British Pie the day democracy died

Yesterday, the British Prime Minister attended his first meeting with those who head the Select Committees of House of Commons to review government progress on reducing the number of deaths from the SARS 2 2 COVID 19 pandemic while at the same time preventing other deaths caused by the Stay at Home policy and he consequences of lockdown the economy.

It was evident from his response to the question, “ why have you not asked Mr Cummins to resign?” that he has made himself the judge and the jury of the supreme court of public opinion believing that the introduction of new measures of freedom through the re-establishing of Track and Trace will divert media attention and bring to an end the rebellion by backbenchers of the House of Commons, joined yesterday by the Paymaster General, Penny Mordaunt  and the forced out Chancellor of Exchequer Sajid Javid, when he refused to replace his advisers.

The chairperson of the Committee, Sir Bernard Jenkin, was the appropriately polite host who welcomed the Prime Minister to the meeting, chided him for not coming before and hoped he would return again before the summer to be questioned about Brexit plans and the aspects of the government policy and legislation in the Party General Election Manifesto, to wish the response was an equally polite no.

The thought then crossed my mind that Mr Cummings were more Cromwell and the Svengali, and that Mr Johnson has used the Pandemic to side line Parliament and made himself de facto head of state.

In 1944, aged 5, as had millions of other children  in 1939 and 1940, I was evacuated to a place of safety, separately  from my single parent mother, a school teacher, who continued to do her duty like millions of others, despite living in an area where there had been 5000 civilian casualties because of our location close to Croydon, Kenley and Biggin Hill aerodromes and where over 140 V1 and V2 rockets exploded. One of my earliest memories is being carried from the house  to the Anderson shelter at the back, in daylight, first hearing a V1 rocket pass directly overhead and then see it begin to doodlebug down as the engine cut out  and we entered the shelter and heard it explode nearby.

We lived a short walk from one end of Croydon airport which had become the headquarters of the military Transport Command while Kenley and Biggin Hill were Fighter command aerodromes.

One morning an ambulance arrived to take one of my aunts, who had become deaf, dumb, blind, and bedridden from childhood meningitis to stay with another aunt whose husband’s regiment,  was based at Catterick camp in North Yorkshire. On impulse the three aunts with whom I lived decided I should go in the ambulance, my first journey, and I was terrified. My memory of the journey is that it took a long time, there were two drivers and we stopped midway for the toilet and food that was brought with us.  The aunt lived in a small group of houses  built for officers close to a village and I have one memory  of  running  with one of my younger first cousins  thorough a cornfield that summer on our way to a mass at the Catholic church.

My other memory was when I first found out which of the aunts was my mother when it was decided that I needed to have my first haircut. The aunties of which there were seven in total, with four brothers were born in Gibraltar and spoke Llanito a mixture of Spanish with English words and phrases and words from other Mediterranean lands. Their father had been a civilian employee  foreman in Ordinance at the Naval dockyard, and an accountant for the army at the South Barracks.  His father has been a British soldier who had married a Spanish born girl when stationed in Gibraltar and had returned there to live  after discharge on health grounds and becoming a Royal Hospital Chelsea Pensioner, Outpayments.

In 1944, two of my aunts travelled to Catterick separately train  some days later. One the aunts I thought was my mother as she used to bathe me in tin bath used for clothing washing, as we lived in a house without a bathroom or an inside toilet. The other aunt, the eldest, had become a single a parent with two sons in the army. I remember  when she received the telegram to say one son had died in prisoner of war camp in Borneo after the war in Europe ended, and I remember seeing her other son when he returned in his demob suit from prisoner of war camps in North Africa, Italy and central Europe.

The third aunt was a school teacher and she travelled later when the school term ended. It was during our stay that I worked out from what was being said they the third aunt was my birth mother when the others told her to take me for a haircut, and I presume because no one would recognise her  when  she.  Until 1990 I always assumed  the reason why I was kept as a secret child was because at that time female teachers were still expected to be unmarried and a teacher with an illegitimate child was regarded as unacceptable. It was only in 1990 that before my birth mother’s memory deteriorated further that I pressed her to disclose who my father had been, and she disclosed my  father had been a catholic priest and not until 2018 did I find  compelling evidence that he had become the vicar general of Gibraltar  awarded the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth.

Of course, the Queen’s parents, as did millions of other parents throughout Britain, put  the welfare of their children first  and only mother’s with pre-school children were evacuated with them, and the Queen and her sister were separated from their  parents at Windsor  while the King and Queen experienced the Blitz and were able to look the Eastend of London in the eye.

Decades later on behalf of  South Tyneside Council  I attended a wartime simulation  training course at the National Civil Defence College where one of team was destroyed in the nuclear explosion in the a city while  individual members in other teams were told their families had also perished or were dying from radiation  but our job  was to remain in post, and try and save as many lives as we could by protecting and distributing the food and water with the help of the army when martial law ended.  At the end of the exercise we were told we had has saved twice as many lives  at one of the courses  but five times fewer than another.

In the exercise the  head of state and some other members of Royal family had survived at an undisclosed destination, but most of the   government and opposition had not which had led Martial Law  until phase two  was achieved with agreement to end hostilities and begin  recovery under civilian direction in the new  normal. 

It is noteworthy that at the height of the epidemic in London our head of state went only as far as Windsor, the heir apparent to Scotland on the Balmoral estate, the Prime Minister recuperated at Chequers and  only Mat Hancock remained with his wife and children in London, continuing to do his duty as best he could and throughout appears to  have been the member of the government who recognised the scale and extent of the problem, put on a brave face has tried to sort out the mess created by the Prime Minister in association with Mr Cummings. On Tuesday when confronted by  vicar who asked if as a consequence of the Cummings defence, anyone fined  for doing similar would be abated, he stumbled, said he would check and personally write, and we learned from the media he was immediately slapped down by number 10 and the Treasury.  Whatever will be  next?

Of course, Mr Cummings was right to take action to protect his child and his wife, as I understand she is a writer  and not a front like worker like the doctors, the nurses, care, and the transport  workers who stayed in post,  and have died, leaving their children alone and  their  others the loved. Mr Cummings has not behaved with honour and the judgement of the Prime Minister should continue to be questioned  by his Cabinet Colleagues and backbenchers, and those in the House of Lords who may have the ear of Her Majesty

Meanwhile, I presume Mr Cummings has worked out the plan to deal with the forensic questioning of the Leader of the opposition by abolishing Prime Ministers Question Time until the crisis is over. 

May  your God help the rest of us.

Colin Smart once a director of social services 1974-1992