edam Quote ["Lucia, I don't know why I'm wasting my breath on someone who never, ever, makes any attempt to take on board another point of view... but here goes anyway."] End quote.
Once again you are making sweeping statements that are not borne out by the facts. I suggest you review a selection of my posts.
edam Quote ["My godmother was, in fact, in touch with people up and down the country."] End quote.
Your point being?
edam Quote ["She was heavily involved in the Labour movement, as was her entire family."] End quote.
Purely as a matter of interest would this be prior to, or after, her experience of being a young mother, living in a town, unable to work and "starving. Literally"? [sic]
edam Quote ["She talks about her experience of the war, indeed, but also knows a damn sight more about the wider experience of other working class people than almost anyone else around. Not just her own family, but the wider world."] End quote.
The above comment would appear to be paradoxical. Your godmother cannot ever possibly know "a damn sight more about the wider experience of other working class people" because she is not them. Experiences are subjective and personal. She may have had experiences that are similar to those of others but she has not had their personal experiences. Her experiences are de facto purely her own.
Neither is your godmother unique. Other surviving elderly people of her generation have had similar experiences. Individuals, living or dead, have left us their impressions via memoirs, letters, and reminiscences, many of which have been published.
I'm not quite sure why you have felt it necessary to post all this extraneous information about your godmother. However, leaving this reason aside I don't think you quite understand the function of historiography. Someone like your godmother has had valuable experiences. However, what you appear to be confused by is the way such experiences are interpreted by historians. We cannot say "because Mrs Brown and her friends in Bristol experienced X in 1941 it follows that everyone in Britain in 1941 had the same experience". Of course certain events will have had similar impacts [bombing for instance] but depending on the event under discussion and the anecdotes pertaining to it, the historian has to recognise that all personal observations are precisely that, i.e. personal. Thus while they may be borne out by events, the observations of others, or documented evidence, it cannot be assumed that every personal anecdote about events that took place nearly 70 years ago is objective, verbatim, and of itself, an unequivocal fact.
edam Quote ["Dismiss her as one person if you like, but she is MUCH more impressive and has a much more distinguished life than 99.5% of the people around today."] End quote.
I wasn't aware I'd dismissed anybody. However, I would suggest that if you are going to cite statistical information you need evidence to support it. So unless you have personal knowledge of "99.5%" of the population and their experiences your attempt to justify your godmother's status looks somewhat contrived.
edam Quote ["Unlike most of us lucky enough to be live in Western countries she has seen starvation up close."] End quote.
Hardly surprising given that you've already told us she herself had been "starving". Unless, of course you are intimating that she observed starvation in non-Western countries.
edam Quote ["When she was a child, people who dared to get involved in the fight for political representation of the working classes were often thrown out of their jobs and homes."] End quote.
This is hardly an earthshattering revelation! We know that miners and other workers were often evicted if they had taken part in strikes or were attempting to unionise their comrades.
edam Quote ["Including my godmother herself, when her father dared to stand for the council. (The mine owner was a Tory who told his workers how to vote.)"] End quote.
Let me get this straight. Your godmother and her family were evicted after her father attempted to stand for the council because the mine owner was a Tory who instructed workers how to vote? This doesn't fit into the historical time scale [unless your godmother is now approaching one hundred and forty years old]! No boss/mine owner could have coerced any employee about voting following the passage of the 1872 Act which created the secret ballot.
Of course known political activitists and organisers were often victimised by owners and bosses to "make an example", thereby attempting to intimidate others into "toeing the line" but, after 1872, your godmother's father could not have been evicted for not voting as the mine-owner wished because no one would have known how he had voted!
edam Quote ["She also trudged the streets of Manchester with her mother in order to raise funds to set up the first birth control clinic there. Even though it was clearly intended for married women, people spat in their faces."] End quote.
This was obviously very laudable, given that similar campaigns were being undertaken in Britain at around the same period under the formidable Marie Stopes.
edam Quote ["She also helped members of the International Brigade who survived the Spanish Civil War get back into this country, when the government was trying to keep them out."]
I am somewhat perplexed by this statement as it doesn't appear to tally with known historical facts. Walter Gregory, A Shallow Grave [1986] served in the British Battalion of the International Brigade from December 1936 until 1939. He recounts his release from imprisonment at Ondaretta following the end of the war and how he, along with his fellow British prisoners, was taken to the French/Spanish border at Irun. He entered France and returned to the UK without any problems. The fate of Spanish Republican soldiers who escaped to France was far more severe and indeed the Republicans were treated so atrociously in the hastily erected French-run prisons that many preferred to return to Spain and risk prison or execution. The USSR behaved with equal callousness and refused all Spanish refugees except senior party cadres. Of the Spanish refugees, the British government was prepared to accept a limited number of senior officials, but other Spanish Republicans were only allowed to enter the country if a Briton stood as their guarantor. Given that few Spaniards had any British friends only a couple of hundred managed to enter the UK. However, these were Spanish soldiers not returning Britons. I therefore do not understand your claim that your godmother assisted in getting individuals "back" into this country. As British subjects they would have had no problem re-entering. Or are you, in fact, referring to these Spanish ex-combatants?