Ice and loathing in Cheshire.

So it's winter. Yep definitely winter.

What with the snow, the cold, the ice and most importantly the misery guts complaining about all the above. Sadly I appear to be getting a bit old as I have mumbled a bit over the weather. This however is mostly because I am cycling home 4 nights a week (over 6 miles, taking 1 hour plus). On Wednesday I had a bit of a shock. Left the house for work, got about 60 yards up the road and... My back tire was so flat that the inner tube was sticking out! Unfortunately I had no back up plan for getting home and no time to arrange one before I set off. So I hopped on the bus to work, at this point I was panicking a little, but thank the gods I still had money left over from payday. So taxi home it was, only cost £12, which turned out very nice because I got home in about 20mins (including waiting time). If it wasn't for the fact that It would take about half my wages I'd do it every night.

For the next bit of this blog to make sense to those who only know me through my pop art and sticker work, I need to explain a little about my past. I am a child of the 1980's (1981 to be exact). Very much so. My mother had me whilst she was quite young and as such ended up being unemployed at the start of the decade. Which to anyone who knows about the 80s and 'Thatchers millions' meant that she stayed unemployed throughout the decade. And has such been unemployed to the point of now being unemployable. This means that I spent my childhood in a benefits dependent household (my father having left, a blessing really alcoholic waste of space).
As such I have an intense hatred and loathing for the conservative party in all it's guises. Mainly due to the fact that almost every policy change they have made has led to a decrease to the quality of my life from birth onwards. In fact it is only due to some heavy manoeuvring on my mothers part that has stopped me from being homeless, malnourished, in care and generally uneducated like so many children of my generation from poor families.
When the Labour party rose to power in 1997 I was ecstatic, gleeful and generally hopeful. Only to have many hopes crushed by the Tory-light style of governance and general arse kissery to America. Still I had faith that the Labour party was better than the alternative. I personally think that Mr Brown handled the situation he was left with admirably. Certainly the short term recover from the financial crises that this country has sustained since thee last election are the result of his policies rather than the glory snatchers in parliament now.
When the last election came round I sincerely believed that the British populace would not be stupid enough to vote the Tories back into power; And to a degree I was correct. However I was deeply shocked by the coalition arrangement that is in power now. I have always held that the best government would be the Lib Dems in power with a Labour opposition (where they are most effective) and the Tories in minority. Now however I have totally lost faith in the Liberal Democrats and truly believe that they will not get into power after this term for a very long time.

So a short history lesson, but why you ask? And the answer links directly back into what I have been doing over the last few weeks. When I first started using stencils I did so for the purpose of making a statement. I have such been seduced by the pop-art side. Don't get me wrong I love making the pop-art stencils and have no intentions of stopping. However I do intend to re-immerse myself in the political side of stencil making. And as such have produced a series of stencils to go on the streets. I am also encouraging people to use my designs themselves (even make their own designs), I am not doing this for my own aggrandizement. This is about raising awareness and opening eyes.
To all interested here is the full set of stencils so far ConDem.

For those around the UK, keep an eye open for these hitting the streets ;)

Till later Kiwi xx