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August 12th, 2007

Love Basildon

The Christians of Southend held an event in 2005 they called ‘Love Southend‘. The Christians of Basildon have been inspired by this so are holding an event called ‘Love Basildon’.

Unfortunately it is quite difficult to find any authoritative information about ‘Love Basildon’ online, because there does not seem to be any. There is one newspaper report which tells me that 27 churches (almost 30) are involved, and that there will be an evening at the theatre with a kung fu star. I have also heard by other means that some balloons are to be given out in the shopping centre, but as far as I can find there is no other information available online anywhere, and I have done at least 2 or 3 searches. For an event that ‘wants to take the town by storm with a series of events this summer‘ I for one am mildly dissatisfied.

Until two days ago all of the ‘lovebasildon’ domains were still untaken, but I have just checked and lovebasildon.org.uk has finally been registered. Perhaps a website is on its way.

In the meantime I will have to show my love for Basildon in other ways. Perhaps I will make a t-shirt saying ‘I Love Basildon’ and wear it around Greenbelt. As a witness, sort of thing. I probably wouldn’t wear it around Basildon as I might get beaten up.

Update: The ‘Love Basildon‘ website is now online.

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This is a single post on the Cartoon Blog by Dave posted on Sunday, August 12th, 2007 at 4:13 pm. Click here to read all of the latest posts. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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14 Responses to “Love Basildon”


  1. Aaron says:

    Maybe the Love Basildon organizers are similarly afraid of being beaten up.

    “Should we register a domain name?”
    “Not till we have enough of us to fight off an attack.”

    August 12th, 2007 at 7:39 pm
  2. Russ says:

    It’s not the first time have tried to love Basildon – check out this Hansard entry from 1988:
    http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm198889/cmhansrd/1988-12-19/Debate-6.html
    (You’ll have to scroll down to almost the end of ‘Column 95′) …

    August 13th, 2007 at 8:10 am
  3. Peter Kirk says:

    Is “Love Basildon” supposed to be a command to others to love the unlovable (well, at least according to what I hear from others here in Chelmsford), or an abbreviation of “God loves Basildon”? The latter may be true, but the former may be unattainable! But it is still fairly early days for an event to take place at the end of September. No doubt there will be plenty of publicity once the holiday season comes to an end. And kung fu expert Tony Anthony is well worth listening to (I heard him a couple of years back), certainly for an Essex youth audience who will appreciate his no nonsense style.

    August 13th, 2007 at 11:25 am
  4. David says:

    Indeed we at Love Southend have been giving some advice to Love Basildon and I believe that more publicity is coming soon. We notoced they had not registered a domain name so promted them to do si – i am not sure if the .org.uk domain has been regsitered by the churches or some one else with a passion for Basildon.

    Tony Anthony is well worth listening to – he is from Southend-on-Sea and his book Taming the Tiger was awarded CBC Book of the Year in 2006. More on Tony can be found at http://www.avantiministries.org

    Oh and as for Love Southend – it was not just a one off event but is still running and alive and is more a movement of the churches in Southend on Sea to demonstrate God’s love to their borough – in many different ways. Check out the website for the latest news http://www.lovesouthend.org

    August 13th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
  5. Daniel says:

    I say we put the URL on a T-shirt, perhaps you could conjure up an amusing and yet wryly thought provoking cartoon and jump the gun. Let’s buy in bulk. Dark blue with a V-neck (I’m a medium by the way). What do you say we get 500 made and hit the streets of Chelmsford with a market stall.

    August 13th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
  6. David says:

    You can get Love Southend t-shirts in navy and medium from http://www.lovesouthend.org, you just have to sign up as a partner and then they are a bargain at half the price. Although they are not half the price, so are areally rather expensive!

    August 13th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
  7. drywontonmee says:

    Do people in Basildon resent the association with ‘Basildon Bond’ writing paper?

    My mother, who was ‘new middle-class’, used to write the notes to excuse me from P.E., or ‘Matthew has been ill with malaria’ letters on blue Basildon Bond notepaper. They had the strong-lined guide paper that you put behind the page you wrote on to make sure your writing didn’t drift all over the place like an uneducated person’s writing.

    Are all people in Basildon middle-class and good note-writers?

    It’s weird, I feel strangely grateful to Basildon Bond for getting me off P.E. so many times. Am I as grateful to my mother, I wonder…

    August 13th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
  8. Tired&Emotional says:

    Personally I have an intense dislike of Basildon. Not really the people, one of my friends lives there. Its just so soulless. Therefore Love Basildon sounds like a good idea.

    I can understand Love Southend much better. I really enjoyed living there for 9 months.

    August 13th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
  9. Aaron says:

    Maybe it’s the end of a long letter from Basildon to the world. “Love, Basildon.”

    Or “Love: Basildon Style.” What would Basildon-style love be like, anyhow? I’ve only gotten as far as Canterbury.

    August 14th, 2007 at 1:39 am
  10. Peter Kirk says:

    Daniel wrote “I’m a medium by the way”. In that case, Daniel, I would be surprised if Love Basildon want you on board even as a publicity T-shirt wearer, as they are probably not into this psychic stuff ;-)

    I suspect that Basildon Bond writing paper users resent the association with Basildon. I’m sure my late mother would have switched to another brand if she had lived in Chelmsford and discovered the local opinion of Basildon. But then I think those few Basildon residents who can write at all (except for Dave of course) need that strong-lined guide paper.

    Aaron, if you want to know what Basildon-style love is like, think “Essex girls”. Not that such things are that different in Chelmsford. Ah, I see you’re American trying to pretend to be Canadian, so maybe you will need some help from Wikipedia to understand this one.

    August 14th, 2007 at 10:53 am
  11. Aaron Orear says:

    Ah. In Toronto an Essex Girl might be a Mississauga Girl…maybe a Brantford Girl. Back in Milwaukee she’d most certainly have been a West Allis Girl.

    August 14th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
  12. Dave says:

    Update: The Love Basildon website is now online.

    August 19th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
  13. David says:

    There is som much more to write about – the publicity is coming in droves a the woeld wide web and local papers start to notice the church loving Basildon. Another full feature appeared in tonight’s Evening Echo alongside an artice about Love Southend take alook at http://www.echo-news.co.uk/echofeatures/features/display.var.1633234.0.churches_prepare_to_share_the_love.php

    Happy reading

    August 22nd, 2007 at 6:57 pm
  14. John Cheek says:

    Hi Dave,

    I return to your site for the first time in a while, and I see our name in lights! Along with a certain Mr. Elcock of these pages, I concentrate on press ‘n’ publicity for Love Southend, and helped the Echo with their two-page spread, inspired by Love Basildon.
    Perhaps I coulda worn my Love Southend T-Shirt to Greenbelt…but ya might’ve missed me anyway – I was in the Press Office much of the time, helping to run the Festival’s press operation.
    But us Greenbelters ought to stick together!!

    September 7th, 2007 at 6:51 pm