Filed under: cinema | Tags: patrick keiller, Tories, Tory, London Mayor, Boris Fucking Johnson
“It is difficult to recall the shock with which we realised our alienation from the events which were taking place in front of us. Robinson’s first reaction was one of spleen. There were, he said, no mitigating circumstances: the press, the voting system, the impropriety of Tory party funding, none of these could explain away the fact that the Middle Classes in England had continued to vote Conservative because in their miserable hearts they still believed that it was in their interests to do so.
Robinson began to consider what the result would mean for him. His flat would continue to deteriorate and its rent increase. He would be intimidated by vandalism and petty crime. The bus service would get worse. There would be more traffic and noise pollution, and an increased risk of getting knocked down crossing the road. There would be more drunks pissing in the street when he looked out of the window, and more children taking drugs on the stairs when he came home at night. His job would be at risk and subjected to interference. His income would decrease. He would drink more, and less well. He would be ill more often. He would die sooner.”
(From London by Patrick Keiller)
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What always depresses me every time I see this is that practically everything listed (with the exception of the basically toothless London Authority) would come to pass, under a Thatcherite Labour government.
Comment by Owen May 5, 2008 @ 1:31 pmI thought for a moment when putting this up that someone would point out that the context of Robinson/Keiller saying this is upon continued re-election of the Tories, which is obviously not the case in London recently.
I suspect that you are quite right in what you say, and to combine that thought with Keiller’s albeit playful condemnation of what the results actually mean to Robinson and how that feels, we’re left with a very similar situation. More of the same, and further alienation from the political process for those who understand politics as something that is felt rather than observed.
Comment by sam May 5, 2008 @ 2:34 pmThat’s what makes it such a great passage (I wish Keiller would write more rather than curate exhibitions, he’s one of the best prose writers in English alive today) - the concrete effects of the decision, getting more ill, more miserable and so forth, all of which I’m looking forward to more of under the unspeakable Johnson…
Aside: one of the great sleights of hand of New Labour was that, for a time, it was able to say to people like Keiller and other British artistic and cinematic folk that they were supporting them, were on their side, thus neutralising any cultural opposition (give or take Pinter writing sweary poems). Have you seen The Dilapidated Dwelling? Keiller refers to it as is ‘naughty’ film, and at one point called it his ‘New Labour film’. Never properly shown. We’re trying to get a copy for Kino Fist…
Comment by Owen May 5, 2008 @ 3:59 pmI haven’t seen it, no, but I did go to see Keiller in conversation with Roger Luckhurst not long after The City of the Future opened at the BFI. There, he showed a brief clip of a fictionalised version of that project (which felt to me like an installation at a children’s science museum, to be quite honest). I would’ve preferred to see that - the City of the Future material in a form more like Robinson/London - although I got the impression he was a little reticent to let that become his signature style, or something.
If you do get hold of Dilapidated Dwelling, I’ll definitely try to come over to London for the showing.
Comment by sam May 5, 2008 @ 8:03 pm