Upton Matters

Dear Mr Brown,
  
I am 94 but I remember a quiet Sunday morning in September 1939 when my family and I listened in silence to an announcement over the radio by Mr. Neville Chamberlain.

It wasn’t a particularly inspiring speech but it sent immediate shock waves through the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.

Less than one hour later, I was standing with 20 to 30 other young men outside the local army recruiting office.  It was closed, of course, but the Sergeant Major lived over the shop and responded by throwing open an upstairs window, thrusting out his head and roaring “Sod Off! The bleeding war will still be on tomorrow”.

You may well ask what we were doing there in the first instance.  The answer is really simple.  It was because that is what the people of this country have always done when faced with a threat to our freedom and independence or that of our friends and allies.

There were 7 of us in my group of school friends.  Four did not come back; one was in a P.O.W camp for nearly 5 years; one spent 15 days in an open boat adrift in the Atlantic.  I had the honour of serving with the RAF for 6 ½ eventful years.  Many proud memories – some happy, some not so happy.  Were the seven of us, together with thousands upon thousands of other men and women throughout the country, just stupid?  Were we sheep?  Had we lost the plot?  Well now, Mr B, what do you think?

These days, under your stewardship, the people and the media are deeply concerned with teenage stabbings, drug taking, binge drinking, happy slapping.  All of this unacceptable behaviour, together with overall violent crime, arises from a loss of authority, of respect and discipline and responsibility.  The old formula – stick or carrot no longer works because the stick is subject to so many mandatory restrictions and the biggest problem of all is that we all have Human Rights, including convicted criminals, murderers and terrorists. 

Just what is the current role of the police, the judiciary, teachers, parents and yes, what about you Mr P.M and your 600 odd (no pun intended) members of Parliament?  You and your slippery predecessor have voluntarily handed over the final decision on so many important issues to the bureaucrats of Brussels that ‘Great’ Britain is destined to be an off-shore region of the United Republic of Europe with less authority than a minor County Council.

The stark truth, Mr Brown, is that you are rapidly making yourself redundant and on another day in a different era you might have found yourself in the Tower facing charges which I scarcely dare to mention. 

It is not too late.  Give us our Referendum.  Whatever the result you would emerge as a man of principle and you might even win the next election.

Yours sincerely,

Mr L B Silvester