OVER TO YOU..

Well, you`ve got to admire their enthusiasm.   The good burghers of Plymouth in Devon are getting very worked up about the 400th anniversery of the sailing of the Mayflower to the brave New World in 1620.   The Lord Mayor, Councillor Tudor Evans, is writing to Barrack Obama  to invite the President of the United States, whoever that may be in 2020, to come over and join in Plymouth`s celebrations of this historic event.   He is also writing to David Cameron seeking support for the event, especially as Britain will be chairing the G8 summit that year.

All good stuff and I wish Plymouth well in this long term strategy they are putting in place. However, lest we forget, there are at least two others who can claim that the Mayflower actually sailed from there.   The first is none other than Rotherhithe in the London Borough of Southwark who have claimed their piece of history by sticking up this plaque:-

But arguably the most significant event in this historic saga took place in 15th August 1620 when the Mayflower set sail for real from Southampton`s West Quay.   It`s shown as almost an afterthought in the photo at the top, showing the plaque on part of Southampton Town Walls.

I`m beginning to suspect that, like the Eurovision Song Contest, there might be a reluctance on the part of Southampton City Council and the London Borough of Southwark to get too exercised about marking the occasion in 2020.   It`s a lot of work, a lot of angst and a lot of money so maybe they are shrugging their civic shoulders whilst being content to pass the burden over to that fine historic city in Glorious Devon.  After all, they were merely service stations along the way.   And we don`t want to start celebrating service stations, do we?