Keep the Faith (with LABOUR)

The ideology of the Tories this country can no longer savour
All I ask is that you keep the faith with LABOUR
It is the ‘ordinary’ people they will always represent
Or perhaps the extraordinary is what I really meant
For the 99% can do so much better not worse
Please read the wise words in the following verse
 
Labour represents social justice and the plight of others
Stand beside us united as sisters and brothers
Working class people are joining Labour again
Recognising the urgent need for them to be in NO.10
It is obvious the non-labour left are going nowhere
So join us today and show that you truly care
 
Listen to what Ed Milband has to say
Don’t be influenced by the propaganda of the day
He has integrity is honest and decent, he has a great plan
He understand the needs of every child, woman and man
Labour will do all they can to sort out this mess
Build more houses, reduce tuition fees and save the NHS
They will also scrap bedroom tax and the gagging act
Introduce the 50p and mansion tax, that is a fact
 
They will be rid of firms like Serco , G4s and ATOS
Target zero hours and employers who don’t give a toss
Join the activists that are determined to fight
For policies that are after all our human right
Labour are the only party that will do it for you
 
For a left and equitable political and humane view
Ignore the dirty politics the hype and the spin
To not be involved in your own future is surely a sin
Get behind your local labour candidates support their cause
Do whatever you can, to open up those closed doors
Keep the faith, be the change you want to see
Be assured of a better place to live for you and me…
 
Hat tip ©Suzi@politicalsanity 2014 via Sue Jones on Facebook.
Picture Ed Miliband "Today I met Mark Radley who served on the same ship as my dad during the D-Day landings. He and my dad were only 19 and 20 years old when they set sail for France. We must never forget the bravery and sacrifice of those who fought fascism for democracy during the Second World War: http://labour.tw/UfwxDS"

"Ed Miliband attacks Daily Mail for smearing his father"

Ed responds to the disgusting story about his late father by the "Daily Hate". I wonder how many of these so called "journalists" have ever risked their lives fighting for this country?

(Guardian) "Labour leader Ed Miliband was engaged in a bitter personal and political battle with the Daily Mail last night, accusing it of smearing his father by asserting he was unpatriotic even though he had fought in the second world war for Britain against the Nazis.

Following discussions, the Mail's editor Paul Dacre agreed to publish a very personal right of reply by Miliband, rebutting claims in a piece published on Saturday asserting Miliband's father, Ralph, was a Jewish Marxist who hated Britain and its establishment.

The row has echoes of Miliband's decision to take on Rupert Murdoch's News International over phone hacking.

Ed Miliband's father was a Jewish refugee who fled to Britain ahead of the second world war and then fought for the Britain. The original Mail article said Ralph Miliband had no love of Britain and, indeed, hated the country.

In his piece published by the Mail on Tuesday, Miliband asserted: "It was June 1944 and the Allies were landing in Normandy. A 20-year-old man, who had arrived in Britain as a refugee just four years earlier, was part of that fight. He was my father. Fighting the Nazis and fighting for his adopted country.

"On Saturday, the Daily Mail chose to publish an article about him under the banner headline 'The Man Who Hated Britain.' It's part of our job description as politicians to be criticised and attacked by newspapers, including the Daily Mail. It comes with the territory. The British people have great wisdom to sort the fair from the unfair. And I have other ways of answering back.

"But my Dad is a different matter. He died in 1994. I loved him and he loved Britain. And there is no credible argument in the article or evidence from his life which can remotely justify the lurid headline and its accompanying claim that it would 'disturb everyone who loves this country'."

After defending his father and his patriotism, he concluded that the Daily Mail article was of a different order to the normal criticism politicians faced. "I know they say 'you can't libel the dead' but you can smear them," the Labour leader wrote.

"Fierce debate about politics does not justify character assassination of my father, questioning the patriotism of a man who risked his life for our country in the second world war or publishing a picture of his gravestone with a tasteless pun about him being a 'grave socialist'.

"The Daily Mail sometimes claims it stands for the best of British values of decency. But something has really gone wrong when it attacks the family of a politician – any politician – in this way. It would be true of an attack on the father of David Cameron, Nick Clegg, or mine.

"There was a time when politicians stayed silent if this kind of thing happened, in the hope that it wouldn't happen again. And fear that if they spoke out, it would make things worse. I will not do that. The stakes are too high for our country for politics to be conducted in this way. We owe it to Britain to have a debate which reflects the values of how we want the country run."

Although the Mail published Miliband's piece, it repeated its original claim and ran an editorial refusing to apologise over what it called an "evil legacy".

The Labour leader's office responded to the Mail editorial saying: "Ed Miliband wrote his right to reply article because he wanted to state clearly that his father loved Britain.

"He wanted the Daily Mail to treat his late father's reputation fairly. Rather than acknowledge it has smeared his father, the newspaper has repeated its original claim. This simply diminishes the Daily Mail further.

"It will be for people to judge whether this newspaper's treatment of a war veteran, Jewish refugee from the Nazis and distinguished academic reflects the values and decency we should all expect in our political debate."

The row comes at a sensitive time as the privy council decides this month whether to accept a royal charter proposed by leading newspaper groups or by the three main political parties". (Picture of Royal Navy on route to Normandy for D Day 1944)

"We band of brothers"

Major Richard "Dick" Winters - the original American Paratrooper who with his Easy Company comrades was featured in the superb book and film "Band of Brothers" died recently.

He lived to a ripe old age of 92 despite the awful combat experiences he had gone through in his youth.  He had however been ill for several years with Parkinston Disease.

Not only did they survive being parachuted into France on D Day and the Battle of the Bulge but he and his comrades also took part in the liberation of a German concentration Camp.  After which he said to himself "Now I know why I am here".

Richard had originally enlisted in the Army as a private and after the War turned down the offer to be a regular soldier to return to civilian life.

I posted this in 2009.  Hat-tip Harry's Place

"And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by, From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remembered- We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother" Henry V

D-Day 65th Anniversary - Bands of Brothers

I have been watching the moving TV coverage of the D-Day remembrance ceremonies taking place today in Normandy. While on holiday recently I read the book “Band of Brothers” by Stephen Ambrose.

I had never watched the original series on TV but my 16 year old nephew encouraged me to buy the DVDs when his father and I took him to the Normandy beaches for the weekend on his birthday a few years ago.

The book was even better than the Tom Hanks and Spielberg TV series in one way since it also told the story of the individual soldiers before (and after) the War.

The vast majority were very ordinary working class Americans many of whom had known hard times during the “Great Depression”. The book is also a more honest account of the very human failings of individual officers and soldiers who with incredible bravery parachuted into Normandy alongside their British, Canadian and French allies 65 years ago last night.

In these somewhat difficult economic and political times it is perhaps important to remember Ambrose’s conclusion that the proficient, well equipped and professional war-hardened German Army was defeated essentially because a democracy produced better soldiers and armies than dictatorships. The Americans were no more patriotic or braver than the Germans but freethinking liberal democracies produce soldiers with more élan, flexibility and imagination.

One example of this would be if they received orders that they thought were stupid, most of the officers, NCOs and soldiers would ignore them if they could. So despite practically none of the very young American airborne conscripts initially having any combat experience they defeated time and time again superior numbers of German troops.

Recently we have been quite rightly wallowing in our own political and economic class failings that we sometimes forget that democracy is of course the worse form of government - save all the rest.

(main picture is from the Bayeux British War grave)

Lest we forget: BNP: Traitors to our Country

This is another superb leaflet from “Hope not Hate” reminding people of the true nature of the BNP/Nazi beast. They are traitors to our country for supporting Hitler’s Nazi ideology in Britain. Especially during a time when we remember the bravery and sacrifice of our troops during the D Day landings which led to the liberation of occupied Europe from the Nazi.

No pasarán!