Stuart Bates

Another example of your wit combined with humour and truth.

Whilst I agree with you on the amount paid to sporting figures &c, I have to say what would we do without “bread and circus?” I don’t subscribe to it but what is there for the masses to do? We, as individuals, have little to offer to Earth possibly destruction, but until then what? Art? Now that is too subjective to be considered. Architecture? Once again subjective and not relevant to most people I feel. There are many more I suspect.

In light of this heroes are necessary, warts and all.

Gad Brian you have done it again! My collection has neither waxed nor waned but rather remained static.

Stuart

I always assumed that an avatar was simply the image/graphic that best illustrated one's proclivities, (oops, perhaps some synonyms are in order - penchant, preference, taste, interest, hobby - I had better leave it there).

I have always used my name as a user-name as it seems "cheating" not to do so. As Brian says " I never use an avatar name whether here or commenting on the Internet because if I am willing to put something down in writing I am will to stand by what I say. "

One man's fish is another's poisson.

Stuart

Comedy, wit, irreverence and intelligence. Brian you have it in spades.

Stuart

Why does it seem that “everyone” thinks 2017 was such a bad year? The way the world is going 2018 could well be worse.

Brian,

I shall eat some iron today!

The truck has turned out to be a triumph but what happened to -

Brian,

I am still waiting for the autobiography.

Stuart

When can expect the book?

Regards,

Stuart

Hilarious and very salient.

Saved!

I see that Boris Johnson has written a biography on Churchill titled The Churchill Factor: How One Man Made History so no-one needs to write an article which would have been quite an exercise.

Stuart

I guess, and that is what I am doing never having really got into any study of the origins of WWII, that what I am really saying is that no one man can be held responsible for such cataclysmic events. At least not in a Parliamentary Democracy, and to lay the blame totally at the feet of Chamberlain and also to call him a coward is cheap at best.

Stuart

Chamberlain was "never called to the Colours" because he was too old, being 45 years of age in 1914. The limit for the Regular Army was 38 years and for the Special Reserve 40 years if not previously a regular soldier.

Even the Derby Scheme, of 1915, only went to 1875 as its starting point and Chamberlain was born in 1869.

Stuart

"Chamberlain's story is of a man who fought for peace as long as possible, and went to war only when it was the last available option. It's not such a bad epitaph." [Nick Baumann]

This is a very interesting precis of the man called Neville Chamberlain and the situation he faced http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2013/09/neville_chamberlain_was_right_to_cede_czechoslovakia_to_adolf_hitler_seventy.html

Stuart

I have never received a Christmas card from Brian, despite what he said

Stuart

An Anglo-Australian

My comments on Churchill should probably be the subject of Brian's next

blog ? Mervyn

Perhaps you should write the Churchill blog.

Stuart

I am tempted by Brian's article to find out much, much more of this signature man. He may have been wrong about Adolf, and he was not alone, but what does one do with a madman? And mad he surely was. World domination is taking it a bit too far. Ressurecting one's country I can understand but at the expense of the rest of the world... NO!

"Wet willy!" That seems rather unfair to a man who only wanted to save humanity from a repeat of the Great War - what was so "Great" about it? And never let us forget that it was Chamberlain who declared war on Germany.

Stuart

A quite marvelous article on a character who has suffered much from the "popular history" mentioned by Brian.

It is little known that Chamberlain kept Britain out of the Spanish Civil War and that he recognised Italy's supremacy in Ethiopia in 1938, when Italy already controlled three quarters of that country. This to sway Italy away from Germany - a futile gesture as it turned out. It should also be recognised that Premier Daladier of France was complicit, if that is the correct word, in the Munich Agreement.

It is likely that Chamberlain's desire for peace was matched with his desire to ensure that Britain was able to defend itself.

Churchill's eulogy just about sums up the man but it does not appear that the verdict of popular history has "stood him in good stead."

Stuart

Mervyn,

you must continue these memoirs as it is such a personal and, therefore, a fascinating insight into the life and times of a small boy during crisis.

Don't worry too much over the readership as I am sure that many have read your story even if they have made no comment. Not too many of us take the time or make the effort to recognise such valuable insights into our collective history.

As has been said several times, "Keep 'em coming."

Stuart

Mervyn,

as we have discussed blogs are nothing if they have no dissenting views. Therefore I must bring up that old chestnut of area bombing with particular reference to the Allied bombings of Dresden and Hamburg. It is accepted that one cannot break the spirit of a people by such means and, indeed, your blog has amply demonstrated that fact.

The failure to prosecute “the perpetrators” is reprehensible but, as always, pragmatism will have out, like it or not. There is no need for me to bring up the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as opposing forces will use any means at their disposal and justify it with whatever “moral” righteousness that they can bring to bear.

It is, and will remain, a vexed issue but that does not mean that it should be “unspoken.”

Stuart

Mervyn,

we have all heard the story of the bombing of London, and other cities, and seen footage but your personal comments bring it all to life in a way that the others can't.

Stuart

Mervyn,

you have more than one reader and as, at least, the second I find this fascinating stuff. We all know of the bombings, rationing etc. but rarely if ever hear it from one who had to undergo this.

I especially liked your description of your father's fruit and vegetable endeavours. And the spelling is Australian ( insert smile here).

Stuart

Neither do I.

Mervyn,

a wonderful memoir. And still more to come.

Stuart