Lazy Blogger

Spent the weekend at the various demos and events in Edinburgh surrounding the forthcoming G8 summit at Gleneagles. As a comrade mentioned to me, when we were discussing who would get the short straw and have to write a post to the SPGB email list detailing Party activity that weekend, you really don't always get a full sense of the what a demo is like and its mood when your expressed purpose in being there is to distributing literature and to make the Party better known. That may sound a tad cynical, but it is true nonetheless.

That means that I don't think I could do full justice in writing up a 'I was there' type post of the weekend, except to write that the sun was shining; Saturday's demo was good natured; put some faces to names, if that makes any sense; gave out lit to, amongst others, Jonathan Dimbleby, Bruce Kent and Billy Bragg; got into a daft row with a couple of Sparts who I'll probably have a daft row with again when I attend this event next weekend; debated the burning issue of who is less likey to take a leaflet with the word socialist on it - a christian or a lifestyle anarchist (the latter in my experience); thought Pink Floyd were the best of a bad bunch on the telly; had a drop dead gorgeous mutton pie and chips supper from a chippy in Pumpherston; saw Paddy's face light up when someone recognised him that film; and then had a ponder on how over a million could have come out for that demo on February 15th 2003 and over 220,000 in Edinburgh this past weekend but it's still the case that class politics are at such a low ebb in this country. I don't pretend to have any easy answers to that one - and no easy answers on a postcard either, please. I've never been one for going into all that: 'We sold ten extra Standards at this demo - the tide is turning' kidology.

A few reports of from people who attended various events over the past weekend are contained here, here and here.