Sunday, June 17, 2018

Labour Live? The old Liberal Party got there first


All that coverage of Labour Live yesterday awakened a distant memory. Hadn't there been a Liberal Party fun day at Knebworth round about 1980?

When I tweeted that question I received three replies confirming it had taken place, including this one from someone who had been at the event:

Someone else suggested the Liberal Party had held more than one fun day at Knebworth.

A bit of googling produced the confirming snippet from Campaigning Face to Face by Wynn Hugh-Jones above. (It's a good book. I'm in the index.)

What I most remember from this episode is a fragment of song that used to be talked of in Liberator and Liberal Revue circles.

Set to the tune of Joni Mitchell's Woodstock, it began:
By the time we got to Knebworth
We were half a carload strong.
I think that may have been where it ended too.

1 comment:

Mark Pack said...

That excerpt cuts off before this intriguing bit from the book, rescued from a far shelf at home: "He enticed celebrities, entertainers and large numbers of market traders to take part, and David Steel to risk life and limb parascending. By diligent publicity we induced some 10,000 people and children to attend and pay". It goes on talk about the scale of the success made people want it to become an annual event, but I guess that didn't happen?