Remembrance Day - with a difference

                          

We are at war- a new enemy, an invisible enemy- Covid- with nurses and doctors in the front line- but with close support from the Armed Forces, teachers, council staff, care home staff and most of the public.

                                       

This meant this year we had to remember those who had fallen in conflict in a different way  - those who had made the ultimate sacrifice- the people of Ipswich did not let us down - they remembered those from Ipswich who never came back, but at the same time helping keep our residents safe by making sure social distancing was in place.

Next year, I am sure we will be able to remember together and also think about those from the NHS who have paid the ultimate sacrifice over the last 8 months.

Ipswich remembers

This week the people of Ipswich remembered the fallen

From the service at Ipswich war Cemetery, involving Primary School children from  Ipswich to the showing of the play, The Wipers Times' at the New Wolsey to the Sunday service at the Ipswich Cenotaph - where we saw one of the biggest crowds in years.

Ipswich Remembered

We will Remember them

Kohima Epitaph

When you go home

Tell them of us and say

For your tomorrow

We gave our today

Today we remember those from Ipswich who paid the ultimate sacrifice, I also remember those who I served alongside in the Royal Green Jackets and the Rifles who lost their lives in conflict.

Paul Harding - friend, mentor 

Mark Hale

Friend, 

I will not be singing the National Anthem on Sunday

Some might think a slightly strange and even maybe an attention seeking title for a blog post but I believe I have no choice but to put down my fears for what may happen on Sunday at not only the Ipswich Remembrance Parade but also for other parades over the country.

Armistice Sunday has always been a big event in my family and I guess for about the last 45 years I have always attended an event (I’m 53). I started going to the Christchurch Park event with my late father, first of all when he was a councillor and then when he carried the standard for the Ipswich Branch of the Korean Veterans. The event in Ipswich in the 70’s and 80’s had some similarities to the current parades but what was missing then was the hundreds of Ipswich residents who now turn up to join in the event.

When I joined the army in 1978 the event was still quite low profile, we commemorated it on the 11^th hour of the 11^th day but the rest of the country just carried on their normal working lives- unlike now and on the Remembrance Sunday, local events were often low key with only the parades in London, Belfast and Edinburgh having large crowds. The tide changed with the Armed Forces becoming both popular and respected after they participated in the more recent conflicts in the Balkans, the Gulf and Afghanistan.

It still cheers me to see all the families at the Ipswich Cenotaph, sun, rain or shine that is what soldiers fought for to enable the public to go out and enjoy a Sunday as a family but now it seems politics has reared its ugly head and we have some sort of ‘poppy’ police operating in this country.

Of course politics becoming involved Remembrance is nothing new, we had it in between the wars, we had the white poppy, one of the reasons the events became so low key in the 80’s was due to threat of IRA attacks and protests by such groups as ‘Troops out’ and then we had the furore over Michael Foot and his duffel coat.

It seems now that wearing a poppy is now a ‘must do’ and if you do not you are not a true Brit! What rubbish, the freedom to do what you want, wear what you want is what the hundreds of thousands of servicemen dies for in the Second World War. I wear my poppy with pride and it helps me remember the friends I lost in conflict, in fact I wear a small metal poppy all year but I don’t care if other people wear one or not, in fact it disgusted me more that politicians are so worried about being seen without one that Number 10 decided to photo shop a poppy on to the profile picture of David Cameron.

But my real fear is this year it has become even more of a political football because of our new Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn. I do not like some of the relationships, Jeremy has had in the past with certain Irish groups, I am no great fan of the ‘Stop the war’ coalition but I respect Jeremy for having his own views and I do not care if he wears a red, white or no poppy at all. Now on Sunday I would expect him to wear a poppy at the cenotaph as he is laying wreath on behalf of the Labour Party not himself but we saw how Tory MP’s and the right wing press attacked Jeremy for not singing the national anthem and so people will be watching closely on how Jeremy acts.

That same nasty attitude of certain Tory MPs was then copied over the country by other Tories and here in Ipswich I was attacked for not singing the National Anthem at an event to commemorate the two men from Ipswich who won the Victoria Cross in World War I, I actually felt very privileged to not only attend the event but to be asked to speak and read out the two VC citations, I did this wearing my Regimental blazer and wearing my medals but still that did not stop certain Tories attacking me. They obviously decided the attacks on Jeremy Corbyn by Tory MPs were worth repeating against local politicians in Ipswich and they also showed what a bunch of hypocrites they are as they made every excuse possible to explain the absence of both our Tory MPs for the town from the Civic Event.

There attacks on me seemed to backfire but that has not stopped them, only this week an Ipswich Tory candidate has made yet another attack on me, over the last few weeks he has been accusing me of being a ‘red Tory’ and stating that I would be the target of the Corbynistas but suddenly he has decided I am from the ‘far’ left and accused me (and most Ipswich Labour councillors) of adhering to a terrorist sympathising, Britain hating, security threatening ideology.

That must be why I spent 25 years in the Armed Forces! What rubbish, but worryingly there seems to be a lack of leadership in the local Tory Party and it only makes me believe that both Ben Gummer and the Tory leader, Nadia Cenci either believe the mad ramblings of this Tory candidate or are just happy for him to attack Labour politicians even if it they know there is no truth in his attacks.

So on Sunday, I will attend, I will march up to the cenotaph, I will wear my medals and I will remember those from both Ipswich who have paid the ultimate sacrifice and those who paid the same sacrifice from my regiment. But I will not sing the National anthem, not out of any republican protest but in my regiment we do not sing it, we stand to attention and stay silent as a mark of respect to Queen, Country and our fallen comrades.

But I am aware that there will Tories in Ipswich and further afield watching carefully how Labour politicians behave on Sunday. That is not what Remembrance Day is for but it seems to have been hijacked for political use by those on the right and their friends in the press.

It is a sad state of affairs that one now has to worry how you will be perceived at such an event rather than going there to pay respects to fallen comrades and those from Ipswich who served their country.

On the Falls Road in Belfast, in Crossmaglen, in Pristina, in Bosnia and in Sangin, Afghanistan I met and served alongside ‘real’ warriors, it is their opinion that matters to me not the thoughts of an Ipswich Tory ‘keyboard’ warrior!


Footnote;
Forgot to add that even certain Police Forces  are using Remembrance Day this years as a vehicle to highlight police cuts, stating that certain parades may have to be cancelled as there are not enough police to help close roads.

My week ahead 11 - 17 November 2013

Monday – 11 November, 11am – Remembrance Day with the Mayor and Ipswich school children, Ipswich Cemetery

6pm – Labour campaigning

Tuesday – 12 November, 9am – Suffolk Military Covenant Meeting, Rock Barracks – Woodbridge

7pm – North East Area Committee – St Johns Church

Saturday 16 November, 10am – Labour campaigning, South East Ipswich

The main remembrance service was today but tomorrow is also important as primary children join the Mayor at the Military part of Ipswich cemetery to remember those from Ipswich who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

On Tuesday, I will also be attending a meeting to look at how Suffolk are implementing the Military Covenant, it is important that we take today to remember our Armed Forces but many of our veterans need help all year round and as a council that has signed up to the military covenant we will be doing all we can to help both those still serving and our veterans.

On Tuesday we have our next Area Committee meeting, now it does seem that the Tories are now attempting to get more involved in the workings of the committee but at the same time they are still critical of them in public. One complaint is that some meetings see little participation from residents and the attendance can be low. But over the last few weeks the Tories have put out leaflets in Bixley and North West Ipswich but no mention of area committees or advertising future meetings but what they are willing ro do is take the credit for actions that the area committee have undertaken. In Bixley they have mentioned the St Clements public meeting but no mention that it was organised by the area committee, similar to work being undertaken at local parks and activities for both our young and old that have been funded by the area committee.

So why not advertise future meetings in their leaflets? Scared that if the public see them in action they will soon realise that the local Tories are like a rudderless ship , no leader, no political direction.

We will remember

Kohima Epitaph

When you go home
Tell them of us and say
For your tomorrow
We gave our today

The people of Ipswich came out in their thousands today to remember those from this town who have sacrificed their lives so that we can live in peace. I probably felt more emotional today than at any previous Remembrance Day. Not sure exactly why? Maybe when Mrs McClure laid a wreath to remember all those from the town who have died in conflict since 1945 or when the Apache helicopter flew over, reminding me of a daily occurrence in Sangin, Afghanistan.

Sangin - warmer than Christchurch Park

Not sure but it was pleasing to see the thousands of Ipswich people there to remember those who had fallen and in particular the large number of young people who attended.

We will remember.

My week ahead 12 - 18 November 2012

Monday 12 November, 4pm - Culture portfolio meeting
6pm - Labour campaigning

Thursday 15 November – Suffolk Police and Crime Commissioners Election

Saturday 17 November, 10am – Labour campaigning in South West Ipswich

This Week we had our latest North east area Committee and I believe it was productive meeting aided by the contributions of some of our younger residents.

Today was Remembrance Sunday, and it seemed to be the largest crowd in attendance for a long time in Christchurch Park, seemed strange to have Apache helicopters fly over at 11am. The last time I had an apache helicopter fly over my head it was a lot lower, faster and it was firing from its chain gun!

Thursday we see a country wide election as have a chance to vote for the first Suffolk Police and Crime Commissioner, like many in this country I think the post is not needed and is a waste of money. But the Tory Government were keen to push the role through and though the Lib Dems are not putting candidates up for some reason it was their party who was keen on a November election rat5her than waiting till next May. All this means that it is expected that Thursday will see a very low turnout. But it is important to vote the only real choice is either Jane Basham a Labour supporter but not a politician or the Tory, Mr Passmore, a farmer and a Tory politician who even if elected will stay as on as a Tory councillor in Mid Suffolk.

Jane is concerned about police staffing levels,police morale and also how victims of crime are treated. Mr Passmore seems keener on low council tax and speeding up the process for farmers to renew their shotgun licence!

So this Thursday – go out and vote and make sure that vote is for Jane Basham.

My week ahead 5 - 11 November 2012

Monday 5 November, 12.30pm – Homecoming parade for the 1st Battalion The Royal Anglians, Ipswich Cornhill

Tuesday 6 November, 9am – Conference on the Military Covenant, Ministry of Defence, Main Building – London

Thursday 8 November, 7pm – North East area Committee, St John Church – Cauldwell Hall Road

Saturday 10 November, 10am – Labour campaigning in East Ipswich

Sunday 11 November, 11am – Remembrance Parade, Christchurch Park

This week the highlight has been attending the European Cyclo Cross Championships that were held in Chantry Park, Ipswich. There will be a few whinges about cost to the Borough and damage to the park. But for the amount of money it has bought into the town the cost was negligible. Every hotel room in town booked up was just one positive from the competition being held here. I for one would like us to try and get the World Cyclo Cross Championships in Ipswich.

The day was rounded off by Helen Wyman winning the Women’s race, the first time GB has won the Gold.

The downside to the week has yet again been a post from an Ipswich tory blogger, Kevin Algar at ‘Riverside View’. Not only does he have to continue to call myself and other Labour Councillors stupid names he also fills his post full of lies. I was tempted to write a post showing that his latest post – about ‘stupid things that Alasdair Ross has said’ was just full of lies but then I looked at my diary for this week – Homecoming of the Anglians, a Military conference that would look at how we treat veterans and then Remembrance Sunday.

Undentable - Mark Hale

All those three events are more important to me than wasting time answering his stupid comments. On Sunday Ipswich will have an opportunity to remember our Armed Forces and in particular those who lost their lives in conflict. I will be at the cenotaph and I will also remember friends and comrades of mine who have dies in Afghanistan and Iraq – and if I showed Paul Harding or Mark Hale the comments by Algar they would just laugh and ask why I was bothering to even give him the time of day. They would probably print his comments off and put them all over the Sergeants Mess and the Operations Room so that our fellow Rifleman could have a laugh (at me). The point is no one would take his comments seriously – just a pity that his fellow Ipswich Conservatives can’t see the damage it does to their credibility as a serious political group in the town.

Football and Rugby remember those who gave their lives for their country

The media - both TV and papers still like to portray Rugby Union as a sport with slightly more class than football. Seeming to forget that both sports are now professional, every time a football ref is harangued by football players the media quickly reminds everyone that it 'would not happen in rugby!'

This image of Rugby Union as a more respectable sport, more patriotic and so on has existed for many years, since the Public Schools dropped football with the accusation that football had been unpatriotic by not stopping fixtures as soon as World War One started. This myth still continues as does the modern myth that football has much to learn from Rugby. What is not often mentioned is 'bloodgate', sponsorship on the England Rugby Union shirt, and Twickenham over priced and aimed at the corporate market.

But it is the role of football in World War One where the myth is totally unjust. It is true that Rugby Union has been better at remembering those who gave their lives for their country, even as recent as this year, Ipswich Rugby FC held a remembrance day at their Humber Doucy Ground and included a wreath laying and matches between the junior sides of Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds.

But Football should also be proud of those who both played football and then went onto play their part in a much more formidable battle.

This year in Longueval, France saw a memorial unveiled to commemorate those footballers who lost their lives in World War One, in particular those of the 17th and 23rd Middlesex Battalions, known as the Footballers' Battalions. The memorial was payed for by contributions by both the PFA and the Football League.
In Edinburgh it is possible within one mile to see that both Rugby Union and Football lost many young men in the service of their country.



At Murrayfield the home of Rugby Union you will find a memorial gate to those who lost their lives in the Great War but currently you have to look a bit harder for a memorial to those who played football and then lost their lives in both World Wars.
As you walk to Murrayfield from the City Centre, you pass the Haymarket, a busy road junction, that is currently part junction/part building site but in the middle of the junction, pinned on the safety fences were a number of poppy wreaths. the reason why is that up to 2008 the Haymarket junction was the location of a Clock Tower that was built in 1922 as memorial to those who had lost their lives in the Great war, but in particular those who had either played for Hearts FC or their supporters. As with the Middlesex Regiment in Scotland a regiment of footballers had been formed, The Sir George McCrae Battalion of the Royal Scots, 11 members of the Hearts Football club joined this regiment on the day it was formed and four of them would not return from France.



Edinburgh is currently re-introducing trams to the city and this meant that the Haymarket junction would have to be redesigned. There was talk of moving the clock to either Tynecastle or to Atholl Crescent, but a public outcry has meant that the Clock will return to the Haymarket, in a new location, outside Ryrie's Bar. On Remembrance Day, wreath laying is held at the site of the Tower and is attended by the Hearts players and their supporters as well as representatives of other clubs.

Every year now we have a number of clubs wear a special poppy shirt, and who will forget the silence-0 followed by applause when the 'Last Post' was played at Portman Road in November before a game by a bugler from the Royal Hospital school. It is right that sport should help remember those are currently serving in the Armed Forces and those who lost their lives, but it also as important to remember those from sport who also paid the ultimate sacrifice and both Football and Rugby Union (plus many other sports) lost many gifted sportsman in both wars.

We MUST Remember them.

We MUST and will Remember them

Swift and Bold

We will remember them

Tomorrow, I will be joining most of my fellow Ipswich Borough councilors at the War memorial in Christchurch Park.

Remembrance Day has always been an important event in my family but this year will be even more poignant as I remember the 24 soldiers we lost from our Battle Group in Sangin this year. whilst we are holding our service, the Rifleman of 3 Rifles will be holding a similar service at the small memorial inside the Sangin District Centre.

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.

Back on the radio!

I have previously blogged about appearing as a guest on the Naked Football Show on Ipswich Community Radio (ICR), well I was back at the station today making my first appearance on the weekly run "Councillors" show. Each of the three main political parties gets a show and then every 4 weeks they all get together for a political discussion/argument!

Today we were hoping to go live to Ohio, where my fellow Labour Councillor, John Cook has been over in the States helping on the Obama campaign, but we were either let down by a technical problem or John was still out celebrating a fantastic win for Obama. So what did we talk about?

The main topic was Remembrance Day and how as a town and council we need not only to remember those who have lost their lives in previous wars and campaigns but what we can do to help serving soldiers and more importantly what we can do to support their families whist their husbands, (or wives, fathers, mothers) are serving in either Iraq or Afghanistan. We also discussed the Ipswich Bus service and the £5 million that Ipswich Borough Council may have lost after investing in an Icelandic bank. We had so much to talk about that we ran out of time, so it was a pity we could not get through to the USA to talk to John and discuss the Presidential election but we found there were plenty of local issues that were of as much more importance to the Ipswich public.

Remembrance day

I will be attending the service in Christchurch Park, Ipswich in the morning, I thought of attending the Cenotaph service in London and joining the large contingent of ex Green Jackets - but no it will be Ipswich.

Why?

My father attended the service in the park every year, for many of them carrying the Korea Veterans Flag, so I will also be remembering my father.

Ipswich may not be a military town like Colchester but we have always been surrounded by RAF and USAF bases and now we have the Army Air Corps and Royal Engineers living close by, many of whom have now purchased houses in the town and think of Ipswich as their home- many of these have been or will be going back to Iraq and Afghanistan.

It is also even more important this year for the people of Ipswich to remember those who given their lives for their country as we have lost one of our own, Private Aaron McClure, one of nine Royal Anglians who have died with the this year in the Helmund Province.

We should never forget those who served us in both World Wars or in the conflicts since, if you cannot attend a Remembrance service in the morning, just take two minutes at 11 o'clock in the morning to remember those brave men and women who continue to serve this country in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

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

We will remember them

Lest we forget.

Amen.