D Day and the EU Elections

On the 6th June 2004 Britain will commemorate the 60th Anniversary of D Day. My dad was involved in D Day. He was in the Royal Navy, and on 6th June had the incredibly dangerous job of driving troop landing craft from the ships to the beaches. He never really talked about the war, one reason being that he was sworn to secrecy regards what he later did, which was work at Bletchley Park. Station X successfully broke the German armed forces top-secret codes giving the allies a huge advantage in their ultimately successful fight against Nazi tyranny.

On the 10th June 2004 we have the European Election. A united Europe was, and still is, the key to European nations tearing lumps out of each other. And what do we see happening in Britain? Political chaos. We see the United Kingdom Independence Party and the British National Party gaining ground. We see the Conservative campaign implode as they fight a battle on two fronts. We see absolutely no campaign of any kind from Labour and the Scottish National Party. Either fighting their own electoral corner, or coming down hard on UKIP and the BNP.

I want to vote on June 10th. It’s the first opportunity I’ve had since we went to war with Iraq. I want to register my displeasure at this, and the ‘special relationship’ with an American Administration that tortures people. Trouble is, who for? None of the above deserves my X. And for the rest? The Scottish Socialist party don’t really want us to be in the EU, and if elected want to be mischievous. They are bombed out as I am into more grown up stuff than that. That leaves either the Greens or the Liberal Democrats. I’m in a quandary. Never voted for either before, so whatever happens my vote will be a first.

Who it will be on June 10th you will never know! But t its why the likes of my dad and his generation fought and died in the Second World War. He must be birlin’ in his grave.