Letters / Disrespectful
At a time when we remember and commemorate all those who gave their lives in the First World War, I was horrified to read George Pottinger’s disrespectful letter (Inequality; SN, 01/04/14).
As an ex-TA soldier I would have thought George would have had a better grasp and more respect for the system of rank and responsibilities in wartime as well as in peacetime.
His use of the tragic loss of thousands of young lives just to make political gain is an insult to those who gave their lives and their families.
Although the great majority of casualties in the First World War were from the working class, the social and political elite was hit disproportionately hard. Their sons provided the junior officers whose job it was to lead the way over the top and expose themselves to the greatest danger as an example to their men.
Some 12 per cent of the British army’s ordinary soldiers were killed during the war, compared with 17 per cent of its officers. Eton alone lost more than 1,000 former pupils, 20 per cent of those who served.
UK wartime Prime Minister Herbert Asquith lost a son, while future Prime Minister Andrew Bonar Law lost two. Anthony Eden lost two brothers, another brother of his was terribly wounded, and an uncle was captured (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25776836).
Someone else who gets things wrong while praising George Pottinger’s diatribe, as well as trying to make political gain from the dead is Vic Thomas (Let them go; SN, 02/04.14).
In his more than slightly disingenuous statement concerning Lady Thatcher’s speech, in which he referrers to her mantra “there is no such thing as society, only a collection of individuals”.
For a little history lesson for Vic in the form of a transcript of Mrs Thatcher’s speech see below.
Not that Vic or George would let the truth, facts or the memory of brave men and women get in the way of a bit of incorrect political propaganda.
“I think we’ve been through a period where too many people have been given to understand that if they have a problem, it’s the government’s job to cope with it: ‘I have a problem, I’ll get a grant.’ ‘I’m homeless, the government must house me.’ They’re casting their problem on society. And, you know, there is no such thing as society.
There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first. It’s our duty to look after ourselves and then, also to look after our neighbour. People have got the entitlements too much in mind, without the obligations. There’s no such thing as entitlement, unless someone has first met an obligation”.
Gordon Harmer
Brae.
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