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Wolfie was over in Huddersfield on Friday evening doing some table top gaming thing, which meant I had the evening to myself. At the Great Northern Stop Brexit Conference last Saturday, we were told about the Left Against Brexit tour, which was calling at the same hotel in Leeds on Friday evening. It had been a long and tiring week and I spent much of Friday weighing up whether I should or shouldn't go. Politically, you could describe me as centre left but I find the militant nature of Corbynism incredibly offputting, so I was skeptical. However, with two of the speakers being former Green leader Natalie Bennett and Labour MEP Julie Ward, on balance I thought I should probably attend.
It was a far smaller gathering than the Great Northern Stop Brexit Conference had been, with perhaps about eighty people in the room. There were four speakers in total and there was a very strong trade union perspective to the evening, which wasn't particularly surprising. While I disagreed with some points, I did agree with the vast majority of them and even made a speech myself on the socialist case for Freedom of Movement and how the EU can reform, as has recently been seen by the Postal Workers Directive. This was in the time alloted to comments from the floor, with the four speakers answering our points with four-minute speeches at the end of the evening. This was in addition to their opening ten-minute speeches. The whole event lasted two hours and I thought it was rather constructive, particularly as there are many on the ground trying to change opinion in high Leave voting areas. I am not sure standing on stalls is the right thing for me - I'm far too passionate on this issue - but I am doing everything I possibly can to campaign for a People's Vote and a volte face on this issue.
I got home about 10pm, with Wolfie not coming back until nearer 2am, which was a little irritating as I had planned my evening on him getting back earlier. I suppose it didn't matter too much though as I ended up having work to do on Friday night and needed an early night as Saturday was our regular monthly furmeet. This went exceptionally well - the attendance was high and it was great speaking to people with whom I barely converse these days. I had a very lengthy chat with Skavi and Avon about Europe but the highlight for me was the in-depth conversation about language I had with Shinaku, someone with whom I thought I had little in common before yesterday. There were no problems with our hedgehog friend, thankfully, while the walk itself was very greatly receieved. The Yorkshire Riflers were marching through the city centre yesterday afternoon so we had to alter our route slightly, which resulted us going into a park where a number of undesireables were. They were harmless enough, just high, but one of them did kick our tennis ball prop over into the local churchyard. Fortunately, we managed to get it back. Meanwhile, on the walk, I don't think I have ever been stopped by so many people expressing an interest in what we were doing. One lady in her 70s was particularly adorable, saying she may come down to the next meet and would be a pussy cat as it was very close to Hallowe'en.
The meet went on a little longer than usual, which is something we are trying to push for going forward. From October, there will be a quiz in the Cantina, while we will also have a new furry-themed cocktail menu. We all left the venue at about 6:15pm, with the rest of our attendees dribbling out from about 5pm. We were down to eight at this point and upon discovering that our first choice of Pieminister was rammed (Skavi rang them), we ended up in Trinity Kitchen, where I had an excellent boar burger with blue cheese. We hadn't been to Trinity for so long and it was kinda good to be back, although I was disappointed that the fish and chip place had closed down. Still, the food was good and afterwards, Patter, Wolfie, Dexter and I headed over to Foley's for a few final beers. We ended up drinking far more than we had intended, trying two flight boards of particularly high strength beer, but the conversation was good (Dexter is sooooo young - he was born in 2000 and we showed him Button Moon at one point) and we didn't particularly want the evening to stop. However, at around 10:15pm, Wolfie declared that he had had enough to drink and so we all headed our separate ways, with us getting back home shortly before 11pm after a rather great day.
It was a far smaller gathering than the Great Northern Stop Brexit Conference had been, with perhaps about eighty people in the room. There were four speakers in total and there was a very strong trade union perspective to the evening, which wasn't particularly surprising. While I disagreed with some points, I did agree with the vast majority of them and even made a speech myself on the socialist case for Freedom of Movement and how the EU can reform, as has recently been seen by the Postal Workers Directive. This was in the time alloted to comments from the floor, with the four speakers answering our points with four-minute speeches at the end of the evening. This was in addition to their opening ten-minute speeches. The whole event lasted two hours and I thought it was rather constructive, particularly as there are many on the ground trying to change opinion in high Leave voting areas. I am not sure standing on stalls is the right thing for me - I'm far too passionate on this issue - but I am doing everything I possibly can to campaign for a People's Vote and a volte face on this issue.
I got home about 10pm, with Wolfie not coming back until nearer 2am, which was a little irritating as I had planned my evening on him getting back earlier. I suppose it didn't matter too much though as I ended up having work to do on Friday night and needed an early night as Saturday was our regular monthly furmeet. This went exceptionally well - the attendance was high and it was great speaking to people with whom I barely converse these days. I had a very lengthy chat with Skavi and Avon about Europe but the highlight for me was the in-depth conversation about language I had with Shinaku, someone with whom I thought I had little in common before yesterday. There were no problems with our hedgehog friend, thankfully, while the walk itself was very greatly receieved. The Yorkshire Riflers were marching through the city centre yesterday afternoon so we had to alter our route slightly, which resulted us going into a park where a number of undesireables were. They were harmless enough, just high, but one of them did kick our tennis ball prop over into the local churchyard. Fortunately, we managed to get it back. Meanwhile, on the walk, I don't think I have ever been stopped by so many people expressing an interest in what we were doing. One lady in her 70s was particularly adorable, saying she may come down to the next meet and would be a pussy cat as it was very close to Hallowe'en.
The meet went on a little longer than usual, which is something we are trying to push for going forward. From October, there will be a quiz in the Cantina, while we will also have a new furry-themed cocktail menu. We all left the venue at about 6:15pm, with the rest of our attendees dribbling out from about 5pm. We were down to eight at this point and upon discovering that our first choice of Pieminister was rammed (Skavi rang them), we ended up in Trinity Kitchen, where I had an excellent boar burger with blue cheese. We hadn't been to Trinity for so long and it was kinda good to be back, although I was disappointed that the fish and chip place had closed down. Still, the food was good and afterwards, Patter, Wolfie, Dexter and I headed over to Foley's for a few final beers. We ended up drinking far more than we had intended, trying two flight boards of particularly high strength beer, but the conversation was good (Dexter is sooooo young - he was born in 2000 and we showed him Button Moon at one point) and we didn't particularly want the evening to stop. However, at around 10:15pm, Wolfie declared that he had had enough to drink and so we all headed our separate ways, with us getting back home shortly before 11pm after a rather great day.
