This evening BBC1 showed a new film written by Richard Curtis. The Girl in the Café was a rather sweet romance set at a fictional G8 summit. Richard Curtis is one of the major forces behind Make Poverty History, and this film was written to highlight the issues and their importance. I thought it did a great job. As it pointed out, “you don’t know all the facts” isn’t a rebuttal when 30,000 people are dying needlessly per day. Counter that, if you will.

I had a long paragraph here attacking the media (mainly newspapers) for the cynicism they’ve shown toward something so noble. However, I deleted it. If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say it at all; sure it’s a cliche, but I don’t see that it makes such a bad mantra.

In tonight’s film Richard Curtis called Africa a ‘casual holocaust’. I wasn’t going to be travelling anywhere next Saturday because I’m supposed to be dog-sitting. I’ll just have to sort something, though, because I’m now going to Edinburgh. Maybe it won’t do any good, but maybe, just maybe, we can.

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Incidentally, fifteen minutes ago I emailed about seat availability and I’ve just received a non-automated reply saying that seats are available and that I’ll be contacted on Monday to book. At 2345 on a Saturday. That rocks.