“One of the best things about doing a stall”, a Greenpeace activist once said to me, “is the people you meet”.
And I agree with her. When I do stalls in the local shopping centre I often meet one good person. I also meet about ten people who will sign a petition against Heathrow expansion, but only quickly because they have to dash to the bus. And I meet lots more people who are far too busy shopping for you to explain why new coal fired power stations might be a bad idea.
So when I accepted a stall at the Urban Green Fair I thought it would be similar. How wrong I was. “People were so keen to sign up to Airplot that we couldn't cope at times even with three of us on the stall” said one of our activists. And, far from finding one interesting person to talk to per hour, I was having to cut off really interesting conversation so I could talk to someone in the queue about the Heathrow Third Runway. Never before have I had such a warm audience.
So to those 250 people who signed the petition against the Heathrow Third Runway, thank you. And to those people who I was terse will apologies, but we couldn't cope with the crowds. But do please come along to our next planning meeting where we can continue the conversation. And if your conversation is interesting enough I may even buy you a beer.
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