Granddaughter Number Two has her best friend from university visiting at the moment. She travelled from somewhere small down south by train - three trains and then a tram. This was her first experience of trams. She said she thought she had the whole tram experience: lots of shouty people and one person being escorted off because he didn’t have a ticket. This morning the two friends went into Manchester, further enhancing her tram experience by encountering drunken football fans at 11.30 in the morning. It probably takes a special skill to be drunk already at that time of day.
This is Granddaughter Number Two’s account of their morning:
“So everything is going down in Manchester today - on the way in we had crazy drunk football fans (11:30 drunk 🙄), we saw a My Body My Choice protest, then a Jesus Can Fix It group who were saying sh*t like “something will always come between you and your wife”, then a Palestine protest and THEN a conspiracy theorist.”
That sounds about par for the course for a Manchester Saturday. Meanwhile, this is going on in London:
“Arrests have begun in central London at the largest demonstration relating to Palestine Action since the group was proscribed as a terrorist organisation.
The Metropolitan police said they had drawn officers from other forces to help form a “significant policing presence” in the capital as it faces a busy weekend of protests.
By Saturday afternoon, hundreds of people had gathered in Parliament Square for a demonstration organised by the campaign group Defend Our Juries.
Protesters have previously held up placards supporting the proscribed group in Parliament Square. Defend Our Juries announced earlier this week that today’s events would go ahead despite police warnings.”
I wonder how many of those arrested are above pensionable age. This article tells of increased resistance to the banning of the Palestine Action.
Retired former teachers and according to that article an 81 year old former British magistrate who was honoured by the late Queen Elizabeth II for services to the community, are among those reported to have been arrested and held for questioning, having their homes searched and so on. It seems that my generation is a generation of possible terrorists! Maybe it’s a consequence of having seen May’68 kick off on Paris, anti-Vietnam War protests and such like. We thought we were changing the world and now it seems we still need to do so.
On the subject of aging activists, it seems that Jeremy Corbyn has been criticised, on the Guardian letters page of all places, not for terrorist activities buy for his allotment skills’:
““Is this government going to put the nail in the coffin of the joy of digging ground for potatoes on a cold, wet February Sunday afternoon?” Jeremy Corbyn wrote in the Daily Telegraph (Jeremy Corbyn warns rules on council asset sales threaten allotments, 5 August). Never trust a man who can’t tell his parsnips from his potatoes: leaving spuds in the ground till February means they’ll have been spoiled by frost or rot. And I say this as a lifelong Labour voter.
Dariel Francis
Tunbridge Wells, Kent
Mr Corbyn has defended his gardening knowledge:
“I must respond to a scathing attack on my gardening knowledge and integrity. Dariel Francis claims I am wrong about “leaving spuds in the ground till February” (Letters, 6 August). I never said I would – and I reject this scandalous and deeply hurtful accusation. I said “digging ground for potatoes” in February. That means manuring and preparing the ground, before planting the potatoes in March or April. Save our potatoes – and save our allotments!
Jeremy Corbyn MP
Independent, Islington North”
Other allotmenteers (is that really a word?!) also sprang to his defence:
“May I, as a fellow allotmenteer and former parliamentary colleague of Jeremy Corbyn, defend him from the attempts to imply that his statement about “digging ground for potatoes in February” betrays an ignorance of the potato cultivation calendar? Like Jeremy, I will be digging the ground in February, but preparing the plot for the planting which, of course, takes place on Good Friday, and not lifting any of my maincrops, which will have been long scoffed or stored.
Stephen Pound
Labour MP 1997-2019; chair, Framfield Allotment Association”
Dariel Francis should have kept her eyes peeled and read the quote from Jeremy Corbyn more carefully. Like those of many current Labour voters, this attempt at discrediting Mr Corbyn is half-baked.
Dr Barbara Henderson
Spittal, Northumberland
There’s even a suggestion for name for his new party:
“Jeremy Corbyn may inadvertently have stumbled on a name for his new party (Jeremy Corbyn warns rules on council asset sales threaten allotments, 5 August). The Allotment party embraces opposition to local authorities selling off public land, green issues and community involvement, with a nod to allotting tasks in a democratic way. Perfect.
Toby Wood
Peterborough”
Oh! Boy!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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