Belgium and the European Union

It's been a very interesting week in Flanders. Yesterday we watched the wreath laying ceremony in Brugge, with the minute's silence at 11-00am.

Last night we were at the 8-00pm ceremony at the Menin Gate in Ieper (Ypres for the Francophiles). Always a very moving occasion that happens every night at 8-00 throughout the year, on the 11th day of the 11th month it was a huge event with military bands and soldiers from the Commonwealth parading. Everybody should try and get there at least once.

We had an interesting chat en route with a Belgian who regards himself, first and foremost, as Flemish rather than Belgian or European. He feels that the Euroopean Union has now gone too far and has become overly interfering and oppressive. We sense that mood throughout Europe and have done for a few years now, certainly since the Constitution/Lisbon Treaty reared its ugly head.

He also commented on the British obsession with surveillance and the numbers of CCTV cameras in the UK. As did the Australians we spoke to in Ieper.

Goes to show, the rest of the world is watching us being watched! Ever felt like a goldfish?

Remembrance Day-Ieper

A couple of years ago Remembrance Day fell on the Sunday and we had tickets for the ceremonies in and around Ieper in Flanders. Unfortunately it coincided with the mother-in-law being maltreated in the NHS system and we had to cancel.

This year I will actually be in Flanders for the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month but will be on Eurostar on Remembrance Sunday. The Last Post is always incredibly moving under the Menin Gate, I suspect a lump in the throat may become a bit more on the 11th day of the 11th month.

That BNP Election Broadcast

European elections are essentially a wasted exercise in sham democracy, but it produces desperate attempts to jump on the gravy train. After all, five years as an MEP can make a person pretty well off for doing bugger all.

This year I was saddened that the BNP and UKIP should stoop to using images of Winston Churchill, a cheap shot in my view that smacks of desperation. But tonight's BNP election broadcast was something else.

The BNP really should get some basic history lessons. They showed war memorials in the UK claiming that the names were English, Scottish, Irish and Welsh, thus 'proving' that it was British people (not Johnny Foreigner) who saved us in the two world wars. What crap!

Yes the demography of the UK has changed and war memorials in Lancashire and elsewhere will represent the names that inhabited the UK in the first half of the last century. They do not represent the various nationalities and races that fought throughout Europe and the world from all corners of the Empire to preserve our, and their freedoms.

If anybody cares to visit war graves anywhere in Europe you will see the graves of people from Africa, the Indian Sub-continent, China and everywhere else the British flag flew at the time. Visit the Menin Gate Memorial in Ieper and see the names there that commemorate those who fell but have no known grave. The names are not only 'British', far from it.

What about the Gurkhas? Perhaps, according to BNP history books they don't count, or even exist.

I did't intend blogging tonight but their ignorance really pissed me off. Prats!