Author Archives: ravishlondon
Spanish immigration to London, in the twenty-first Century
Spain has a long history. Once it had an empire. But in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries Spain has struggled to keep up with other western industrialised European countries. Because of this, there has been a long history of immigration from Spain to other western European countries. In the early twenty-first century young Spanish adults […]
In 1752, London skipped 11 days in Sep & changed the date of NYD, into line with Europe
In Hogarth’s painting there is a black slate, with reference to the eleven days taken out of the year 1752. In Britain, in 1750, the Calendar Act was passed. The 1750 Calendar Act proposed that in 1752, the British calendar would come into line with the European calendar. British merchants were keen to align the […]
Corbyn spat at, Jones beaten and Lee mindful
Stewart Lee is behaving like a bullied boy in the playground. A political commentator on the left, he recently confided that the ‘shit’ currently being directed his way, in response to his writing and comedy, has become unmanageable. If approached by a person in the street he tries to be evasive and move on because […]
Londoner, Andrew Ridgeley, penned the peaen to idleness in 1983
https://vimeo.com/126750201 It is perhaps a red herring to debate whether one should live to work as it is said the English do, or work to live as it is said the Spanish did. The point is, as I think Tom Hodgkinson probably makes, that one should work in a way that feels like living. Although […]
The Spanish Civil War was started in London, Croydon to be precise
You’ve heard about the butterfly effect and you’ll have pondered how long a piece of string really is so whilst it may be stretching the truth somewhat, there is a reasonable logic to the argument that the Spanish civil war started in London. My memory of quite how the thing happened is a little patchy […]
Will the real Stewart Lee please keep standing up and sitting down?
In 2016 Will Self interviewed Stewart Lee about his work for the Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/feb/26/will-self-meets-stewart-lee-are-you-really-ultimately-embittered-or-not Part of the purpose of the interview was to establish the extent to which the persona represented on stage, or at least parts of it, were a true representation of the actual Stewart Lee. ‘Are you really, ultimately embittered, or not?’ […]
Tony Adams, growing up in London and taking to drink
Tony Adams was born in October 1966, a few months after England had won the World Cup, in Romford and grew up in Dagenham. He was a pupil at Hunters Hall Primary School from 1971 to 1978. By 1973 Adams had started playing football as a 6 year old on Hackney Marshes. He went to […]
London comedian, Stewart Lee, calls out middle class i-phone parents
In December 2017 Stewart Lee called out the generation of middle class iphone owning parents, and in particular the parents of the children who went to the same school as his own children, claiming that when they went to see the Christmas play the parents were more bothered about looking at Facebook than their children’s […]
Paris and London: two contrary peas in a pod
Paris and London have always been two contrary peas in a pod. Contrary in that they represent the seats of two governments which have always sniffed their nose at each other a bit. But in the same pod because the denizens of both cities have recognized that they probably have more in common with their […]
Facts, ideology and pain: London’s housing history up to now
London Housing Brief History of Housing in the UK A summary of https://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/may/24/history-british-housing-decade 1919 80% of people rented their homes, which meant 20% of people owned all the homes. The quality of private rented accommodation is shocking. The Prime Minister feels ashamed given the sacrifices made by British people during World War I. The Prime […]
Ravish London 