London | movie | 1994 | Official Clip
A psycho-geographic journey through London and its history, as undertaken by an unseen narrator and his companion, Robin | dG1fblRHSDNHOFlrYVU
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Short filmTranscript
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.