Looking Sideways: 10 Things
This week: the most important election since 1997, The Big Sea goes mainstream: and why are people angrier about cornstarch on Stonehenge than the stealthy dismantling of our right to protest?
1. I’m releasing this week’s 10 Things a day earlier, as today (Thursday) is election day in the UK.
The 1997 election night was one of the most important and memorable nights of my life, and this year feels equally critical. Personally, this is a one-issue vote for me - get the Conservatives out. I have voted Green in the past (at the last election; and likely will again) but this year I will be voting Labour.
Whatever your political leaning, it’s really worth checking the impact of your voting intention (will a Green vote give Reform or the Conservatives a better chance of winning your constituency, for example?) in your local seat using a website like this before you head to the polling station.
And if you don’t understand why that’s an issue, I’m reposting this (above) from a few weeks ago, in which I attempted to explain our electoral system First Past The Post, and how it affects the power of your individual vote.
2. Related: one of the commonest conversations I’ve had with friends this election campaign (every election campaign, come to think of it) has been about how screwed our electoral system is, how they hate voting based upon the lesser-of-two-evils, and so on. A good time, then to join the movement for an alternative.
3. “These are not your 18th-century Tories. They’re not even your 20th-century Tories. These people are sheer ruination. They have bankrupted whole cities with their austerity measures, most notoriously Birmingham, slashing its budget by hundreds of millions since 2010. Low wages have plunged 900,000 British children into poverty”.
Not dissuaded by the fallout from her piece on Gaza, Zadie Smith has written a partisan piece on the damage the Conservatives have wrought on our country.
4. From the other side of the pond - more fallout from Biden’s disastrous debate showing - David Remnick in the New Yorker on why Biden continuing would be ‘an act not only of self-delusion but of national endangerment’. Ouch.
ICYMI - my pals at The Wave are the latest additions to HKC Discount Club! Just drop the code SIDEWAVES10 at checkout to get the goods.
5. So good to see The Big Sea featured on WGSN’s Create Tomorrow podcast.
With the general release of the documentary imminent, it is going to be pretty fascinating to see how the surf industry reacts.
6. The last few weeks an app called Foot.Boo has been doing the rounds on various of my WhatsApp groups - it’s basically an app that takes your portrait and uses generative AI to make you look like a 70s or 80s footballer.
I’m always so fascinated by stuff like this. Do they make money? Do people realise it’s AI, but just park their concerns because the comedy pic at the end is worth it? Anyway, that’s mine above lol.
7. I’m usually a bit bored to tears but the ever-more cynical and contrived nature of most adventure challenges these days - first backflip on the summit of Everest, anyone? But I’ll make an exception for the splendidly English Ed Pratt, who is currently undertaking a waterborne source-to-sea mission for the Thames in extremely entertaining fashion.
8. Rest in peace the great Joss Naylor. This Guardian obituary contextualises his remarkable achievements.
9. I almost feel bad sharing this insanely dim Newsweek hot take on Taylor Swift being a bad role model because she is (checks notes) unmarried, doesn’t have kids and has views on the patriarchy, which surely must really just be elite level trolling. But here we are. The backlash has been predictably brutal.
10. Why have so many people (even left-leaning, fair trade teabag-buying, Guardian reading, Looking Sideways-listening lefty types) reacted so furiously to Just Stop Oil throwing removable cornstarch over Stonehenge - while remaining unmoved by the corresponding dismantling of some of our powers of protest at the behest of the fossil fuel industry?
Friend-of-the-show Callum Macintyre raises an interesting point in one of his latest Instagram posts (above). I would really love to hear peoples’ views on this. I can feel another Open Thread coming on….
Woke up, checked emails, panicked it was Friday, checked date, Thursday, mixture of relief and disappointment. Week just got a day longer. Cheers Matt ;) Turns out LS10T is a significant part of my circaseptan rhythm.
"Why have so many people... reacted so furiously to Just Stop Oil throwing removable cornstarch over Stonehenge"
It's a bit like punching a small child in the face to protest the overfishing of our oceans.
It's misdirected aggression in a vain attempt to seek attention by any means necessary.
Go lock out BPs headquarters in London if you want to bring attention to Big Oil. Do something creative and unique in context of the issue.