Hell and high water

War and remembrance

It’s been a couple of months since I’ve written, and we’re already in the last quarter of another turbulent year. How time flies…

When I was a boy, November meant Guy Fawkes Night but it also meant Remembrance Sunday. Back in the dim and distant nineteen-seventies, you barely needed a day to ‘remember’, as Sir John Mills was perpetually re-enacting WW2 on TV, toyshops were full of Action Men and Airfix Spitfires, and family members were constantly reminiscing. It was a collective form of social catharsis, I guess. In the days before people spoke much of emotions, let alone of mental health…

On Sunday November 12, the veterans at Alexandra Park in Hastings were standing in regimental knots in the drizzle – Paras here, Royal Marines there, veterans of the Queen’s, sappers, gunners, sailors, airmen and women. Doubtless, they were doing what my grandparents’ generation did, and talking their way through their memories with the only people who really understood. I was glad to lay a wreath on behalf of the Liberal Democrats, and I cast my mind across to Rye, where I knew the same event would be taking place with the same reverence and the same recollections.

The most recent names on our war memorial are for Fusilier Stephen Satchell, 18, and Corporal John Rigby, 24. Both were killed in Iraq, and I often point out their names to my kids as we stroll down to The Ypres, as those two young men might well have done not so very long ago. They lost their lives in 1991 and 2007, dates recent enough that my young children might almost manage to relate to Stephen and John, and appreciate the lives they led and the world they gave up for their country and their community. And that’s surely what remembrance is about.

Rain, rain, go away…

Remembrance Sunday was mercifully not too wet, but the week before, the rains had come in earnest. Standing in Lea Avenue up to my wellied shins in water, I could see many a worried face amongst the people standing dubiously on their doorsteps. Reassuringly, I could also see the delightfully world-weary countenance of Shaun Rogers, who, along with his Fire Service colleagues, was going diligently from door to door purveying advice and guidance to residents. I thought at the time that our over-stretched fire service shouldn’t have to be baling out Southern Water. Long term, families on Tilling Green need the peace of mind that dependable pumping equipment, investment and maintenance provide.

Circumstances like this and the flooding and sewage discharges in Hastings are one of the reasons Lib Dems want to replace water regulator, Ofwat, with a body that has real teeth. Lib Dems would also change the current corporate model of the water companies, transforming them into Public Benefit Companies, which would essentially do precisely what it says on the tin – their corporate mission would be one of public service, not of private profit. We’d also turn off the open stop-cock pumping cash into water-bosses’ bonus accounts. I don’t begrudge capitalism rewarding success, but under the current circumstances, it defies all logic.

Keep the blue flag flying

Labour under Jeremy Corbyn were ideologically pro-nationalisation, which has appeal for some, particularly those who look at publicly-owned European utility companies. However, the costs of nationalisation, whether upfront or long term would be colossal, and as Labour start to hastily manage down voter expectations, that proposal’s been binned. Though the party have made much political capital out of the issue of flooding and pollution, I’m not sure what Sir Keir’s latest plan is for the water utilities. But was he giving us a clue in his recent Sunday Telegraph article? In the December 3 piece he professed to admire the architect of privatisation, one Margaret Hilda Thatcher. That was something of a surprise to me I have to say, but many disgruntled Labour commentators online seemed far less shocked. But Starmer’s slightly transparent signalling to Conservative voters tells us something important and rather depressing about our broken politics.

Sir Keir is named after Keir Hardie, the founder of the Labour Party; he leads a party that was ‘born in the belly of the Trades Unions’, and his dad, as he frequently reminds us, was a tool maker. But Sir Keir’s a Labour leader shamelessly chasing Conservative votes – it begs the question of whether he actually wants traditional Labour votes, but apparently he’s taking that support for granted…

Now, there’s nothing wrong with trying to court consensus or to build an electoral coalition, but that’s not what Sir Keir’s doing. He’s courting swing voters at the expense of his traditional supporters – and possibility his credibility. Sadly, Starmer is engaging in the same old short term, zero-sum partisan politics that’s helped to stifle investment, stall economic growth and utterly destroy people’s faith in politicians and democracy.

My dear old ma, meanwhile, is a lady who really does admire Mrs Thatcher – for better or worse! I remember that she stayed up all night in 1979, watching the votes come rolling in. So I asked her whether she was won over by Sir Keir’s apparent conversion and would now be voting Labour. Put it this way, the lady’s not for turning red… though I haven’t given up on trying to turn her yellow!

Christmas cancelled

As we approach Christmas, there’s a certain bitter irony in knowing that it’s literally been cancelled in Bethlehem, in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank. Events since the appalling acts of terrorism committed on October 7 have dominated the news here and strained community cohesion across the country.

Personally, I have never understood why many of our politicians prioritise the professional needs of allied militaries over the lives and rights of men, women and children. The essential business of killing always seems to take precedence over the marginal business of diplomacy or humanity. Lives lost can always seemingly be justified with neat phrases and smooth logic. I know what the military case is, but it’s a false prospectus.

As the death toll in Gaza approaches an abhorrent 15,000 people, including an estimated 4,000 children, it seems astonishing to me that the Greens, the SNP and the Liberal Democrats are the only parties to be calling for a ceasefire, and as of December 5, there’s been no debate in the House of Commons on a conflict that could yet fulminate into a regional war like that to which Tony Blair committed UK Forces in 2003. Note that in December 2020, the Conservative government signed a UK-Israel military cooperation agreement designed to “deepen our cooperation”, and the RAF is already operating over Gaza. So, shouldn’t we be allocating some Parliamentary time?

Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition…

Whilst, honestly, I wish my own party had called for a ceasefire sooner and made greater reference to the broader context of occupation, I have been impressed by the moderation and judiciousness modelled by Layla Moran, our Foreign Affairs spokesperson, whose own family are in the Gaza cauldron, and who has already lost a relative in the conflict.

Meanwhile, as the dead pile up in Gaza and the West Bank, the Labour and Conservative leaderships are caught in a cynical electoral stand-off to see which of them can prevaricate the longest, and which of them can affirm their support for Israel the most emphatically and the most robotically.

The great irony of Sunak and Starmer’s identical stance, is that it not only ruthlessly prolongs Palestinian agonies, but is diametrically opposed to the interests of ordinary Israelis – let alone that of the hostages. Prolonged conflict and unconscionable casualties diminish the perceived legitimacy of Israel’s military operation, catastrophically reduce its international standing, and that of its allies; they act as a recruiting sergeant for Hamas and other regional Jihadist groups, and lend greater credibility to Iran’s claim to be Palestine’s only defender. Putin, of course, is also very, very grateful for the distraction and enjoying immensely seeing international law over-ridden. Not only that, in the UK, Israel’s assault on Gaza is increasing community tensions and fuelling Islamophobia and anti-semitism – prejudices for which there’s never any excuse. So, to put it very brutally, you don’t have to care a jot for the imperilled children of Gaza to understand that this needs to stop right now. Though I’m certain very many of us do care…

In the meantime, self-serving party politics and cynical electoral calculation precludes grown-up debate, and seems to prevent many MPs saying what ought to be so obvious and so natural: ‘We need to stop bombing children.’

I know I’ve managed to get to the end of this letter without doing much to lift anybody’s spirits… So I profusely apologise, and I trust the coming festivities will lift everybody’s mood. It’s certain that 2024 is going to be a year of change for us all, and I hope, sincerely, it’ll be brighter and better for everyone… let’s face it, it can’t get much worse!

Merry Christmas.

Image Credits: Guy Harris .