Speak your mind at speaker's corner

Which is fine - provided your mind revolves around war or religion. Sunday saw me and the old man trotting off to Notting Hill in search of a decent bookstore, in which we were successful, and to Speaker's corner in search of a decent speaker and a good debate, in which we were not so successful.

I guess my expectations were a bit high. For those unaware, Speaker's corner is a location in Hyde Park where people can take to a soapbox and make a speech. These days, it's more a rant and a diatribe. We had an athiest debating a muslim fanatic, we had old blokes extolling the benefits of socialism and we had a crazy old dyke demanding that all foreigners get out of England, as well as bashing blacks, whites, yanks, aussies, poofs and women in general. Now, that's all well and good. I respect that these people want to stand up and put forth their opinions. But it's worthless if you don't allow the audience to question you, or provide comments. The religious speakers and the socialists refused to answer any questions except those provided by planted lackeys in the audience, while the old dyke responded with abuse and insults when people questioned her views. All in all, a bit of a disappointment.

However, I see a way to redeem the situation. I thought this up on the tube ride home. What I needed this afternoon was a big red phone marked "The Lads." Upon making a call on the phone, this could instantaneously summon Gerald, Laurie, Dan, Franger, Glen (but not Roz - it's a guy thing, you understand) and Chirpy, along with several cartons of beer to Speaker's corner. Once there we could organise into a beered up mass and heap abuse upon unsuspecting towelheads and would-be marxists. It's got promise, I think.

Lord knows England needs something like this. Your average pom is far too genteel and respectful to openly accuse these people of being the wankers they truly are - but we'd have no such qualms. It needs to be done. Because as it stands, it's frightfully boring. Alright, having a fanatical athiest call Mohammed a paedophile for having a 14 year old wife is entertaining at first, but it loses a bit of zing after a while. We need some good old fashioned heckling and abuse. Let's keep these latter day prophets and visionaries honest.

While you're mulling that over, I think I might head down to the Courtfield hotel and watch England lose to Ecuador (hopefully). If not, it's a good warm up for when Australia thump the Ities on Monday.

Cheers.