To Scotland on the eve of the referendum to take part in a Channel 4 debate with Jon Snow presenting. Yes and No are neck and neck. The possibility of Yes makes me think that this referendum is the most important event of my whole life. The potential ramifications could lead to change – and change has never before been needed so much as now in the whole history of the human race.
We won in the studio, okay. But?
Laura and I sit drinking in our hotel and a couple of guests join in an interesting conversation. Next morning we leave early and I’ve put so much care and thought into this possible event that I don’t care now about the verdict. Drained. Later, after No wins, I do care, thinking wouldn’t it have been great! I guess I had prepared myself before, that something so good might more likely not come about.
Alex Salmond is a real hero. The funniest reason given for voting No was: ‘How do we know that if Scottish politicians win they won’t turn out as bad as the ones in Westminster?’ The Yes vote won on social media and with young people. It won’t go away.
SUN 21 SEPT CLIMATE MARCH IN LONDON
Climate March from Temple Embankment to Parliament. I was at the front of the march (organised mostly by Avaaz) with Peter Gabriel, Emma Thompson and Peter Tatchell. Many colleagues from our company came. Thank you to Cindy and Peppe for organising this and the placards. By the time I gave my (same) speech the people still at Temple hadn’t even set off. Estimated number: 40,000. Next time we should do it in Hyde Park – more camaraderie.
Models at our Red Label show wore Yes badges for Scottish independence.
I was marching alongside Kye Gbangbola, whose legs were paralysed; he was being pushed in a wheelchair by his wife, Nicole. Their son, Zane, died the night that water containing hydrogen cyanide gas flooded their home during the February floods in England. It also destroyed Kye’s nerves and caused his paralysis. It is quite well known but I hadn’t heard about it. The authorities had agreed the dumping of this cyanide in a nearby landfill. The government have avoided responsibility and offered no explanation or help. We should think about government behaviour towards Zane when we consider that they are trying to impose fracking upon us when all the evidence says that all fracking inevitably poisons water, ground and air.
WEDS 24 – SAT 27 SEPT GOLD LABEL SHOW: END ECOCIDE
To Paris on Wednesday for our Gold Label on Saturday. The theme is ‘End Ecocide’. The show was well received and, of course, I liked it a lot. We stayed in Paris a couple of days, which was nice. Yasmine’s little shop has officially opened. Apart from her job as a stylist, she designs her underwear – Yasmine Eslami. Such fragile/tough, pretty things. Andreas and I love her so much, always laughing.
We went to an exhibition at the Jaquemart-Andre museum: Perugino. Quite wonderful. And because Perugino inspired Raphael, there was also work by Raphael – and Raphael’s painting is even deeper. I can’t believe how anything can go that far, but he does. Andreas was suddenly adamant: ‘Nobody, nobody can draw like Raphael.’
OCTOBER 2014
THURS 2 OCT TRUE WEST AT THE TRICYCLE
Invited by director Phillip Breen to the Tricycle Theatre, Kilburn, to see True West, a play from the 1970s by Sam Shepherd. Andreas and I enjoyed going on the tube, then walking up into Kilburn High Street. I don’t think I’ve ever walked there before. Just different that’s all. A lady who got off the train with us recognised me by my conker necklace which she had seen me wearing on TV the eve of the Scottish referendum. She said that she had wanted Scotland to stay in the UK but she changed her mind because ‘All those people really want their own government. Don’t think of us. Yes. Do it!’
The play was fab. It showed up the shit in the American dream. As relevant today as in the 1970s. What a great writer! Preposterous plot – madly unpredictable. Set – a kitchenette and a blue sky. Acting – Whew! Eugene O’Hare. Thanks Phillip. Tragic!
MON 6 – TUES 7 OCT LAUNCH OF THE BIOGRAPHY
On Monday, Ian Kelly invited us to the Doodle Bar for drinks and lovely cakes he’d made for us that morning. He wanted to thank all our staff for helping him with the biography. The launch was the next day at Mark’s Club. Picador stuck our ‘Map/Rot$’ leaflet into the front of the books and it will be included in the reprints. I so much wish I’d thought of it in time for English and German editions. Cover portrait of me is by Juergen. The whole feel is of an important book.
I’m so happy to see so many friends. Can’t thank them all individually so I pick on Jerry (Hall) for my speech and talk about her in particular to let them know they’re all as smashing as her. Jerry is the perfect hostess. She makes everybody feel special and we’re already looking forward to her Thanksgiving dinner party. Told everyone how she pretended I was more important than her when she first modelled for Andreas and me, answering the excited press ‘My husband got me the job’ (Mick asked me at a party). She put perfume on first and went barefoot on the catwalk to show off a dress full of twirling chiffon frills and nearly dislocated her arm to get in and out of a dress when the zip jammed (if you’d have seen her!). We’ve all had a great fashion time.
WEDS 8 OCT NAOMI KLEIN IN OXFORD
To Oxford with Cynthia to meet Naomi Klein, who is giving a talk about her new book, This Changes Everything. Naomi has asked me to introduce her to the audience. We have been communicating because we share the same concern for urgent action to save the planet. I am very interested in the film that Naomi’s husband, Avi Lewis, is finishing, which has a parallel message to that of the book: that tackling climate change will force us to create a better world, the world we want. The film highlights peoples who are already doing this. The only way to stop global warming is to rethink the way we relate to each other. Everybody needs to change. Right now there are the oppressed and the 1 per cent oppressors.
FRI 10 OCT JOYCE DIDONATO IN ALCINA
Andreas and I go to see the opera diva Joyce DiDonato in Handel’s Alcina at the Barbican. It is a concert performance, which means that the singers wear their own clothes and the orchestra is on stage. We have designed Joyce’s evening gown.
Alcina is a witch who has charmed the hero, Ruggiero, to live with her on her island where she has turned people into animals. His beloved turns up to rescue him, disguised as a man. The other characters use this situation to further their own love interest. This silly scenario provides the opportunity for – limits everything to – the expression of human emotions.
Joyce’s dress is perfect for the part. It’s a dark sea green, almost anthracite, a brocade with a fish scale motif outlined in silver. The dress is asymmetrical and one side of the décolleté sticks up in a vicious point whilst the hem points up and down. The costume comes in three parts: in the first act Alcina’s power is intact and she has enormous stiff puffed sleeves strapped on top, and below the jagged hem froths a tulle petticoat; as she begins to lose her power in the second act, she is more exposed and the sleeves are off; in the third act the petticoat is gone and she stamps around in boots. Joyce’s hair is really something else, the back and sides are cut to half an inch and the top is a stand-up hedge five inches high.
Joyce Di Donato sings Alcina in our evening gown.
TUES 14 – WEDS 15 OCT BIOGRAPHY INTERVIEWS
I have agreed to do several interviews in order to help promote my biography: Rolling Stone, Woman’s Hour, Guardian, and a Radio 3 Private Passions interview with Michael Berkeley.
I enjoyed talking to all the interviewers. I liked them. Deborah Orr was particularly supportive. But then I was with her the longest. She is dry and funny and clever. What I hadn’t realised – and this came out in all the interviews – was that my reason for doing everything throughout my life is just the same as it is now: I want to understand the world for its own sake and also to use this knowledge to make things better and then everyone can have the same chance as me. I’m glad I was born in the country and I love the seasons and the English climate. I’m glad that in those days children were not spoilt and distract
ed with consumer goods. So that later I had the discipline to cultivate my deep interest and become an art lover.
THURS 16 OCT JACK SHEPPARD
To Joe’s shop opening – Jack Sheppard – in Charing Cross Road. It is named after the Clerkenwell criminal (see p.245), a hero of the poor, hanged aged twenty-two. Joe’s done a marvellous job. Everything he touches is done with care and love and this is how he makes a business. What he loves most about the shop is that he’s found a way to make all the clothes in England. He has his own little workshop, a factory up north, that would have closed but for of the Pakistani workmen taking it over, and a factory belonging to a Jewish friend’s cousin in the East End. This man explained to me that he is fourth generation and though the skill base no longer exists amongst the English he is able to continue with workers whose countries were once behind the Iron Curtain. The clothes are really nicely made and Joe searches out deleted stocks of fabrics and invents uses for all the offcuts. The fabrics give real character.
At the opening I met Edward Tudor-Pole (Tenpole Tudor) who gigged with the Sex Pistols and was in The Great Rock’n’Roll Swindle. We wrote a song together, ‘Who Killed Bambi?’. He still writes and performs. I gave him a Map/Rot$ leaflet as an idea for a song.
Re my own business: to live sustainably requires a symbiotic relation with Gaia and her eco-system. We can see this is possible in farming if we try to produce what is good for us to eat and waste nothing. Then Gaia’s on our side. I am trying to do this with my fashion company. It’s maxim is ‘Quality versus Quantity’ (Q v. Q) At the moment we have too much quantity and I am trying to control expansion. The idea is value for money, fair wages, full use of raw materials. The work is labour intensive providing development of skills and pride of achievement in the resulting quality. We offer real choice.
Joe’s shop, detail.
THURS 23 OCT PRINCE PHILIP AND RUSSELL BRAND
Duke of Edinburgh Awards, St James Palace. I’ve agreed to take part because I’m a fan of the Royal Family, especially Prince Charles.
Prince Philip, at the age of 93, still each day does three events (visits charities, functions, groups, workshops). This is his favourite. Young people have to do really important, empowering stuff to achieve the bronze, silver and gold awards. Nearly a quarter of a million have won gold this year and since the charity began there have been many millions throughout the world. I had no idea what an important role they wanted me to play until I got there. I was one of four presenters, each in different rooms and each with a hundred gold achievers and their families. I had to shake hands and give a hundred young people their certificate.
I had taken my leaflets and hoped to give some out. I spoke to a young woman, Laura, and she told me to speak to Paul, the master of ceremonies, whose full-time job is to look after these awards. I said, ‘They’re rather against the government.’ He said that if I gave them to him then we could tell people to get them from him.
The speech I gave was ‘End Capitalism’: the same information as in the pamphlet, emphasising the need to transfer to a green economy and that young people could change everything by campaigning through social media, demonstrating on the streets and acting now. Urgent! Name capitalism as the problem. I might have even told them to vote Green. The young people loved it, and their schoolteachers and families. They all relaxed and felt that our world was inclusive, that you could say everything you wanted here in the palace. They thanked me and I was so pleased how deeply concerned they were. Paul told them my speech had been life-changing. That wasn’t his exact phrase but that’s what he said.
In the evening Cynthia and I went to listen to Russell Brand’s Guardian Talk with Owen Jones. You know I don’t follow the normal media much but I do know that Russell’s got eight million followers on Twitter and that he tells them not to vote (I don’t agree with tactical voting – voting for the lesser of two evils – but I would vote for the Greens if I had the opportunity). He was on the panel of the People’s Assembly and said, ‘We have to dismantle capitalism to save the environment.’ What’s great is that he attacks capitalism and our government head on. He’s right and I think the government are the ones who are naive.
Cynthia and I are considering supporting the Green Party and so I’m interested to know if he’s got any other ideas on how to get a government that helps the earth and its people. Though we believe it would make a big difference if young people did vote Green, there doesn’t seem much chance in encouraging them if he’s against it – because of his influence. He said, ‘The reason I don’t vote is the same reason I don’t eat glitter: there’s no point!’ I agree with him completely and that’s why people feel we don’t have democracy.
Owen did his best to put the case for voting Green and Russell said, ‘You can, I won’t.’ He said he tries to augment things: e.g. joining the women who refused to be evicted from their council houses so the government can profit. I decided to ask a question. I would have liked to argue with him about voting but that’s not a question. So I asked what he’s going to do to bring on the Climate Revolution. He said we should all do our bit, me my bit, him – his, and everybody theirs and join together – do things with others. He’s so intense about doing this. But I say we have to do more. The danger is too urgent.
WEDS 29 OCT WHAT SHOULD I SAY TO BAN KI-MOON?
Every 24 hours I’m thinking how I can be the most effective in getting us all to fight climate change. Thank God everybody’s talking about it. But governments all over the world are pushing us to the edge of the cliff and we have to stop them. Everything they say is rubbish. Everything they do is wrong.
Last night I talked on the phone with my friend Paul. I wanted to ask him about the UN. Reason: I have been offered the opportunity to talk to Ban Ki-moon, person to person for half an hour. But I have to fly to Vienna. I feel I should have a clear idea of what I would like to ask of him. Paul is an artist and a gardener and I consider him a political philosopher. He searches out information so as to form an opinion of what can be done for the better. He seems to remember everything.
I asked him about the American veto which makes the UN toothless. He gave me two examples: since the 1970s every country in the world opposes Israeli aggression in Palestine yet every call for action by the UN assembly is sabotaged by the American veto. In South Africa, finally America agreed with world opinion and lifted their veto and it was only then that apartheid ended. Yet I do know that the UN does good work and is respected. It runs the ‘Work not Aid’ project and our Africa bag project is linked to this. I think the UN was able to protect Edward Snowden at one point. How much power to influence has Ban Ki-moon?
I went to bed not knowing if I should go or not. I should go anyway for a sponsored event, because we designed a carpet against human trafficking, which Ban Ki-moon is attending. But I don’t travel unless I have to and can’t make up my mind if I ought to go.
As often as not I wake up in the middle of the night for two or three hours. Being awake is not a problem for me because I don’t have to be at work so early. I have a lot on my mind and lying there one thought leads to another. I have been learning German and I was remembering new words: schwierig means ‘difficult’ and I put it into the sentence, ‘These are difficult days’. This combined with my worries re the need for urgent action against climate change gave me the obvious solution as to what to ask Ban Ki-Moon. I will tell him my worries and see what he can do. Would he please keep telling everyone it’s urgent!?
There is a swelling river against capitalism. In the words of Russell Brand, ‘We must dismantle capitalism to save the environment.’ To save the environment we must convert to green energy. Now! Governments are hanging onto capitalism and that’s why they impose austerity. [At this point everyone is suddenly talking about capitalism; me, too. But there is some confusion. We are not talking about small business but about monopoly capitalism/neoliberalism/Rot$.]
Well I didn’t work out what to ask Ban Ki-moon straight away. I woke up
with two words – urgent and capitalism. And so worried. There is so much protest and as people make the connections this protest will rise, but the urgency is still not strong enough. I was supposed to be getting ready to leave for work but I kept messing about – worrying. Finally I did half an hour of yoga and that fixed me. After that I took the words, ‘These are difficult days’ and made a kind of poem.
It was noon when I got to work. We had lunch: salad – lettuce, cooked beetroot, egg and walnuts; dressing – garlic, lemon, oil. I always take my raw food to work for lunch. The secret of a good diet (and staying slim) is to prepare your own food whenever possible.
I sent my leaflet to Ban Ki-moon so he can read it before I see him. The rest of the day I refused to be interrupted and managed to finish the plan for the allocation of fabrics for Red Label. I was pleased to add my ‘poem’ to a print and also use my culture heart scribble as placed embroidery. The need for true culture (not consumption) is half of my activism. At the end of the day I was happy.
FRI 31 OCT THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS
Evening. Garrick Theatre: The Scottsboro Boys. My friend Bruno Wang invited me and my friend Giselle. He comes from a family of investors and he is not political, but I think everybody needs to be political right now. I give him my leaflet. He has something to do with investing in this musical. It is a famous true story of nine poor black boys, the youngest thirteen, who were hobos in the 1930s, looking for work and free-riding the railroad. Then they were charged with rape and given the death sentence (though that didn’t happen due to public outcry). The story is presented as a minstrel show. They are wonderful people – victims yet heroes – and the macabre presentation helps you deal with your emotions.
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