Bill Nighy - ANIMAL MY SOUL

Tag Archive: Bill Nighy

PRIDE (IN THE NAME OF COAL)

Filed under: Gender, Good causes, Humour, Movies, Politics — Leave a comment

January 21, 2015

PRIDE directed by Matthew Warchus (UK, 2014)

Although I was living in London in the 1980s, the time this movie was set, I confess to ignorance about the unlikely coalition between a small mining community in Wales and the left-leaning activists of the Lesbians And Gays Support The Miners (LGSM) operating from the Gay’s The Word bookshop in Bloomsbury.

I take comfort in the fact that Bill Nighy, one of the excellent ensemble cast of this movie, admits he didn’t know about this either until he was sent the script.

Perhaps this is not so strange given that the tabloids were only interested in shock-horror put-downs of “homos and “perverts” while the broadsheets seemed to have all but ignored the story. Continue reading →

Tags: AIDs, Ben Schnetzer, Bill Nighy, Billy Bragg, Communist Party, Gay's The Word, LGSM, Mark Ashton, Matthew Warchus, Miner's Unions, Pit closues, Stephen Beresford, Thatcher, Wales

WHY ROBIN HOOD NEEDS HIS MERRY MEN (AND WOMEN!)

Filed under: Politics — Leave a comment

March 25, 2011

There’s something Monty Python-esque about the way Bill Nighy portrays a typical banker trying desperately to claim that the Robin Hood Tax won’t work because it is too complicated. But the truth is that the idea of a small tax on the wealthy financiers is possible because it is so simple – a no-brainer, in fact.

The campaign’s excellent website explains that there are various forms of taxes proposed but the one the organisers are publicising the most is a tiny tax of about 0.05% on transactions like stocks, bonds, foreign currency and derivatives which. it is estimated , could raise £250 billion a year globally.

Half of the money would be used to fight poverty in the UK ; 25% would be used to fight poverty in developing countries and 25% to fight climate change at home and abroad.

It is heartening to see that there are so many good brains and passionate individuals behind the campaign – the real challenge will come if and when it comes to putting any money raised to good use.

The story of the millions squandered by greedy managers of Madonna’s Malawi charity shows that the question here is not always about having the cash but having people in charge with the honesty and principles to put it to the best use.

This is no reason NOT to support Robin Hood – just a reminder that we also need plenty of merry men and women to see the thing through.