Something to Bragg about

Yesterday I continued my personal quest to stop my son ever getting into chart R&B (unless it's the Stones or BB King) by taking him to the Garforth Festival Playground Party which is a real highlight of my year. It's a true community festival with a superb atmosphere and a lineup that becomes more impressive by the year.






There were lots of families sitting in the sun enjoying performances from both established artists and a parade of children from local schools:







The highlight of the day was the appearance of Hugh Masakela and Billy Bragg. As left wing Mummies we were very excited by Billy's appearance and tried to get him to come and say hi via Twitter:






Sadly - and wholly surprisingly - it didn't work but he gave a storming performance including a new song called 'Never buy the Sun' which reflected the events of this last week.




And I'm really glad I took my son because Billy speaks in an honest and humorous way about matters I think my son needs to think about as he grows up. Topics he discussed was the 'Love Music Hate Racism' campaign and about young people coming out to politically fight the BNP in Barking during the last election and succeeding in taking all 12 council seats off them. And Billy talked about how activism needs to be a grassroots movement and that we as teachers change lives every day. I think that happens as a parent too: the best parenting gives a social and moral compass to a child. I hope that my son's childhood is helping him develop an awareness of the importance of social responsibility whilst still having a huge amount of fun and joy. This is extra important for us as a lone parent family as this society is effectively saying that they give tax breaks to married people because lone parents are second class citizens. Well, I'm not and neither is my son.

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