London July 2015

This is first time I've updated my blog in London whilst sitting outside in the sunshine. I'm  waiting for JB to finish his breakfast and join me. I'm sitting in Bloomsbury or very close to it and opposite Elizbeth Garrett Anderson Hospital and across from Saint Pancras Parish Church which now seems to have converted into something called The Crypt Gallery. Very spooky. Along the road there's a Sex mAcademy. Wonder what goes on there. No time to find out.

I'm having a very busy time at our Marxism Festival. Some excellent meetings yesterday with great speakers. We had John Rose speaking on Palestine, Richard Bradbury on the Levellers, Diggers and Ranters, our revolutionary history, never taught in schools of course, Alex Callinicos on the Revolutionary Ideas of Karl Marx, an update of book he wrote twenty years go. And in the evening we went to listen to John Molyneux on Rubens & Rembrandt: Art & Revolution, which was a brilliant illustrated talk.

I probably did too much yesterday and was a bit exhausted by time I got to bed, not too late I hasten to add. So will take it easy today, maybe cut back to four talks. We have a big debate at 2 pm between  Stathis Kouvelakis (Syriza Central Committee) and Alex Callinicos, which should be lively after yesterday Greek government decision.

I was in a shop yesterday with John, when one of their staff spoke to me in Spanish so I answered back in Spanish. He was somewhat taken aback as he didn't speak much himself other than Hola amigo qué pasa and obviously didn't expect me to speak any. So he asked me where in South America I was from, was I Argentinian? It's good to know I speak like a South American seeing as I learnt all my Spanish there, or most of it, other than the bits Marian taught me in Edinburgh night classes.  The guy was from Nigeria and a supporter of Scottish independence who wanted to know about the referendum so I left John to explain to him what went wrong.

As I'm writing this outside it's difficult for to see the screen in the sunshine. So no spell check etc. John has just joined me so that's it for now? Shame about our Andy yesterday but the man is just too good for him.