Speaker by Various Artists

As I write this on Friday afternoon, my workmates are crowded around the windows of our 19th-storey office, watching police cordon off Canary Wharf underground station in order to examine a suspect package. It's just the latest in a series of events over the past 24 hours that has seen three explosions on trains, an explosion on a bus and, this morning, a man shot dead at Stockwell, my local tube station.

Typically, Londoners are responding to it with their usual mix of bravado, humour and nonchalance, many seeing it yet again as an excuse to retreat to the nearest pub for reinforcements - but the racks are starting to show.

When the first bombs went off on the morning of Thursday 7th July, most of us were on our way to work. Stranded outside tube stations, with mobile phone networks down and no access to information, we were confused and afraid. What was going on? Rumours flew - seven blasts, thousands of casualties - and we automatically feared the worst.

But as it turned out, the reality, though terrible, wasn't as bad as many had imagined. After the smoke had cleared, people realised that, as tragic as events had been, relatively few people had been affected - and that it could have been a helluva lot worse.

London quickly, defiantly bounced back and resumed a state of near-normality. Many seemed to be of the opinion, "Well, it's happened now, thank god that's over and done with." And everyone had a tale or joke to tell about the day the terrorists struck - "I can smile about it now, but at the time it was terrible", as Morrissey might say.

The Dunkirk spirit was in evidence everywhere. Almost immediately, a website, we're not afraid, was launched - and was just as swiftly followed by a (much better) spoof retort, iamfuckingterrified.com.

But then, two weeks to the day, they struck again, this time at lunchtime, when many of us were at work. Rather than waiting anxiously for the news to filter through, we followed it on TV and on the Internet and - now knowing the drill - immediately checked in with friends and family.

Initial alarm at the 7/7 pattern repeating itself (three trains and a bus, blasts north, south, east and west) turned to irritation ("Don't say we have to walk home again") and cynical amusement ("Haha, the idiots couldn't even get it right!) once it was learned the explosives apparently failed to detonate. But this time the laughter sounded hollow.

The shooting at Stockwell station this morning has only served to drive home the fact that 7/7 was not an isolated event - that there are perhaps hundreds of hardcore fundamentalists ready and willing to commit atrocities, even die, for their cause. Though we can find some reassurance in statistical reality - in a city of 7.5 million, there's more chance of you being hit by a bus than being on one that explodes - it's cold comfort indeed.

Is London going to become the frontline? Do we, like Israel, simply have to learn to live with an ever-present threat? Basically, yes - what else can we do? Of course we'll continue to laugh and joke about it, and seek comfort and courage in publichouses - this is London, after all - but secretly we're shitting ourselves. As for me, that decision made back in May to book a flight home to NZ in October is increasingly looking like the right one.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to the pub.

I think Ken Livingstone's speech was amazing, and I DO believe it's what most Londoners feel about London. That we (I was born here, though I spent all my childhood and youth in NZ and have now lived here longer than anywhere else) actively like being many types/races/religions/classes/wealths of people here. That the mix is one of the major benefits of London, certainly not a detraction.

I also thought this morning that what we experienced yesterday was quite minor - though of course ghastly and life-changing for those involved - compared to the daily bombardments Iraqis are still facing - both from our 'allied' troops, and from the constant threat of their 'own' suicide bombers. Not for a moment suggesting any tit for tat (on either side) is ok, but that maybe our experience here will encourage us to be more generous about the sufferings of others.

I probably am biased, my Mum lived here through WW2 (except when she was stationed away in army), she was bombed out of three different houses, and even while she was acknowledging the looting etc that went on then too, she always talked with great pride about London's resilience.

I think one of the things Andrea Levy captured so well in her award-wining novel Small Island is that it wasn't merely simple racism that made the average Londoner not especially welcoming to Windrush immigrants in the 50s.

It was also pure misunderstanding. Post-war London was so poor and so damaged and so ... bleak ... that the idea anyone would WANT to come here amazed them. (As well as all the racist reasons!) They simply didn't know why people were coming here then.

But no matter what the state of London, this city has ALWAYS had people coming in. (My cousin's young daughter arrives from Wellington next week!) The mix, the clear and obvious mix that you see every day on the streets, in the pubs, in the shops, is one of London greatest assets. I think its one of the things that those of us who CHOOSE to live here appreciate it for. And that's why I think we'll continue to be more 'pro-multiethnic'. Whenever I'm out of London, in the rest of the UK, especially countryside UK, I realise how weird I feel to be only in white company. We different races and religions and ethnicities don't all live in each others' pockets, we're not necessarily all best of mates with each other, but we do live - for the most part - side by side, and generally harmoniously. I'm proud of that.

This morning I went out to my local South London shops. I talked to the Black (West Indian) newsagent and the Black (British-African) copyshop woman, I bought groceries from the Hindu (British-Indian) grocer, and cherries from the Muslim (British-Pakistani) Halal shop, I walked past the garage owned by Andrew, a Greek man who fixes cars at very short notice and, within five minutes passed a mosque and three different kinds of African evangelical churches. When I came home I walked into my terraced house where I live between Irish and French/French-Canadian neighbours, our garden backing on to what we call still the 'Italians' house', lived in until last year by three generations of one Italian-English family. At seven thirty tomorrow morning I will meet my Kiwi friends at the pub round the corner and watch the All Blacks live.

This city is old, and messy, and dirty, and it doesn't always work properly.

It is overcrowded and stuffed full of incredible people and beautiful things. The South Bank river walks are stunning, the Diana Memorial Fountain is an ludicrous waste of money. It's a vibrant and passionate and often infuriating mix. And it's one of the things I like best about living here. (That and the view from Waterloo Bridge!)

This is a really awful thing that has happened. And I wouldn't choose to live anywhere else in the world.

There’s nothing odd about arriving at work in London to find that half a dozen of your colleagues have called in running late claiming dicky tube trains. But I heard a new excuse today – “I’m running late, my bus has turned into a bloodied sardine can with the roof and sides ripped off”. Pardon?

By 10am, after a scrap for the left over pastries from an early client meeting (thankfully the closest I came to being in harms way today), it started to become apparent things were a little more serious than half a dozen hangovers crawling to work. It was that bus that gave it all away. They just don’t usually blow up like that.

Fascinating watching the English respond to this mornings events. The obvious first question – who’s responsible? To some at work the answer was as clear as I’m sure it was to any Greenpeace member. "Those dirty snail gobbling French pricks did it." Sore losers that they are about the Olympics, Trafalgar - and they were bloody lazy in World War Two I’ve come to learn since being here.

By 11am the shock of the attacks had taken full effect in the office. The English did the only thing they could do – they went to the pub. Which was jammed. Like a tube at rush hour, although thankfully with more calming Guinness on hand.

There they watched the BBC with a mix of serious scowls and brilliant black comedy. Which is when I started realising just what a tough bunch they can be at times like this. It wasn’t just doing it on the beaches and all that stuff that had them beat the Germans (who the English seem to admire for not being quite so lazy as the French) back 60 years ago, but sick David Brent like jokes too.

Tough yes, but also smart and lazy enough to realise that it was a great reason to have the afternoon off. By 1pm the office was empty. Who knows why I was still there – every client I called had closed their offices for the day as well. I think what held me at work was the mesmerising state of looking down, from 24 floors up, on the usually teeming streets of my adopted new town to see it void of those hundreds of quaint, harmless red buses. Surreal. Weird.

Anyone remember Threads? Kinda like that, but without the mushroom clouds. Or the wee dribbling down my leg. For now.

Sorry for the lack of tour diary updates. Somehow I expected that Internet access would be readily available at the small cheap hotels we’ve been straying at, that I’d waltz in after sipping cocktails with record label execs and Ed would have written 2 pages of amusing and insightful commentary on the highs and lows of touring England. Oh how wrong I was. Actually the bit about sipping cocktails with label execs was spot on, but the Internet access has been shite.

So, we’re in the back of the van driving to Brighton, it's hot and sunny and everyone's in good spirits. One of the labels that is courting the lads just phoned offering to take the lads to the Gibson showroom to try out some guitars, to lunch, then to some high street shop that is making them some clothes.

Last night they played one of the NME gigs (The Garage, London – with Boy Kill Boy and Towers of London) to a very receptive 200 or so punters, then we shifted over the road to play the much smaller and hipper Art Rocker club night at the Buffalo Bar.

This gig was attended by so many A&R staff that a bomb would have decimated three quarters of London's industry talent spotters. Word has got out that The Checks are hot and every man and his dog is turning up to see what the fuss is all about. Which was a relief, because coming over here we kind of felt like the All Blacks going to play England; loved if you do well and slated if you don’t.

Luckily, the show went extremely well, with punters discovering the joys of The Checks for their first time ever, lots of smiling faces and nodding heads. We even had one invigorated punter who hugged Ed and wouldn’t let him go. God bless the NME for inviting us over!

So we came to get a record deal and we’re not quite there yet. We’ve had endless meetings with publishers, lawyers and labels and I’ve eaten a lot of meals in nice restaurants. Of course, as my dad says, there’s no such thing as a free lunch - I’m getting the belly to prove it.

The numerous meetings can get confusing - I’ve walked up to labels reception and said, "Hi, I’m Phil Moore from The Checks' management and I’m here to see ..." and then completely forgotten the names of person who has contacted me in the first place.

Whatever happens, there's a feeling that even if we come home empty handed we’ve already achieved a satisfactory level of success.

The highlight for me was our day and night in Leeds. As any NME reader will know , Leeds is the centre of a thriving live scene fronted by the Kaiser Chiefs and the Cribs. Standing in The Cockpit watching the Cribs and then meeting Ricky Kaiser Chief straight after, I couldn’t help but feel I was in a certain place and time in musical history.

The lads were selling t-shirts and meeting some new fans, Alan and I were enjoying a beer at the bar, and the struggles of the start of the tour seemed a million miles away (oh yeah, Ed got sick and we had to cancel the first few dates. Not much fun after fronting up the huge amount of money it costs to tour a band in England).

So, a gig tonight with Brighton's finest, The Rakes, then a headline gig tomorrow night at the Camden Barfly, then we fly home on May 30. We’d really like to do some touristy things in London this weekend, and are looking forward to coming home to be with our friends and family – oh, and a good cup of coffee!
Phil Moore

ED'S TOUR DIARY

I am sitting in the tour bus, on our way back to London. Last night we played a show in Leeds at a bar called The Cock Pit. Which was funny, because it was one of the most receptive and interested crowds we have had so far. Before now, we have played two shows; one in London, at an old strip club called Madame Jo Jo’s, and one in Hull.

At these shows we have had a really great soundman named Mark. He has done work with some of the best. Helping us get the warmth and tenacity we aim for. He is also doubling as our tour manager, driving us up and down the country in the big blue Benz. Both the gigs have been with this new group called the Cribs.

The Cribs are just one of many interesting new British groups on this tour. They really know how to make those pub anthems where everybody sings along. Tomorrow night we are playing with the Towers of London at the Garage in London. The Nine Black Alps had to pull out of the tour due to illness. The lead singer got the mumps.

We nearly suffered a similar fate. After our first show, I was diagnosed with tonsillitis and completely lost my voice. As a result, we cancelled some shows and I had some intense healing days where I was roped to a bed and flooded with countless bottles of water. An attempt to heal. In the end it worked and my voice is stronger than ever. We all feel good, except for Jake who is becoming increasingly worried about his jaw extending and turning red as the salmon season comes around. Everybody will find out that he is worse than rob.

Ed Knowles is the singer in The Checks, and Phil Moore is the manager and father of the drummer, Jacob, who is really not like a salmon

David Horowitz came to town last night for a talk sponsored by the College Republicans. He's a conservative commentator, most recently known as the author of the Academic Bill of Rights. I went along to hear what could be motivating such a bizarre piece of legislation.

What is the Academic Bill of Rights? A series of statements intended to explicitly prohibit political ideology from affecting hiring, firing and teaching decisions made at universities. It was written by Horowitz in 2003, in the belief that because liberals/progressives are over represented on academic faculties, US schools are becoming centres of indoctrination in liberal politics. Conservative students, he says, are often made to feel uncomfortable about their ideas and unable to contribute these ideas to class discussions or assignments.

He also claims there are cases of unfair grading practices, but it's unclear how many of Horowitz's allegations of unfair treatment are true, or just allegations. Most if not all universities have policies in place already that cover what the Bill (and a companion Student Bill of Rights) covers, and it is unclear exactly what the Bill would change or how it would be enforced (as Horowitz was quick to admit in his lecture). But at least 12 states have versions of the Bill pending in their legislatures (including my current home, Indiana, although this appears to be dead in committee for the time being) and there is a bill in the US House of Representatives.

First, I want to mention some things I noted as he spoke, that of course got no coverage in the press (all the college papers are more concerned with telling off protestors for throwing pies at him at Ball State University). They're all things that highlighted for me that this Bill of Rights has nothing to do with fairness in academia and everything to do with an ongoing assault on dissent and free speech.

First, Horowitz gets a standing ovation at the start by about 75-80% of the crowd (a fact which became more and more relevant as the lecture went on). As he starts to speak, about 8 protestors break in with banners calling him a racist (his last excursion onto campuses was to run full page ads in college newspapers about why slavery reparations are wrong and racist). He DEMANDS that they be arrested by security and that their names be given to the Dean who should then expel them. He also accuses them of stifling his right to free speech and talks about why that's ironic (given what they claim to be about). The crowd told the protesters to get out, shut up, and, as the protestors were being escorted out one student in the audience yelled out "Bye-bye Commies", to a titter from the crowd.

I thought he was going to talk about evidence for the whole "conservatives can't get heard on campuses" thing, which would speak to the logical core motivating the Bill of Rights. But he starts out his 45 min lecture with an accusation that modern day progressives and leftists are responsible for the crimes of Stalin's communism, and also that liberals are the intellectual descendants of European fascism, which was driven by identity politics (movements that centre on a sexual or racial or other identity). The former claim has an interesting history, but the latter is more tenuous as identity politics is generally considered to have developed in the 1960s (I'm not an expert but my flatmate is, so I'm taking his word here).

Horowitz continues with his attack on progressive politics: the other thing that defines leftists is that they are "religious fanatics" who believe they can change the world. They want to eradicate racism, sexism, homophobia, etc (hence the development of political correctness) but apparently they are fighting a hopeless cause against human nature - these things have always been around, and therefore its futile (and, in fact, immoral) to try and change them. Expanding on the religious aspect, he claims liberals think of themselves as an army of angels and the GOP as the party of Satan.

There is more; Democrats are the racist party, because all the inner city slums (in LA, DC, Chicago etc) are all run "100% by democrats and leftists" - Democrats who won't let these poor families have school vouchers, which would, goes the claim, allow these kids to switch into better private schools. It's therefore the Democrats who cause (by being in charge) and maintain (by denying vouchers) the poverty in inner city slums (he says the Democratic Party has "their boot grinding the faces of these poor kids into the dirt").

So liberals are evil and racist. Now Horowitz finally gets to campuses: there are some studies (although at least two of them may have been funded by him) that apparently show that liberals outnumber conservatives on faculties by up to 10 to 1. Liberals are evil. Therefore this hateful ideology is the dominant show in town, corrupting the educational process.

"Do you think these things happen at random?" he asks the crowd, and then answers himself. There are so few conservatives because, and I quote, "there is a BLACK LIST [caps to point out he was shouting at this point] that goes back 35 years designed to stop conservatives from getting tenure". This isn't an actual list (it finally transpired) but a mindset, sort of reverse affirmative action in which a liberal always gets picked over an otherwise equal conservative candidates. Asked for evidence of this black list, he gives two anecdotes, about one guy not getting a job because he supported vouchers and another about there being a question on a California job application asking about the person's opinion of a nuclear powerplant down the road. He then says, and again I quote, "I don't need to find lots of examples of this to prove my point."

He ends to another standing ovation by the same people as before, and took some questions. The first one was about "why do the Democrats deny us the right to vouchers?" (shades of Jeff Gannon in the phrasing), which Horowitz answers with a 5 minute diatribe about how all the Democrats want is power. The rest of the questions (all critical of his claims) get no actual answers.

Here are some of the stand-out moments that really blew my mind. They're mostly moments of intense irony or frightening reactions from the crowd:

He went on a rant about how teachers' unions are run by socialists and hence hate America and are hurting the kids. A teacher in the back piped up and said "I work hard to help the kids I teach," and then added "and I supported the war in Iraq." Without missing a beat Horowitz said "You would never support a US-led war because you hate America," to which the crowd APPLAUDED AND CHEERED while he stood back swigging from his water as if he had just said "You, sir, are no Jack Kennedy." He simply denied that the man told the truth about his own opinions and the crowd ate it up.

He talked about the Harvard president story (who came out in a speech saying one of the reasons why women are under-represented at the top levels of engineering, etc, may be (among other things) different aptitudes i.e. women can't do maths). The "thought police" (who, it turns out are the leftists and the feminists) proceeded to force him to apologise, when according to Horowitz the "different aptitudes" claim is a solid scientific fact. Except that part 4 of his Bill reads "Curricula and reading lists in the humanities and social sciences should reflect the uncertainty and unsettled character of all human knowledge in these areas by providing students with dissenting sources and viewpoints where appropriate."

America is not a racist country, he claimed. There are "one or two racists here and there" but nothing systemic. How does he know? Because of Oprah and Michael Jackson. They are black, came from poor, troubled backgrounds and yet amassed huge fortunes. So there can't be racism. (really, he said this.) There were no genocidal efforts made on the Indians in the 1700s, because "there are more Indians alive now than there were then."

And Ward Churchill (he of the 'little Eichmanns' quote) is racist because his career is partly about US wars against minorities and he must therefore believe that all the Mexicans crossing the border are stupid, running to the arms of a country that will kill them (cue audience titter).

He went on and on about how Churchill using the "little Eichmanns" phrase was such a crime (and indicative of the general liberal America-hating state of the universities). He then proceeded to tell a story about how Nazi doctors viewed Jews as a virus to be destroyed (as a way to resolve the cognitive dissonance of being a doctor who was killing people) and saying that progressives think this EXACT same way about conservatives.

Someone pointed this contradiction out in the Q&A and asked "What makes you different from Churchill?" His response to this and EVERY SINGLE OTHER DISSENTING VIEW was to dismiss it out of hand as irrelevant or incoherent or by making a joke. At no point did he intellectually engage the question - the act of asking the question apparently made the person part of the liberal conspiracy and therefore he could be ignored.

To pre-empt claims that his Bill of Rights is Orwellian, he said opposition to the bill is Orwellian. Why? Because the title of the bill has the words 'academic freedom' in it and anyone who is against academic freedom is "a communist".

And the crowd ... oh, the crowd. I've never been in a room of people being stirred up by rhetoric rather than reason. When they applauded the phrase "you hate America" about the teacher, I was genuinely scared - I think this is a little what it would have been like to be a Jew at a Nazi rally. I know Nazi analogies are tossed around very easily these days, but it was quite incredible. It was like watching Pavlov's dogs: he rang the 'you hate America' bell and they all salivated and applauded him as if they had no choice.

The crowd also told any dissenting people to shut up or to get out, without any sense of irony. Some friends asked him a question (which of course he refused to answer) and they tried to follow up. Horowitz said "What department are you in", and they said "Philosophy". Horowitz and the crowd laughed and jeered and that was the end of their credibility. He moved on without addressing their question with the crowd muttering things like "Oh, philosophy? Well, of course they don't know anything about the real world." They were simply no longer allowed to have an opinion about this lecture.

I've been watching for a long time as Bush stands up and says things like "We need tariffs to protect free trade" - using a buzzword that people like (like "free trade") to justify something that was either irrelevant or contradictory. This was it in real life - using the conservative rhetorical buzzwords triggered a conditioned response from the crowd and they responded "appropriately" to the buzzword, irrespective of the premise. The most obvious other one was "Arrest those protesters and have them expelled ... they're interfering my right to free speech."

Well, if you're still reading, then thanks, and I guess let me know if you wanted to know anything more. This experience has really shaken me - the crowd behaviour, the power of the rhetoric, and the sheer anti-intellectualism are all astounding. I'm becoming more and more convinced that the Left is being bludgeoned over the head by a well oiled and carefully crafted conservative machine 40 years in the making, and that this machine has two goals: to swing the pendulum of power to the right, and then change the rules of the game so it stays there.

The assault on academia and the judiciary is an assault on the democratic mechanisms for checks and balances (the latter explicitly mandated in the Constitution!). The media is no help (except for Jon Stewart, for what that's worth). I'm just trying to do the only thing I can do, namely make as many people as possible hear about events like this. The power Horowitz had over the crowd with his rhetorical set pieces (and that he didn't have with the non set pieces) was literally like being in pre-WWII Germany, and if the Republicans ever find a genuine charismatic, there will be trouble.

Thanks for reading this far.

Andrew Wilson
Department of Psychology
Perception/Action Lab
http://www.indiana.edu/~palab