Rupert's vlog - not current, see twittervlog.tv

Click to Play The next person to inspire me: Mrs Patel from our local Post Office, about to be closed down by incompetence and corruption in government and the privatised Post Office. This is today's film for the Pangea Day Nokia Mobile Filmmaking Awards. The brief is to make 2 minute films about: The next thing that makes you smile. An act of kindness. The next person to inspire you. The best part of today. They don't stipulate in the rules that it has to even be shot on a phone, never mind a Nokia, but I'm doing what I always do and shooting AND editing on my N93. Hopefully that'll give me extra brownie points with the judges! (if I get that far) Please go here to the Pangea Day channel on Ovi and give me VIEWS and COMMENTS and FAVORITES to help me out. You need to sign up for an Ovi account to comment, but if you have a spare two minutes, *please* do (also, you should upload your own)! It's only the most popular films that will get a chance to go in front of the judges. I should say that aside from the main competition at Ovi, the remarkable Mr David Howell has been appointed by Nokia to run his own Pangea Day competition at http://davidhowellstudios.com - post a link to your film in his comment section by May 2nd. ANYWAY, enough selling as for today's film... The Government are currently engaged in a disgraceful act of cultural vandalism. I believe that in 10-20 years - and beyond - they will be remembered for two things: The Iraq War, and the loss of the Post Office. For the sake of a mere £200m per year, they are closing the last remaining centre of community in thousands of towns, villages and urban neighbourhoods. This is a brief interview with Mrs Patel, who has run our Post Office for 35 years. Two posts offices within half a mile of here are closing. Seven in our Borough. We have a higher density of older and disabled people in this ward than anywhere else in the borough - people who will lose vital services. I'm glad that I'm not going to be in the country at the next election. I'd be in a real dilemma at the ballot box. I couldn't bring myself to vote Tory, but nor could I bring myself to reward the current bastards for everything they're doing. Every day, more reasons to emigrate. The Post Office issue is a classic case of everything that's wrong with a) blind Privatisation and b) our party-based representative democracy. The local MP, Andy Slaughter , who lives opposite me, was fiercely against the closure of the Post Offices. But he couldn't express that view in Parliament, where he represents us, or he'd lose his job. He was forced to vote for something he knew to be wrong, because his weak, venal party leadership had decreed it as policy. Anyway, you probably came here to watch me making my usual arse of myself, not listen to my political opinions, so I'll stfu and let you meet the lovely, inspiring, discarded Mrs Patel.