The attempts by the Secretary of State’s legal advisers to try and secure an expedited hearing to consider our claim that TR is unsafe, has all the hallmarks of an opponent that wants it all ways.
Clearly, it will be difficult for Napo to say much about the legal issues once we are in Court and we have just heard that there is a Directions hearing scheduled for the 18th November where we expect the JR timetable to emerge. We will do all we can to keep members posted once we have definite news about developments and the Officers and I are grateful for your patience.
As I have previously said, we stand ready for all eventualities; but I have some difficulty (as I am sure you do) about why, if it is considered ‘safe to proceed’ (to share sale) as others claim, why an orderly hearing process that allows all the evidence to be fully considered is seen as such a threat.
Meanwhile, we pick up rumours that someone has ordered another Testgate (5) which seemingly seeks the endorsement of CRC chiefs to sign TR off as fit for purpose. As you would expect we have asked our learned friends to make immediate enquiries with the other sides learned friends and we await more news.
Ps: If there are any Chiefs out there who can throw some light on this rumour please let me know? Total anonymity guaranteed.
Even Russia has heard of TR!
Hopefully some of the 8 million British viewers of Russia Today will have checked in as well to see last Saturdays ‘Going Underground' coverage of Napo’s JR campaign which followed the one they did some months ago. Here is the link if you missed it.
Why remember Remembrance Day?
There are a few issues that divide public opinion within the UK as much as how (and indeed whether), the casualties from the two world wars and the numerous regional conflicts that have followed since then, should be remembered.
Someone once said: There is no glory in war but many examples of individual valour and sacrifice. Moreover, history proves that many wars should never even have happened, but I will spare you my analysis of this issue because I seek to make a different point.
Each year we see a rerun of diametric opinions, one which essentially suggests that Remembrance Day is nothing more than an annual feast of imperialistic jingoism, and the counter view, that it’s Governments who start wars so don’t blame (but simply remember) those sent to fight them.
We also hear, especially as the survivor count moves towards zero, almost certainly from veterans of world war one, and increasingly so from world war two - that there ought to come a time when Remembrance Day itself becomes a memory.
I hope I never see that happen. Firstly, because while wars are waged for many reasons, the common denominator is that in addition to those who die or are injured whilst doing their duty, millions of non-combatants also suffer death, injury, famine, disease, destitution, disruption, famine and, as we have seen regularly highlighted in recent years, rape and other horrendous physical and psychological privations. Who will remember them?
Secondly, when one looks at the staggering statistics of those killed or wounded in both of the great conflagrations of the last century, and especially in the wider struggle against Nazism, the sacrifice made by people from the then British Commonwealth should never be forgotten. Thankfully that colonial era is over, but I do not suppose for one moment that the majority of all those combatants who joined the battle against the axis forces did so because they thought that one day they and their families would come to Britain.
The fact that some of those who survived did so, and brought with them such a rich cultural heritage whilst helping to rebuild Britain’s devastated post-war infrastructure is worth remembering. So is their struggle against the racial intolerance that many of them encountered. For it was that particular battle, which helped to lay the foundations for the multiculturalism of today which, while still needing some work, is markedly better than when those heroes arrived.
"It is crucial that we honour the people from overseas – those from Africa to Australia; from India to the West Indies – who served and died alongside our forces... They fought together, they fell together, and together they defended the freedoms we enjoy today" - Prime Minister, David Cameron
Well said for once David; but you might usefully have added: ‘and fell to defend the right of those who today express such intolerance to their memory.’
- ilawrence@napo.org.uk's blog
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