Battle of, and for, Britain.

Between 10th July and 31st October 1940 a battle raged in the skies above Britain, mostly over England. Parts of the country were flattened by German blitz bombing, which is why the centres of some port towns and cities, for example Liverpool and Southampton, have so few ancient buildings.

During the 'Battle of Britain' the country was protected by "The Few",

'The Few' were 2,353 young men from Great Britain and 574 from overseas, pilots and other aircrew, who are officially recognised as having taken part in the Battle of Britain.

Each flew at least one authorised operational sortie with an eligible unit of the Royal Air Force or Fleet Air Arm during the period 10 July to 31 October 1940.

544 lost their lives during the period of the Battle, and these are marked by an asterisk (on The Battle of Britain Roll of Honour).

A further 791 were killed in action or died in the course of their duties before the wars end ...

In a speech to the House of Commons on 20th August 1940 Churchill praised these young men

"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few".

Some today would have us forget those times, and forget the astonishing and selfless bravery of those 2,927 men. Mrs Rigby can't forget, because she wasn't alive then, but she is very aware of the importance of those battles and is also aware of what might have happened to Britain had we lost the war.

Some say we are still fighting a battle for Britain, others say there's no point because politicians have surrendered our sovereignty to Europe. But, well, this is Britain after all, and we don't take kindly to takeover bids, no matter how subtle they may be.

So let's remember those brave Airmen, and their ground crews, and the men in the factories who worked long hours to make the planes, and the munitions workers who made the bombs and bullets. Let's also remember the men and women of the Civil Defence and all other non-combatants who 'did their bit' when called upon to protect this country from harm - and they did it without computers too!

We Rigbys would like to say, "Thank you," and would like to share these two videos.

This is a "Battle of Britain. Tribute to the Few" with music 'Conquest of Paradise' by Vangelis.




This is an extract from the film "Battle of Britain"



(P.S. Edited to add link to Roll of Honour)

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Three videos - essential viewing.

There's a video at Tory Bear called "Thirteen Years of Labour"

This is essential viewing - it's so important to remember the last thirteen years, not allow them to be brushed under the carpet.

Labour's manifesto promises are, after all, not legally binding - they got a Judge to say so.

As the Filthy Engineer says,

Vote Labour and you'll be sorry. Very sorry.

..........

Look here to see "The Truth about Ed Balls" - a short video, just a minute and a half.

Interesting reminders of a few things that have previously been in the news, things that have been glossed over.

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Do you recall how often Mr Straw kept saying we needed a "written constitution"?

Hah! He was wrong!

If you watch this video you'll learn that we already have one, and it's ancient, even older than Mr Straw.

"Members of Parliament are contracted to obey the written constitution."

There is Magna Carta 1215, with

presumption for liberty
right to trial by peers
a limitation of power
a right of redress
a right of enforcement

Then there are the Declaration of Right 1688 and the Bill of Rights 1689.

If you recall there are a few ex-MPs going to trial on Thursday 6th May 2010. They are trying to use these ancient laws as a basis for their defence.

Some of the bits and pieces have been repealed, but not this section of the Magna Carta :-

no freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or disseised of his freehold, or Liberties, or Free Custom, or to be outlawed, or to be exiled, or anywise destroyed; nor will we not pass upon him, nor but by lawful judgement by his peers or by the law of the land. We will sell to no man, we will not deny or defer justice or Right.

And about enforcement of, or attempts to repeal, the above law:-

[It] Shall not be infringed or broken ... it shall be had of no force or effect

Now cast your mind back to the efforts to legalise detention without either charge or trial for up to 48 days - and they were able to slip in the 28 days, because it was less.

Watch this video over at Captain Ranty's place - it's very important - not necessarily for this week, but for the future.

Watch the other videos in the series, if you have time. They are important.

It's called general knowledge.

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Broken Britain - Jerome Taylor

Good grief!

This is Indy reporter Jerome Taylor, who had been hoping to investigate election fraud in east London.

Please read the article.

Oh, and the man Jerome hoped to interview, and outside whose house he was attacked?

Was he, naturally, very concerned? Did he want to be sure Jerome was okay? Did he offer help to catch the attackers? Did he welcome Jerome indoors? Errm! Not quite!

He said:

"I am not going to talk to you about this. Why have you been knocking on my door. You don't disturb me. If you knock on my door again I will take you to court."

h/t Raedwald

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Anderson Shelters for Haiti.

Carefully reported on the BBC and in and in some of the Scottish newspapers (but not so far in any "English" papers) are details of Mr and Mrs Brown's attendance at a poetry fundraising event at Westminster Hall in London.

Whilst there Mr Brown announced that he had bought all the corrugated iron in Britain - all 5,700 sheets of it, worth £35,000. He's taking that money out of the £20 million 'pledged' by the government in aid, and is sending these sheets of metal off to Haiti where they will be used to provide up to 2,000 "hurricane-proof" shelters. It seems that this might be the first thing Britain is sending to Haiti.

Bear with me, because the rest of this post rambles on a bit, and wanders off at disjointed tangents.

These sheets of corrugated iron are to be taken to Haiti on the RFA vessel Largs Bay. It's a "landing ship dock", so should be able to unload almost anywhere there's a beach - one of the more sensible decisions that's been made, as explained by The Yorkshire Ranter . (It's worth a read)

The BBC points out that around 1.5 million Haitians are now homeless - their homes are heaps of rubble, some of which covers decaying human remains.

Britain is sending these people (who have survived devastating earthquakes and many of whom suffered terrible injuries and are at risk of cholera and other diseases) bits of metal (no mention of timber to build supporting structures) that will make the equivalent of Anderson Shelters - something British people would never consider living in, not even during wartime. People in Britain would now never consider living under a tin roofed house either, not even one with proper walls - it would be too hot when the sun shines, and too noisy when it rains, so it wouldn't look nice enough and probably wouldn't be environmentally friendly either.

Sending this corrugated iron seems slightly  hypocritical and seems, somehow, to lack respect too, and respect is sadly lacking in the media's portrayal of Haiti - as pointed out by Andy Kershaw in an excellent article in the Independent. Please read the article, it'll make you think.

All this, along with other snippets that have been recently highlighted by other bloggers, has left Mrs R in something of a quandary, and has made her ask a few questions she can't easily answer.

One of the things she can't answer relates to the moral responsibility of aid-givers at the time of a serious national disaster, especially when our own government's aid-givers seem very slow to help people within our own country who are in desperate need - after flooding, during heavy snowfall etc - when private individuals have been left to their own devices and told to use 'community spirit' to keep themselves going.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation lists what British people think they need in order to maintain the most basic standard of living, and Raedwald recently pointed out that, according to Save the Children, British children are "living in poverty" if they don't have, amongst other things :-

Dressing Gown - 1
Jeans - 3prs
Jumpers - 4
Jumpers - 3 (different?)
Pants - 10prs
PE shorts - 2prs
Swim shorts - 1
PE tops - 1
PE 'T' shirts - 2
Plimsoles / trainers - 1 pr
Polo shirts - 6
Pyjamas - 2
School shoes - 1pr
School socks - 5prs
Shorts - 3prs
Socks - 10prs
Tracksuit bottoms - 2ps
Trainers - 1pr
Trousers - 4prs
T-shirts - 5
Vests - 10
Waterproof coat - 1
Wellington boots - 1
Winter Coat - 1
... more items are listed on this spreadsheet, which runs to several pages

If British children need all these things they also, presumably, need somewhere to put them - so have to have wardrobes and or chests of drawers. They also need a means to keep these things clean, and a decent enough building in which to put everything, complete with closable windows and lockable doors to keep out thieves and inclement weather. In Britain we might get frost, snow and heavy rain, but we rarely get hurricanes strong enough to blow our sturdily-built homes away.

All these 'essential' things are provided for British children via their parent(s) - out of salary if the parents work, via the benefits system if the parent(s) won't or can't work. Nobody in Britain is left without, it's a social contract.

Britain as a nation, and using money collected via taxation from every person who spends money, is sending 5,700 sheets of corrugated iron to Haiti. Corrugated iron is the most basic of roofing materials - and is to be used to make 'shelters', it is not described as being suitable to make 'homes' or houses. The Haitian hurricane season usually starts in May, and Haitian hurricanes can blow away homes.

It's been well documented that there are temporary "tent towns" in Haiti. These temporary towns are home to, so far, around 500,000 people near Port-au-Prince alone. The tents - some are high quality, stormproof affairs, others are very temporary and are little more than plastic sheeting supported by posts - have mostly been provided by charities and are emergency relief that's already in situ. This emergency relief includes the Rotary Club's excellent ShelterBoxes - which have been paid for by online donations, street collections - all voluntary giving.

Let's carry on looking at these ShelterBoxes. Each one contains a 10-person tent, 10 sleeping bags, cooking equipment, cutlery and so on. The boxes themselves are huge (I've seen one), need two people to carry them and are large enough to be used as a crib, sturdy enough to be used to carry water and when covered by the lid could easily be used as a temporary table.

More than 1,500 (and rising) of these boxes have already arrived in Haiti - that's 1,500+ tents providing emergency accommodation and basic living equipment for at least 15,000 adults. Look at the pictures here and you'll see how successful, and how neat and tidy it all looks.

Reading around the internet it seems that Haitians don't actually like living in these tented towns, but they've got no choice because there is nowhere else to go, and there is such a lot to do before they can return to the areas destroyed by the first, powerful, earthquake and the lesser aftershock. They are grateful for the aid, grateful that things arrived so fast, disappointed that food etc wasn't distributed more quickly - but acknowledge that it wasn't easy because the poor transport and communication infrastructure had been made worse by the quakes and because Haiti is a poor country it didn't have the heavy machinery to move things from the airport to where it was needed.

To help the people of Haiti, who are mostly living in temporary accommodation, our government is sending, on our behalf, enough corrugated iron to make approximately 2,000 temporary roofs - which is only 500 more temporary roofs than have already been provided by ShelterBox, which is a fairly small charity.

There is no suggestion that there will be anything whatsoever to go beneath these temporary tin roofs - at least not yet - no beds, no tables, no chairs, no clothes, no wardrobes - all those things so essential to British people, so this shipload of stuff doesn't seem to be the best use of public money and nor does it seem to be particularly forward thinking - in terms of long-term need and long-term help, just a temporary fix that probably isn't exactly essential.

So here are the unanswerable questions ...

What right does our government have to buy up all stocks of any material, effectively depriving British people of this item in order to make a 'gesture' - because a temporary roof is little more than a gesture.

Has our government decided that, because some of the people who've lost their homes used to live in shanty towns, they neither need nor deserve anything better than what they had before the earthquake stuck?

Do the children of Haiti need, or deserve, the same as British children in terms of belongings and accommodation? If not, why not, and if yes - is it our responsibility to intervene at a time of crisis to ensure Haitian children get what they either need or deserve, or should we sit back and hope somebody else does it, or hope that somehow the surviving adults will manage to provide these 'essentials' all on their own - something they would never be expected by British have-nots.

At what point does "giving overseas aid" amount to interference or meddling with another country's affairs?

I've absolutely no idea how to answer these questions, but it's something to think about - and it all started with 5,700 sheets of corrugated iron and how they compare to some nice-looking tents.

As an aside - it will be interesting, don't you think, to see if Mr Brown offers to help rebuild the Presidential Palace.

Territorial Army loses out to FairTrade

On 10th October the FairTrade organisation carried an article announcing this

The Fairtrade Foundation is celebrating 15 years of the FAIRTRADE Mark with news that the UK Government is to provide £12 million over the next four years in funding to Fairtrade and its international partners

On 10th October our newspapers report this

The Territorial Army has been told to stop training for six months to save millions of pounds from the Army’s budget because of growing financial pressure on the Ministry of Defence.

Mrs Rigby notes that the Ministry of Defence carries no article referring to the cuts, nor does it carry any recent article referring to the well-known fact that members of the Territorial Army are being used on operations overseas, alongside the regular Army.

The Mirror is pretty annoyed :-

Britain's part-time soldiers will be at risk in battle after devastating cuts to the Territorial Army's training budget, experts warned last night.
In a desperate drive to save money, defence chiefs have ordered £6.4million a year to be saved. They have even axed live firing on ranges for the TA.
Just two weeks ago, a TA soldier was shot dead in Afghanistan while guarding his base.

Mrs Rigby knows that her comment about this is late, but put alongside last night's little announcement that bits of England are up for sale to the highest bidder it all smacks of Britain being a "posh coat and no drawers" country.

The British Government is giving FairTrade more than twice the amount that the TA needs - and that money will have been either borrowed or will be fresh off the printing presses as a result of 'Quantitative Easing'.

Brown and his chum Darling know we can't afford overseas aid - but they don't care any more. They know that by sometime next year they're unlikely to be in charge of anything governmental, so it doesn't matter.

Brown seems determined to pretend that Britain is rich. He prances around the world stage telling everybody who'll listen that we're well-off. He tells them that his policies have staved off recession and to prove it he has to send loads of money overseas.

But, surely it's all a long-term con. They know their speeches will be on record for all to see, and so will the proof of their largesse. They're sure to refer to all this once another party holds the reins and has to do the mopping-up exercise and try to find realistic ways of paying the burgeoning bills - including those currently concealed by creative accounting and PFI.

When is Brown going to realise that there's no news blackout? When is he going to realise that the rest of the world knows very well what's happening in Britain and is sniggering behind their curtains?

Brown and Darling refuse to even think about cutting benefit payments. They daren't, because if they did the bubble would burst and the idle would have to think before they spend - and when that happens they get angry and march on Parliament, at least they did last time and managed to bring down a government.

So what does our Labour government do? It tells the world our Army is underfunded, and proves it by shutting down our reservist training - neither of which are particularly clever things to do when you're fighting a war. Then Government announces that it's going to sell off bits of the country, whilst also thinking of new money-raking scams such as fining people up to £1,000 for putting dirty rubbish in the bin.

The country is beginning to feel a bit like a sale at a decaying big house - one that's being sold off to pay death duties. Some are viewing the crumbling remains with dismay, a little surprised by the trash and soiled linen that's up for sale, whilst others are picking over the spoils of our once-wealthy nation, hoping to pick up a bargain that will eventually line their own pockets.

Britain was once rich. Britain was once proud. Labour has destroyed our pride. Labour has spent the country's money.

Labour policies have quietly stoked the flames of dissent, whilst ordering us to be 'inclusive' and introducing draconian laws that stifle free speech - except for the favoured and sometimes violent few who mustn't be upset. Social policies have split the country into warring factions. Labour has encouraged a culture of envy, greed and spite, whilst hiding behind a smokescreen of tolerance and equality.

Labour has encouraged an apologist state, one that denies the good in our past. Britons are ordered to welcome the diversity of incoming hordes, rather than encourage newcomers to assimilate, acknowledge and respect not only our language but also our own rich history and culture. A culture that Labour has done its utmost to dilute - claiming those who cling to our tattered banners are either racist or xenophobic.

Labour, when it eventually falls from power, will leave Britain resembling a dying lion, our proud national beast. Rather like a dead lion Britain will quietly succumb to the circling vultures who care only for themselves.