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New ways for old ...
(written in 1985)
Old Ben Tillet would have been proud of us, even if Jimmy McCarter made it quite clear he was not impressed.
Ben was one of Britain's most radical union leaders in the earliest years of this century. Some people took him as a joke: others saw him as being well before his time. He was one of the original soap-box and street-corner politicians and could really pour it on when he managed to whip up an audience.
On one occasion, it was said, he was waxing eloquent in a street meeting and stressing the importance of agriculture. His text for the evening was "We must till the land! We must till the land!" He repeated this ad nauseum till a wag on the fringes of the crowd yelled back: Then let Ben till it!"
Stories like that inspired us when we were youngsters, I suppose. Especially at Farnworth Grammar, where James McCarter B.A. (Oxon) held sway.
The radical Ben was still in the House of Commons when a bright member of J. McC's staff suggested that the whole school fill in an otherwise deadly dull pre-holiday day with a mock election.
Although Farnworth was (and is) an industrial, town nobody expected that a small group of would-be Tillets would nominate. Much less that they would nominate as "communists". Four or five of us did - I remember Gordon Cornthwaite and Harry Buxton among them. My best friend wouldn't join us because his family were foundry owners. And anyway he later became headmaster of the school, so perhaps he had more vision than us "anything for a bit of fun" mortals!
We campaigned hard with little or no knowledge of communism, under the watchful eye of J. McC and his staff, but we didn't get anywhere. Only into Their Books as "doubtfuls"!
That was my first lesson in the futility of kicking against authority - and I quickly fell into line. But there must have been others over the years who felt the necessity for not conforming. This was brought home to me recently when I spotted a news story about some of the minorities that tackled the last British election with great fervour and no success. A total of 78 different parties - many of them just one person strong - nominated. They didn't get very far.
In fact, there isn't a single member of the Belgrano Blood and Hunger Party in the House of Commons. Nor yet a member of Freddy's Alternative Medicine Party - which must be something of a relief to the Ministry of Health. The Fancy Dress Party nominated, as did the Traditional English Food Party, The Assassin's Bullet Party, the Justice for Divorced Father's Party, and the Nobody Party.
And they were the sane ones. Could you imagine casting a vote for a candidate fielded by the Loony Society, the Loony Monster Party, or the Loony Monster Green Chicken Alliance?
If you tilled the land around Ben Tillet's grave you'd probably hear him spinning agitatedly.
Sirius.
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