R.I.P Harry Patch and Henry Allingham

I would like to dedicate this post; one, to Harry Patch and Henry Allingham, the final two British First World War survivors who died today and last Saturday respectively and two, to the recent soldiers who have died in Afghanistan in combat.Gordon Brown's quote today says it all; "The noblest of all the generations has left us, but they will never be forgotten. We say today with still greater force - 'We will remember them'."

Lest We Forget.

I recently visited the battlefields of World War One in Southern Belgium and Northern France. I found the trip immensely fascininating while deeply moving, it brought the horrors of the front line to my own eyes. I hope you find the pictures below of interest to you.


The above photo shows the Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium on which are listed the thousands of names who died without a recognised grave.



The above photo shows a close up of an Australian Memorial, erected after the First World War and then sustained this damage seen when it was come acroos in the Second World War,therefore explaining the bullet holes.

I may post some more photos from my trip, although my computer is taking its sweet time to upload them.

From DFID to UKAid...

The Department for International Developement has had a bit of a movearound and is now known as UKAid from The Department for International Development. Personally, despite how much this rebranding may have cost, I like it. It gives the UK a bit more of a contemporary while patriotic look to the rest of the world. Not that the millions dying in 3rd World countries actually care where, who or what it has come from let alone the pretty new logo plastered on the side of all aid. Nevertheless, UK Aid is a bit less of a mouthful than The Department for International Development. There are many other real reasons why this may of been changed, maybe Douglas Alexander, the Secretaty of State for the department, can't spell it as it is so he has decided to shorten it or the government like this new 'corporate look'. The possibilities are endless; maybe the government will soon be known as UKGov.com and the Ministry of Defence, UKBomb? Ok, ok, on reflection perhaps I don't like it very much. But judging on previous rebrandings (Department of Trade and Industry to the Department for Productivity, Energy and Industry in 2005, then back again) it should be back as the Department for International Development by Monday...

Sorry about the delay...

Apologies for the lack of posting of the last month and what a past month it has been! Since my last post; Wimbledon has been and pretty much gone, The US have announced they are leaving Iraq (Probably for a quick rest, then straight into Iran!), Sarah Palin has resigned as Governor and the King of Pop is dead. But it is bad times for UK-Iran relations, today even as I speak the BBC are reporting that "British diplomats are trying to establish whether Iran intends to act on its threats to prosecute staff from the UK's embassy in Tehran." Basically, it seems to me like Iran are trying to take the world's eyes off of Iran's obvious democratic problems and blame their own insecurities on the UK.Well, quite frankly, I don't think it is going to work if David Miliband has anything to do with it. David is currently standing defiant on al issues Iran related and hopefully is going to budge on the issue. In an ideal world, Iran should realise their misatkes, apologise and let their citizens have Facebook back, but really we all know that in a few months time, this will all fizzle out, and we will all forget about another country who are defying human rights, just like Zimbabwe. Well, That's What I Think...