Anthony Glynn walking tour of Southport, England

A sunny afternoon in the Victorian resort town of Southport, near Manchester--what could be bad. But it gets better because I have the pleasure of the company of Tony Glynn, long time newspaper reporter, author and currently artist and cartoonist.  That part of the story starts when Tony and "Bob" became pen pals and started a lifelong friendship.  I met Rob, as everyone else knows him, some years ago through Nancy. After hearing about Tony and reading his delightful email commentaries--lucky me, to meet him in the flesh.

Tony lives just off the main streets of Southport where Lord Street was one of the most fashionable promenades of Victorian England. Southport was a fishing village and took on a new life as a vacation destination for the industrialists of Liverpool and Manchester during the industrial revolution. Louis Napoleon lived here in exile and used the concept of Lord Street to remodel Paris when he became Napoleon III.


Nowadays, the town attracts local tourists and families for summer sun and weekend fun. Tony decries the groups of motorcyclists who use the town center to gather and start on their weekend rides but it looks to me like they are having fun away from ordinary jobs.  But Tony thinks the "motor-car phenomenon" will never catch on.

Flags
Notice the flags on the top of Funland above.  The Union Jack is known to us all.  I did not know the other flag--white with a red cross.  Turns out it is the flag of St. George and the symbol of England.  I have been well aware of the flag of Scotland and the flag of Shetland as I have been moving around as those areas have fairly strong nationalist urges. Commonly you see the Scot or Shetland flag and rarely a Union Jack.  In Northern Ireland, Union Jacks overwhelm paired with various flags representing the Orange Order. England, too, seems as though it must assert its pride as the flags are fairly widespread-either the flag of St. George alone or paired with the Union Jack. I am in Wales as I write which has a dragon flag, not paired with the Union Jack.

Promenade

This series of buildings are the height of Victorian sensibility, the library and art gallery.  At the end of the street--Church of England.

American Connection

This street is best known for ice cream and cotton candy; it is a passageway between the two major avenues which parallel the coast.  But, lucky me for having such a knowledgeable tour guide.  I learn that two famous American writers lived here and met often. Nathaniel Hawthorne was US Ambassador, stationed in Liverpool, but lived with his family here as the atmosphere in Liverpool was too dire.  Herman Melville, visited and vacationed here and the two met and shared writing and sea-type experiences.

Lifeboat memorial
One of Southport's much appreciated efforts is a long history of saving lives from shipwrecks.  It is a trecherous coast and just north of Liverpool, one of the busiest ports of its day.  A prominent incident in this history is the death of most crew in a lifeboat rescue, Lifeboat Eliza Fernley. A large ship was wrecked off the coast and local crew took out the lifeboats to rescue them.  It was dangerous, stormy weather,  but they did not hesitate to do what they could to save the lives of the sailors but they were swamped by a freak wave and most rescuers drowned.  Their heroic effort inspired many and has been commemorated here.  Southport has been a center of rescue from the time when fishermen took their lives in their hands to assist sailors to the establishment of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

The top of these photos shows the Lifeboat Memorial with the ubiquitous poppy wreath which is on every memorial in the UK as far as I can see.  The reddish photo shows the Coat of Arms of Southport which includes the lifeboat on the bottom as one of its key symbols.

Coast
The west coast of England is gaining land as a fairly rapid rate.  So the promenade which was the coast in the Victorian era, is now quite a distance from the actual sea. The bridge above is the route to the actual coast.  There is a lake in-between along the town and a salt-marsh RSPB reserve further north along the coast.

Sunday lunch
Tradition dictates a carved joint for Sunday lunch and Tony took me to the best in town at the Bold Hotel. The chef piles ham, beef or turkey on your plate.  You fill it up with Yorkshire pudding, potatoes of several kinds, veg,  Then, I learned, brown gravy over the whole thing.  Delicious. A pint of ale for Tony but I was driving later so had coffee.

Back home
Tony has his cartooning desk set in the front window. He has had health problems recently but seems to keep up with his work.

Political Insight

The greatest part of the day was the conversation.  Tony has been a reporter as well as a fiction and history writer for decades.  Among other contributions, he was the Manchester correspondent for the Irish Independent.

I have been waiting to find a knowledgeable commentator on the Northern Ireland situation.  I am also intrigued by the rise of Jeremy Corbyn as the head of the Labour party in the UK as it seems to me to signal some significant shifts in politics here.

I got my man--Tony has much to say.

Northern Ireland
On Northern Ireland, one of my questions has to do with whether the terrible violence accomplished anything.  If so, was such violence necessary to reach those goals.

Short answer--"Yes" to both.  The violence was terrible and devastating and cannot be condoned. However, the power of the Orange establishment in NI was so strong, it could hardly have been mitigated without major social disruption.  Orange anti-Catholic marching, discrimination and other harassment existed elsewhere, including Liverpool and Manchester.  I have also become aware that the Orangemen still march in Glasgow.  But in the other areas, the society is large enough for the tension to become diffuse over time.  The political systems in other parts of UK were not firmly held by the Orange Order as in NI.  In NI, after the independence of the Republic, the situation was a distillate of the issue with all power going to the Ulstermen.  The Catholic civil rights movement of 1968 began as a MLK-style peaceful protest which had little chance to gain fair voting and other rights against the combined forces of the Orange Order and the government it controlled.  The IRA entered the effort and death and destruction reigned for decades with much abuse by both sides as well as severe repressive measures by the government. Since 2006 there has been a stand-down and a combined government formed.

The current power-sharing agreement is successful in that all parties participate.  Although the tension is palpable, as I have said elsewhere, for the most part, they are not killing each other.  And all segments of the population are represented in the government. The recent pull-out of the Democratic Unionist Party from the participation does not bode well but may not be final. Talks are ongoing.

Shifts in Labour Party
Scotland has been a big supporter of Labour over the years but the Scottish National Party won big basically losing Labour 53 seats.  They have much thinking to do about their future as they have lost to the Tories significantly recently even before the SNP rise.  Jeremy Corbyn is more to the left than most Labour political figures but has won position as the head of Labour and will be the voice which provides the debate to the current Prime Minister. He takes positions in favor of workers and the dispossessed much stronger than many others in his party.

Everything I have read seems to say this is the death of the Labour Party.  Today's NYT has an article saying Corbyn will be the biggest factor in electing the next Tory PM.  Well?

Tony thinks that Corbyn is tapping into a reservoir of thought in England which has essentially been voiceless and who are coming into the party in numbers.  He is interested to see how this works out but thinks the received wisdom is missing something important.

In one of my recent birding ventures, I was in a bird-hide with quite many others from Newcastle. Several of them were quietly chatting to each other, saying, "well, I have re-joined Labour," and other words to that effect.

Lots of food for thought and one great day in Southport.  Thanks, Tony.