mark thomas played a one hour benefit to a packed room tonight at the newly occupied 'bank of ideas' building in the city

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his set included some material about the banks and the occupation movement, but mainly consisted of anecdotes and readings from three of his excellent books, "as used on the famous nelson mandela" about the arms trade, "extreme rambling" about his attempt to walk both sides of the entire length of the israeli-palestine wall, and "the people's manifesto" a collection of ideas to improve the country, some serious and many comedic.

one of my personal favourites from the manifesto book is that everyone who takes an internal short haul flight should be made to walk back.

the crowd tonight, a couple of hundred people filling the conference room, loved the manifesto idea of a maximum wage based on ten times the average wage. in this utopian world, shop stewards going to their manager asking for a pay cut would be pleaded with to take a rise instead.

the 'bank of ideas' was accessed on thursday night and is legally secured for now, with tens of thousands of square feet available for local groups to use.

a hackney youth club that lost its funding has already been invited into the space, and other groups facing cuts will be accomodated.

www.bankofideas.org.uk

www.markthomasinfo.com