The year 2020 started with absolute hopelessness. Britain had voted in the most right wing government in it’s history devoted to a policy of destroying the futures of the youth of this country by an obsession with ‘getting Brexit done’. Stopping the free movement of people. Building walls. There was a rise in xenophobia, in hate crimes and the economy was about to take a tumble. We were determined to continue the good fight and started the year as we meant to go on by sticking up for internationalism and a future. But suddenly we were hit by a global pandemic which nobody could predict. Apart from maybe the pangolins of China…
In January 2020 we started off with taking Bridgwater College students to Priverno and down to Naples. Dave Solomon and Ian Luckhurst were the teachers and Hilary Bruce joined us as Italian language expert.
In February groups started to cancel.
In March a brilliant tour of Somerset by the Funchal Choir of Madeira was brought to a stark end by the covid pandemic sweeping the continent and lockdowns everywhere. On the last day of the tour our former friend and comrade Diogo Rodrigues chose the moment to join the Conservatives. The last act of twinning……..and the irony. A man we’d helped become Mayor of Bridgwater and Leader of our group to fight for internationalism and against Brexit, suddenly decides to join the party that was the antithesis of all that…..as if covid wasn’t a bad enough nail in the coffin of humanity…..
