London | movie | 1994 | Official Clip - video Dailymotion

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A psycho-geographic journey through London and its history, as undertaken by an unseen narrator and his companion, Robin | dG1fblRHSDNHOFlrYVU

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00:00 On one side Westminster, on the other County Hall,

00:04 the former seat of London's city government,

00:07 soon to be sold to a Japanese hotel consortium,

00:10 and St Thomas' Hospital under threat of closure or amalgamation.

00:15 On the South Bank, the whole district was threatened with commercial reconstruction.

00:26 In the last year before the election, London had become a political issue.

00:31 As far as the Tories were concerned, London's self-government should be restricted

00:37 to a number of inimical local bodies as it was in the 19th century,

00:42 while the real power in the capital was carved up between themselves and their friends in the city.

00:48 (Bells toll)

00:53 It was the evening before polling day.

00:59 Robinson voted at the school in South Lambeth Road.

01:07 As a seaman, I had a postal vote which was registered in Westminster.

01:11 I expected the government would be narrowly defeated,

01:15 but Robinson did not trust the opinion polls,

01:18 which were in any case showing a last-minute drift away from Labour.

01:22 Robinson told me about his dream.

01:27 He had fallen asleep on a number 14 bus and woken up at the terminus opposite the Green Man on Putney Heath,

01:34 a place I knew only from its description in The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells.

01:42 There were a number of men hanging about, mostly van drivers, waiting for radio calls.

01:47 As soon as he got off the bus, he was gripped by a ghastly premonition.

01:58 In the bar where he had tried to calm himself,

02:02 a grinning stranger told him that in the 18th century the Green Man stood opposite a gibbet.

02:11 He woke up trembling with fear and foreboding, and could not sleep for the rest of the night.

02:16 In the evening we passed the library in Charing Cross Road,

02:24 which was the polling station for the ward in which my vote was registered.

02:29 The City Council had evidently not overlooked its opportunities to influence the choice of the voters,

02:37 although here too the seat was unlikely to change hands.

02:41 At 4 a.m. we stood on the edge of the crowd in Smith Square.

02:52 It seemed there was no longer anything a Conservative government could do to cause it to be voted out of office.

03:00 We were living in a one-party state.

03:06 It is difficult to recall the shock with which we realised our alienation

03:11 from the events that were taking place in front of us.

03:14 Robinson's first reaction was one of spleen.

03:18 There were, he said, no mitigating circumstances.

03:22 The press, the voting system, the impropriety of Tory party funding,

03:26 none of these could explain away the fact that the middle class in England

03:30 had continued to vote Conservative because in their miserable hearts

03:34 they still believed that it was in their interest to do so.

03:38 Robinson began to consider what the result would mean for him.

03:45 His flat would continue to deteriorate and its rent increase.

03:51 He would be intimidated by vandalism and petty crime.

03:55 The bus service would get worse.

03:57 There would be more traffic and noise pollution

04:00 and an increased risk of getting knocked down crossing the road.

04:03 There would be more drunks pissing in the street when he looked out of the window

04:07 and more children taking drugs on the stairs when he came home at night.

04:11 His job would be at risk and subjected to interference.

04:15 His income would decrease.

04:17 He would drink more and less well.

04:19 He would be ill more often.

04:21 He would die sooner.

04:25 For the old, or anyone with children, it would be much worse.

04:29 For London as a whole there would now be no new elected metropolitan authority.

04:35 The public transport system would degenerate into chaos

04:39 as it was deregulated and privatised.

04:42 There would be more road schemes.

04:44 Hospitals would close.

04:46 As the social security system was dismantled

04:49 there would be increased homelessness and crime.

04:52 With the police more often carrying guns.

04:55 The population would continue to decline

04:58 as those who could moved away and employers followed.

05:02 As Robinson went to work along the road that leads to Basildon

05:06 he passed the print works of the Financial Times

05:09 which had given its editorial support to Labour in the last days of the campaign.

05:14 support to Labour in the last days of the campaign.

London | movie | 1994 | Official Clip

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