Embarrassing comment from an embarrassing MP

Yesterday Tom Hunt, our Conservative MP for Ipswich decided to post a critical attack on me of his Facebook page - I have been critical of him via twitter, so I must and do accept that I may be criticised in reply, but he decided to not reply on twitter but to use his facebook page, it was not till someone phoned me that I became aware he had done so.

Much of what he said was inaccurate and actually by reading many of the comments to his post it proved my point - he does seem to playing to right wing crowd in fact that comment may have been slightly on the conservative side as many of the comments seem to have come from a 'far right crowd'.

However his strangest comment was one that has actually upset me - disagreements on political issues are to be expected and are nothing new but this comment was very bizarre and the more I look at it, the more it upsets and angers me;

His comment was:

"And also , what is it with this bizarre Ipswich labour party banner in his profile picture on twitter that makes it look like he's campaigning  for the North Korean Communist party"

Now the banner he is on about is the Ipswich Labour Party banner, and the emblem is from 1924 – 'a quill, a shovel and a torch’  - in fact when comparing emblems an old Tory one seems closer to the North Korean emblem than this.

  

         

 

North Korea and an old Conservative Party emblem - more in common?

But the more I thought about it the more it upset, if he had seen the full picture, he would have seen my late father holding the banner. My dad volunteered for the Army, straight from school and ended up fighting in the Korean War with the Argyll’s. 31 of his comrades would not return from South East Asia. So I find it personally disgusting that he compares my party banner with that of North Korea.

          

My dad in a hospital bed in Japan, after being injured in Korea, and part of a Christmas Card he sent home to Ipswich 

I suggest Mr Hunt, walks to the far North East corner of his constituency and visits the Millennium Cemetery, where he will see a memorial to those from Ipswich who fought in Korea. I am sure my dad is not the only Labour voter on that memorial and I am sure there will be trade unions members, socialists, and even Conservative voters, names on that memorial. They all would understand the threat of North Korea, and am not sure that they would be impressed with Mr Hunt comparing the two emblems.

For Mr Hunt to compare the Ipswich CLP banner with that of North Korea is disgusting and not the sort of behaviour you would expect from a Member of Parliament.

For over 100 years, thousands of Ipswich Labour members have worked hard to improve the lives of their families and their friends, many will have volunteered to serve their country, others would have been conscripted, some would have lost their lives fighting for this country but that does not seem to bother Mr Hunt, but as a son of a Labour member who fought in Korea, I am disgusted by his behaviour and actually embarrassed to think we have this man as our MP.

Mr Hunt, I have no doubt in my mind that it does not matter how long you are the MP for Ipswich, you will never give as much of your life to the people of Ipswich as my father did – soldier, veteran, NHS worker, Optician, Charity organiser, School governor, councillor and what I remember most is how he helped the very first Bangladeshi residents settle in this town where you seem at times intent on stirring up trouble between our various communities within the town.

Your comments yesterday on Facebook and your behaviour at times over the last year have been embarrassing.

Feel free to comment, Mr Hunt – unlike you I will inform you that I have posted this reply to your initial post.

The people, Trump and Kim Jong-un should speak to about war

This morning like many hundreds of other Ipswich residents I paraded at the Christchurch Park cenotaph to remember those from this town who gave their lives in the service of their country. Normally this is followed by a beer in the Woolpack, as I quietly think about the friends I have lost in Iraq and Afghanistan, however today there was no time for a beer.

A short drive and I found myself at the Ipswich Millennium Cemetery, meeting my brother, a serving soldier in the car park. We were there to see how fathers names on the new memorial stone to remember those who served in the Korean War.

My father had helped start the Korean Veterans branch in the town and sued to carry their standard, not just here in Ipswich but all over the UK and proudly took it back to South Korea and even to New York as memorials to the war were unveiled. The Korean War is often names 'the forgotten war' but to me it was part of my life, both my brother and me would follow my father into the army.

Some of the veterans remembered me, but they had changed, aged, there are now less of them. I remember they used to party hard, drink long and make us laugh when telling us about drunken nights in Hing Kong or Colombo. But they never spoke much about the conflict in Korea.

But what I did know, what that the people of South Korea will never forget the sacrifice they made for their country, a place so far from the UK that many would not even know where it is on a map.

The war finished over 60 years ago but no official peace deal has ever been signed, and today we have two idiots in Trump and Kim Jon-un attempting to push us all towards a resumption of hostilities. War is not a nice experience, it is no surprise that the veterans talk about other things rather than the conflict itself.

The chief guest today was the Naval Attache from the South Korea Embassy, the way he acted with the veterans showed me that the people of South Korea will never forget what these men did for their people. What Trump and Kim Jon-un should do is meet these veterans and let them talk about their experiences, it may be what is needed to try and get some sense into these two idiots, but it seems they would rather just exchange insults but then they will not be the ones who would have to do the fighting.

I am proud of what my father and other Korean veterans did, it is just a shame that over 60 years after that war, politicians from North Korea and the USA seemed to have learnt very little about the consequences of war.

We will remember them.

Kohima Epitaph

When you go home

Tell them of us and say

For your tomorrow

We gave our today

Today I made my annual pilgrimage to the Ipswich Cenotaph in Christchurch Park. Slightly different this year, as I am now a Councillor and so I had to march behind the Mayor and found myself close to those laying wreaths.

For me this is one of the most important days of the year, not only because I am an ex serviceman but because this day was always so important to my late father. Because of that reason it was nice to be able to have a chat with my fathers old comrades in the Ipswich Branch of the Korean Veterans.

The people of Ipswich as usual turned up in their hundreds and it was great to see so many children. But things do need to change, the British Legion are losing members and many of the more recent veterans see no need to join the legion, with most finding it more beneficial to be members of their relevant regimental association. At Ipswich I still get annoyed that the Scouts and Guides wreath is laid by two of their adult leaders, I feel strongly that this act should preformed by children. It was nice to see two school pupils from the town lay a wreath and to hear that a number of Ipswich pupils were attending a service in France to mark the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War.

This will always remain a special day in my family, even more so this year with my younger brother nor being able to attend as he has just deployed to Afghanistan.

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

Age shall not weary them, not the years condemn;

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning

We will remember them.