Bitter Mansfield

I like to watch a bit of foreign TV news while grabbing a midday snack. Today a touch of Sky News International which seems to be a UK company. They were discussing a peculiarly British disease called Brexit, closely related to that last UK export in the '80s, Mad Cow Disease.

Some of what I saw was from an outside location in front of old buildings in London with lots of people waving Union Jacks alongside EU flags. Another part of the "show" was an outside broadcast from the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire in what it likes to call "The Heart of England". The town apparently voted 71% for Brexit in the 2016 opinion poll/referendum.

Today Sky gathered four "ordinary" people to form a panel to express their views. A youngish girl, possibly student and a retired teacher who were Remain supporters and a very young teacher (looked about 18 to me) who had changed from Remain to Leave and a perhaps 35-year-old woman born in the UK from Pakistani immigrants and a solid Leaver.

The two Remainers talked about the need to make EU migrants welcome and reassure those who had settled in the UK and were their friends and they deeply regretted the hostile atmosphere. The young teacher had supported Remain for economic reasons but now felt Leave was right to get back the elusive sovereignty! And the very best, the woman of Pakistani parents was vehement about needing to stop immigrants from getting into the country and stealing the jobs, misusing the social & health services and not contributing.

My eyes filled with a tear for that country. A young teacher who clearly had not a jot of intelligence and was supposed to pass on his ignorance to future generations AND get paid for it by taxpayers. I won't even comment on the woman of Pakistani parents except to say I had the very firm impression she didn't have a clue what she was talking about and was desperately trying to remember the lines she had been told to say, presumably by her father.

And the Blip? One of those water jugs one found on pub counters to dilute one's whisky. I doubt in Mansfield pubs that they offered soda water. And no, I didn't steal it and to the best of my knowledge, I have never been in a Mansfield brewery pub.

However, I did have "connections" with the brewery and have spent a very pleasurable weekend or two in the 1970s/80s with the owner and chairman, Robin Chadburn and his wife. His family was involved in the Mansfield Brewery founding in 1855 and Robin took it through major expansions in his time. He even claimed the continuous 1960/70s and above all the horrendous 1984/5 miners strikes actually helped business but eventually, the business was sold in 1999 to another brewer and brewing was ceased in Mansfield. The Mansfield beer brand then brewed in Wolverhampton lost it's characteristic taste (the water they say) and sales plummeted. The brewery site was demolished by 2008 and still remains empty. At its height, Mansfield brewery ran 420 pubs and with the brewery, made it one of the biggest local employers.

Today a major employer in the area is Sports Direct, I think they said about 82% of the 3000 workers at their warehouse are EU migrants and as repeatedly reported in the press and in House of Commons Select committees under bad conditions:

"Sports Direct is the country’s largest sports retail outlet, but that size and success is founded on a business model that enables the majority of workers in both the warehouse at Shirebrook and at the shops around the UK to be treated without dignity or respect."

I know that Robin Chadburn would not have treated his employees in this manner, he was very proud of his often very long-serving employees and the one time tight-knit mining community made that important. I think he was quite popular in the area.

The connection was through a great friendship my first wife's father had with Robin from his time as a Chief official for the UK Guernsey Dairy Herd Society and Robin had a herd on his farm - he didn't live in Mansfield! The two would often meet at Robin's Club in London.

Although my wife's father was fit and active at the wedding and walked her up the aisle, all the post-church celebratory duties of a father were done by Robin. He was a talented speaker and in the rather faded photo can be seen giving one with my wife and me on the left.

Also at the wedding but out of shot was a neighbour of ours, someone who was very different in manner and originated from that part of "Europe" where WWI broke out - I'm sure Tommy would have voted Remain. Perhaps Robin would have too as he loved his holidays on the mainland. Tommy was stopped once at the gates of Buck House in his filthy Mini and asked to open the boot/trunk - very embarrasing as it was full of dirty washing.