{"id":152101,"date":"2025-06-02T12:40:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T12:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/152101\/"},"modified":"2025-06-02T12:40:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T12:40:14","slug":"picnic-shows-there-are-no-strangers-in-south-leeds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/152101\/","title":{"rendered":"Picnic shows there are no strangers in South Leeds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/No-strangers-1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>If you passed by the Watsonian Pavillion in Cross Flatts Park on Saturday afternoon (31 May 2025) you may have been offered some delicious picnic food. Those serving it weren\u2019t there by chance \u2013 it was a community picnic hosted by Beeston Hill Community Association with Leeds Stand Up To Racism.<\/p>\n<p>Standing around homemade banners reading \u2018no strangers in South Leeds\u2019 and \u2018Stand Up To Racism\u2019, around 30 people from across South Leeds got to know each other better whilst snacking on the communally produced food alongside those who dropped in as they walked through the park. It was put together in response to an immigration speech Prime Minister Keir Starmer made recently in which he said of Britain \u201cwe risk becoming an island of strangers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/No-Strangers-Picnic-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-166365\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/No-Strangers-Picnic-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"492\" height=\"600\"  \/><\/a>A delicious community picnic<\/p>\n<p>One of the organisers, Shaz, told us more:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cAfter Starmer\u2019s speech it was really heartbreaking to think that our community is full of strangers, when it\u2019s not. When we know we have physically put events together that bring everyone together no matter their colour, race, religion or what their belief is. And today was an opportunity to prove that and we have done it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Another one of the organisers, Chris, added;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cIn a community as diverse as Beeston unity is important. We definitely have more that unites us than divides us!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>While you\u2019re here, can we ask a favour?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">South Leeds Life is published by a not-for-profit social enterprise. We keep our costs as low as possible but we\u2019ve been hit by increases in the print costs for our monthly newspaper which have doubled in the last two years.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Could you help support local community news by making a one off donation, or even better taking out a supporters subscription?<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Donate here, or sign up for a subscription at <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/SLLsubscribe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>bit.ly\/SLLsubscribe<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you passed by the Watsonian Pavillion in Cross Flatts Park on Saturday afternoon (31 May 2025) you&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[64853,748,28825,393,4884,1860,64854,64855,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-152101","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-beeston-hill-community-association","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-cross-flatts-park","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-leeds","14":"tag-leeds-stand-up-to-racism","15":"tag-picnic","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114613821613845821","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}