Our 'Bring Our Boys Home', Petition Campaign.

Saturday 2nd October saw patriots from as far afield as Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire descend on the Mid Glamorganshire market town of Bridgend. Now Bridgend is steeped in history from medieval days, and can even trace its history to the Normans and Romans.

Now however it is a very different place. The once formidable fortress of rugby the Brewery Field is now a sparsely attended second tier club. Many shops are boarded up and those remaining boast headboards offering Eastern European foodstuffs and Halal butchery.

Quaint old pubs lie abandoned, and the place stinks of hamburgers and curry. Scattered around the place is evidence of the previous nights debauchery left by the New World student population all over the place.
The town centre has been pedestrianised and appears to be very busy. There is a market taking place, but most stalls sell imported tat, with only a few offering local produce. The accents of the purveyors are certainly hardly local Welsh, and frequently not even western European. The whole place appears unkempt, and we gather, all 20 of us outside the Victoria Inn. A dilapidated old pub, right in the middle of town offering for sale Ushers Beer on draught. It has not opened its doors for several years now. Even the brewery closed down eight years ago. News is that it is to be turned into an Eastern supermarket with a Halal butchery.
There are so many of us that we send a team of seasoned campaigners off to a nearby area to spread the word.
We set up camp. Dressed the table with the banners, and were swamped with ordinary people wishing to sign our petition. The collection box chinked, and thousands of leaflets were accepted. Our hands became sore from shaking, and the atmosphere was electric.

A Full Table

However there were dirty deeds afoot. A security camera high on a distant building was trained on us.
A very youthful UAF person turned up and plonked himself nearby with a very inflammatory billboard around his neck. Immediately after a Town Hall Official, who had been called out on a day off, told us that we had to move because we did not have a permit and were therefore obstructing the highway. What, in a pedestrian area? She was told that we had every right to be there and would not budge. After many minutes of pressure she gave up.
Five minutes later two of the local constabulary turned up, but we had a secret weapon. One of our throng served his career in the Force and still keeps his skills.
The most senior of the two officers was asked point blank what offence the patriots were committing. 'Obstruction' was the reply.
'Obstructing what and whom', was the next question.
'The Highway', was the next answer.
'But this is not a Highway, is it' was the retort.
Silence.
'What will happen if we ignore you'?
A roll of the eyes and a shrug was followed by a hands behind the back Chaplinesque departure. The day was won.
However ten minutes later a very definitely non-Welsh lady, who was not pink either, identified herself as the Town Manager. She demanded the name and address of an official. This was volunteered if a valid reason could be given for the request. 'To send you application forms for future events that you wish to hold'.
'Icing on the cake indeed'.
Nearly 300 signatures in two hours. three thousand leaflets given out and distributed, and a great day was had by all.
Now see Video.


Ed.