From the archives - Leon Brittan visits York University

[vin_petrol]

In November 1987, one of the ugliest politicians Britain has ever seen visited York University, as a guest of the Conservative Students Association. Back in that era, students would turn out to demonstrate whenever Tory politicians appeared.


Students prepare for his arrival.



It's Leon Brittan. I think he's been pounced on by someone from University Radio York.



York students welcome Leon Brittan. I *do* like this picture. There's a lot of animation in the protestors :-) Does anyone have any idea why someone has "the gerbil" on a plackard though?
EDIT: ah, I think it's "GERbill", and it refers to the late-80s Great Education Reform bill, which introduced student loans (amongst other things).

I had a horrendous mental incident with Leon Brittan too. When I visited America in 1992 I was reading something like The New York Times one morning, which ran a profile of Leon Brittan. It started with the words "Leon Brittan appeared, resplendent in bright red suspenders." I sprayed coffee over the paper ... I *really* didn't need that mental image. It took me a while to remember that "suspenders" in American English means something else entirely: braces.

Comments

[ex-wendles389.livejournal.com]

wow... I don't think Tory politicians were even allowed on our campus back then! (or maybe they were, but on the whole they didn't want to risk it!)

[cyberspice.livejournal.com]

A year or so earlier Maggie turned up! That was fun!

[vin_petrol]

Maggie came to York?! I never knew that. What did she do? Where did she go?

I never took a picture of Maggie. I've been within a few feet of the Queen and taken a picture of her, when she visited York, plus various other politicians (Norman Tebbit, David Steel) but never Maggie...

[vin_petrol]

I don't think Tory politicians were even allowed on our campus back then!

We got Norman Tebbit a year or so later, but this was actually for an edition of Question Time that came from Central Hall, so he was a guest of the University itself rather than the student body, and no protests took place.

[blue-condition.livejournal.com]

Good lord, I remember the baldy bloke in the rally jacket with the stripe down the sleeve. He got off with a woman I fancied.... then again that's hardly very specific, is it.... ;P

[minusbat.livejournal.com]

Phil The Worm (and I am guessing the woman was MargS, right ?)

[vin_petrol]

Was MargS the slightly mad computer science student? Foreign? German? Known as Mags IIRC?

[minusbat.livejournal.com]

Yup, that was Maggs, russian as I recall though.

[vin_petrol]

Ooh yes. I remember her. Trash was convinced she had a bit of a thing about me - LOL.

[gothadh.livejournal.com]

Why did students look so much older in those days?

[vin_petrol]

You're right, they do, don't they?
I wonder if there were more 'mature' students then, changing the demographic?

[echo-echo.livejournal.com]

Gerbil? Maybe it says Cuba?

I do like a good V to politicians though. :)

[vin_petrol]

Actually, since writing that I *think* I've found out that it may be "GERbill". This was the late-80s Great Education Reform bill that introduced student loans, amongst other things.

[cyberspice.livejournal.com]

Funnily gerbill has also been used as the nickname for another bill that has recently gone through the house. It's the Ge**** R*********** Bill.

[cyberspice.livejournal.com]

One of those Socialist Work students owned a 4x4 Fiat Panda that Mummy and Daddy had bought him. That always made me laugh.

[vin_petrol]

Oooh, stop! I wonder how many of them are accountants now? :-)

[ms-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I used to know someone who described himself as 'a recovering socialist worker' - apparently the reason why they are so keen to sell their papers is not just because they are trying to spread their message but because they are given a certain amount to sell and if you fail to sell them then you have to buy them yourself. Paul made me laugh when he said one of his fellow SWP members had such a generous allowance from Mummy and Daddy that he would buy the leftover papers from them and then dump them in the basement, as their combined socialist fervour declined he just used to buy everybodys at the end of the week so that their schedule of vodka drinking and countdown watching didn't get interrupted.

[blue-condition.livejournal.com]

My response to the cries of "Socialist Worker!" used to be "Neither, thanks."

[cyberspice.livejournal.com]

I used to call them the SSWiSers.

[ms-siobhan.livejournal.com]

LOL

[rich-r.livejournal.com]

I remember watching the YSTV footage of the visit. Some of that had been edited by people around the time to make the visit look more like the miner's strike riots.

[vin_petrol]

Apparently, someone *did* throw a tomato at Mr Brittan ... but it missed :-)

[cyberspice.livejournal.com]

Mrs T was successfully egged.

[rich-r.livejournal.com]

My uncle once got hit by an egg meant for Mrs Thatcher. He was a Group Captain in the RAF at Edinburgh, so had to meet and go in the car with her from the airbase to wherever it was in the city she was going. He made the mistake of getting out of the car first....

[ms-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Leon Brittain has been subject to scurrilous rumourmongering on many occasions (I heard one that when he when the Brighton bomb went off he was 'busy' in the jacuzzi with someone considerably younger than him and of the opposite sex) so I suspect the gerbil reference may be an allusion to the (surely or should that be sorely-especially for the gerbil) urban myth about the introduction of small rodents to back passages.
Really good to see students being stroppy, nowadays I suspect you'd only get that kind of response if you threatened to close down the nearest Starbucks to campus :(

Gerbil

[vin_petrol]

Nothing so exciting, I'm afraid. See edit: Great Education Reform bill.

Re: Gerbil

[ms-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I know.....but I much prefer my horrible rumour mongering explaination!