Suppose they gave a war, and nobody came? Answers on a postcard or at the bottom of this page. It certainly felt today that if anyone wanted a war nobody would bother signing up for it. Not least because everyone was having so much fun singing, dancing, eating, and chatting with people from 1,000s of miles away yet neighbours. Not global neighbours, but local neighbours here in Bridgwater. That’s what Bridgwater Together is all about. It’s a festival of diversity and togetherness where Brits, Czechs, Poles, Indians, Timorese, Portuguese, well, pick a nationality, all turn up and just basically get on with each other.
Now you could be forgiven for thinking the high kicking Greek dancer was attempting to remove the head of his seated Bulgarian assistant, but no, it was a demonstration of skill (look how high I can kick) and trust (he probably isn’t really going to kick my head in). Great cheers all round.(when he didn’t).
And you could be forgiven for thinking ‘Bollywood’, that Bombay mix of costume, music, dance and Hollywood, doesn’t normally feature the Mayor, the Police and Crime Commissioner and the caretaker, but in fact it did. Today at Bridgwater Town Hall.
Cakes
Bridgwater Together also featured stalls. Bridgwater people like stalls. Whether they’re at the Fair or the Market, we like a stall. There were so many stalls we expanded them up along and into the Engine Room. All the information you needed to feed your mind, and all the food needed to feed your stomach. Housing advice from Housing Associations, workplace help from Trades Unions, practical suggestions and physical assistance on what to do with your face from Henna Tattooists and Face Painters. Badge making, photo taking, fine arts and crafts, Czech cakes, Polish steaks, balsa wood rafts. Hand-made Quilts for excluding the drafts.
And of course there was a bus. To get people from Town Hall to Engine room. Admittedly it was a cardboard bus which one of you held and the rest followed behind with an engine pretty similar to that of the Flintstones. There was a shortage of people daft enough to be drivers, but not to worry, I had my cardboard PSV licence on me.
See Bridgwater has been called the ‘Brexit capital of Somerset’. You’d expect a place full of wall-to-wall racists and xenophobes. But that’s just not true. Very few Bridgwater people fit that description. Most just thought Brexit might be for the best. They were wrong. But they won the vote. So, they were democratically right. And Bridgwater people are in fact friendly, open and welcoming. And that’s a good thing.
Bakes
When I was at school in the 70’s I had 2 Polish classmates. But their parents had come over in World War 2 and stayed. And when one of them letter-stamped his name into the woodwork teachers’ desk, it didn’t take long to work out who had done it as no one else could spell it…
So, with all this love what about that question ‘Suppose they gave a war, and nobody showed up?’
Bertold Brecht answered that saying, ‘Why, then the war would come to you!’.
Smartarse.
However, there’s a practical answer to the contrary. In 1905, the Swedish military tried to mobilise the army, to save the Swedish Norwegian union (as you’ll remember). But the socialist youth movement in Sweden called for a general strike to prevent war, with the slogan “Down with the weapons!” It worked and as only a handful of men turned up to the mobilisation areas, the war never started as no one could be bothered.
To fight you need an enemy. So that’s where we start. No more enemies.
Footnote – This does not apply to Swansea City next weekend.
