The BNP upsest Dame Vera Lynn

Dame Vera Lynn

My dear old Dad was a bomber pilot with the Royal Australian Air Force. He flew 40 missions with 205 bomber group in North Africa, Italy, the Balkans and Germany. he was shot down and spent time in a POW camp in Bucharest, before he broke out and escaped. He got home and married my mum in 1944. In 1977 when I was driving him mad with the Ramones, The Vibrators and the Sex Pistols he asked me how I could listen to such rubbish. I said "because it means something" rather condescendingly. He said nothing. A couple of days he said "can I play you something". He'd never said this before so I said "Yeah OK". He then said, "before I play this to you, can you imagine you've just sprained both of your ankles bailing out of a plane that is on fire. Your best friend has died in the crash, you've been taken to a prisoner of war camp. You feel pretty bad, you were planning to get married to the girl of your dreams, but she's a long way away and you are stuck here". He then played me "We'll meet again" by Vera Lynn. At the end he said "do you still think it doesn't mean anything?".

Point taken. Since then, I've had a bit of a soft spot for our Vera. I got it. It seems that even though she's 91, our Vera still can remember what a bunch of scumbags fascists are. It seems the BNP were using her music without permission. Dame Vera was rather upset. Now I'm going to break a lifelong rule and give you a link to the deputy leader of the BNP - Simon Darby's blog - where (should you wish) you can read all about it.

Why have I broken my own rule? So that you can see for yourself that the Deputy Leader of the BNP is not big enough to apologise to Dame Vera for what they've done. It is a pretty lame attempt to justify the unjustifiable. It is pretty clear what Dame Vera thinks of the BNP and we should all take note.

Vera Lynn spent the war rallying troops. I suspect she saw a few things she'd rather not on her travels. I suspect the last thing she'd want is any association with the BNP. She's a national treasure. A diamond. One who's judgement hasn't been dimmed by 91 years of shining.

P.S - Didn't she look great in the picture. She still does today!

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Update : Just took a peek at Simon Darby's blog. It seems that not apologising for their behaviour is not enough for the numpties. They are now engaging in a festival of criticism for Dame Vera Lynn in the comments section. It doesn't occur to this bunch that in the process of singing to the troops she saw the ruins of many places in Europe. She knows what happens when extremists get hold of the wheels of power. She was there, she saw it happen. She hasn't had her history lesson from books written by biased numpties who've bent the facts to their agenda. She was an eye witness to the Second World War in an age where there weren't first class lounges and private jets.