I did think of showing this video before, as it features one of my favourite songs, sung by the wonderful John Tams (British people will know him from his role in 'Sharpe'). But I was unsure of its combination with stills from the D-Day landings. I thought, in a way, it altered the song's message; a story of trawlermen far from their loved ones, hoping to return safely.
But today, of all days, it seems so appropriate. 65 years ago today, thousands of dead already littered the beaches of Normandy, as the Allies took the fight to the Nazis. In the light of three fascist BNP councillors being elected on Thursday, I think we need reminding just what these people stand for, and what our forefathers fought to prevent. Because soon they won't be here to remind us anymore, and foolish people will dismiss it as stories and rumours.
My uncle fought in the Western Desert against the Afrika Korps. My mother and her family were bombed out of their London home, windows smashing as the dairy stables next door took a direct hit, throwing masonry and horse flesh everywhere. My grandpa was in the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors; being colour-blind he was unable to enlist in the Royal Navy, but was a draughtsman, helping to design many of the ships of the line. Here's a picture of him in his Air Raid Warden's uniform dipping his feet in the Roman Baths at Bath, where the Admiralty Offices were based. Every ship he worked on floats in the water there....
Some of you will have seen a video I circulated on the eve of the elections, showing a Second World War veteran and a Jewish survivor of the Nazis saying why we should oppose the BNP at every step. Remember, when they say that they want to expel non-whites, that Hitler said the same against the Jews....until he found a more efficient "Solution".
I am immensely proud of being British. Of being from a country that produced the likes of John Ball, Watt Tyler, the Levellers, Diggers and Ranters, Tom Paine, Mary Wollstonecraft, John Stuart Mill, William Wilberforce, the Chartists, the Suffragettes, Churchill and the Attlee government. We are a nation that instinctively disrespects authority; that challenges, subverts and renews. The BNP, despite their flag-waving, oppose everything this country stands for, and what the men who died 65 years ago fought to preserve.....
But today, of all days, it seems so appropriate. 65 years ago today, thousands of dead already littered the beaches of Normandy, as the Allies took the fight to the Nazis. In the light of three fascist BNP councillors being elected on Thursday, I think we need reminding just what these people stand for, and what our forefathers fought to prevent. Because soon they won't be here to remind us anymore, and foolish people will dismiss it as stories and rumours.
My uncle fought in the Western Desert against the Afrika Korps. My mother and her family were bombed out of their London home, windows smashing as the dairy stables next door took a direct hit, throwing masonry and horse flesh everywhere. My grandpa was in the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors; being colour-blind he was unable to enlist in the Royal Navy, but was a draughtsman, helping to design many of the ships of the line. Here's a picture of him in his Air Raid Warden's uniform dipping his feet in the Roman Baths at Bath, where the Admiralty Offices were based. Every ship he worked on floats in the water there....
Some of you will have seen a video I circulated on the eve of the elections, showing a Second World War veteran and a Jewish survivor of the Nazis saying why we should oppose the BNP at every step. Remember, when they say that they want to expel non-whites, that Hitler said the same against the Jews....until he found a more efficient "Solution".
I am immensely proud of being British. Of being from a country that produced the likes of John Ball, Watt Tyler, the Levellers, Diggers and Ranters, Tom Paine, Mary Wollstonecraft, John Stuart Mill, William Wilberforce, the Chartists, the Suffragettes, Churchill and the Attlee government. We are a nation that instinctively disrespects authority; that challenges, subverts and renews. The BNP, despite their flag-waving, oppose everything this country stands for, and what the men who died 65 years ago fought to preserve.....
happy weekend to you too...
Thank you for sharing the song (superb) and the video (very appropriate).