Thursday 6 November 2008

What are you doing this Sunday morning?


Remembrance Sunday is here again. I often remark on how quickly it comes round. What is shocking to realise this year however is that there are only eleven living veterans of the First World War. And just one of them,Pte Harry Patch,aged 110, from Somerset( of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry regiment) who actually fought in the trenches.It is of course ninety years since the signing of the armistice marked the end of the First World War. But it’s a sobering thought to consider that in just a few years time there will be no one left who actually remembers first hand the price paid by a generation of young men, many of whom never returned home.

I have since boyhood taken part in our local act of remembrance. One of the names on the many bronze panels is that of my great uncle. His brother who was gassed but survived in very poor health until the late 1940s both deserve my own remembrance. And it is heartening to see attendances are growing slowly each year. But what is obvious is the dwindling band of Second World War veterans and the increasing frailness of those who remain.

I would urge everyone to take an hour out of your Sunday morning and attend your local remembrance parade. I can’t sum it up any better than something I read many years ago “If you can read this, Thank a teacher. If you are reading this in English thank a soldier.” Since we can’t thank those who died for our freedom in person the least we can do is turn out for one hour on one Sunday morning annually and honour those who gave there lives in war that we may enjoy peace.

Monday 7 July 2008

Now Gordon thinks he's Marguerite Patten.


After hearing the latest lunacy announced by our Prime Minister this morning I can't help feeling that his tenuous grip on reality has now evaporated completely ignoring for a moment the grossly patronising attitude in turning round to the British electorate and lecturing them on waste. I can't help wondering how given the state of everything else in the country, the PM feels that the best way to help the British electorate is by turning into Marguerite Patten.

When it comes to waste my message to New Labour is quite simple people who live in glass houses should get undressed in the dark. The abject cheek of anybody in a government which has presided over such profligate waste of taxpayers' money is a serious bloody liberty but coming from Gordon himself that really takes a full tin of biscuits. Does he seriously expect us to take a home economics lesson from him? this is a man who after 10 years of control freakery and taxing decent people till the pipsqueak to pay for his ludicrous social engineering schemes. (All of which have contributed to the rises in the cost of living including fuel and food price increases.) now starts dispensing homely advice on domestic science.


Perhaps he would be taken a little more seriously had he and all his cronies and hangers-on had the decency to turn up in Parliament the other day and vote for transparency in MPs' expenses. I seem to remember that New Labour has form for rummaging through people's bins, looking for incriminating information with which to discredit people. But how low can they go when what they're looking for is a half-eaten box a pork pies or chicken carcass that hasn't been stripped of every ounce of meat. Hopefully it will never be taken seriously again. But even more hopefully enterprising journalists throughout the land will be surreptitiously trawling through the bins of local MPs over the next few weeks. I for one wait with interest to see how the waste not want not prudent, economicly and environmentally sound New Labour Stakhanovite's will fare compared to the rest of us