So just what did you do for the last 45 years? …….. stories against a political background

A little bit of my past fell through the door today.

Riding Two Horses, 2022

Although to be strictly accurate it is really the history of my friend Glyn Ford.

“Riding two Horses, traces the eventful life and a career of Glyn Ford, Member of the European Parliament for 25 years and erstwhile leader of its European Parliamentary Party”.*

And I might add a local councillor for Tameside for eight years.

For those who want the rest of his political career I would just refer you to the fly leaf of this his sixth book or the collection of his essays and articles for a raft of publications, almost all of which are available. *

My five minutes of fame with Glyn started in a dingy room of the Pleasant Sunday Afternoon Brotherhood in 1974, where with another six or seven Labour Party members we were engaged in addressing and stuffing envelopes with an election leaflet for Bob Sheldon who was seeking re-election as the MP for Ashton-Under-Lyne

Kay and I had ended up in Ashton earlier in the year having migrated from south Manchester to what is now Eastlands and by following the Ashton Old Road found a modest two up two down in the town.

I had joined the Party aged 16 in 1966 and remained active through the first General Election in February 1974 into the second in October.  Glyn and I along with Kay, Hazel, Pam and Ian were all relative newcomers and with varying degrees we embraced the politics of the area.

I jumped ship in 1976 heading back to south Manchester where I sank myself the politics of Chorlton and the City.

But we kept in touch, meeting up occasionally and going on a few holidays, and from then till now I have followed Glyn’s career.

So, I was pleased to receive this book partly because it fills in the details of the last 46 years, and also because it is the backdrop to my own political landscape albeit a more modest one. 

Making the stand for social justice, The Moss Side CLP banner, Liverpool, 1980

And given that Glyn was at the centre of much that went in Europe while we were part of that political organization the book throws a light on the history of that period as well as the struggles against antisemitism, racism and confronting those ideologies of the Far Right as well as the lesser known politics of North Korea and other Asian countries.

All of which I will find fascinating to read as will the general reader.

45 years of active politics

But I couldn’t stop myself looking for just one event from the 1970s, which was when we were both on the side of leaving the Common Market and campaigned so in the European Referendum of 1975.  

I look back with a degree of wry self-deprecation, given that later I became and remain an ardent supporter of the European Union.

It is a story I have long dinned out on as does Glyn who recounts “In Ashton-Under-Lyne, we organised a ‘NO’ event.  There were six on the platform – from somewhere we’d even managed to find a Liberal against the Common Market – and five in the audience.  When the meeting’s chair announced he was a member of the Communist Party, 40% of the audience stood up and left”.***

Such are the ups and downs of political campaigns, made all the more significant when things go well, and progressive alliances are formed and progressive policies advanced which enhance the social and economic lives of us all.

And yes, it will be a book I take away on holiday.

Pictures; cover for Riding Two Horses, 2022, and the Moss Side Labour Party Banner in Liverpool, 1980 in the first big demonstration against the Conservative Government elected the year before, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*“Riding Two Horses Labour in Europe, Glyn Ford, 2022

**www.glynford.eu

***Ford, ibid page 76