People are not interested in what other people think. It annoys them. This style of writing is annoying. For no one has the right to make assertions of any kind. Well, they have the right, but it just isn't good etiquette. Permission is the new etiquette. The idea that it is OK to ignore people's pain is just as valid as the idea that we should help others. The only difference is that a majority takes the subjective and wholly unconnected personal decision to do the latter. When badness or happens in a group, its just one almighty coincidence. Do not suggest that something transcendent is at play. Not if you want to piss off the Beavis and Butthead, clever-clever-kickthegranny generation.

Your closet friend would stab you in the back. Or not. Either choice is equally ok.

At the Edinburgh Festival. The best those who were succeeding gave their 'friends' was indifference and ignorance. And a corridor-passing, measured smile of regal niceness. How is your show doing - please don't answer that. Please die in your own space. Do not infect us with too much of your pain. The lack of eye contact was shocking.

People who once 'reclaimed the streets' supped their Nescafe and longed for a Perrier, made use of Gate’s Windows 2000, and enjoyed the thrill of competition, of beating others - a good word for it is a kind of psychic version of physical beating. This land is mine! Get off it! If you must stay close, then stay away from me - and my friends. Occupy the ditches (known as afternoon studio theatres).
I speak as someone who walked away from Edinburgh with some good feedback and two good reviews. I do not have a personal axe to grind. I have a successful growing business and what I would call a loving family and good friends.

There will be a need to attack this. Clever words and buzz phrases will be brought out, in the true spirit of Alan Winner. Alan

is a true mirror. We often characterise people's genuine struggle as whinging and whining. We love to summarise people's complexity is one word, often loaded with a sharp knife. The aim is to rubbish anyone who claims knowledge or experience of anything beyond their own personal boundaries. We love to preserve and visit our old castles because of their walls. We love the way they are built to keep people out. We love the castle keep at the centre behind so much protection. Yet the keep is always a disappointment. Small, dark and damp and usually, empty.

But, of course, as long as there is a castle, there will always be a ‘zappy’ production company to hire a burger stall (genetically modified meat) and an admission price of Ł9.50, all, of course, in the name of culture.

I have returned from Edinburgh with a tattoo on my arm. It says “I was there”. But currently, I wear it under my sleeve.

THE END