beer and bingo. 
I'm still very heavily involved and off to rehearse again today. I've been told it's the most performed play after Shakespeare in the English language....so if you've never seen it why not head down to St David's Hall in a weeks time and take a look....patronise the arts in the best possible way. Here's the link again to the promotional video...........................enjoy.....................see you down there!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFjTgdIRyo8&feature=youtu.be