On Saturday it was reported in the Independent newspaper that “Britain’s oldest POW is now living off handouts”. I read the story and was horrified to learn that ex-World War II soldier and Nazi prison camp survivor, Robbie Clark, aged 97, registered blind and in a wheelchair, is surviving off charity handouts and is in danger of being evicted from his home by Brent Borough Council, north London.

Evidently, Mr Clark used up his savings of £50,000 in paying his £960 a week care bill and now the council have said they will only pay a contribution of £451 a week, meaning that he could be forced to live in a care home, a prospect that the former prisoner of war views with dread.

Why, I wondered? Even in a country that generally treats its ex-military with indifference and scant respect , how could this happen?

I decided to visit the website of Brent Council and there discovered that, of its 63 councillors, 1 is Liberal, 6 are Conservative and 56 are Labour, the party whose new leader is an avowed socialist and who refuses to sing the National Anthem. Further, the Council boasts on its website that “Brent  is the second most culturally diverse borough in the UK”.

Now it makes sense, an ex-soldier of the detested former empire? Certainly not a priority and certainly not diverse enough for the politically correct rulers of Brent Borough Council.

Never mind that, we should expect nothing less from a socialist run organisation proud of its ethnic and cultural diversity.  We should be more concerned about what it says about our country as a whole. A country that expects  its young men and women to risk their lives in time of war but then, if they are fortunate enough to return, is not prepared to look after them in old age and infirmity.