THE REASON WHY..

Just recently in one of my posts here I mentioned that we were entering the most dismal time of the year and I cited Halloween, Bonfire Night and the `festive period` as giving cause for  my foreboding.   You may have noticed however, that I did not include Remembrance Day in that list and the reason is obvious - it is a special day, one never forgotten especially by ex Servicemen and it deserves to be held with all due respect and dignity.

And I suppose that in all the hullabaloo about Halloween and the rest of it, it is easy to overlook the reasons why Poppy Day really is so special.  So here`s a little history that I hope might put the day in its proper context.

On 7th November, 1920, in the strictest secrecy, four unidentified bodies of British soldiers were exhumed from temporary cemeteries, one at Ypres, one at Arras, one at Asine and one from the Somme.  None of the soldiers who did the digging were told why.  The bodies were taken by field ambulance to General Headquarters at St.-Pol-Sur-Ter Noise and once there, they were draped with the union flag.  Sentries were posted and Brigadier General Wyatt, along with Colonel Gell, selected one of the bodies at random, following which the  three remaining bodies were reburied.  A French Honour Guard was selected and stood guard by the coffin of the chosen soldier overnight.

On the morning of 8th November a specially designed coffin made of oak from the grounds of Hampton Court arrived and the Unknown Warrior was placed inside.  A crusader sword and a shield was placed on top  with the shield being inscribed, "A British Warrior who fell in the GREAT WAR 1914-1918 for King and Country."

On the 9th November the Unknown Warrior was taken by horse drawn carriage through Guards of Honour to the quayside, to the sound of tolling bells and bugle calls. There he was saluted by Marshall Foche and taken aboard HMS Verdun, bund for Dover.  The coffin stood on deck covered by wreaths and surrounded by the French Honour Guard.

Arriving at Dover the Unknown Warrior was met with a 19-gun salute - something normally only reserved for Field Marshals.  A special train had been arranged to convey the coffin to Victoria Station, where it remained overnight and on the morning of 11th November the Unknown Warrior was finally taken to Westminster Abbey.

The concept of the Unknown Warrior was the idea of David Railton, a Padre who had served on the front line during the Great War and the union flag he had used as an altar cloth whilst serving at the front line was the same one which had been draped over the coffin.  It was his intention that each of the relatives of the 517,773 combatants whose bodies had not been identified might believe that the Unknown Warrior might well be their lost father, husband, brother or son.

That is the reason why the poppies are worn and why, on 11th November each year, we remember them.

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A few years ago I remember being on the top of Pentire Point on the north Cornwall coast and happening to discover this plaque which marked the spot where the poet Laurence Binyon composed, "For the Fallen" which was first published in The Times in September 1914.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: 

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

 

A quick rant about ITV News Meridian.   It comes on every evening at 6.00pm and is normally fronted by Portsmouth fan Fred Dinenage and one Sangeeta Bhabra.   Now the clue is in the title - ITV NEWS - but it appears to offer anything but `news.`

Instead, it simply picks up on the national news of the day and tries desperately to find some locally regional connection, however tenuous it might be.  Then invariably we are treated to some trailer or other about a programme which is to be screened later that evening on the main ITV Channel.  Then again - and the BBC Regional news is just as guilty in this regard - we are shown assorted `celebrities` who may be touring the region in various theatres across the south east.  Seems nothing more than free advertising for those performers, some of whom are of doubtful pedigree but who nevertheless must be grateful for the free plugs their acts and the venues involved are getting.  And then to fill in the half hour programmes we often see items that are obviously bussed in from other ITV regions far away from the south east.

The region covered by Meridian is alleged to be Kent, Sussex and a bit of Essex although the inclusion of Essex in the south east region might be stretching geography a little far.  But it seems that the centre of Meridian`s universe is rooted in Brighton - they seem obsessed with anything and everything to do with Brighton to the point where people like me who have no interest in Brighton at all get a little tired of hearing about it and their confounded Seagulls football team - all to the exclusion of much of the rest of the region they are supposed to be covering.

I think they have to decide what they really are - they are based at Whiteley in Hampshire with a sub post office in Maidstone.  In order to cover the entire area stretching from Essex to Dorset and even Oxfordshire they spread their resources too thinly;  Brighton being in the centre of that very extensive area probably explains their preoccupation with that city as they can produce items that can appear relevant to audiences right across that extended region.  It doesn`t work though - we end up with a disproportionate content about Brighton.

Perhaps the best they can do - if they are going to live up to  their remit as a regional NEWS channel - is to concentrate on just that;  the real and legitimate news that is going on and relevant to the area and spare us all the fillers and other stuff that we could all do without.

Here endeth the rant.  Thank you and goodnight..

 

I admit to taking some muffled pleasure at witnessing the events at Old Trafford on Sunday, when Manchester United were humiliated 5-0 by arch rivals Liverpool.  Now I feel  for those genuine locally born and raised United fans who have a loyalty to their club - suffering that kind of embarrassment is`t easy;  and I speak as a Southampton fan who has twice in the past two or three years been on the wrong end of a 9-0 drubbing, once at the hands of Man Utd themselves.  So I know what it`s like - been there, done that etc.....

But I also confess to a long standing disenchantment with the Damned United.   It stretches back a good many years.  Back in the day I did admire them when they were under the management of  Matt Busby and when they enticed David Sadler to Old Trafford from Maidstone United and his boyhood home of Yalding here in Kent.  And then there was the trauma of Munich and the pain and sympathy that reached out to the club during those times.

And then along came Ferguson with his deep seated aggression, his hairdryer, his ranting, assumed entitlement and disregard for the laws of the game and the sensitivities of others.  And whilst I acknowledge the results he achieved - the titles, the cups and all that - it was done so with an attitude that brought the game into disrepute and alienated many like me from any admiration we may have had.

I think what really set me against them was the experience of being at St. Mary`s Stadium for the last game of the 2004/5 season when, needing just one point to stay in the Premier League, Southampton lost 2-1 to Manchester United and were relegated to the Championship.  Hard to take of course - but at the end of that game United captain Roy Keane took it upon himself to wander round the touchline, waving goodbye and giving the thumbs down to us disheartened Saints fans.  Not necessary, cheap but consistent with the mindset of both Keane and the club he represented at that time.

So, Manchester United now find themselves apparently in deep trouble - it`s as if a national disaster has hit them;  cries for the manager to be sacked, the board to be attacked yet again and for sweeping changes and more investment to be made to build a team rather than simply collecting  world class players. Their fanbase are as sick as parrots... and yet they are seventh in the Premier League table.  If Southampton were currently lying in seventh place in the Premier League, I would be dancing in the street and over the moon.

 

Well, not much. I`ll spare you (and myself) the details but sufficient to report that the best I could find was one single win, a couple of draws and the usual suspects all losing again.

Southampton could and perhaps should have won yesterday`s game at St. Mary`s against low flying Burnley which ended 2-2.  I`m not complaining really - that`s four points from the last two games although sliding to 16th in the Premier League table thanks to Watford`s jaw dropping 5-2 win at Everton is troubling - especially as the Saints are away at Watford in their next league game. (Following a visit to Chelsea on Tuesday evening for some rinky-dink Cup game.  NURSE !!!)

The one win came courtesy of Brechin City who scrambled to a 2-1 win over Haddington Athletic (no,me neither) in the Scottish Cup thanks to an injury time strike.  Meanwhile, Gillingham contrived to draw 2-2 away at Bolton despite leading 2-0 at one stage;  Aldershot - our new found heroes - lost 3-2 at home to Bromley which reportedly included a sterling performance from our street`s local hero Scott ("Where`s Aldershot?") Wagstaff.

And in a series of other narrow defeats Truro City went down 2-1 at home to Gosport Borough;  Fort William succumbed 3-2 away at Turriff United and Stoke Gabriel also lost 3-2, this time at home to Ivybridge Town.  Vale of Leithen suffered yet another loss, this time 3-0 at Edinburgh University; and Maidstone United lost at home 2-0 to Dorking Wanderers to complete a depressing afternoon.

Not sure I can go on like this - it must be having an effect on my mental wellbeing - but I suppose I could be a Norwich fan.

 

This is the BBC`s new logo.   Or it could be the old one.   They both look the same to me but that hasn`t stopped the Beeb squandering anything up to £2,000,000 of license fee payers` money on this contrived deception.  Now my up to date abacus tells me that, if the alleged £2million is to be believed, then that amounts to the equivalent of 12,579 licenses.

It seems that that the BBC have someone called Kerris Bright who has a salary of £360,000 a year as its `Chief Customer Officer` who unveiled the new logo in a blog on its website a few days ago.   She attempted to defend and legitimise this nonsense by saying, "It has been a long time since the Corporation updated the look and feel of the BBC which has not changed a lot in the last 20 years.   Our research tells us that audiences think some of our services look old fashioned and out of date.   They want a modern BBC that is easier to use and navigate to find the content they love and enjoy."

I got my abacus out again and discovered that for the £360,000 bunged to Ms. Bright you could buy 2,264 TV licences.   Now if their aim was to really modernise its `look and feel` - given that it might not have needed doing anyway - then surely a proper rebranding should have happened rather than this confection which is indistinguishable from its predecessor.

----o----

While I`m on the subject of the BBC I have long complained about the attitude of their `interviewers` especially towards politicians appearing on BBC Breakfast .   The worst offenders are Charlie Stayt and Naga Munchetty who seem determined to find `gotcha` moments by asking pointed questions and then not allowing their `guests` to answer without being continually interrupted.  It is annoying not only for the viewer but also for the interviewee and I`m surprised that many of them, like Sir John Nott all those years ago during the Falklands crisis, haven`t walked out in despair.

But the other morning a smidgen of redemption happened in the form of Gillian Keegan who was grilled by Stayt in her capacity as  Minister of State for Care and Mental Health at the Department of Health and Social Care.   As ever, Stayt was up to the BBC`s usual ploy of attempting to trick a Government Minister into a `gotcha` by interrupting her considered answers.   She was having none of it.  Whatever you might think of the Government and its policies and practices, here was someone in full control of her brief after being in the ministerial job for less than a month and who demonstrated that she - not the BBC - was in charge of the interview on her terms.  Good for her.  Here`s the interview in question....look out for her impressive stance especially around the 5 minute mark.....

A refreshing change to see Charlie Stayt being talked over rather than the other way round - I got the feeling he just about gave up and accepted defeat.   Let`s hope we hear more from Gillian Keegan who could go high up the greasy pole.  Trouble is, I doubt the BBC will invite her back again.

 

I don`t get angry very often.  I might get a bit grumpy;  I might even be annoyed but it takes something really distasteful for me to get angry.  And in recent days I have been following the circumstances surrounding the untimely death of Dennis Hutchings.   Like me, he was the wrong side of 80;  like me he was an army veteran but, unlike me, he was heavily involved the the Northern Ireland troubles way back in the 1970s, whereas I was fortunate to miss all that but instead spending my national service in the relative calm of BFPO 16 in what was then West Germany.   So I have a lot of admiration for what Dennis, from Cawsand in Cornwall and a member of the Life Guards, went through and I mourn his passing.

But it`s the circumstances of his death that are profoundly depressing, leading to my genuine anger.   I suppose because it has been so widely reported elsewhere that it is unnecessary for me to go into too much detail here;   suffice to say that for an 80-year old with serious health problems to have been hauled into court to account for an incident for which he was alleged to have been responsible over 50 years ago is of itself questionable, especially when those on `the other side` were given immunity from prosecution under the Belfast Agreement.

But it is worth reminding oneself that Dennis Hutchings` trial had been adjourned for three weeks due to his illnesses which included heart failure and kidney disease requiring dialysis.  As a result, the non-jury trial had been sitting at Belfast Crown Court for three days a week to allow him to receive the dialysis treatment he required.  He had previously survived Covid  but also suffered from fluid on the lung.   He was admitted to Belfast`s Mater Hospital where he contracted Covid again and died on Monday.   A real and genuinely tragic end to a life lived for half a century under the strain of a questionable prosecution hanging over him.

His case is an object lesson in how politics and especially political expediency can have unintended consequences for someone who may have been proven innocent had a `normal` legal process been allowed to be followed.   I suppose it`s the injustice, the unfairness and the avoidability of it all that makes me seriously angry about this case.  And it is now all too late for those responsible to show any sign of regret.

 MATCH OF THE DAY...

Rather than go through the anxieties of recording yet another litany of disappointment (Stoke Gabriel, Gillingham, Fort William, Aldershot among others take note) rather I will console myself by posting this image which, of itself, paints a thousand words and provides a double whammy of delight on this Sunday morning. :-

Oh, and Brechin City won as well - a 3-1 win away at Wick Academy.   Which was nice.

 

Devotees of these pages and especially those who may be interested in my posts about football may have noticed that a change has occurred in respect of the teams I have followed over the years.   That change relates to my interest in Forest Green Rovers, plying their trade in Football League Two, where they are having a degree of success this season, currently leading the table.

My interest in Rovers will continue but had been heightened during the past two seasons given that our street`s local hero Scott ("Fear the Beard") Wagstaff had been playing for them.  But with the expiration of his contract he has been looking, even at the age of 31, to continue his long standing professional football career and, following a series of negotiations, he has recently joined Aldershot Town who play in the National League alongside other well established clubs such as Grimsby Town, Halifax, Notts County, Stockport, Wrexham and Southend, all of whom, like Aldershot themselves, were long standing residents of the Football League.

So it`s a good, competitive league and Scott should be able to look forward, as an elder statesman of the game, to bringing his wealth of experience with clubs like Charlton, Bristol City and Gillingham to Aldershot`s quest to improve their current lowly position in the league and extend their FA Cup run with a game away at Pitsea in Essex later today.

It will be interesting to see whether he is able to also extend his goal scoring record - 42 goals in 426 appearances;  not a bad return for a box-to-box midfield dynamo with a good engine and an eye for a pass.  It will be even more interesting if he reprises his goal celebration - The Brick - an extraordinary contortion which involves falling flat on his back whilst awaiting the collective congratulations of his startled team mates.

Whatever happens for him this season I, along with the rest of our street, wish him every success and the best of good fortune in all his endeavours.   For this season at least, we are all now Aldershot fans.  Come on you Shots!

 

During my recent absence I confess to having lost a bit of touch with football results;  some of the teams I follow are not always easy to track down but out of a sense of loyalty to their respective causes I have made a surprising discovery.   It is that the likes of Fort William and Stoke Gabriel (and Torbay Police) FC may now have a serious rival to their claims as the ultimate perennial strugglers, plucky minnows, whipping boys even.

And it comes in the form of Vale of Leithen FC who currently prop up the league table for the Scottish Lowland League.  So far this season they have played 15 games, won none, drawn none and lost all 15,  They have managed to score five goals so far but have conceded no less than 96, giving them a goal difference of minus 91.  One or two of their recent defeats saw them lose 13-0 to Bonnyrigg Rose and their last game against Berwick Rangers ended in an 11-0 loss.

In contrast, Fort William whilst propping up the Highland League table have played 12 games, won none, drawn one and lost 11.  Their one league point came in an encouraging 3-3 draw away at Nairn County but they have conceded 60 goals so far, scored 16 and currently have a goal difference of minus 44. 

 At the other end of the country Stoke Gabriel are improving to the extent that the 14 games they have played so far have resulted in one win, one draw and 12 defeats but their goal difference of minus 44 mirrors that of Fort William.  Stoke Gabriel have risen to the heights of next to bottom of the South West Peninsula Premier League East Division with bottom place going to Sidmouth Town who have yet to gain any points this season.  Perhaps another rival there?

It will be interesting to see how the season pans out for these gallant crusaders in the lower reaches of the game but you have to acknowledge their fortitude, their determination and their battles to keep going against overwhelming odds.   They remind us that those same qualities  are often missing in the higher reaches of the football pyramid and in the process teams like those I have mentioned here become so much more admirable.

 I wish them well.

 

Well, that went well.  Vey well.  Granddaughter safely married - good family get-together - excellent day all round.  And now that the dust has settled I have found a little time in my busy schedule to catch up with some of the less important issues of the day.

But when I look around at what`s been going on these last few days it makes me wonder whether those days away from these pages have somehow catapulted me into a different galaxy, far far away from the intended reality of how things really ought to be.

Everywhere you look there are strange things happening.  We seem to have got over the worst of the petrol crisis - the queues at the local garages seem to have died down and panic buying has diminished. For now.  However, we are left with the prospect of `shortages` for certain supplies thanks to all kinds of reasons including shortage of lorry drivers, the emerging economy putting strains on supply chains and the fearsome prospect of Christmas goodies being unavailable.  I think I`ll start panic buying Xmas Yule Logs, mince pies and toilet rolls just in case.

In a world that seems beset with mental health issues, wokeness and stuff about gender issues I now see that Superman has come out as bisexual.  Is it a bird?  Is it a plane? No it`s just another example of how things should be left in peace, left alone and allow those of us brought up on the heroics of Clark Kent to be able to retain our innocent memories.

And as the October evenings fade into earlier and earlier gloom, I see that what lies ahead is probably the most dismal time of the year - Halloween will be here again, followed by Bonfire Night, followed by Christmas and the New Year and all the counterfeit jollity and commercial mugging that comes with it all.

And to make things even more depressing - Leeds United at home on Saturday.  Maybe I`ll just go away again.

 

After a couple of postponements thanks to Mr. Covid and his variant chums, my granddaughter`s wedding will finally take place in a couple of days time.  A family event we are all looking forward to - the weather forecast is encouraging and I`m sure it will be a memorable day.

As you might imagine, there`s lots to do;  a degree of panic is in the air in advance of the big day and it might mean that I will not have the time to give these pages the care and attention they deserve.   So my apologies if I am absent from here for a few days but, as they say, I`ll be back.   Take care, be well.

 

Or, as the mistress said to the poet, "From bed to verse."  But that`s how things went for this beleaguered football follower, driven to the point of despair once again as `his` teams performed with varying degrees of disappointment yesterday.

I`ll start with Southampton.   Now I don`t mind losing - I`m used to that - but what is particularly irksome is the manner of a defeat.   Yesterday the Saints were not only holding the European Champions Chelsea at Stamford Bridge but were very much in the game at 1-1 until the 81st minute when hitherto angelic captain James Ward Prowse was shown the red card for the first time in over six years following an awkward tackle on a Chelsea opponent.   That changed things and Saints ended up on the wrong end of a  3-1  scoreline.  I have no complaints about that - it`s just another disappointment.  Thank goodness the `international break` is now with us - it might give me time to cheer up a bit.

Elsewhere things didn`t get any better.  Maidstone entertained Dartford in a local FA Cup derby but lost 3-0 to the league leaders.   Fort William, who are playing all their home games away from home this season due to a dodgy pitch at Claggan Park deemed not fit for purpose, made the 200 mile journey to Wick Academy but lost again - this time 3-1 at Wick`s Harmsworth Park.  Neighbourhood watch has produced the possibility that my neighbour went to Priestfield yesterday, if so he will also be disappointed at the Gills 2-0 home defeat by Wigan.  

The combined forces of Stoke Gabriel and Torbay Police went to table topping Okehampton Argyle only to lose 4-1 but it seems that they, like Fort William, are at least avoiding the drubbings of previous campaigns.   As for Truro City, another nine hours on the coach doing the 460 mile round trip to Farnborough in Hampshire only to come away empty handed following a 2-0 defeat.   So far, so unproductive.

The one and only bright spot on this gloomy horizon came from Brechin City who seem to be getting used to life in the Scottish Highland League.  Yesterday Buckie Thistle were the visitors to Glebe Park in a game which pitched two highly placed sides against each other with Brechin emerging with a 3-2 win to keep them in third place in the table.  And the hedge at Glebe Park just gets better too - I wish mine looked like that......

 

Kind of sums up the BBC really.   Each Saturday morning `Newswatch` appears on our tv screens and it`s admirable in a way as it is supposed to hold BBC news to account for the licence payer.  But quite often it simply becomes a vehicle to demonstrate that, despite the valid and constructive criticism displayed by viewers who have raised issues, the BBC is actually never wrong.

For example, this morning there were justifiable complaints about the fact that BBC news grabbed hold of the leaked information about the tanker driver shortage to make it front and centre news, including the Government`s plea `not to panic.`   This resulted in the whole country panicking and we are still seeing the results - queues at filling stations driven by a `culture` - especially here in the south east - that demonstrates selfishness, thoughtlessness and a `me first` attitude which seems to mirror present day `society` in this part of the world.

The viewers` complaint was naturally that the BBC simply chose to accentuate the negative in all this, showing footage of long queues and empty forecourts whereas had they chosen not to, then perhaps the situation would not have become quite so serious.   A BBC News spokesman was wheeled out to explain their position, especially their sense of priority in giving so much coverage to this issue in advance of more serious ones.   The answer he gave was unconvincing but he was at pains to  show once again that, whatever the criticism might be, the BBC are never wrong.   It would have been far more convincing if for once, just once, the BBC could admit that they got it wrong, were sorry about that and would take the complaints on board.

At 7.30 this morning, I caught the news headlines on BBC Breakfast.  I suppose I should be comforted that their main headline was not about the fuel issue, instead it was a report about the plight of a lady who was finding life difficult following the Government`s withdrawal of the temporary £20 uplift in Universal Credit.  Now of course I sympathise with people in her situation but I was surprised that it was the main `news` of the day as far as the BBC was concerned.   It came over, given that there was no balanced or alternative view, as more a political statement than balanced and impartial journalism.  Once again a peculiar sense of priority.

Now I confess that, probably against my better judgment, I renewed the compulsory BBC licence for fear of reprisals such as being glued to a nearby motorway slip road, but I think the more biased, out of touch and downright wrong the BBC becomes, the less I will be inclined to renew it again.

There, that`s better - I`ve got that off my chest - well, Southampton are away at Chelsea this afternoon, no wonder my mood has turned gloomy on this miserable day.