Johnson Beharry is a hero.
Not once but twice this man braved enemy fire to save comrades. His bravery was considered sufficient to have the Queen award him the VC, the very highest medal available to her. Lance Corp Beharry was the first live recipient of the medal since 1965.
Of course most of us reading this, and certainly the person writing it can’t even being to imagine a situation where that could happen. We just haven’t the foggiest idea what it would be to be under fire, to have people wanting to kill us, and to have mates lying hurt, dying even. No. Not for a minute can we transport ourselves to the situation that troops find themselves in. Even if we try really hard, and have very fertile imaginations, it still doesn’t really work.
Lance Corp Beharry was at the Remembrance Day ceremony in London in November, and, as he told the press, watched Gordon Brown fidget through the two-minute silence. All that was going through his head, he said, was "to knock the man out".
Johnson Beharry decided that he would get the man’s attention (probably not difficult as you can imagine that Brown would just love a photo-opportunity with a real hero), and when Brown offered him his hand he simply walked away. Brown was left humiliated.
Lance Corp Beharry had been present at a reception in Downing Street a year before in which Brown had seemed totally disinterested in the servicemen and women who attended. He said “I can’t get over how disrespectful he has been to us. His reaction to the uniform is terrible.”
Needless to say Downing Street trotted out another flunky to say how much Mr Brown respected and admired the forces yada yada yada... the same muck as you would expect from No 10.
But as Johnson Beharry has proved actions speak louder than words, and what we have is a prime minister who starved the forces of cash, lied to parliament about it, lied to the inquiry he set up about it and then tout de suit
e got on a plane for a photo opportunity with the very people he had starved of resources.
Brown uses the military and the war as a political tool.
Although I have grave doubts about a Tory government, particularly as there is really only one, at best two, members of the shadow cabinet worth a job, I hope that Brown gets beaten for his despicable, niggardly, cowardly attitude to these lads doing a job that very few of us would have the guts to do.
Mr Beharry, you already had my deepest respect for being one hell of a brave man... and your actions have only deepened my respect for you.
Not once but twice this man braved enemy fire to save comrades. His bravery was considered sufficient to have the Queen award him the VC, the very highest medal available to her. Lance Corp Beharry was the first live recipient of the medal since 1965.
Of course most of us reading this, and certainly the person writing it can’t even being to imagine a situation where that could happen. We just haven’t the foggiest idea what it would be to be under fire, to have people wanting to kill us, and to have mates lying hurt, dying even. No. Not for a minute can we transport ourselves to the situation that troops find themselves in. Even if we try really hard, and have very fertile imaginations, it still doesn’t really work.
Lance Corp Beharry was at the Remembrance Day ceremony in London in November, and, as he told the press, watched Gordon Brown fidget through the two-minute silence. All that was going through his head, he said, was "to knock the man out".
Johnson Beharry decided that he would get the man’s attention (probably not difficult as you can imagine that Brown would just love a photo-opportunity with a real hero), and when Brown offered him his hand he simply walked away. Brown was left humiliated.
Lance Corp Beharry had been present at a reception in Downing Street a year before in which Brown had seemed totally disinterested in the servicemen and women who attended. He said “I can’t get over how disrespectful he has been to us. His reaction to the uniform is terrible.”
Needless to say Downing Street trotted out another flunky to say how much Mr Brown respected and admired the forces yada yada yada... the same muck as you would expect from No 10.
But as Johnson Beharry has proved actions speak louder than words, and what we have is a prime minister who starved the forces of cash, lied to parliament about it, lied to the inquiry he set up about it and then tout de suit
e got on a plane for a photo opportunity with the very people he had starved of resources.Brown uses the military and the war as a political tool.
Although I have grave doubts about a Tory government, particularly as there is really only one, at best two, members of the shadow cabinet worth a job, I hope that Brown gets beaten for his despicable, niggardly, cowardly attitude to these lads doing a job that very few of us would have the guts to do.
Mr Beharry, you already had my deepest respect for being one hell of a brave man... and your actions have only deepened my respect for you.
Pictures: A hero Johnson Beharry, Brown, and the hero again with his portait.
........
Brown like a lot of Labour MP's and socialists in general has very little time for what they see as the forces of imperialism (read patriotic) They'd rather the military budget was spent on stasi projects, secret policemen and paramilitary forces to keep us in line.
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't approve of us being in Afghanistan QM. It's nothing to do with politics, its all to do with the fact that we might as well try to tell China how to live as tell the Afghans.
ReplyDeleteThey won't listen. Nothing we will ever do will convince thenm that to live like Englishmen is a vaible future for them. They are not a walk over like the Argentinians.
However, if we insist that we should run the world from our broken down mess of a country where nothing works and people live in misery and peverty, pensioners die of the cold and malnutrition and Brwon and Cameron love to stride the world stage, then at least we should provide the means whereby the men can do it.
Of course the Tories sent redundancy notices to the troops in the Balkans which they were dug into trenches, so I guess they are no better.
To be fair to Brown I think it has always been thus. Troops are handy to hide behind when you watn to look patriotic, and British people always want to look partiotic as long as it doesn't cost them anything.
Yes, I'd settle for armed neutrality, but that's a libertarian policy that seems to have evaded both Tories and Labour.
ReplyDeleteYes QM, I agree with that. I hope that Scotland, which wouldn't have England's "clout" in the world would have a small force and stay, like Switzerland out of these things which never never never result in anything good.
ReplyDeleteIraq is different from when Blair and Bush tried to make it a little Americaland in the Middle East. Is it better? No. It's worse. It's dangerous for the population; it used to be dangerous only for people who opposed the dictator. Women's rights have more or less disappeared. It was a country that you could visit before. It isn't now.
If I had to land there in an emergency I wouldn't utter a word of English. it would not be safe.
So anyway, Scotland wouldn't have the size or the money, or, I hope, the desire to be a "big player". Whoever our President or First Minister was, they would not expect to be invited to give joint press conferences in the Rose Garden.
What bliss. Not to have to waste vast amounts of the country's exchequer on weapons and killing people. What a joy. We could make sure our pensioners had decent housing and our kinds had decent schools.
Fat chance of Britian ever wanting to do that. Imagine a prime minister having the cojones to admit that we no longer had the money or the gravitas to play that game.... never.
Fortunately, the splitting up of the UK may result in it being forced upon them.
Let’s hope it's soon....
With the Greastest respect to Johnson Beharry VC I find the use of him by politically motivated vindicative Bloggers to be disgraceful and cowardly.
ReplyDeleteThis man who has suffered serious head injuries and consequent brain damage is ill used in this vile attempt to discredit Gordon Brown.
And furthermore when Johnson Beharry has served his purpose he will be dropped and forgotten asap by those who exploit him now.
I hope you're not implying that I'm exploiting him Niko. I'm merely commenting on what is in the press.
ReplyDeleteCome on... tell me it's not true that Brown lied about money spent on the forces to parliament and to Chilcott... and then fly out for photos the next day....
I mean there's nothing he can do there. He can't help them and his appearance only messings things up. They get no pleasure from him turning up. It was all to show voters that he was with them, and not against them.
Tis a sad day indeed when this blog effectively cheers on the Tories in the election to come. I believed its authors had more sense of community.
ReplyDeleteHistory suggests to me that the Tories would be far far worse for this group of islands and particularly for Scotland than Labour have been. (Having postered and canvassed for Labour at every election from 1983 to 1997, very few people could be more disappointed in how little they have achieved in government so that statement is not made lightly.)
I hate the unbridled actions of the British upper classes and truly hope this blog's authors do not have to regret what they just wished for in this particular post.
Naldo: It seems to me that there is little difference in what the horrible Tories will do than what Brown and his ghastly bunch to cheesy spivs will do. I would think you are disappointed. They have been the thrall to the bankers and the nobs in London. What have they ever done for the working classes in Scotland? All they’ve done is help themselves and their mates in teh City. Sir Bloody This and Lord Bloody That. Half the damned cabinet comes from the House of Lazy Fat Toads.
ReplyDeleteI'm hard left wing on somethings, a social democrat on most things and a Tory on almost nothing. (I say almost because I can't think of one single thing that I like about the Tories
But for all the lying the cheating and the thieving that Brown's mob have done I would hate to see the shit get the Scottish and British people's approval. Can you imagine him there for another 4 years or 5? Can you imagine where his head would go if he were re-elected? “Mr Speaker the people have spoken; they like what I did,. I’m marvellous. Get some more cameras on the filthy prols that voted for us.”
This man who doubled the income tax on the poorest? This man who has put up the pensions by less than inflation and then taken it back in tax hikes and left the poorest pensioners worse off again, facing next winter freezing and starving. Man. I said man. He’s a bastard!
He is despicable, he is beneath contempt. If I had the chance to meet him I wouldn't be the gentleman that L/Cpl Beharry was. I'd kick the hell out of him.
Oh yes posh Dave and his band of Eton toffs will be no better but anyone who thinks that Labour is going to be an even slightly left wing party for the people is whistling for the moon. They’ll have got rid of anyone who is even vaguely left wing. They are posher than the bloody Tories.
We in Scotland are largely left of centre in politics and we are attached to a right of centre country. We need to lose the tie to England and then we can have the kind of government we deserve. The kind that won’t feather bed the bankers and leave the pensioners to starve LIKE LABOUR HAS DONE
Vote SNP for freedom.
PS: Naldo, I'd have thought you knew me better than that mate
ReplyDeleteNiko that’s priceless, as if Gordon Brown and Co, didn’t write the book on exploitation. Their only problem here will be that the guy is not open to being exploited by them. Don’t we all remember how Gordon brown said he would not use his family for electoral purposes. The his wife was trotted out as his secret weapon at the 2007 conference and every one since. And lately we have had him weeping on TV in a cynical attempt to exploit the entire nation. Don’t you be so horrified either didn’t you recently exploit a dying man for similar ends, and even more recently you deliberately misrepresented Alex Salmond by mixing him up with the First Minster of Northern Ireland?
ReplyDeleteNaldo: I agree, I also have no desire to see the Tories back and firmly agree that they are the nasty party. But I feel that the Tories with an electoral mandate from the English foisting their nasty policies on the Scots will advance the cause of independence no end. As it did when Thatcher and Major did just that. Labour are no better, they expected to be in charge in Scotland for ever. They are in my opinion far more of a drag to Scotland than the Tories. If that is not the case why is it that a faithfully Labour city like Glasgow that has voted Labour for 75 years is the poorest and most deprived place in the UK. And still is despite 12 years of Labour Government?
Naldo: additionally this blog does not cheer on the Tories. You only need to look at the post that was up yesterday to see that, that is so.
ReplyDeleteIf Labour hadnae won in 1997, there would be no Scottish Parliament and the likelihood of Scottish independence would be far smaller than it is right now.
ReplyDeleteThe Tories would be a disaster for Scotland - they'll make the poor pay far more for the greedy cock ups of fat cat bankers than Labour have or would do and they will do everything they can to halt the march towards independence.
Thatcher was rightly reviled in this country because she almost completely broke it, yet she and her predecessors are hard wired to bolster the Union, the monarchy and the power of the elites who've run the English empire for centuries.
Gordown Brown and the modern Labour Party are an effete waste of space and the sooner we get independence the better. But in the meantime, we should do all we can to resist the threat the upper classes pose to the people.
We must keep the Tories out.
I'm not denying that Labour did some good things for Scotland, but Brown hates Scotland with the kind of mad passion that only a lunatic could have. He won’t speak to Mr Salmond, he has done us down at every turn. He had his Scottish labour party vote against SNP policies that would have meant huge savings for pensioners; they voted against the local income tax, either because they thought it would hurt richer people, which Brown doesn’t want or because they just hate the SNP so much that they wanted to smash their policy.
ReplyDeleteThey voted against us building council houses; they voted for the daft trams... they vote against or for, not on the basis of whether or not it’s good for us, never mind our poor, but on the basis that it is embarrassing for the SNP Brown HATES us.
Blair did give us the parliament, but there was a measure of force from the European Court who said that some sort of devolution option must be available to Scotland as it was a country, not a region of England. Blair confided that he thought of it just as a parish council, which is apparently the lowest form of council in England, and in any case it would always be Labour controlled so he would be able to tell it what to do. Despite calling the Welsh government a “government” they called the Scottish one an “Executive”, in the face of opposition from some of their own people.
So yeah they did some good but they have done a lot of harm. Who is paying for the excesses of the bankers and the incompetence of the government and financial regulatory bodies? Is it the bankers? No. Because Brown is scared of them. Is it the government? No. The MPs have just given themselves a big fat pay increase of £1000 a year. It’s the workers. The railwaymen, the people at BA, local government workers.... that who pays for the mess that the LABOUR government has made. Because brown only cares about appealing to the middle classes in England. He assumes that the Scots will vote for him anyway. And in many cases he’s right. All you have to say in Glasgow. All you have to look at is the Noble Baron Mr Speaker as was. If ever there was a cheat and a liar His Nobleness is just that, and what a bloody hypocrite The Rt Hon and Noble Baron, the Lord Martin of Springburn. Labour makes me sick. No SNP Lords now or ever!
Poverty has increased under Labour; the gap between rich and poor has grown under this lot of thieves. But none of them is poor. Particia Hewitt, the odious Hoon, the wee rat Byers.... yuk
No Naldo, I say it again. I’m a left of centre person and I’ll fight for the poor and the downtrodden over the toffs and the privileged any day of the week. I’m probably more radical than is economically sensible. But I HATE this English government with a passion and I have Mr Brown on the same level as I have Mrs Thatcher. Indeed they looked so good together.
If you vote Labour you are voting for the bankers and the City of London
Actually Naldo, from my point of view the best thing is a hung parliament. That was some of the sensible Liberal policies will come into force and the SNP and Plaid will have a look in too.
ReplyDeleteThey say it will be bad for the City and I say. what gives a ......
Tris, i cannae argue with anything you've said above and thank you for taking the time to highlight so many of the bad things Labour has done from its power base in Westminster.
ReplyDeleteIt's just that on past performance, the Tories would be even worse than that and, for me, this election is about keeping them out of power. Even the SNP (whom i'll probably vote for, though somewhat grudgingly cos they're a bit cosy with buig business for my liking) aren't talking about independence because they realise it's kind of irrelevant right now.
Like yirsel, i'd like to see a hung parliament where the pro-independence parties and Lib Dems get the chance to twist some arms. But i suspect the high heid yins and many supporters of the SNP really do want the Tories to win because of their visceral hatred of Labour and cos they think it'll hasten the demise of the Union. I don't buy that argument at all and i wouldnae wish thoe toffs on anyone in any part of the UK.
It may seem strange to some that i bang on about toffs, upper classes, ruling elites etc. but i make no apologies for my class hatred. I despise what the rich and powerful have done throughout post-feudal history and would gladly tax the buggers out of existence. Let them all move to Switzerland, USA, Belize or wherever it is they think they'll be welcome. Like Phil Collins and Paul Daniels before them, i fear their threats to geez peace are idler than the lord of the manor.
(Maybe i should stop coining crappy similies. Sorry.)
Naldo I was seriously thinking of doing a post based on your criticism of me and the blog at the top of this set of comments. It wounded me so much.
ReplyDeleteI take on board all that you have said about the Tories, but I can't see anything different about Labour.
I live in a poor part of town, and most of the people I know and am friends with are living way below the national poverty level. After 13 years nothing has changed.
I have pensioner relatives who have just had a couple of quid added to their pension to have it taken back off them with tax increases.
I know people who had good pensions that Mr Brown wrecked.
I just watched the Despatches with Hewitt and Hoon and Byers sell themselves and their contacts for more for one day’s work than a pensioner has to live on for a year. And Moran, too ill to do her £66 grand a year job, ready to start tomorrow for a £3-5,000 a day consultancy!
This scum is Labour. There were Tories on too, (including some fat beery bloke who said in total confidence, to the entire nation as it turned out, that he expected to go to the Lords and so that would make him worth a bit more.)
But they were indistinguishable. I want rid of the lot of them. Labour and Tories alike want to go to the Lords so that they can soak up the benefit that this brings and stay at the tropugh a bit longer....well, until they die actually.
I have to say that a halfway decent Labour Prime Minister on finding out that these people were all on the fiddle would have had a root and branch change made to Westminster. Not a little fiddling round the edges. We know that Harman interfered to stop some of the worst things coming to light in the MPs expenses. She’s supposed to be a socialist. She should have been rooting out this corruption.
Huh!
Anyway. I’m glad we’re still mates and I hope you understand that any kind of support I might show for the Tories is in the hopes that their government may finally push the Scots to the idea that they would be better off without an English dominated parliament in charge.... and in utter despair of a Labour Party that is right wing.
Of course for me to ever vote any other way than for independence is unthinkable.