One hundred years ago the West Lane war memorial was unveiled on the border of Bermondsey and Rotherhithe to commemorate the huge contribution and also losses experienced by Southwark families in the Great War, writes Neil Coyle…
The memorial was funded by the local community: individuals, churches and local businesses. Peek Freans led the efforts to ensure a permanent monument. The centenary of the war memorial will be officially recognised at 3pm on October 8th.
Sadly, as the News has covered, it was recently attacked by an, as yet, unidentified man. This is a criminal offence and I hope he is caught but the heat of the arson attack has damaged the granite.
This has never happened before and is shocking but I am working with the local community and businesses to raise funds for repairs. If you would like to be involved in the campaign please get in touch.
The memorial now serves as a reminder of our community’s sacrifice in every conflict since the first world war and we owe a duty to recognise the sacrifice made by all those who have served our country.
Sadly, the British Embassy guards in Kabul who protected our diplomats in Afghanistan were abandoned after the collapse of democracy and return of the Taliban. The UK had eighteen months to prepare to leave and the Foreign Office said in March that an alternative alliance would be formed if the US left before those who served the UK in Kabul and beyond could be evacuated. Ministers failed to broker such an alliance which led to the undignified final scramble to flee in the humiliating capitulation to the Taliban.
The guards were denied access to a flight due to Home Office bureaucracy. Some may now have to pay the ultimate price for working for us previously. It worries me deeply that the current Government has isolated our country internationally and left us at increased risk as a result of the ISIS, Al-Qaeda and Daesh elements who backed the Taliban now being back in control in that country.
After eighteen months of disruption, parliament is also now back in person. I can no longer join ‘virtually’ from my home off the Old Kent Road.
It has been good to see the commons’ green benches again, but the return to Westminster has also been accompanied by more broken Tory manifesto promises.
Despite winning a massive majority in 2019, Boris Johnson has repeatedly betrayed the very people who trusted him. He said he would defend free TV licenses for pensioners. He said he would not cut our armed forces. He said he would maintain international aid spending to ensure ‘Global Britain’ was not just an empty slogan. And he promised there would be no tax rises. He has broken all these promises, raising taxes even on the frontline key workers who kept our country going throughout COVID.
This tax rise will hit people at the same time the government cuts £86 a month from working people on Universal Credit. This cut will hit 8,000 people in our community, and I was shocked to learn from a meeting with local DWP reps that most people in Southwark have not even been told about the imminent loss. The Tories talk about ‘levelling up’ but cannot even level with the people whose income they are taking away.