Not worth a life

Futility

"Too many died," said Harry Patch the 109 year old only survivor of the Passchendale trenches. "War isn't worth one life." He said war was the "calculated and condoned slaughter of human beings".

Memories flowed back of my own father who would have been 108 this year. He died aged 43.  I recall a rumbustious, lovely man who brought fun and laughter to any company he joined.

A patriot, he had added a few months to his age to become a soldier in the first year of 1914 - 1918 war. He was a machine gunner. Both sides regarded them as pariahs because of the numbers of lives that they took. The canard was that neither the Germans nor British would spare a machine gunner. They would be killed and not taken prisoners.

James Flynn (centre in photograph) was shot in the leg. He was marooned in a fox hole in no-mans-land and could not escape from his gun. He heard a German speaking group approaching. He took his rosary and he said his ‘Hail Mary’s”, with his eyes shut. He waited for the bullet. It never came. The officer leading the group was a Catholic. My father believed that his rosary beads saved his life. The officer and his companions carried my father on their backs over three miles to a field hospital camp.  They saved his life. The officer was from Cologne. His name was Paul.

His wound cast a shadow over the rest of his life. Never again could he do what he called a “man’s job.” Any occupation that did not call for physical strength, he judged to be demeaning. Work was spasmodic and unsatisfying, including heartbreaking spells trying to sell the ‘Golden Knowledge’ encyclopedia. It was an impossible task to persuade enough people to invest in the 12 volumes during the slump of the thirties. Mother remembered with bitterness watching his daily repeated humiliation of a man who could not make a living wage for his family.

In 1935 the family suffered his cruellest blow. The inadequate family income was shored up by a pension for his war wound. The Government were out to reduce costs. His war pension was reassessed and cut. The justification was that his health problems were judged henceforth not to be ‘attributed’ to his war wounds, but to have been ‘aggravated’ by them. He went to war as a healthy sixteen year and he was shot. Aggravated ?

This week, three British soldiers died in Helmand Province. Is anyone in the Government asking Harry Patch's question?

Mission Serious

Gordon Brown has a difficult mission.

He must put a distance between himself and George Bush. But one that can be bridged when there is a new American President in 18 months time. The personalities of the two leaders will not gel in the Bush -Blair harmony of triviality. Gordon Brown is too serious a politician to engage on the superficialities of populism.

Tony Blair agonised on how post-Clinton he could forged a strong link with Bush. He believes at a deep level that the world is in the right place when Britain and the USA are united. Fine if there is a Roosevelt, an Eisenhower, a Carter or a Clinton in the White House. Dangerous when there is a Reagan or a Bush there.

Brown's great passion is the crippling damage of world trade. It's been rigged for 60 years to ensure that  rich nations become richer and the poor ones more destitute. This is the supreme task that British -American endeavour can achieve. It's too much to hope for radical progress in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Bush has too much face to lose.

Progress is possible in tacking the scourge of world diseases in supporting the Bill Gates initiatives. Real advances can be made on the environment. There is no room for cynicism. The outcome of these meeting are matters of life and death for millions world-wide.

I am relieved that Gordon Brown is representing us.

Comments

[Paul Flynn]

Thanks Oliver.

I have been away and have just seen your entirely fair comment.

Certainly Gordon Brown has been part of the 'New" Labour agenda and must share blame for the legagcy. that is why I did not vote for him as Leader- but he was the only choice.

He is moving ahead carefully but there are many very promising signs.

[Oliver]

Sorry to be slightly critical now, concerning Gordon Brown. But wasn't he part of the same New Labour Party that forced the war through Parliament? Wasn't he part of the Cabinet that decided to curtail civil liberties? Wasn't he just recently party to a woman being escorted from the room in which he was giving a speech - just because she heckled?

I have some respect more for Gordon Brown than I did for Tony Blair, but I think its time people remembered that Gordon Brown is playing a very clever game. To put it cynically, he is spinning an anti-spin agenda. Its a shame people are falling for it.

[David]

Thanks David. Fascinating story. My mind has been on Eastern Europe recently as I had a talented intern from Poland working with me for the past two months. It's a very different perspective on Europe.

I think you are right on Gordon. There is good feeling about him in Westminster and in Newport. I spoke to many people over the weekend - all are well disposed towards Gordon. He a difficult tightrope to walk - making a real difference but not fulfilling the Tory prophecies of a sharp left turn. So far: so great.

[David]

A really good and interesting report.

On your comments on the war, I was in Eastern Europe a little while back, and in most villages there are memorials to the war put together by the local population. They name all those in the village that died in the second world war. From my family, my uncle died in the red army crossing the river Oder, my dad was conscripted into the German army where he was fortunate enough to be sent to France where he and his unit could walk over to the allied lines and surrender, and my other uncle died in the post war partisan war in 1951 in a shoot out with the red army and kgb.The memorial reads: To all those who died in the great liberation war 1939-1954. it effectively covers everyone and is not a victors memorial. It would be better if our memorials were less triumphalist momentoes to victors and instead memorials to all those who died and suffered .

Regarding the difference between Gordon Brown and Tony Blair: I can't help feeling that Gordon is a conviction politician with beliefs and ideology that govern the way he works whereas with Tony Blair and the new Labour crowd, it was always a bit of a game...like going round the monopoly board and collecting £200 everytime you went past go. The further we move away from the old personalised game of politics and get back to serious policy the better. Already there seems to be a feel that we are beginning to move back on track.