Showing posts with label Current Affairs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Current Affairs. Show all posts

21 April, 2009

Red Fridays - Support Our Troops

After reading a blog post by Behind Blue Eyes today, I wanted to re-post.
Very soon, you will see a great many people wearing Red every Friday. The reason? British men and women who support our troops used to be called the ’silent majority’.

We are no longer silent, and are voicing our love for Country and home in record breaking numbers. We are not organized, boisterous or over-bearing. We get no liberal media coverage on TV, to reflect our message or our opinions. Many English people, like you, me and all our friends, simply want to recognize that the vast majority of Britain supports our troops.

Our idea of showing solidarity and support for our troops with dignity and respect starts this Friday and continues each and every Friday until the troops all come home, sending a deafening message that every Briton who supports our men and women afar will wear something red.

By word of mouth, press, TV — let’s make Great Britain on every Friday a sea of red much like a homecoming football team If every one of us who loves this country will share this with acquaintances, co-workers, friends, and family, It will not be long before Britain is covered in RED and it will let our troops know the once ’silent’ majority is on their side more than ever, certainly more than the media lets on.

The first thing a soldier says when asked ‘What can we do to make things better for you?’ is…’We need your support and your prayers’… Let’s get the word out and lead with class and dignity, by example; and wear something red every Friday.

IF YOU AGREE — THEN SEND THIS ON - IF YOU COULD NOT CARE LESS THEN HIT THE DELETE BUTTON.

IT IS YOUR CHOICE. THEIR BLOOD RUNS RED—- SO WEAR RED! Lest we Forget.

You don't have to. But this country is slowly going south. Its time to stand up, and be counted for what you believe in. Don't be a part of the silent majority. I am not asking you to stand up and shout. Just do something and support our boys.
From an unknown traveller

Last week I was in West London attending a conference.

While I was in the airport, returning home, I heard several people behind me beginning to clap and cheer. I immediately turned around and witnessed one of the greatest acts of patriotism I have ever seen.

Moving through the terminal was a group of soldiers in their uniforms, as they began heading to their gate everyone (well almost everyone) was abruptly to their feet with their hands waving and cheering.

When I saw the soldiers, probably 30-40 of them, being applauded and cheered for, it hit me. I’m not alone. I’m not the only red blooded Briton who still loves this country and supports our troops and their families. Of course I immediately stopped and began clapping for these young unsung heroes who are putting their lives on the line everyday for us so we can go to school, work, and enjoy our home without fear or reprisal.

Just when I thought I could not be more proud of my country or of our service men and women a young girl, not more than 6 or 7 years old, ran up to one of the male soldiers. He knelt down and said ‘hi,’ the little girl then asked him if he would give something to her daddy for her. The young soldier didn’t look any older than maybe 22 years old himself, said he would try and what did she want to give to her daddy. Suddenly the little girl grabbed the neck of this soldier, gave him the biggest hug she could muster and then kissed him on the cheek. The mother of the little girl, who said her daughters name was Courtney, told the young soldier that her husband was a Corporal and had been in Afghanistan for 5 months now.

As the mum was explaining how much her daughter, Courtney, missed her father, the young soldier began to tear up. When this temporarily single mum was done explaining her situation, all of the soldiers huddled together for a brief second. Then one of the other servicemen pulled out a military looking walkie-talkie. They started playing with the device and talking back and forth on it.

After about 10-15 seconds of this, the young soldier walked back over to Courtney, bent down and said this to her, ‘I spoke to your daddy and he told me to give this to you.’ He then hugged this little girl that he had just met and gave her a Kiss on the cheek. He finished by saying ‘Your daddy told me to tell you that he loves you more than anything and he is coming home very soon.’ The mum at this point was crying almost uncontrollably and as the young soldier stood to his feet he saluted Courtney and her mum.

I was standing no more than 6 feet away as this entire event unfolded.

As the soldiers began to leave, heading towards their gate, people resumed their applause. As I stood there applauding and looked around, there were very few dry eyes, including my own. That young soldier in one last act of moment turned around and blew a kiss to Courtney with a tear rolling down his cheek.

We need to remember everyday all of our soldiers and their families and thank God for them and their sacrifices. At the end of the day, it’s good to be an Englishman.

If you a little digging around, you are going to discover the snopes page. I don't care.

Support our troops

24 August, 2008

Beijing 2008 - Team GBR finish in fourth!

With the 2008 Beijing Olympics now entering the closing ceremony, I am over the moon to see Team GB finish fourth overall! CONGRATULATIONS!

Its been an amazing Olympic Games, and I have been glued to the t'interwebs, especially the BBC Live Action page, and the coverage from the BBC. Again, I feel my TV license was money well spent with the coverage that has been provided.

So whats been my highlights? Super Saturday and Sunday, and Tremendous Tuesday.. each day four new gold medals for Team GBR. I was gobsmacked with Usain Bolts three world records.. and Michael Phelps! Is he the worlds greatest athlete? He's up there with the best of them! It wasn't just Phelps.. all the swimmers did well. I guess at London 2012, every swimmer will be wearing the latest and greatest Speedo Suit...

The medal table is impressive this year.. China with 51 gold out of there 100 medal count, USA with 110 overall medals.. Russia pipped us to the post with a superb tally of 72. But Britain definitely put the Great back in Great Britain. Fourth in the number of Golds, fourth in the overall table. WOW!

Just before the games started, I was expecting Australia to do soo well. After all they have a pool of 21 million people to choose from and are a sporting nation. (lets not mention the Rugby though!). The UK Sports Minister, Gerry Sutcliffe made a stupid bet that he would wear Australias Green and Gold jersey at a sporting event if they beat us in the medal table! DUH!! I thought, "ARE YOU STUPID??".. fast forward two weeks later, and maybe I should have made a similar bet..

Anyway, for a rundown on all the British Olympic Medal Winners pop over to another BBC page. Lets all sit down and congratulate them in a very British way, with a nice cup of tea! After all it did seem that our Olympians were sitting down for most of our medals :)

Good luck to all the Olympians competing in the Beijing 2008 Para-Olympics!  Great Britain will send a team of 212 athletes to the 2008 Beijing Paralympics and compete in 18 of the 20 sports. In Athens four years ago, GB finished second to China in the medals table with 94 medals, including 35 golds. Team GBR can you do better ??

03 September, 2005

Hurricane KATRINA

Oilrig_katrina I can't believe what I am hearing on the news at the moment. About a week ago I remember Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans saying people should leave the city as it was about to be hit by a hurricane..



He wasn't wrong. The damage and the misery inflicted is immense.



Now you would have thought that Bush and the government would have been ready to declare the whole area as PRIORITY NUMBER ONE and start getting aid to his own citizens who are in dire need in the Southern States. But he hasn't.



Now Mayor Negin is furious and rightly so.. read the transcript of his interview on CNN here...



Wikeipedia entry >> BBC News >> American Red Cross >> Blog from some guy stuck in NO >>

29 July, 2005

IRA says armed campaign is over

On one hand we now have a new problem facing the world with International Islamic Terrorism causing problems in London and elsewhere, and on the other hand one of the UKs most feared Irish Terrorist groups has said that "the Armed Campaign is now over.." 



The statement made by Gerry Adams on the 28th July basically says:



  • All IRA units ordered to dump arms


  • Members ordered to pursue objectives through "exclusively peaceful means"


  • Arms to be put beyond use as quickly as possible


  • Two church witnesses to verify this


  • Statement followed "honest and forthright" consultation process


  • Strong support among IRA members for Sinn Fein's peace strategy


  • There is now an alternative way to achieve goal of united Ireland


  • "Volunteers must not engage in any other activities whatsoever"


Great News.. Lets hope this will not be like all other previous statements and end up being ignored by a few diehards, who don't want to lose there protection rackets / drugs ring / other criminal activity because of this..



UPDATE 02 Aug 05 - Demilitarisation of NI to be complete by 1st Aug 2007 with troops cut from 10k to 5k, the NI based Royal Irish Regiment disbanded and Counter Terror Laws for NI repealed.



Anyway still waiting on the Garage to get back to me about these nights I might be doing.. and Zena goes away on her travels in 4 days!! Flying to Vietnam and then on to Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore before she comes out to meet me in NZ on the 13th September.. CAN'T WAIT for her to arrive here.. x x

14 April, 2005

Lib Dems…

I aint gonna be going on about politics too much in this blog.. its boring..



But i do want to moan. I have NEVER voted for the f**king Labour party in my entire life and i never will. The Torys aint no better, but do know what this country needs in Defence matters. One party that has potential to be able to create something in this country is the...
:::Liberal Democrats:::



Lib_dems







As there manifesto shows they propose...





  • WE OPPOSE: Putting targets first



  • WE PROPOSE: Putting patients first



  • WE OPPOSE: Tuition fees & Top-up fees



  • WE PROPOSE: Scrapping student fees



  • WE OPPOSE: Compulsory I.D. Cards



  • WE PROPOSE: Spending the money on 10,000 more police



  • WE OPPOSE: Selling your home to pay for care



  • WE PROPOSE: Free personal care for the elderly



  • WE OPPOSE: Ignoring climate change



  • WE PROPOSE: Cleaner transport & cleaner energy



  • WE OPPOSE: £1.5 billion on the child trust fund



  • WE PROPOSE: £1.5 billion towards reducing class sizes



  • WE OPPOSE: Means-testing pensioners



  • WE PROPOSE: £100 extra per month starting with the over 75s



  • WE OPPOSE: Hidden tax increases



  • WE PROPOSE: Only one tax increase – on income above £100,000 per year



  • WE OPPOSE: Unfair Council Tax



  • WE PROPOSE: Local Income Tax, saving typical households £450 per year



  • WE OPPOSE: Bush & Blair On Iraq



  • WE PROPOSE: Never again


If you want to make a difference to the way this country is run VOTE LIB DEMS...



Charles_kennedy