A Winter of Discontent . . . and a Love Story
Many of us, especially those of us of an age whose parents had spent several years fighting, often unsuccessfully, but once the great United States waded in, and the tide turned, are somewhat unhappy. In the second world war a lot of people got killed all around the world, and on both "sides". Then one learns that war is not only pointless, but painful.
I remember when rationing of sweets stopped. The joy of being able to walk into the local shoppe and buy as many gobstoppers as one wanted. In fact the shop owner forbade it on two grounds: one that my mother would be unamused, and secondly that he would soon run out of gobstoppers.
I remember that uniforms were everywhere. Many people wore them, and at primary school we did not find it strange that we dressed up in a uniform one day a every week all be it as Cubs or Scouts. At secondary school it was a different uniform for the Combined Cadet Force. We all learned to use a rifle. We drilled and marched. Many of one's older relations were "in the forces" - in my case The Royal Engineers.
On to University, and again, once a week in the uniform of the Officer Training Corps. Many of us then joined the Territorial Army. The whole country was ready for another war. Germany had been demolished, Israel had been created, and the United Soviet States of Russia was proclaimed by Churchill to be the new enemy. Google says of it "The USSR was not a united state of Russia, but rather a collection of republics that were governed by the Soviet system". Many of them have now obtained independence. Personally I do remember [as a ten years old] when Hungary fought a war and gained independence. We thought that people might have been sent as part of a NATO force to go and help.
I remember when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989 - I was then 42, and had been out of the Territorial Army for a decade but was still required to keep my kit - most since given away to a local Theatre. I still have and use my Sapper folding knife.
Now some eighty years later the peace that we have now become so used to is threatened again. Not surprising that it is again time to rearrange the world. America prospered in the war: they supplied tanks, and guns, and ammunition, as well as ships and aeroplanes. Britain became a large aircraft carrier moored off Europe.
The same thing had happened before. But Britain did not prosper after the first world war, during which some 900,000 men were killed - that was one in fifteen of the whole male population. No wonder why we had so many maiden aunts.
And in Cathcart in 1926 a young couple met and emigrated to New Zealand. A "new" country which was expanding and thus prosperous and short of young people. Their lovely story is told on this web site here.
Now we have Putin wanting to rebuild a Mark II USSR. And the good auld US of A has been swamped with drugs and cheap imports. We need them to get strong again, and persuade us [that is Europe where our country is parked - we cannot move it] to look after ourselves.
And we have our own "discontent" - a path closed for no good reason. Like Putin, we need a strong person to stand up and say "This is a Nonsense, STOP IT Now".
Democacy is when the politicians LISTEN and do what is deemed emminently sensible by the majority of people - the electorate.
Donald Trump seems to remember his parents distates for war: Volodymyr Zelensky clearly is angered at being bullied by Putin.
Noted that Traump is the person who has got people talking again. It is the precursor to ceasing to fight.