All entries for Tuesday 18 November 2008

Where will you be on 20th January?

^{Cartoon: Tom Toles, Washington Post}

An incredible four million people are expected to watch Barack Obama be sworn in as President in January.

That’s more than 1% of the country’s population.

Websites like this one will help you get there, but warn that journeys to D.C. will begin a whole day beforehand!

There’s been increasing talk of the media loving Obama just a bit too much. As one commentator put it, journalism is ‘on hold’.

Does the media lead, or is it led by the public? On this one, I think the people are putting their foot down.

: 18 Nov 2008 20:38 |  Tags: Inauguration Obama Politics United States |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Street sweeping

The government’s pledged to end homelessness in London in time for the 2012 Olympics.

I suspect this should be added to a long list of promises that almost certainly won’t be kept.

There’ve been great strides made in getting people off the street over the past ten years – the number of people living rough has dropped by 70% in the last ten years.

But whenever I’ve interviewed homeless people – and those who work with them – they all acknowledge there’s a hardcore who actually prefer life without a roof.

More importantly, they’re not all beggars, drug addicts or troublemakers. Many are the victims of crime themselves as people hurl abuse, or worse, at them on a Friday night.

This bid to ‘clear the streets’ is a noble aim, but it’s futile. And more than that, a little bit of London might be lost if this crackdown becomes too severe.

One of my former colleagues, Emily Tolloczko, did a really good piece on homelessness which you can hear here:

: 18 Nov 2008 17:40 |  Tags: Audio Politics |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem