The Hay Festival

[Treffie]

The Hay Festival of Literature & Arts is an annual literature festival held in Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales for ten days from May to June. Devised by Norman and Peter Florence in 1988, the festival was described by Bill Clinton in 2001 as "The Woodstock of the mind". Since its inception, the festival was held at a variety of venues around Hay, including the local Primary School, until 2005 when it moved to a central location just outside of the town.

This year's line up (http://www.hayfestival.com/m-38-hay-festival-2011.aspx?skinid=2&currencysetting=GBP&localesetting=en-GB&resetfilters=true#)

[Treffie]

The tough talking founder of Wikileaks hit out at the UK today claiming he “detests” the country’s “mid-brow squeamishness.”

Internet activist Julian Assange was a surprise late addition to the programme at the Hay Festival of Literature in mid Wales.

More than 400 people paid £15 a head to sit in at the sell-out interview session with the controversial Australian.

Assange described himself today as a “colonial cousin” but quickly turned to criticising the UK’s attitude to radical change.

The hugely successful annual festival, near the market town of Hay, is a magnet for the chattering classes.B

But the chatter was briefly silenced today when soft-spoken Assange delivered a broadside against middle-brow Britain.

His words came after he had revealed to the audience that Wikileaks habitually destroys all record of its sources.

“The only way to make sure you have no secrets is to not collect any in the first place,” he told the audience.

He went on to hail the pro-democracy revolution in Egypt, mentioning he believed that about 30 people had died as a result.

When he was told that the figure was more likely to be 300 he said “I’m not up to date on the current death toll.”

He added: “How much risk are people willing to go through in order to restructure their society?

He said in the case of Egypt at least 300 people had made that choice.

“When you are dealing with the fate of nations you cannot take the principle of ’Do No Harm’ and look through a microscope,” he said.

“You have to look at the total surroundings.”

He added: “What I really detest about the UK is there is a certain mid-brow squeamishness in the population.

“It would rather destroy an entire revolution, and keep a country in dictatorship, than risk being blamed for the tiniest thing.”

He went on to contrast the UK’s attitude with how things are done at Wikileaks.

“We are certainly willing to take flak,” he said.

“We are not squeamish and we will not condemn a nation to dictatorship simply because we are aware of a certain cloying middle class squeamishness view in the UK.”

Link (http://www.walesonline.co.uk/showbiz-and-lifestyle/showbiz/2011/06/04/hay-festival-wikileaks-founder-assange-attacks-middle-brow-britain-91466-28821294/)