Richard Hawley wrote:
Thanks for the tip on the book Helen i will look out for it....however,and i know you sort of said this already,i can't possibly equate the student situation with Jews returning from the horrors of the war and the camps and reacting to seeing the blackshirts walking the streets of London.It was,i think,the right thing to do.After all they had been through who wouldn't react like that?My next door neighbours at my Mum and Dad's old house were Jewish Londoners who used to tell me stories about hand to hand fighting on the streets with the black shirts.......they were from Cricklewood though which isn't the same area.They had two massive brass cannon shells next to their open coal fire for years until my Dad discovered they were still bloody live......we all left that house in a hurry we got the police out to sort it out..........and there you go..........who you going to call for an unexploded bomb in your house?Clegg?.........a musician?...........a student?.......nah......a copper.........odd isn't it our world?and riot police are very different to beat bobbies
You're right, it isn't the same thing. But he raises some good arguments in the book – Morris Beckman is still knocking around, I heard him speaking a few years back. I had a few things to do with those sorts of chaps because I edited a book written by a Holocaust survivor (it's a long and complicated story) called Leon Greenman. Think the 43 Group is out of print but I know a wee anarchist book chappy who might be able to get hold of one – if I find one, it's on me.
And the shell story is funny – my grandad's friend had an UXB at the bottom of his garden and he used to bring us kids to look at it. Suppose people were so used to danger, they sort of got blase.
And hope you were OK Denise and the flats unharmed. Didn't know you were a West Ham girl, Ladyblue comes from West Ham and I'm just down the road. Small world, eh. Keep safe. x