Resistance!

Blip is my diary and it’s been such a wonderfully stimulating experience today I have written loads as an aide memoir so nobody is expected to read further

After a good sleep in the van we had a relaxed breakfast before going out for the second day of the festival.

The first discussion on the role Germany plays in Europe was led by Angus Robertson, formerly leader of SNP in Westminster and now MSP whose mother is German. The author John Kampfner and broadcaster Annette Dittert expressed concerns about the present swing to the right and the poor leadership post-Merkel.

Next Allan Little chaired the event entitled “Resistance!” with Ebrahim Rasool, former South African ambassador to USA and in jail with Mandela, Colombian Oscar Guardiola-Rivera, and remotely the artist Peter Sacks whose art depicting worldwide resistance fighters is on show in Summer Hall. The main message was the importance of how to move on after conflict without justice or apology or retribution, but instead accepting “truth and reconciliation”. Ebrahim Rasool was a polished and engaging performer - his message was similar to that of one of the ex-prisoners who guided us round Robben Island.

We had a short break during which we saw Alan, a chap we met in Kyrgyzstan.

Mr C made the wise choice of missing Jim Naughtie in a tedious and pointless chat with stylist Peter York about Sloanes and Prue Leith who said the reason young people were fat and ate junk was because that’s all their parents gave them and they liked it. Sharp intakes of breath from an audience well aware more and more people can’t afford to eat well. Someone asked her about why she’d voted Brexit and she said she objected to us giving vast sums to a corrupt EU.

A much more interesting time was with Steve Richards chairing Lindsey Hilsum, Marc Weller and Lucy Ash about the Ukraine War. They see no way out and think next year the situation will be the same and will be worse if Trump is elected and stops sending weapons.

The penultimate talk was on the history of colonialism and how we can move forward. A dapper Guardiola-Rivera, in cream shirt and jacket worn with navy trousers with one cream stripe, bottomed our with patterned yellow socks and very eye-catching patterned yellow Converse, ( appropriately on the white wine) chaired William Dalrymple, waving around his glass of red wine as he gestured his point, and a more restrained Dr Kojo Koran, (who said he’d forgotten to bring his wine in). He had been a student of G-R’s and now teaches at Birkbeck. He and WD had facts and figures on their fingertips. I hadn’t known that the combined GDP of Jamaica and Haiti was 10 times greater than the American colonies at the time of the revolution. The effect of colonisation of companies with private armies like East India Company, Hudson Bay, Niger etc was likened to that of present multinationals. It’s great to hear speakers on top of their areas of expertise. Mr C bought Dr Kojo Koram’s book.

The last event was fun and lively and hopeful. A pupil at the local high school and a former one, now a student of journalism, grilled a very amenable Alastair Campbell about how to engage young people in politics. He said they should educate themselves, listen to difference views and if they had a passion engage and stand up for it. He cited Greta Thumberg as a positive example, and David Steel, who was in the audience, and reminded us how as a young man in 1970s he’d got his private members bill on abortion through parliament. The young people being so knowledgeable, confident and articulate ended the event on a high.

We didn’t wait to mingle with the participants in the walled garden as we had a long drive home.