Martin Sutherland, 9 January 2016

Oh dear

fifth time attending DandD and first time i have called a session. Decided not to sulk at

lack of attendance and used the time to track the crucial East Midlands derby -

Northampton Saints vs Leicester Tigers.

oh dear

Northampton lost in final minute by 3 points.

this is hugely disappointing, much more so than the lack of interest in my session. I am

blaming poor scheduling on my part - who can possibly compete with “tea with the

gays?”

Anyway, nothing to report about my session at this stage, apart from to say that i think

we as a sector need to get involved in the debate about EU membership. The

mainstream media are not taking a nuanced or sophisticated approach to the

discussion, simply representing those who have come out as anti EU as being anti

Europe (and maybe a little bit racist), while assuming that those of us on the left are

naturally pro-EU. Forgetting that even left wing commentator Owen Jones has come

out in favour of a Brexit (google Owen Jones Brexit for a much more eloquent

argument than i or indeed any UKIPPER could ever make).

i fear that we are either sleep walking into an exit or accepting the status quo because

we just don't know what the EU does, or costs or represents.

Partly inspired by the work of the national collective, the National Theatre of Scortland

and the brilliant David Greig during the scorrish referendum, and by Jeremy Corbyn's

town hall based campaign for leadership - i would like to meet with artists, authors,

politicians, commentators, voters who see the value in creating a show, a roadshow,

to be presented in the run up to the referendum (likely to be sept 2016)?

loosely called “the should we stay or should we go show”, i envisage a series of

salons, roadshows, town hall meetings where artists, poets, politicians, and journalists

gather to bash out the issues that we really should be wrestling with, to help us all

make a better informed choice, when the referendum is announced.

It is too big an issue, i think, for us to retrench into traditional positions of left and right,

and to vote along party lines. It is not only the Conservatives who are confused about

their position - Labour are too, but in an attempt to appear unified (heavens) aren't

encouraging debate within the party. This was their position during the Scottish

Referendum…

So, who wants to help create a fun (maybe even) funded debate?

[email protected]