Telegraph:
Poppy sellers will receive protection from Royal British Legion “minders” for the first time after a spate of attacks last year in which volunteers were verbally abused and spat on.
Security chaperones will accompany young Army cadets in Bradford, West Yorks, after attacks on teenage collectors Photo: IAN JONES
By Andrew Hough
9:30PM BST 21 Oct 2012
The unprecedented security will be provided for young Army cadets in Bradford, West Yorks, after the attacks on teenage collectors.
The security chaperones will accompany the volunteers, aged between 10 and 17, amid concerns many are now too frightened to participate in fund-raising efforts.
From this week they will be shadowed by motor enthusiasts from the Legion’s Riders branch, many of whom are former members of the Armed Forces, following the series of incidents last year.
Those attacks left the local Legion branch horrified and forced Army officials to visit schools to stress the need to honour the fallen and overcome cultural barriers.
It’s a sad world when someone selling poppies gets assaulted and abused. But who exactly are the people committing the abuse? Oh, yes ‘Asians’. It must be those pesky Chinese people or maybe it’s the Hindus again.
One obvious idea is to have the Legion Minders bring a dog with them.
Maybe carry a bacon sandwich as well.
Quote from the mayor,”It is a sad reflection that this small minority..”
Its that “minority” again.
If the Legion minders hurts an Asian ( Moslem), the media and the police will have them.
It would be far better if the police did the job they are supposed to, instead of posting on Twitter, and harrassing Tony Robinson,.
The vets like these are the future of the EDL and one of the best hopes for Britain regaining its freedom and culture.
I’ll make this short………just one quick question……
From the shores of Tripoli…..to the black sand beaches of Iwo Jima…….to the post-barrage deathly quiet of the Western Front, silence broken only by the sound of vermin as they consumed the remains of friend and foe alike……to the loss and humiliation of Dieppe…….to the meat grinder of Vimy Ridge…..to the beaches at Utah, Omaha, Gold, Sword and Juno, a sun setting on dead men in the thousands……to the swaying sentinels of the Ardennes Forest that watched a generation laid to waste and a thousand grieving mothers made…..to the skies over Normandy blackened with those who, clad in parachute silk, screamed their defiance as they drifted slowly down….to the slow walk past the ranks of those whose emaciated bodies and sunken pleading eyes bore testament to the madness of the final solution……to every skirmish and battle in between then and now…….these are the brave and selfless, the very quintessential manifestation of “John 15:13″…….at the going down of the sun and in the morning we are honour bound by sworn oath to remember them……..
Do you think………..do you think……………do you think…………do you think our sons and daughters, as they walked quietly on winding park paths, autumns whisper rustling through leaves, as they sat in solitude in bedrooms fingering fading photographs or in midst of noisy crowds, and made that decision to do as their fathers and grandfathers had done before them, to fill a space in the line, to carry the torch that failing hands had passed to them……….do you think as, repeating after them, they swore their oath of alligence to that which birthed and nourished them……..do you think as they stood, duffle bag packed, travel orders readied and shook hands with misty eyed beaming fathers and smothered in hugs from blubbering mothers and fidgeting siblings………..do you think as they were stripped of hair and civilian clothing and entered the crucible that makes men of boys and patriot citizens of errant youth……….do you think as they stood on graduation parade squares, shoulder to shoulder with men they now called brother, with men whose companionship and friendship would be remembered for a lifetime………do you think when they got that long awaited order and were filled with fearful anticipation and false bravado, the property of all young men……do you think as they were inoculated, packed, administered, dispatched, assembled and boarded……….do you think as they disembarked and were slapped by the heat and the dust of the line drawn in the sand by those who sent them to defend the same…….do you think as they sat quietly awaiting orders for first patrol, the sound of distant battles rumbling throughout the night…….do you think as they loaded weapons, readied gear, fired up carriers and tanks, laughing, shouting, eager for first blood, bravado masking a rumbling stomach and the cold sweat of fear…………do you think as they stumbled into the mind numbing, terrifying chaos of their first fire-fight………do you think as they returned and stripped down, battered and bone tired, sitting on the edge of beds, and, through the wisps of cigarette smoke, looked across at a bunk that would never again be filled with the young man they called Doc……….do you think as they put aside that loss and the many more to come and the fear and, setting their jaws and clenching their fists, walked straight into that same deafening chaos time and time and time again……..do you think as, in the midst of that chaos, on this their last day, as what felt like a sledgehammer blow between their shoulder blades lifted them off their feet and spun them in the air……..do you think as they fought for breath and tasted the rush of salty blood as it poured out into the dust……..do you think as, cradled in the arms of a fellow soldier, the screams of HANG ON!!…HANG ON…STAY WITH US…OH JESUS CHRIST PLEASE STAY HERE!!!!!…MEDIC…MEDIC!!!! echoed in the bleeding ears……..do you think as the peripheral vision blurred and sounds of pitched battle blended into a roar……do you think as the suspicion of death became suspicion no more……….do you think that they really didn’t want to say goodbye, not this way……..do you think as they wished for just one more night of blessed intimate ecstasy with the woman that, in accordance with vows sworn ‘neath the sight of God, death would now part them from……..do you think as the toothy grin of their first born on his second birthday smiled back through the mists of memory and knew they would not grace the celebration of the third birthday………do you think as they saw their mother and fathers frequent and sombre visitors to the gardens of stone………do you think as vision and heart beat faded and tenacious grip on life loosened………do you think as, in good company, bruised, bloodied and torn, they stood on the edge of that more undreamt of in our philosophy………do you think as, pausing for a moment at Heaven’s Gate, looking back over their shoulder at those who, loved more than life itself, they would have to leave behind……….do you think that they thought that for one minute, one single shining sliver of universal time, that those to whom they had given their most precious of all gifts…….
………..would allow muslims to threaten and spit on children bearing poppies on Remembrance Day?
Regards, Don Laird
Edson, Alberta, Canada