Thanks to everyone who’s read along and taken part this week. We’ll be back with another live look at the week next Friday. In the meantime we’ll still be in the comments following your conversations, and will welcome any feedback or questions you may have!
Have a great weekend.
'I was 'killed' for a marketing stunt' – are you off to see Blair Witch?
It’s Friday (hoorah!) and some of you might be going to the cinema in the coming days. As a new Blair Witch Project film hits our screens, assistant opinion editor Toby Moses writes about commissioning Heather Donahue to write about her experience.
1999 may not seem that far ago – well not to those of us over 30 anyway – but much has changed, not least the ubiquity of the internet. The world wide web existed back then, although it wasn’t always with us, in our pocket, shrieking at us from our phones. It’s in that context that the hype for the original Blair Witch Project should be remembered – it’s almost inconceivable that a marketing campaign which hinges on suggesting to the public that the events contained in a horror film are real could succeed now, when a simple Google would reveal the actors’ digital footprint for all to see. Which makes Heather Donahue’s experience rather unique – star of a smash film, but in hiding so that nobody will know she is in fact an actor, and is in fact very much alive.
With the reboot out this week it was a pleasure to get her perspective on the phenomenon – and while I was never the biggest fan of the original (absolutely chilling final shot aside) it has certainly whet my appetite for this new Blair Witch.
- Do you remember the film the first time round? Perhaps you had an experience like this reader ...
You’re still discussing boundary changes below the line.
As far as boundary changes go, if they hadn't been blocked in the last Parliament then Cameron might not have felt the need to offer an EU referendum.
Otherwise they do little to alter the basic unfairness of a system where a party with less than 5% of the vote has 59 seats and the three parties with 25% have 10 seats.
As a supporter of Scottish independence I welcome the boundary review .Anything which further reduces the relevance of the Westminster parliament in Scotland and makes it even more the de facto English parliament can only be a good thing .
But it’s using a phone at the wheel that is perhaps proving most controversial.
I think people caught using mobiles while driving should be made to watch as their phone is summarily crushed roadside without any chance to salvage either data or sims. Serve em right.
Pretty much every film I've seen recently had people using mobile phones while they were driving.
Gerard Butler does it a lot.
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Pay to go to Europe? A very real possibility
One of the things Brexit might mean is Brits having to apply in advance and pay to visit the continent, as part of a little-known new visa waiver programme soon to be announced by Brussels for non-EU states that don’t require full visas. I came across this startling eventuality last week and wrote about it on the front page of Saturday’s paper.
The picture Facebook banned
— Paul johnson (@paul__johnson) September 9, 2016
Tomorrow's Guardian pic.twitter.com/ktlqou6fhf
I confess to having being ever-so-slightly nervous about this – it seemed unreal – but European law experts assured me that at the very least, it was something the government was going to have to negotiate away: post-Brexit, Britain may be a familiar and safe EU neighbour but legally it will still be a third country in the same way as, say, Turkey.
Somewhat gratifyingly, when the home secretary Amber Rudd was asked directly on the BBC about the scenario raised by my story, she confirmed the government “does not rule it out”. Then an EU law professor went into the detail, and the commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, promised in his State of the EUnion speech that the scheme would be unveiled in November.
It still seems unreal. But it’s definitely a thing ...
What have you been reading?
It may seem odd, at first, that a New York Times article would open with a diagram with a crude elephant drawn on.
But the elephant chart makes a serious point. The graphic – shared widely last week – reflects the percentage change in the income of people around the world over two decades (1988 to 2008).
Analysis by economist, Paul Krugman interprets the chart: the uppermost point (on the elephant’s back) represents the “dramatic rise” in income among the middle classes in emerging markets such as China while the tip of the elephant’s trunk is the “global elite”. Those in the dip in between – including the US lower-middle class – have not seen a rise in income.
What did you enjoy reading this week?
Here’s what some of you have been saying about mobile phone usage behind the wheel.
What do you think? Are there any acceptable reasons to use a phone whilst on the road?
Not while driving. Even hands free is dangerous imv. And as for sat nav screens - lethal.
Dialing 999 in an emergency when it's unsafe or impractical to stop, such as on a motorway, is surely an acceptable reason to use your phone and the law makes an exception for it.
I've done it as a passenger, but had I been driving without a passenger I would still have made the call- the rear bumper fell off the car in front on the M4, and I called the police to report that there was now a bumper sitting in the middle of the motorway.
Probably the only exception. Normally 999 is used where 'you' are in danger and if 'you' are hurtling down the road at *cough* miles per hour then the best thing to do is slow down and pull over.
The food desk react to the weather with some ideas
It’s no doubt misguided to be hoping that recent hot weather will reappear again, but when it comes to planning meals, what is good on a hot, hot day? A quick poll on the food desk throws up some obvious answers – tomatoes, ice-cream – and some surprises – “no beer, only cider”, and cold cooked food.
Tomatoes are as reliably satisfying as they are predictable for a sunshine spread: Rachel Roddy’s bursting cherry toms stirred through pasta are an ode to the last throes of the Italian summer, and ready in 15 minutes. Olia Hercules’s fried tomatoes with cheese, garlic and herbs are ready in less, and all the better for it. But if even 5 minutes on the hob is unthinkable, I’d opt for this Nuno Mendes salad – lots of herbs, lots of berries, very ripe tomatoes. The cold, cooked food idea works when a salad feels too flimsy, in the way that leftover pizza makes for an excellent breakfast and anything lukewarm tastes perfect when you’re eating it outdoors. We’ve a particular penchant right now for easy beans – Greek-style gigantes in tomato sauce (Food52 has the goods here), Roddy’s chickpeas and chard or her white beans and wilted greens – served the day after, with a drizzle of olive oil, a pinch of salt and a squeeze of lemon.
As for drinks, whether it’s with cider, beer or bubbles, the consensus was the need for salt: Felicity Cloake’s cheese straws, MizPepperpot’s anchovy, cheese and pinenut biscuits or Jack Monroe’s savoury anchovy toasts will do you well. Ottolenghi does a mean roasted almond – with lemon and sage – and then there’s Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s pissaladière – garlic, onions, anchovies, capers; bliss.
The kind of weather many [but not all!] of us have been having in the UK this week though does basically call for just one thing: ice-cream. Although not necessarily of the homemade variety, which involves more effort than a lazy day or a hot evening can be bothered with. For shopbought ice-cream hacks, there’s Ottolenghi’s beauty of a chocolate sauce – two ingredients only – and his even simpler raspberry bash. Food52’s convenient 16 Ways to Fancy Up Store-Bought Ice-Cream – all espresso shots, toasted cake and heated honey, sandwiches, floats and melting marshmallows – though is a fittingly go-all-out, throwing-caution-to-the-wind approach to what might just be your last chance at eating in the sun.
Anything grab your fancy? What have you got planned for dinner?
Your perspectives on gentrification
Some of you are getting stuck into the question we posed earlier – can gentrification be a good thing?
Living in a gentrified place (and indeed having contributed by building what turned out to be the anchor building) I find it a double-edged thing.
My social ilk does not really life here now - individualists, leftfield and such. Fewer designers, small businesses, development consultants etc. So it's made me a bit isolated amongst a sea of corporate heterormativity.
Cycling through the first district I lived in a decade ago yesterday, I'm amazed how much it's changed. It's well located but quite urban. A decade ago we were a socially mixed group of people about town doing our projects and going to evening classes and running social groups and such.
Now it's a sea of new apartments (plus renovation of the rest), families, nurseries, ice cream parlours, Luxembourg car plates on overly large vehicles......
Gentrification - aka a nice way of ripping people off. If you don't mind paying 7 euros for museli in a Kilner jar with a Kumquat on top then fine. That, along with "vintage" is all you need to know.
Mobile phone use by motorists is on the rise
It will come as no surprise to most road users that according to a survey by the RAC, 31% of motorists admitted to using a handheld phone behind the wheel compared with 8% in 2014.
7% of those who admitted using a mobile while driving said they did it because they knew they would get away with it.
In an article published earlier this week, RAC road safety spokesman Pete Williams said: “It is alarming to see that some drivers have clearly relaxed their attitudes to the risks associated with this behaviour but more worrying is the increase in the percentage of motorists who actually admit to using a handheld device when driving.
- What do you think? Are there any acceptable reasons to use a phone whilst on the road?
From the archive – a pre prime-ministerial David Cameron
After his legacy was again in the spotlight due to him resigning as an MP this week, our archive thought it might be a good idea to have a look at how we saw David Cameron in the run up to his leadership.
Schooldays pictures became a common sight on articles about the prime minister. Do we recognise any of those other faces?
This week readers were pretty scathing on his legacy – what do you think?
Question of the week: what is the real impact of gentrification?
Introducing a new series, the editor of Guardian Cities looks at an issue affecting many people around the world.
One thing we know from working on Guardian Cities is that the issue of urban gentrification is always complicated, and always emotive. Washington DC, subject of this week’s beautiful, highly personal essay by Uzodinma Iweala, is a case in point.
The story of the downtown city’s revival is sometimes expressed glibly as a kind of urban miracle, with “no-go zones” transforming to the height of hip in next to no time. But such statements do nothing to capture the complexity of what’s happening at the heart of the US capital, in terms of racial make-up, human displacement, class divides, and shifting cultural beats.
We have long wanted to understand this changing city better. Uzodinma – DC-born author of the highly acclaimed Beasts of No Nation – has given us that chance, with all the nuances, contradictions and acute social observations this subject demands.
Guardian Cities is about to kick off a whole week of reporting and discussions on the impact of gentrification on cities around the world. We’d love to hear your experiences of how it has affected you and your city: share your thoughts in the comments below or on Twitter @guardiancities.
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A quick bit of breaking news, Diane James has been elected leader of Ukip.
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As ever, some talk of lunch below the line ...
I made myself a lovely refreshing Salade Niçoise to celebrate the balmy warm weather we've been having, woke up this morning to find it both decidedly cool and pissing down with rain, suppose I should probably have checked the forecast beforehand
What filling was in your sandwich?
My lunch today was not spectacular.
I had to resort to a Tesco meal deal because I'd taken too long getting my dry cleaning and I was rapidly running out of lunch break.
The sandwich was dry, flavourless and you can fully understand why it's in a £3 meal deal offer. But I had Fiery Hot Monster Munch to save it from total disaster.
We’ll soon have some tips from our food desk – stay tuned.
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Is this the portrait of the year?
Our arts correspondent wrote about the Taylor Wessing photography prize shortlist, announced this week Below are some more of his thoughts.
If this image of a Californian surfer dude and his girlfriend was in colour and had been taken using a normal, modern camera people would probably not look twice at it.
Instead it’s hard to take your eyes away. It’s such an arresting image, taken by New York photographer Joni Sternbach, and is in contention for the 2016 Taylor Wessing prize. Sternbach uses processes used in 19th century early photography to give images a strangely disorientating look. Two other photographers are shortlisted: Kovi Konowiecki for his series on Orthodox Jews around the world; and Claudio Rasano for a student in his school uniform. They are all powerful images but for me Sternbach’s stands out.
- Click here to have a look at the other shortlisted images. What’s your favourite?
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Readers are sharing the wildlife on their doorstep
Each week we like to highlight one of the photography assignments run through GuardianWitness. Sticking with that environmental theme picked up below by George Monbiot, I’ve been looking at some of the amazing images of the wildlife readers around the world have photographed.
Below are a couple of recent favourites.
Jiminy Cricket
in the garden. Farmington Utah
You can share yours by clicking on the blue GuardianWitness buttons at the top of the page.
Just a couple more perspectives on the boundary changes here
Basildon is a prime example of the failure to represent communities. The boundary proposals sees the town split three ways, and then joined with unassociated parts of neighbour towns in order to achieve the magic 75,000 or close to. Indeed this makes worse the similar carves up of previous reviews that have seen any hint of 'non-tory' voting wards split from each other and joined with wards that heavily 'do the right thing'!
But with this review even wards are proposed to be split so errant polling districts can be moved out to preserve the number of Tory seats.
Move over into neighbouring Castle Point and find the Castle has been moved into Southend West - so now there is just the 'Point'!
How are MPs supposed to represent their community when the constituencies divide communities, even divide streets simply to make the electoral map remain as blue as possible.
Of course, Welwyn and Hatfield escapes unscathed as the multiple personality MP there cannot be in anyway attacked without massive reprisals.
Are we the media to blame?
What's really the problem is that the media are overwhelmingly biased in favour of the Tories, most of the papers are owned by one wealthy man, and TV is often obsessed with the same wealthy elite. If people voted in their own best interest then Labour would win many more seats than they currently do. It is only who controls the thoughts of the voters that matters.
George Monbiot answers readers' questions
Elsewhere on the site this morning George Monbiot was live and answering questions on environmental issues.
I was fascinated to read his perspectives, particularly after seeing his blog this week titled ‘We’d never kill an albatross or gorilla: but we let others do it on our behalf’.
The piece was a stark look at human selfishness and included some shocking pictures taken by Chris Jordan on Midway Atoll of albatross corpses rotting away to reveal the rubbish they contain.
Your reaction was particularly interesting: can articles like this change our behaviour?
Some people will never get it. Their world begins and ends with themselves.
A depressing realisation - but I don't want to go out of this world leaving it worse than when I arrived. So I'll try to make an improvement. As the old Victorian hymn said - you in your small corner, and I in mine.
Anyone care to join in?
Hi George - you are indefatigable and a source of inspiration for many, including me. Thanks for your vital work.
My theory of change is that we have to learn about, publicise, encourage and experiment with, then propagate widely, radically more accountable ways of doing government. People generally, acting together through mechanisms such as participatory budgets or citizens' assemblies chosen by lot - are far wiser than elites chosen by elections. Everything stems from this - not least the accepted lunacy mindset that locks us into policies of economic growth versus stable-state economies.
Without changing our disastrously dysfunctional governments - and very rapidly too - we are doomed as a species.
- What do you think? Tell us in the comments
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Here are some more of your comments on boundary changes.
As for the boundary changes, I think (though I haven't looked at the detailed maths) that there is some truth in the assertion that Labour have had an historic advantage, and these proposals will level the playing field. It's a blow for Labour that this has hit them at the same time as their wipe-out in Scotland, but really, isn't it all a distraction. The whole electoral system needs reform. The main parties get a disproportionate number of seats for the votes they receive - some form of PR or hybrid PR is long overdue imv.
Nah, Labour cries every time because that's what every opposition party that's about to lose seats will do. I believe Conservatives already have to win fewer votes per seat anyway, the reason the polling average favours Labour is precisely because they have far too much support in areas where they don't need it and lesser support where they need it. This is why even Labour leads would lead to Conservative Majorities. Hardly favouring Labour.
Even last election, even allowing for the polls to be out 1-2%, a Conservative Victory is by a far greater margin than by actual numbers. It's the UKIP+Conservative vote combined that is much higher and underrepresented but not actual party vote of Tories
Do add yours below.
Do you agree with this commenter?
Labour always makes these complaints about gerrymandering every time a Boundary Commission review comes up, because it removes the accumulated distortion in Labour's favour as populations move out of the inner cities.
Boundary changes on the agenda
Controversial proposals by the boundary commissions dominated politics earlier this week, the Guardian’s joint political editor explains.
In Westminster this week, it has been less Brexit and more boundaries on the agenda for many MPs. Monday saw proposals for sweeping changes to the electoral map that will see over 500 politicians across England and Wales having their constituencies redrawn. Northern Ireland has already had its plans put forward, with Scotland’s due soon.
The policy, which was first put on the table by David Cameron, and then taken up by Theresa May, aims to reduce the number of MPs in Westminster from 650 to 600, to cut the cost of politics. But it also aims to equalise the number of people on the electoral register in each seat, a shift that will be to the Conservative’s advantage, with Labour losing 23 seats in total.
The party of government claims that the move fixes an inherent imbalance that has favoured Labour for decades. Labour believe it is a barefaced gerrymander.
The Boundary Commissions have stressed that these are initial proposals, and a major exercise in questioning the decisions by MPs is likely to result in dramatic changes between now and 2018 when the Commissions will put forward their final plans.
Will they pass a vote of parliament? Only if May can ease concerns on her own backbenches, where some 17 seats are due to abolished, the same number as her working majority.
- What do you think? Are you based in one of the constituencies that will change? Tell us in the comments
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Welcome to this week's Guardian Social
Hello and welcome to another weekly Guardian Social, a place for you to discuss the week as it happened. We’ll highlight some of the stories we’ve enjoyed over the past seven days, with journalists explaining a little bit about how they came to be and their background (including our joint political editor on those proposed boundary changes). But most importantly we want to hear from you. What did you enjoy? Have you spotted something elsewhere you think we should be talking about?
As well as posting in the comments you can fill out our form if you have specific questions for Guardian journalists – we’re hoping to answer some of them here today.
See you in the comments!
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Watched it in the cinema, thought it was okay but nothing special.
Went home to bed. Was still awake at 4am. Every sound in the flat seemed deafening! I spent the night cowering under my blankets listening to every creak and groan of the building.
That's never happened with any other film before or since.