GFTU BGCM Minutes 2017

It has been a very enjoyable career and many exciting things have happened,

including Kiefer Sutherland stroking my arm, which I have not washed since,

and I met Bruce Springstein and that was quite a moment, because they say

never meet your hero, but with Bruce I noticed two things. One, his teeth were

white, so white it was giving me a migraine, I almost needed sunglasses, and

the second thing I noticed about Bruce Springstein, which was slightly

disconcerting, was that he had two very impressive diamond earrings, one in

each ear lobe and I could not quite square that. I was thinking Tramps Like Us,

baby we were born to wear jewellery. It does not really match, does it?

Doug said to me, “Can you speak for around 20 minutes” and because I am

from commercial radio I am going to speak for exactly 19 minutes and 50

seconds and finish with a three day weather check! Coming up I am going to

welcome you to this lovely part of the country and give you some historical

context, I will tell you a little known fact about Stratford’s favourite son and,

more importantly, I will draw attention to the thinking underpinning the

Educational Trust’s work.

First of all, welcome. You will know this area is home to some of the nation’s

finest engineers. We gave the world the first jet engine, the E-type Jag and in

fact the world’s first production bicycle and our industrial base in this area is

why we were targeted by the Luftwaffe in November 1940, a raid which was the

most devastating aerial bombardment the world had ever seen. 70% of

Coventry’s buildings were destroyed that night and today as a consequence

the city is an international centre for peace and reconciliation. Warwickshire is

a leafy county with beautiful landscapes and striking castles at Kenilworth and

Warwick. Perhaps lesser known is that it has an important heritage of

resistance against intimidation. In the 1860s there were a handful of strikes

and uprising against poor conditions endured by farm workers in this county

and in 1872 Joseph Arch from a village just three or four miles up the river

here, Barford, decided to organise agricultural workers. He formed the

Warwickshire Labourers Union. Conditions were very bad. The Countess of

Warwickshire at the time noted that the conditions that farm workers were kept

in was worse than the cattle they tended. Joseph Arch organised a meeting in

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