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In Essex skies ...

18/6/2019

2 Comments

 
Yesterday, while walking through the cornfields to the west of Chelmsford – en route to a comfortable pub in Chignal St James – I heard the unmistakable sound of a Merlin engine overhead. Looking up, I saw a single Hurricane flying towards the north east.
 
The sight was a poignant one, because only the fields, a few trees and the aeroplane itself were visible and I could have been transported back eighty years to when thousands of Hurricanes and Spitfires were intercepting enemy aircraft over Britain every day. The men flying those fighter planes, The Few, undoubtedly saved these islands from invasion.
 
What would those pilots have thought if they had known what was going to happen to the great democracy, with its ‘mother of parliaments’, for which they were sacrificing their lives every day? A country riven and polarized, that same parliament paralyzed and incapable of decision, and a prime minister in waiting so gaffe-prone, that his minders refuse to allow journalists and the public access to him, in case he makes a stupid ill-judged remark that could cost him the premiership. 

2 Comments
Clive
18/6/2019 03:25:59 pm

Peter,
They were fighting a dictator. They were fighting to preserve liberties such as freedom of speech. That includes allowing people to say or write stuff that we disagree with, or even consider to be false. Your observation is actually a bit ironic, in that the whole sorry B****t mess is to some degree founded upon the enduring antipathy of a generation towards countries that have since become our friends and allies, if those people could only realise it, and put behind them the events of 80 years ago.
The existence of an issue that has proved so divisive does not indicate a broken democracy. The democratic process still functions and when the moment comes we shall have the opportunity, peacefully and democratically, to eject all those responsible.
You might argue that the electorate contains a whole load of people whose education makes them vulnerable to the charms of passing charlatans such as Johnson and Farage. But arguably, is was the afore-mentioned older voters that pushed the referendum over the tipping point.

Reply
Lorayne
18/6/2019 11:57:11 pm

Yes exactly!

Reply



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  • Home
  • Books
    • Henry's Trials >
      • Extract from Henry's Trials
    • Smethurst's Luck >
      • Extract from Smethurst's Luck
    • Murder in the Red Barn >
      • Extract from Murder in the Red Barn
    • Reverend Duke and the Amesbury Oliver
  • Talks
    • Talk on Henry's Trials
    • Talk on Smethurst's Luck
    • Talk on Isambard Kingdom Brunel
    • Talk on the Murder in the Red Barn
    • BBC
  • Publications
    • The Amesbury Union Workhouse
    • The Separate System
  • Peter Maggs
  • Shop
  • Blog
  • Family History
    • Mirli
    • BM Creeper >
      • The Significance of Stonehenge
      • Educating Ealing I: How Lady Byron Did It
      • Educating Ealing II: Church of England Primary in the 1920s
      • All Because of Crystal Palace
      • Innocent in Ealing - Extract
      • Miss McDonald