A former organiser of the, now sadly defunct, Huddersfield Salon told me about a debating forum based in her home town of Slaithwaite (colloquially known as ‘Slawit’), west of Huddersfield. The Free University of Slawit is an informal pub discussion group dedicated to ”politics, philosophy, enjoyment”. Keen to know more, I interviewed one of its organisers: the local writer, lecturer and railway enthusiast Paul Salveson.
1. Paul, can you expand on what the Free University of Slawit is about — when did it start, who’s involved and what was the idea behind it?
We’ve been going over a year – we were inspired by the network of informal pub discussion groups supported by The Raymond Williams Foundation. A few of us thought it would be a good thing to have a forum to get together over a drink to discuss ideas – politics, philosophy, ethics. The emphasis is on having a friendly debate, respecting each other’s views.
2. Is the ‘Free University’ part of a broader national (and in some cases international) network of discussion groups like the Salons, Philosophy in Pubs, Skeptics in the Pub and Café Scientifiques? And if not, have you or anyone else got plans to start others up elsewhere?
Other than the very tenuous link with the Raymond Williams Foundation we don’t have any other links, though there is interest in setting up a similar group in Holmfirth.
3. What have you discussed so far, and how do you chose the topics?
All sorts! We’ve had discussions on whether we need the Royal Family, devolution of power to the North of England, the future of the NHS, a debate on ‘class’, the ‘occupy’ movement and whether we should get involved in other people’s wars. We had a good session on the future of universities. The theme for the next meeting is decided at the preceding meeting. That way the subject is usually topical.
4. Can you tell us about the format? It looks similar to Philosophy in Pubs, — an informal gathering in a pub open to anyone with no ‘expert’ speaker. Is there any initial presentation of the topic? And how do you ensure the quality and direction of the discussion?
It’s very similar. We don’t have an ‘expert’ speaker, though we wouldn’t rule out an occasional session with a speaker. Generally it works fine with a very open approach. Key to a successful discussion is having a good chair who can steer the discussion, make sure nobody hogs the floor and brings people in. We try to rotate the chair, deciding who will do it at the start of the meeting (sometimes arms are twisted!). It’s really important for new people to feel welcomed. We have our own room in the local pub and the landlady is very helpful. You need to be away from background noise.
5. Who attends and has it proved popular?
We’re a mixed group and attendances vary between two (!) and nearly twenty. An ideal number is around 12-16. I would say we’re mostly ‘professional’ but not entirely. We get a good mix of male and female and most of us live very locally – within walking distance of the pub. Quite a few are retired. Politically we tend to be left of centre – a few Labour people, a couple of SWP’ers and at least one Lib Dem. We’d welcome Tories!
6. I also notice on your site you had a day out to the People’s History Museum in Manchester. That’s a nice innovation to the discussion group format. What made you think of that, and are there any more day trips planned?
We thought it would be good to have a ‘day out’ during the summer, and the date coincided with the anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre in 1819 (August 16th). It was a really successful day and we also visited the Chetham’s Library which is amazing. Yes, we’ll definitely do more days out when the weather gets better.
One project we decided to do at our last meeting as a ‘Slawit Festival of Free Thinking’. The basic idea is to have a weekend of discussions, debates and events sometime during the summer, using different venues. We will have some speakers for specific events but the general approach will be to have more informal debates. We’re setting up a sub-group to develop the idea. We’re quite excited by it!
The Free University of Slawit takes place on the third Tuesday of each month at the Commercial Pub, Slaithwaite, staring at 8pm, and is free – ‘apart from having to buy Jonny’s excellent beer’. The next discussion is on Tuesday 21st February: ‘Were the Luddites Right After All?’ For more information, visit their website at: http://www.paulsalveson.org.uk/free-university-of-slawit/.
Paul Thomas is co-founder and organiser of The Leeds Salon and writes regularly for its sister-journal Freedom in a Puritan Age and Culture Vulture.