Meet the neighbours

This morning I went out early to get some bread for my lunch sandwich. Feeling posh I decided to walk up to M&S in Hampstead Heath and get a loaf from the shop as apposed to my local across the road. Although it's a walk its is a normal thing for me and I imagine a lot of people who live near. The interesting part though is how different the area that surrounds Hampstead Heath is and yet how close it is to where I live. The walk takes about 15 minutes and I step across my road - a busy one - and pass through a council estate into Gospel oak territory. Across another busy road at the Oak and I then start to assend into Hampstead where the red brick houses adorn the leafy streets. The street I used today was interesting - one of many routes I could have taken. Outside a few of the houses were skips - full to the brim with plasterboard, wood and various nik-nacks that catch my eye like a magpie to a quality street wrapper. Beautiful old chairs, bicycle wheels, records, a chest of drawers... these are but a few items i have pinched from skips in this area over the last year. A few more oldy-woldy roads and I am at Southend Green - the back end to the home of London's ancient heartland: Hampstead Heath. This area is special to me for many reasons but mainly so because it looks like London of the past. There's the book shop as immortalised by a bored Orwell in Keep the Aspidistra Flying, the old clock tower and and a few old pubs and cafes. Further up towards the Heath and you are literally in 1920s London. This is old London, its also posh London, which brings me to the point of this entry - you can go from poverty to extreme wealth in 10 minutes in this city. A lot of people take the bus or worse still the tube, but if you cycle or walk you will be amazed at what you will see. Bussing and cycling let you see London in its glory but walking slows everything right down. You are there in the dirt of it all - or in the freshly swept streets if walking in Hampstead. M&S - I wont go into it - but if you ever find yourself there, its an experience that will last. The clientele are delightful.

My walk back home really brings it home. A different road takes me down Fleet Road (named after the River that once flowed from the Heath and emptied into the Thames) and into Mansfield Road. Social housing everywhere here. A few hundred metres and I decide to head towards Queen Crescent Market - one of the oldest in London - for some loo roll. You wouldn't guess it's one of the oldest markets. The street is coarse, as are (at first glance) the people. Immigration has played its toll on this once idyllic market and you are miles away from the 'White' Hampstead heath and the tourist trap Camden market, even though both are very close. This street is a mix of old residents that have passed their stalls and shops down the family, generation to generation and Indian Pakistani, Somalian and Jamaican shop owners. I realise now that prefer this street. Its where I live, love and understand more. Strangely I nod and wave to some of the people that always seem to be here. The fruit stall man deosnt mind if you pay next time and the hardware chap has everything in that small shop. Its not all Eastenders down here but you feel that this is the real London where most live on or around the minimum wage, have little hope (or desire) of moving away or up the social ladder.

My walk this morning has stayed with me all day purely because I walked it. Within that short walk I saw the two sides of the coin and realised that equality and the road to it is long.

Im a feminist and so is my wife.

Its been almost a year since my last update and a lot has changed politically, socially, economically - in my life and everyone elses. One thing however has become clearer and clearer in my life and my view on society and that is that there is a massive unspoken inequality between men and women. I chose my words carefully here but like most ideals that one holds close to ones heart - it is difficult to explain. Unspoken is the word i chose. I was cycling down Kentish Town road today and i found myself stuck behind the 134 bus. On the back of that bus i found an advert by the European Commission on behalf of gender equality in the work place. Eqaul pay for equal work - enshrined in the EU treaty (lisbon) and various other forms of secondary legislation. Fair enough I thought, its about time this found its way to the worlds stage (the back of a bus). My day continued and throughout that it I saw and heard different forms of gender inequality but it all came to a head when i watched a politics update via the daily politics show where my names-sake (David Davis, con) failed to grasp the social policy brought forward by labour. here i witnessed Davies and Charles kennedy talk endlessly and interupt the labour MP and former cabinet member caroline Flint. Presenter and idiot exrodinaire, Andrew Neil, also interupted flint and his fellow female host to say whatever he could. My main point here is a rather feeble one at first glance: men rule the foreground (i believe they do so in politics, arts, literature, science etc) and hardly ever let women share the discourse. More than this though I argue that even when men think or believe they are feminists or believe in equality they still continue in a vulgar way by interrupting and grimacing in whatever the woman says. This is the unspoken equality - we should not fear the people who dont believe in equality... no, no ,no... we should fear those who believe they understand equality and yet still tread all over it.

Many issues have gripped me in the run up to the election but the issue that engages me most is that politics (just like literature, the arts, science, law et al) is still dictated by men for men and until those men (and women) who feel they are beleivers in feminism act rather than just believe, we're all doomed. Sam Cam, Sarah Brown and the spanish bird - i am looking at you but more impportantly i am looking at your men - how can they believe inequality when they still treat you like objects?

More to follow soon.