On Sunday we celebrated the formal installation of
a blue plaque for Sam Green, and I think it went well. It's not every day you have an MP on your doorstep, let alone two:
On the left, Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, who did the actual unveiling (Sam was a Liberal councillor); on the right Mary KellY Foy, the (Labour) MP for the constituency, from whose FH page I snaffled this photo. I had expected this part of the proceedings to be brief, formal and not very crowded, partly because Ed Davey was taking time out from something else to be with us; in fact there was quite a crowd, the local television people were there, and Ed Davey hung around long enough to be affable, and we were introduced and he was suitably enthusiastic about the whole thing.
(
News report as shown on ITV - I hope next door are pleased with the prominence of their 'For Sale' sign - and
BBC web page).
Mostly I talked to someone
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
durham_rambler had managed to contact via FaceBook, and who had come from his home in Spain for the ceremony as a result. Alan was someone else we had known as an activist at the same time as Sam, and if you think it took courage to come out and stand for election in 1972 (and I do), consider what it must have taken to be out within the NUM. So I was very pleased that he and his husband were able to be with us, and also that before we had even moved on from the doorstep they had made contact with Richard Huzzey,
the History professor who is working on the story.
The conversation continued over coffee and cakes at Hild/Bede College (I had been very relieved when they offered to host a reception after the ceremony), and this was the best part of my day. It felt like a real community event: I loved that someone I know slightly (from meeting her repeatedly at this sort of event) turned up with a photograph of Sam at a campaign to save a local open space. It had been passed to her by a friend who wasn't free on the day, who continues to be a Friend of that space, and whom I knew through her late husband, who was a poet. Richard Huzzey was delighted: she is his close neighbour... Networking done right.
There were inevitably speeches, but the worst thing about this was that I had to give one of them (the Parish Clerk asked me, and he's a hard man to say no to). I went third, after the Mayor and Richard Huzzey, and I had thought this was a good position to be in - that I could refer back to what other people had said. I had not allowed for how much of what I intended to say would already have been covered. The mayor had notes which Richard had provided, and drew on them extensively, so Richard was a bit cornered - and of course he was drawing on what I had told him, because I was one of his sources. But I improvised, and it seemed to go OK. I was presented with a giant bouquet, and really don't know what to do with it, but apart from that I'm happy. And there will be more research, that's the best thing.
