Scoville Units Unite » Mark Steel http://agraham.org/blog reviews, rants and random chilli ratings Wed, 16 May 2012 13:32:36 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= On your Marks, get set, go! http://agraham.org/blog/2009/05/11/on-your-marks-get-set-go/ http://agraham.org/blog/2009/05/11/on-your-marks-get-set-go/#comments Mon, 11 May 2009 12:01:18 +0000 Alan G http://agraham.org/blog/?p=361 I just finished reading two books I grabbed cheap in Virgin, Zavvi, Head.

First up was Mark Thomas with As Used on the Famous Nelson Mandela: Underground Adventures in the Arms and Torture Trade. This was really interesting, funny and horrifying in equal doses. Some brilliant anecdotes of groups set up to take on arms dealers.

Next was Mark Steel with What’s Going On?: The Meanderings of a Comic Mind in Confusion. I had been looking forward to this as it covers the last ten years or so. Each chapter has a mixture of the disintegration of his private life, the disintegration of any lonely last principles in the Labour Party and the disintegration of his relationship with the SWP.

Each of these is quite depressing and bitter to read and the contrast of the three leads to a real understanding if what he has been going through.

Recently I also read Jack Jones Union Man: Autobiography and have just started on IOU: The Story of the Debt a book I got in Poundland and has a first chapter praising Bono so looks to be pretty shit.

]]> http://agraham.org/blog/2009/05/11/on-your-marks-get-set-go/feed/ 1 Amusing Tale of Protest http://agraham.org/blog/2009/02/28/amusing-tale-of-protest/ http://agraham.org/blog/2009/02/28/amusing-tale-of-protest/#comments Sat, 28 Feb 2009 17:52:10 +0000 Alan G http://agraham.org/blog/?p=245 Mark Steel has written an amusing entry on his blog about taking his kid to an anti-war march and the point where you notice a change in your life.

For some people Mark Steel went from being Double Plus Funny to Double Plus Unfunny overnight. Thankfully I don’t have anyone telling me what to think so can still have my own opinion about such matters.

Poignant and funny at the same time.

Oh for God’s sake, they’re not going to break down the embassy with balsa wood. Then he added Come on dad, let’s get to the gates.

No I think it’s safer to stay here, I advised.

COME ON, he insisted, and we shuffled through the squashed crowd to get nearer the front. Why don’t we all invade the Israeli embassy? he asked, and whoever was stood next to us answered Because the Israeli embassy is better protected than Buckingham Palace.

Well then let’s invade Buckingham Palace, he said.

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