Category Archives: Patriots Corner

Singing the National Anthem

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At the end of this week football’s World Cup 2014 gets under way in Brazil. Amidst their preparations the England team have been told by their manager to sing the national anthem at the start of each game.

Some commentators have said the manager is wrong and it should be a matter of choice for the individual player.

Maybe it should, and I’m all for freedom of choice but, I really cannot understand why any proud sportsman selected to play for his country, particularly at the highest level, would not want to bellow out his national anthem until his lungs are fit to burst.

It certainly doesn’t appear to be a problem for most other nations.

Normandy Beaches

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Today is June 6th, the anniversary of the D-Day landings when the Allies (principally the British, Americans and Canadians) began the invasion of Normandy which, under a year later, would lead to ultimate victory in Europe and free large parts of the continent from over 5 years of German tyranny.

The price of victory was not cheap, as any visitor to the military cemeteries of Normandy will testify, though but for the meticulous planning of the operation (Operation Overlord) it could have been a lot worse.

This year’s anniversary has a special poignancy since it is exactly 70 years to the day that thousands of young soldiers began their voyage into the unknown by leaving the shores of southern England and crossing the English Channel to land on the beaches of Normandy.

A sizeable group of survivors, all of them now old men in their late 80s and beyond, are meeting today on those same beaches to commemorate the landings and to remember their fallen comrades.  We too will remember their sacrifice with respect and gratitude – and thank our lucky stars that we have been fortunate enough to escape anything like the horrors they suffered on our behalf.

Break up?

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Last week the Council for Europe announced that Cornwall was being granted special “Minority Status” meaning that the region, for the last 1000 years a county of England, will now have a similar standing to Wales and Scotland.

Most people probably shrugged their shoulders and wondered briefly whether the change of status would really make that much of a difference, a response initially shared by me. Like many people, I like Cornwall and have a warm feeling towards the place with its ancient folklore, its beautiful scenery and delicious pasties! I have similar feelings about many other parts of England and have always felt that our regional differences are part of what makes us what we are.

I’m sure that people in Yorkshire, Kent and Cumbria, for example, feel that their counties are equally special and unique and they are. But should they strive for “Minority Status” and seek separate representation leaving the land as it was prior to King Alfred the Great and the creation of England in the 9th and 10th Centuries?

The more I thought about it the more I remembered something I read years ago by the author Vernon Coleman who warned that one of the primary aims of the European Union is to abolish the idea of nationhood and encourage, in its place, the creation of many smaller regions. These regions will offer less of a problem than nations and, because of their size, will become dependent upon the European government in Brussels. Coleman warned, nearly ten years ago, that ultimately Scotland and Wales would go their own way and that England would cease to exist and be broken into separate regions.

Of course, many people have dismissed Coleman as being a crank or a scaremonger and maybe he is. But when I think about Cornwall’s new status and the fact that later this year Scotland (as Coleman predicted) is going to vote on whether or not to remain a part of the United Kingdom I can’t help but feel a little uneasy.

English Understatement

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We English are often said to possess a certain reserve and to be, on occasion, somewhat aloof. However, the other side of the coin is a rather unique gift for understatement, stoicism and an admirable coolness under pressure, commonly referred to as the “stiff upper lip”. Indeed, the British Government’s motivational slogan “Keep Calm and Carry On”, issued in poster form in 1939 at the outbreak of World War II has proved such a commercial success that, 75 years later, millions of T shirts, mugs and other paraphernalia bearing the slogan continue to be sold all over the world.

There are a number of historical examples of English stoicism such as Francis Drake’s insistence on completing his game of bowls before sailing from Plymouth to confront the mighty Spanish Armada in 1588. Or Wellington’s cool reaction as a cannon ball struck his aide, Lord Uxbridge, at Waterloo in 1815. “By God, sir, I’ve lost my leg”, exclaimed Uxbridge. “By God sir” replied Wellington, before calmly returning his gaze to the battle, “So you have!”.

For me though the piece de resistance (to use a foreign phrase!) and an excellent example of our sang-froid (another one!) is the way that Richmond Golf Club kept its collective head during the dark days of the Blitz in 1940. Rather than close the course down (and thus give a moral victory to the Nazis!) the Club’s committee decided to stay open and published some temporary rules for its members, as follows –

  1. Players are asked to collect Bomb and Shrapnel splinters to save these causing damage to the mowing machines.
  2. In competitions, during gunfire, or while bombs are falling, players may take cover without penalty for ceasing play.
  3. The positions of known delayed-action bombs are marked by red flags placed at reasonably, but not guaranteed safe distance therefrom.
  4. Shrapnel/and/or bomb splinters on the Fairways, or in Bunkers within a club’s length of a ball may be moved without penalty, and no penalty shall be incurred if a ball is thereby caused to move accidentally.
  5. A ball moved by enemy action may be replaced, or if lost or destroyed, a ball may be dropped not nearer the hole without penalty.
  6. A ball lying in a crater may be lifted and dropped not nearer the hole, preserving the line to the hole without penalty.
  7. A player whose stroke is affected by the simultaneous explosion of a bomb may play another ball from the same place. Penalty, one stroke.

The one stroke penalty in Rule 7 seems a little harsh but really, is there any wonder that Hitler lost the war?!

A Remarkable Feat

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Late last week English schoolboy, Lewis Clarke, became the youngest person ever to trek to the South Pole. Setting out on December 2nd, some two weeks after his 16th birthday, Lewis, from Bristol, completed the 702 mile journey in 48 days. Though accompanied by an experienced polar guide he dragged his own equipment by sledge across the snows in temperatures as low as -40C and winds gusting to 120 miles per hour.

It is an amazing achievement that surely merited far more media coverage than it in fact generated, particularly when considering that he is only one of three hundred to have reached the South Pole on foot or sledge since the Norwegian, Roald Amundsen and the ill-fated Englishman, Robert Falcon Scott first succeeded back in 1911/12.

Lewis will return home later this week and then it’s back to school where he will face the somewhat more mundane challenge of his GCSE exams. What a remarkable young man.

 I wonder if he can play cricket?

 

Rabbits Caught in the Headlights

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To be selected to play for your country must be the highest possible honour and ultimate accolade for any sportsman. What could possibly compare to representing your nation, knowing that you are carrying the hopes and aspirations of millions of your loyal countrymen, some of whom will have spent small fortunes travelling half way around the world to watch you perform?

If you were one of that select band you would surely give everything you’d got, summon up every last ounce of energy and fight for every ball or point to ensure that victory was yours. Even when faced by an aggressive, ruthless, determined and highly skilled opponent you wouldn’t flinch. No, you would relish the challenge, take a deep breath, grit your teeth and enter the fray with renewed vigour, refusing to take a backwards step until the contest was won, wouldn’t you?

Of course you would unless, that is, you are a member of the England cricket team in which case, when faced by such an opponent you would quail, quiver, collapse and capitulate, resembling more a rabbit caught in the headlights than a supremely fit athlete prepared to slug it out toe to toe and man to man. You would just roll over and have your tummy tickled, grateful that at least you still have a fat pay cheque, a fancy car and a nice house to return to when the whole pitiful shambles is brought to a close, as it was last weekend in Sydney. 

His Country’s Saviour

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Tomorrow is the birthday of the man who in 1999 was voted the greatest Englishman of the millennium. He was born on the 30th November, 1874 and died on the 24th January, 1965. In his 90 years he achieved more than most ordinary men or women would achieve in several lifetimes. He was a soldier, a journalist, a Nobel Prize winning writer, a historian, a painter and the greatest politician and statesman of his age.

Winston Churchill was a true colossus and though not without his faults (is any human being flawless?) he was a politician with qualities that today’s political pygmies can only dream of. If his political career was chequered prior to 1940 his achievements thereafter were nothing short of remarkable. His grim resolve and defiance became the embodiment of British resistance to Nazi tyranny and ultimately proved invaluable to the allied victory in the Second World War.

Still, it’s easy for me or any other Englishman to speak in such terms of one of our own and there is admittedly a danger that we may overstate the case and not always be as objective as we should. I will leave the final word, therefore, to a foreigner, the American political commentator and philosopher, Thomas Sowell who said of Churchill –

“It is enough of a claim to historical greatness for a man to have saved his own country. Winston Churchill may have saved civilisation”.

Taking Care of Our Own

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I was listening to a Bruce Springsteen song the other day called “We take care of our own”. The lyrics that caught my attention were “Wherever this flag is flown, we take care of our own”. Now this song is not, as you may imagine, a call to arms and a glorification of war; in fact, far from it. Nevertheless, it did get me thinking about the different attitudes in the UK and the USA to veterans of our respective armed forces.

Today, is Armistice Day, a celebration of the peace declared on November 11th, 1918 when the First World War finally came to an end. In the USA it is called Veteran’s Day, a national holiday – and there is the first great difference. Can you imagine the whinging from the PC brigade if we dared to “glorify war” by making Armistice Day a national holiday?

I have just returned from the USA and witnessed, as I do every time I go there, how Americans honour and respect those men and women who fought for and sometimes died for their country. Veterans are given discounts in stores, priority boarding on commercial aircraft, concessions in restaurants and a whole host of other benefits. I even saw a sign by a highway proclaiming “The University of South Florida Honours our Veterans”. Can you imagine something like that happening in our country?

Every year, it seems that the wearing of the Royal British Legion’s  red poppy, that symbol of  ultimate sacrifice, creates more and more controversy. Why should this be when the proceeds of sale of those poppies help provide financial and other assistance for British veterans and their families?

Some public figures tell us that we shouldn’t feel obliged to wear a poppy and actually, for once, they are right. We shouldn’t feel obliged. No, we should feel honoured and proud to wear our poppies but not through any misguided or naïve notions of nationalism or even patriotism but from a simple gratitude for the sacrifices made on our behalf. Springsteen speaks for all of us, we should indeed take care of our own.

Happy All Saints Day!

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It’s strange and quite sad at the same time how we British (along with the rest of the Western world) copy and imitate so much of what comes out of America. Now, that is not said out of any disrespect to the USA, a country that I much admire, like immensely and visit regularly.

It is a wonderful country and its achievements in the 237 years of its existence are nothing short of phenomenal.

What bothers me, however,  is why we British, who have a history, heritage and a set of traditions at least ten times as old feel the need to copy America so blindly. Why, for example, do we have to celebrate Halloween, that great example of American consumerism, in the manner of Americans when All Hallows Eve (the correct name for Halloween) is such an ancient festival in our country’s history?

Today (November 1st) is All Saints Day and tomorrow is All Souls Day, all part of the same festival. These are days of British tradition and history but I doubt many people know this and I doubt if they are taught by our schools.

I appreciate that I probably sound like a grumpy old curmudgeon who, Canute-like, is trying to hold back the tide and prevent the inevitable – and I realise, of course, that this particular tide can never be stopped. More’s the pity.

Credit where Credit is Due

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Most of us are quick to criticise politicians, civil servants and other officials whenever they blunder and I am as guilty as anybody, so it’s nice to be able to give praise when it is due.

I recently took a tour party to the USA and on the last evening, prior to an early departure the following morning, I was told by one of my group that he had lost his passport. Both he and his wife had exhausted every possibility in trying to locate the document and I had checked with the previous hotel to see if it had been handed in but all to no avail.

We had a journey of five hours to travel from deepest Alabama to Atlanta and then a window of just two hours to visit the British Consulate and obtain an emergency passport before the group were transferred to the airport for their flight home. I researched the procedure on the Consulate’s website and telephoned them immediately the office was open. I was at once impressed by the clear instructions given by the helpful agent there and his confidence that if we got there quickly enough we should be alright.

So it was that we arrived at the Consulate in downtown Atlanta early afternoon armed with freshly taken passport photos and current id in the form of a driving licence. After completing forms to first cancel the missing passport and second to apply for an emergency one, which would be surrendered on arrival in the UK, and payment of a fee of $157 (£95) we were, as the Americans say, “Good to Go”.

It all took under an hour and during that time we were treated with unfailing courtesy and efficiency. So well done the British Consulate. Clearly, there is still some “Great” left in the old country yet!