Coal Not Dole At The Kings Place

The great thing about my 'day job' is that I get to go out of my shop on the Charing Cross Road and work at off-site events. Today, i spent a day at a conference that was promoting entrepreneurship and leadership building. This would normally be the type of thing that i would frantically try and think of a excuse to get out of. But, today I was at Kings Place which is the arts centre that is linked to the offices of The Guardian so whenever I get to go here I live out some journalistic fantasies about being discovered in the newsroom and having a camera thrust into my hand and told to go out and get a story. I blame it on watching too many Howard Hawks films

Alongside the event was a wonderful photo exhibition of the work of documentary photographer Keith Pattinson and his inspiring but heartbreaking portfolio of the 1984/85 Miners Strike I thought there was a nice juxtaposition between the leftovers of a three course lunch that had been enjoyed by delegates and the photos of the hardships that miner and their families dealt with on a daily basis for almost a year. I would hate to see such situation arise again where the police of this country are used as a political tool to enforce an unpopular government decision. Oh, right well yes we'll forget about that one then.