Official Leftfield Announcement

[Florian Saucer Attack]

10 minutes ago, Junglist1981 said:

Is that definitely authentic? If so hopefully they're playing the Tory tactic from 2010, appearing almost right of centre to get into power whereupon they'll march leftwards and drag the country with them.

They are certainly trying to appeal daily mail readers as I've said but even if Britain's political discourse was not dominated by the whims of few right win billionaires I don't think Starmer would be pro legalising drugs and abandoning nuclear weapons. He has not earned my benefit of the doubt 

[Junglist1981]

3 minutes ago, Florian Saucer Attack said:

They are certainly trying to appeal daily mail readers as I've said but even if Britain's political discourse was not dominated by the whims of few right win billionaires I don't think Starmer would be pro legalising drugs and abandoning nuclear weapons. He has not earned my benefit of the doubt 

TBF given recent events I have become quite strongly pro keeping our nuclear weapons, certainly for the foreseeable future. Imagine if no one but Putin had them, doesn't bare thinking about. Having them definitely serves a purpose, as much as we wish we could un-invent them again.

The drugs policy I don't agree with quite so much. That said, if Labour want to win they're never going to campaign on a pledge to legalise drugs. They need to pick their fights.

Regardless of their messaging, if should Labour get in at the next general election there'll be far more left wing influence in power than there has been for many years. I'll take anything I can get at the moment!

[clarkete]

2 hours ago, BluePaul said:

What's the point then?  Genuine question!

Best way to find out is to pop in for a little bit and see for yourself. 

It's easy to get to from several main stages, you can get nice food nearby or a drink inside and can be a great place for some shade if it's a sunny day. 

[blutarsky]

1 hour ago, kalifire said:

I mean, in fairness it’s an openly left festival and Leftfield is the leftist bit of it, so anyone hoping to see Nick Ferrari on the lineup needs to ‘ave a word. But on the flip side, there are times I think elements of the left (the far left) assume to own the term to the extent they’re more interested in arguing with people on their own side to some extent, rather than bring the fight to the Tories. 

Parts of Shangri la are fairly radical left, borderline anarchic, so not sure it's the "leftist" bit, but that's by the by really! 

1 hour ago, Divein said:

He’s been vocal of his support of Paddy in the past and even called him his mate. 
 

But there has been quite a collective silence from many including Jamie about those racist/right wing tweets from Paddy. Especially considering the whole ‘fuck the tories’ thing.

 

However that’s probably something for another debate on scouse nationalism etc.

Didn't see the Paddy the Baddie right wing stuff - just looked now. Was it the Georgian/Ukraine thing? 

[kemosabe]

I think a lot of people miss the point of leftfield's talks. They're not a debate, its an opportunity for collective growth, learning and crucially a chance to recharge your hope. 

It's easy for people to talk about echo chambers or whatever, but when I went to Glastonbury for the first time I was 18 years old and from a family/ friendship group who were right wing, brexit supporting and Tories for the most part (or UKIP). Going to those stages to hear various left wing voices given a platform to talk on a huge range of topics absolutely a formative moment in my own political understanding. I found other people think the same way as me and also learnt so so much about topics I knew so little about, or topics I was taught to think about in a completely different way. 

Going now, years later, with a friendship group who are all left wing my own perspectives and knowledge has changed. But, I bet for loads of the people going to the festival they spend their daily existence not really getting the opportunity to speak with other left wing people about issues that matter to them - and that is really really hard and absolutely gets you down. 

So yeah I'd recommend everyone picks just one debate a festival they find interesting and head along. You'll probably learn something new, you'll absolutely find new ways to engage with that topic on an activist level if you want to, and most importantly you'll be lifted hearing about what people are currently doing to make the world a better place.  

Edited May 3, 2022 by kemosabe

[clarkete]

2 hours ago, gigpusher said:

Seems this is the only placement he's really bothered about though 

 

[balthazarstarbuck]

3 hours ago, gigpusher said:

Seems this is the only placement he's really bothered about though 

He went on a 5 minute missive about it in between songs when he played in ‘19. Say what you want about BB but he loves a crumble, that can’t be denied.

[gigpusher]

Just now, balthazarstarbuck said:

He went on a 5 minute missive about it in between songs when he played in ‘19. Say what you want about BB but he loves a crumble, that can’t be denied.

It's becoming apparent. I suspect his rider for the festival now states must have crumble stall nearby!!

[blutarsky]

29 minutes ago, kemosabe said:

I think a lot of people miss the point of leftfield's talks. They're not a debate, its an opportunity for collective growth, learning and crucially a chance to recharge your hope. 

It's easy for people to talk about echo chambers or whatever, but when I went to Glastonbury for the first time I was 18 years old and from a family/ friendship group who were right wing, brexit supporting and Tories for the most part (or UKIP). Going to those stages to hear various left wing voices given a platform to talk on a huge range of topics absolutely a formative moment in my own political understanding. I found other people think the same way as me and also learnt so so much about topics I knew so little about, or topics I was taught to think about in a completely different way. 

Going now, years later, with a friendship group who are all left wing my own perspectives and knowledge has changed. But, I bet for loads of the people going to the festival they spend their daily existence not really getting the opportunity to speak with other left wing people about issues that matter to them - and that is really really hard and absolutely gets you down. 

So yeah I'd recommend everyone picks just one debate a festival they find interesting and head along. You'll probably learn something new, you'll absolutely find new ways to engage with that topic on an activist level if you want to, and most importantly you'll be lifted hearing about what people are currently doing to make the world a better place.  

This is so true. I went to lots of anti-globalisation rallies / mini-festivals when I was a teenager, and I still have a strong anarchic, anti-borders, anti-capitalist streak now. They didn't invite Farage to speak at those... fuck that over-exposed bug-eyed c**t. 

[Brave Sir Robin]

3 hours ago, stuartbert two hats said:

Shout out to the tireless efforts of @Brave Sir Robin who alerting me to the announcements by adding loads of new acts to his playlist this morning before I checked my socials.

I appreciate your appreciation! Do you mean you get alerts, or that you just noticed new acts coming up on shuffle or whatever?

[stuartbert two hats]

7 minutes ago, Brave Sir Robin said:

I appreciate your appreciation! Do you mean you get alerts, or that you just noticed new acts coming up on shuffle or whatever?

I loaded up the playlist, sorted by new additions as usual and noticed that loads of new non-dance tracks had been added.

[stuie]

2 hours ago, Junglist1981 said:

TBF given recent events I have become quite strongly pro keeping our nuclear weapons, certainly for the foreseeable future. Imagine if no one but Putin had them, doesn't bare thinking about. Having them definitely serves a purpose, as much as we wish we could un-invent them again.

The drugs policy I don't agree with quite so much. That said, if Labour want to win they're never going to campaign on a pledge to legalise drugs. They need to pick their fights.

Regardless of their messaging, if should Labour get in at the next general election there'll be far more left wing influence in power than there has been for many years. I'll take anything I can get at the moment!

I agree with all of that, pretty much. 

Regards nuclear disarmament, while Putin et al have them, so should we. 

[DeanoL]

They're panel discussions with Q&A, not debates. Nothing wrong with that except the labelling. Why they continue to do it that way when it opens them up for criticism I don't know but also don't really care.

[NoBuses]

Seb Lowe is really great! Top lad 

 

 

[BluePaul]

3 hours ago, Quark said:

Weather schmeather. A good crumble's a good crumble 😄

My appreciation of a good crumble knows no bounds, but custard is the vile yellow phlegm of the devil himself.

Are other options available for me to, ahem, 'moisten my crumble'?

[kingbadger]

1 minute ago, BluePaul said:

My appreciation of a good crumble knows no bounds, but custard is the vile yellow phlegm of the devil himself.

Are other options available for me to, ahem, 'moisten my crumble'?

Is your crumble moist? Would you like us to assign someone to moisten your crumble?

[Olshansky]

5 hours ago, JSmurphy said:

Yard Act said this is one of 'at least' two sets across the weekend.

they will be the fontaines dc of this year, surely 

[jump]

2 hours ago, blutarsky said:

This is so true. I went to lots of anti-globalisation rallies / mini-festivals when I was a teenager, and I still have a strong anarchic, anti-borders, anti-capitalist streak now. They didn't invite Farage to speak at those... fuck that over-exposed bug-eyed c**t. 

I'm the same. I grew up poor as fuck so whilst my friends at school were going off to expensive gigs like Slipknot or Red Hot Chili Peppers I had to miss out on a lot of them apart from the DIY punk bands who did free gigs at squats or in the back of a pub for a fiver so a lot of the lefty anarchist messages got into my head whilst everyone else on my council estate were busy moaning about the immigrants taking their money and all that nonsense. Plus punk bands are just fun to see.

[Kurosagi]

4 hours ago, stuie said:

I agree with all of that, pretty much. 

Regards nuclear disarmament, while Putin et al have them, so should we.

Didn't think I'd come across this kind of view on a Leftfield thread on a Glastonbury forum.

From the CND site:

"While the first ever Glastonbury Festival took place in 1970, the first Glastonbury CND festival came onstream in 1981. As Michael Eavis says in the book ‘Glastonbury 50: The Official Story of Glastonbury Festival’:

“1981 was the year I decided to join up with the CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament). I’d already been involved with them locally after somebody had found a secret bunker in the Mendip Hills which was guarded by soldiers with guns. Everyone was very worried about that; it was all top secret, but we wanted to know what was going on in our area, so we formed a local CND group in Shepton. Emily (Michael’s daughter) being born in 1979 also had a lot to do with me getting involved with the CND. I felt a great need to protect her, because she was so tiny. She really made me think, ‘I’m not going to let her get blown up by a cruise missile!’

So when it came to the 1981 Festival, I called up Bruce Kent, the CND’s general secretary who was always in the papers, and asked if they’d like to be involved. At the time our image was slightly shabby and I wasn’t totally sure the Festival was going to work. We were still losing money and the whole event hadn’t really caught on with paying customers, but I thought the CND could help.

Bruce said he liked the sound of me and invited me up to their offices in Seven Sisters Road, London to meet him. The idea was that they’d help promote us and we’d give them the proceeds and rename it the Glastonbury CND Festival. I was a bit nervous, but he said, ‘No, I love it, Michael! We’re pleased to be a part of it. I’m with you, whatever you want to do.’ I walked away thinking, ‘Oh, thank God for that!’

They had this enormous mailing list with 350,000 people on it – a fantastic target audience of the kind of people who’d be interested in the Festival – and they let us put flyers in the envelopes for free, as long as it didn’t go over the weight for the stamp. So a few weeks later, I just turned up at Castle Cary station with boxes of flyers, put them in the goods vans on the London train, and left the rest up to the CND. Now, with their help, we were getting incredible nationwide publicity for nothing, at a time when we still weren’t very well known. It was of huge value for us. The whole success of the Festival was actually down to that, I think.

That year’s Festival did really well. Thanks to the publicity we got through the CND, we suddenly had people coming down from Manchester, London, Liverpool, Cardiff, Glasgow and all over the place.”

I look forward to popping along to the first debate about the situation in Ukraine and hopefully this issue will be addressed. Is the concern about MAD in 2022 really any different from that felt by Michael in 1981 for example? Leftfield (and the origins of the festival) are about trying to work towards a better society/world. It's idealism, sure, but is self protectionism and faith in a strongman leader the answer today any more than it was 40 years ago? Don't get me wrong, I understand why people are worried with all that's kicking off at the moment, just seems to me that the debate around CND should be more not less pertinent at the moment.

[Simsy]

30 minutes ago, Kurosagi said:

I look forward to popping along to the first debate about the situation in Ukraine and hopefully this issue will be addressed. Is the concern about MAD in 2022 really any different from that felt by Michael in 1981 for example? Leftfield (and the origins of the festival) are about trying to work towards a better society/world. It's idealism, sure, but is self protectionism and faith in a strongman leader the answer today any more than it was 40 years ago? Don't get me wrong, I understand why people are worried with all that's kicking off at the moment, just seems to me that the debate around CND should be more not less pertinent at the moment.

Yeah, I don't understand it. We've got nukes and Putin is still doing whatever the fuck he likes. I don't think that's a good argument for us to keep them.

[Spindles]

I've got no upvotes left, but absolutely agree.  We need to rid the world of nuclear weapons, the misbegotten belief that holding them makes us safer is the most bizarre reversal of logic as it is the very fact that we DO hold them which makes us a potential target.

If the world events of recent months have taught us anything, surely it should be that the cold war doctrines were more hysteria and fear than they were ever reality.  The massive mechanised might of Russia we spent decades fearing has proven to be hollowed out from the inside by decades of corruption, neglect and outright theft, so why do we still believe that MAD makes us safer?  

[DeanoL]

To flip the debate around, isn't the point of campaigning for disarmament because if we don't get rid of these weapons, a mad man might get hold of them and end up causing the end of the world? 

Are we not now in the position where a mad man has nukes?

To me the current situation demonstrates exactly why disarmament was so important, and we're here because of our failure to achieve it. But I do sort of agree with those saying that, now we are here, unilateral disarmament is pointless at best and dangerous at worst.

[Florian Saucer Attack]

2 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

To flip the debate around, isn't the point of campaigning for disarmament because if we don't get rid of these weapons, a mad man might get hold of them and end up causing the end of the world? 

Are we not now in the position where a mad man has nukes?

To me the current situation demonstrates exactly why disarmament was so important, and we're here because of our failure to achieve it. But I do sort of agree with those saying that, now we are here, unilateral disarmament is pointless at best and dangerous at worst.

If the mad man fires the nuclear missiles at the UK (I'm Irish but presumably we'd be fucked too) I will in no way feel comforted by they fact Britain has retaliated by firing missiles at Russia and killing tens of millions of innocent people.

[Leyrulion]

10 hours ago, Florian Saucer Attack said:

I think it's very difficult to argue Starmer is left when labour disseminating this:

I understand they are trying to appeal to Daily Mail and Sun readers but right now the Labour leadership is not left wing 

This really interestingly illustrates the point I made earlier about the left field being part of a process for coming to a view on what the "left" is. 

Because certainly at one point in time having strong state interventions in these areas wasn't seen as an authoritarian right wing view point. In a similar way to how granting LGBT rights weren't particularly left wing then became it and are now main stream for LGB folk.

But debate amongst people means society changes, getting rid of nukes and legalising drugs are left ideas now. 

 

 

 

 

[irnkrtn]

11 hours ago, BluePaul said:

What's the point then?  Genuine question!

Mixing pop and politics? They ask him what the use is!