Remembrance in Cleckheaton!

Until now I have only shown my militant evil side but I do have things that I take seriously.  Things like the way we treat Disability and Old People.  It was pointed out to me I have been hard on the currant PM but I do not have political preferences at all I have all MP's equally.  It is not my job to believe in any politician; it is their duty to make me believe in them.  I can say that to date most have failed and I can honestly say that I like them as much as I like Bankers (-B+W).

Anyway the point of this blog is about a promise that was made that on the 11th hour of the 2nd Sunday of every November "We Will Remember".  I am an ex soldier and served in the regular Army and the TA.  In Cleckheaton 5 years ago as my disability took hold I attended the memorial in Cleckheaton at the appointed time to find there were 3 of us.  I was told that Cleckheaton holds it's parade at 2pm; I question the people that ran the parade and ask "Why?", to be told we've done it this way for 50 years.  I started to campaign to correct this and tried to point why to called a nutter (and fellows of the Legion in Spen if writing remarks like that to each other it is better to not forward it as often the person you were talking about receives it).  Just because somebody does something one way different from the rest of the country does not make it right after all thirty years ago we stop using paper carrier bags in favour of plastic , see how well that turned out.

In the rest of this blog I will give a brief history and remind people the true meaning of Remembrance and the point of it in the modern World.  Though at this moment I must rest so I will have to continue tomorrow.

I was going to give a brief history however due to physio and the actual day it's self I am recovering and will be for a few days.  I did however conduct a parade for about 50 people who turned up assuming that like everywhere else in the country there would be a parade at 11am.  The people who came were grateful that there was someone there and we had a very respectful parade with the last post played and the peom "for the fallen".  I had also made a wreath (well large poppy) that people could place their own poppies in so we had something to lay.  Last year I made it weath shaped and drilled 30 holes in it for people to place poppies in, although 30 people attended only about 18 put poppies in.  This year I changed the design so that if only one person put a poppy in it would still look good and so only drilled 18 holes.  I was wrong again 50 people turned up and at least 30 people put poppies in, we had to put 2 or 3 poppies to each hole.  I have put a picture of my finished design below.

The holes are drilled either side of the dedication in the black bit.

I will say I attend remembrance day in memory of Dave Goodall murdered delivering aid to Bosnia in 1994. I knew him when I first joined the Royal Engineers, he was a Corperal on a PTI course and I was a new recruit. After he left the Army like me joined the TA at Bradford which he was still a serving member of.  Although he died in a war zone he was in his civilian role, therefore his name is not on any War Memorial and he is not remember by many people.

Next time you attend Remebrance Day remember that nobody wins a War there is only lose.  Soldiers die on both sides and so do civilians and the job of this parade is to say on behalf of all serving forces "we will fight your wars without question but remember the cost will be high, look to our past!"