Dear Idlers

“The true business of people should be to go back to school,” wrote the great architect Buckminster Fuller, “and think about whatever it was they were thinking about before somebody came along and told them they had to earn a living.”

We at the Idler aim to do precisely that: we want to bring lifelong education and fulfilment to everyone. So a big thank you to those of you who have pitched in to our fund-raising effort on Crowdcube. We have now raised over £73,000 from nearly 100 investors.

On Monday 150 gathered at the Conway Hall in Holborn for our debate “Is London Dying?” In our vote at the end, the audience seemed split about 50/50 on the issue. Thank you to Iain Sinclair, Katharine Hibbert, Angus Hanton and John Rogers for their passionate, well-informed and often very funny speeches. Resonance FM will be broadcasting the talk on 30 May at 8pm, and at some point we’ll post a podcast on the Idler website.

On Monday you are invited to a party to launch the new Idler. Murray Lachlan Young will be treating us with a poem or two, and there will be groovy DJs, including our own Julian Mash playing psych sounds. Reserve your place here.

Toodle oo!

Tom