Coffee with the Lord Major

I've had a few manic weeks at the Lit and Phil. Who said this writer in residence thing was easy? Take me back to the earlier days when I could loose myself in the wealth of books. These days, I'm lucky if I get a page turned. I'm not complaining, no not really. As I'm loving it all , I just wish there was more time in the day to do everything. Maybe I'll have to be looking at going into the Lit and Phil for a second day each week, or maybe extend the residency beyond December 2006?
We'll see but in the meantime, I've had the pleasure of presenting and reading with the High Level Bridge Poets in the main library. There was a lovely appreciative crowd that night who enjoyed a varied selection of poetry from those reading. The audience were taken to Prague, South Africa, the Lakes and back to rainy Newcastle. Priceless.
A different bunch of poets will be reading on 22 November, so there's another treat in store.

I suppose I should address the title of this blog, 'Coffee with the Lord Major' and Kay! We were invited to a meet with Diane Packham, the city's Lord Major to discuss what the council should be doing for 2007. Putting aside the point that it's better late than never, we went along with a list a information about events and projects that we were instigating and others for 2007.

The meeting was very fruitful and the discussions came right up to the present day equivalents of slavery. I read in last week's Independent on Saturday an article regarding forced marriage being on the increase within some of Britain's most isolated and radicalised communities. This piece documented that even girls as young as 13 were involved. These issues are reinforced with the recent Police raid on a Tyneside brothel, this week. Closer to home, this brothel had Oriental women, black women and women who appeared to be of Eastern European origin. This can only raise questions about the trafficking of women for the sex trade.
The main conclusions from this meeting with the Major, was the idea that there needs to be more awareness raising in the region. If I did a survey on the streets of Newcastle today, ( vox pop, is that's what it's called?), asking the people what is important about 2007 in terms of world history, I don't think I would get the answer that it is the bicentenary of the abolition of transatlantic slave trade. Maybe its asking too much of the general public as even at the time, in 1807, when the bill was passed, a lot of people were unaware of it. This issue was not aided by the fact that abolition was in name only. In reality, there was another 30 years, the apprenticeship period and another 30 years, in some places, before slavery was totally abolished.
This is part of British history. This is part of Britain today and definitely part of our British future. Shouldn't everyone be aware of this knowledge?