Posts Tagged ‘leeds’

On Saturday I indulged my final act of hedonism before ending the Christmas amnesty on Campaign for a Debt Free Chris by heading to Browns for a meal with Kieran, Si and Sarann.

The food was good, myself and Si both opting for the Browns Bacon Cheese Burger which rose to the class the of the restaurant very well. The company was equally good too as we whiled away the hours reminiscing about back in day. Good times.

Here at HAGs we’re making a real push at the moment to premote HAGs and get people volunteering.

It’s absolutely freezing here in Leeds at the moment and it’s often we at the moment as well so if there was any time of year that you don’t want to be stuck out on the streets, it’s probably about now.

As such we really need volunteers to make sure we’re going out as much as possible so if you can spare some time, do get in touch. We’re also working on how we can roll similar schemes out to other cities around the UK, and indeed the world, so if you’re interested let us know.

Last weekend the AHS ran it’s first region social. It was somewhat less than a success with only Leeds actually turning up to it but it still remains the most success regional social the AHS has ever run. Good times.

I went down to the English Defence League protest and counter-protest on Saturday to see what was going on. There were an amazing amount of police everywhere including loads of mounted police, riot police and an endless series of vans. The Manchester operation cost approximately £200,000 of tax payers money, I expect the Leeds operation cost a similar amount.

The EDL lot were based on city square where the police had them penned off with barriers across the entrances where they were letting people in and out. They had also blocked a number of roads round the area off though they didn’t seem to stop traffic going into the traps – so the most amusing point of the day was when a BMW X5 complete with a very middle class looking family found itself with nowhere to go on the one way system. As such the husband got out of the car, politely moved the cones blocking off the turned off onto Park Row, drove through them and put them back.

It was a bit dead down on the EDL side of things so I headed up to the counter demo outside the art gallery. There was far more of an atmosphere up here though I’m not convinced that drums are generally considered the sound of peace. It was a strange mix of leftist politics as you would expect, for example I’m not sure what the Stop the War Coalition has to do with any of this other than trying to hijack the event for some cheap publicity.

Not longer after I got there Revolution led a march away from the event as they tried to move towards EDL. The police soon had lines across the roads they didn’t want them to go down and they ended up down the financial district.

Having eventually nowhere else to go that would get them closer to EDL things inevitably turned ugly as Revolution charged the police line. They managed to get some people through though there was a second line of mounted officers and several police vans in support so the police eventually forced them back and they eventually gave up and marched back to the art gallery.

Wondering back down to the EDL protest it had really picked up with far more people there and a bit more atmosphere, especially when several coaches turned up bringing EDL reinforcements many of which were carrying banners. Doesn’t speak too highly for the Leeds movement if they have to bus in reinforcements but there you go.

The most enjoyable part of the day was chatting to the other amateur photographers which had turned to cover the event. Many of them had been covering such events for as long as a decade. There were some interesting lessons to be learned too. “I always follow the leftist side at these events,” one of the pro-left photographers explained. “It’s always the left that start the violence.”

Luckily on Saturday there was very little in the way of trouble – the day passed with only five arrests and no major injuries though of the clashes there were with the police I found the attitudes of those involved very disconcerting. “We could have broken through the police lines” one of the leftist supporters said. I replied “Well, I mean surely you shouldn’t do that?” “No, it would have worked, we had the number just not enough people went for it.” “No, I mean, from a moral point of view you shouldn’t be charging the police,” I tried to explain but the concept seemed lost on him.

EDL got approximately 900 people down there while the counter protest managed to get 1,500. Therefore we can conclude that only 38% of the population are in favour of fascism while the other 62% opposite it. Democracy works.

Of course, that isn’t a serious comment. Both sides are actually a bunch of fascists so the real conclusion we can draw from Saturday is that the 95.5% of the population of Leeds that didn’t attend think they are all wankers and wish they would stop wasting our tax money on huge policing operations.

Despite that though I’m glad the event happened. It is a true testament to the free and democractic society we live in when nut job organisations such as EDL, Revolution and UAF are able to speak their mind like this. It is ultimately this type of libertarianism which is so desirable that will ultimately defeat Sharia law, the object of both sides’ protests.

English Defence League crowd on city square.

The police attempt to block Revolution from marching on EDL.

Revolution charge the police line.

More EDL supporters arrive by coach.

Do you ever consider how sinister the name Salvation Army actually is?

We finally made it to the Leeds Museum on Sunday and while we only had an hour or so to get round it, it was quite interesting none the less. It was a little more grand than I had expected with a large arena style room in the centre and plenty of winding staircases with different exhibits on the different floors.

We made it round most of it in the time we were in there but most of it in a rush so we could have easily spent a few more hours in there. All in all, worth a visit though nothing spectacular.

On my way home from Aidan’s leaving do I decided to stop by The Library for a quick one just to say hi to everyone. Turns out that everyone was not that many people with none of the other committee being there, though apparantly Sophie had dropped by briefly earlier on.

So in the end to keep the party going I ended up staying there for a fare bit of time before getting a text with Nicola asking if we were still at the pub. I said we were going to be heading off soon but suggested we grab a quick pint down at the station so we ended up down there until nearly midnight, which didn’t really make for the early night I was hoping for but did give me chance to catch up with people which was good.

Walked past the Subway in the St. Johns Centre today. You can tell we had just had a Saturday night in Leeds – they hadn’t had time to clean the blood off yet.

With me having some free time on Tuesday afternoon, I headed down to Tropical World, accompanied by Norm and Lil, finally having moved to Roundhay over nine months ago now.

It’s an amazing resource really – a tropical jungle in the middle of Leeds; it’s quite random. I’m not sure how many other cities have them but I don’t think it’s many.

It was well worth the visit, if only to be warm for a little while lol, and I got plenty of pictures too so you can’t go wrong.

Sunday, it snowed. It snowed quite a lot.

Monday, it snowed. That is quite a lot of snow, for us.

I gather the south had it even worse though to be honest, I think this is much of a case of it snows every year in Britain, why aren’t we prepared for it?

Not that I think we were overly unprepared for it up in Leeds, it remains to be seen as to whether we will get a second downfall that will really cripple us but on the whole things managed to keep moving, everyone in our office managed to make it in despite several of them living in the middle of nowhere.

For anyone in urban areas there was no real reason why those who live and work up north could not get to work on Monday. And given the roads were entirely clear by Tuesday there is certainly no reason why anyone would skip work by then.