Yobs dishonour the 1914 generation, says NICK FERRARI
MUCH of the nation will come together this morning to pause and reflect on the sacrifice made by hundreds of thousands of military personnel who have given their lives in defence of our country.
Prince Harry lays a Cross of Remembrance during a visit to the Field of Remembrance at Westminster
The Remembrance services are given an added poignancy by the fact this year marks the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. That, as you might recall from your history lessons, was meant to be the war to end all wars. Tragically it now seems to have served merely as an appetiser for so many other conflicts in every corner of the globeand to huge loss of life.
The nation has, quite rightly, been galvanised by this year’s Poppy Appeal and this has been reflected by the phenomenon of the Blood Swept Lands And Seas Of Red display at the Tower of London. If you haven’t seen this extraordinarily moving artwork and you live in or near to London, you must get there.
I visited at the end of last week and although when you arrive you’re hollered at as you cross the road by humourless traffic wardens pretending to be police officers, when you get to see the 880,246 ceramic red poppies, with each one representing the life of a British or Commonwealth soldier killed in the First World War, you are instantly struck by an eerie quiet and sense of calm. Of all the memorials dedicated to the fallen of The Great War, this audacious, visually stunning and unique monument has to be the most humbling.
A century ago our brave teenagers were seeing war in the raw and falling in their hundreds of thousands. Today our teenagers play at war on their computers
There might be now no one alive who can tell of the horrors of this war but somehow this installation has filled the void. More than four million visitors have and London Mayor Boris Johnson is trying to find a way to stop the work being dismantled on Wednesday as he’s hailed it as “a new world attraction”.
One oaf who hasn’t been to see Blood Swept Lands And Seas Of Red and seems highly unlikely to, is vile teenager Huw Jones. The unemployed joiner was caught urinating on a war memorial in Porthmadog, Wales, after a rugby game last month.
Jones is 18 and he arrived for his appearance at a magistrates court to answer a charge of outraging public decency wearing a hoodie, jeans and polo shirt and grinned for the cameras as if he’d won the lottery. The truth is that this lowlife is well on the way to being a meaningless nomark who will achieve as little as he will contribute. Magistrate Peter Lunt Williams nailed it when he told the yob: “It is 100 years since the outbreak of the First World War when boys your age were being killed and injured in their thousands. You should be ashamed of yourself and I am sure the community of Porthmadog are not happy at all. Although we can’t order it, we’d like to see you clean the war memorial.”
So how have we come to the situation where 100 years ago, teenagers were signing up to risk their lives out of loyalty to their King and country and now a pond-life loser of the same age can find nothing better to do than relieve himself on a monument to the dead?
One hundred years ago, our children went to schools where discipline was paramount. If their work was second rate, they were told they needed to do better. Their parents strove to stick together as they knew it was better for children to be raised in a family unit. Bad language was not tolerated and if they couldn’t be bothered to get a job the shame it brought on the family would be enough to ensure they would act to put the situation right.
Now teachers, social workers and counsellors queue up to explain away bad behaviour. Lack of effort is rewarded by a state that doles out money. Days are whiled away in a haze of cut-price lager, cigarettes and drugs playing computer games until their eyes go blurry.
A century ago our brave teenagers were seeing war in the raw and falling in their hundreds of thousands. Today our teenagers play at war on their computers.
I know which generation I’ll be thinking of this morning.
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Ellie Goulding received abuse on social media for dressing as a Native American
Behold the unfortunate latest victim of the ever burgeoning race industry. Singer Ellie Goulding’s “crime” was to wear a Native American headdress and share the picture on the internet. In these days of social media power, a hue and cry can be got up in the time it takes to tweet. Ellie, 27, was told she was “ignorant” and “deeply offensive” and one critic blasted: “Next time, don’t mock a dying race you insensitive and ignorant excuse of a person.”
Dear Lord, have these sad individuals never attended a fancy dress party? It goes without saying Nazi outfits and minstrel outfits are also on the banned list.
Soon we’ll only be able to dress up as vicars and tarts. Sorry, make that preachers of faith and sex workers.
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Nick Ferrari praises Judge Coulson for his decision to uphold the importance of public interest
Full credit to a judge brave enough to name the schoolboy killer of Leeds teacher Ann Maguire, despite Will Cornick being just 15 years old when he committed the crime.
Mr Justice Coulson said it was vital and in the “public interest” that we were all aware that Cornick’s barbaric behaviour was not down to a “hopeless” upbringing or unloving parents and that he wasn’t a weird “internet loner” cut off from the normal world. He was bright and had committed parents.
At a time when the powers of the state are tireless in devising ways not to tell us anything at all, or only to do it when it suits them, anyone remembering the importance of “public interest” is to be cherished.
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It was A Conference speech so forgettable he couldn’t remember the key points, an inability to eat a bacon sandwich without looking as if he was on the verge of vomiting and making it appear he needs to employ the choreography skills of Len Goodman just so he can give cash to a beggar that have left Labour leader Ed Miliband as beleaguered as a banker.
Hardly surprising his own party want rid of him. They needn’t worry too much.
If their plotting fails, the Great British public is just a few months from having their say.
When Lib Dem Norman Baker flounced out of the Home Office last week declaring that working with his boss Theresa May was “like walking through mud”, his party leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg praised all he had achieved as a minister.
So just what does Mr Clegg see in the elaborate conspiracy theorist, pop singer, DJ and writer the rest of us can’t?
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Employers must include regular overtime when they calculate holiday pay thanks to an Employment Appeal Tribunal ruling that could open the doors to claims dating back SIXTEEN years.
Union bosses see this as a victory. As usual they’re blind to reality. In truth it’s a terrifying prospect for countless small and medium-sized businesses.