The Gurkhas are told to go - shame on you and your Government Gordon Brown!

My dad served with Gurkhas during WW2 and had a very high regard for them.

How is it that Governments like yours AND mine can turn their backs on patriots and yet welcome ( dare I say it) terrorists, with open arms ???

Beats me !!

What a good question.  I wish I knew the answer.  I think it's simply that governments are so wrapped up in themselves, and full of their feeling of power, that they lose touch with reality as you and I see it.

I think Paul and Catherine hit the nail omn the head.   People came back from wars either broken in osy, spirit or soul, and who can say which is the worst.  They gave everything they had in many cases, not because a war was just, but because they had taken an oath to serve, and they were honourable people.  Many of course came back in body bags or 'full metal jacket', and those who were left can only mourn their passing, and their loss is our loss too.

I have never believed that war proves who's right - only who's left to count the cost, not simmply in financial terms, but in good friends, neighbours and relatives that we will never see again thi side of eternity.

I'm involved in helping the Royal British Legion find new volunteers to help and befriend service personnel coming home from those two popular holiday spots, Iraq and Afghanistan, through the community paper I volunteer with.

A sap?  I really don't think so!  You strike me as someone who finds great comfort in faith, and derives great enjoyment from the simple things of life that we sometimes take for granted.

People tell us that they don't believe in God, but then are quick to blame Him for all the wrongs of the world and all the failings in their lives.

 If you're a sap, can I join the club, please?

Sorry about the typo!

That should have read: '...broken in body, spirit or soul...'

Clumsy me!

Thanks Wolf, but to be honest when my wife died in October 1990 of cancer at the ripe old age of 43, I was left with a young family to bring up.  Later, when they didn't need me in the way they had done before, there was a big hole left in my life.

I'm sure you know, that at times like that you can either sit and mope, or get off your butt and do something.  I get a lot of pleasure from being a volunteer with Spennynews, and have found time this year to start a new venture, Spennymoor History Group'.  It gives me a chance to put something back into the local community, although I find it a bit difficult to go anywhere anonymously these days.  I know that what we do at the paper is well received in the town, because people stop me just to tell me so, which is very kind of them.

People who wouldn't have given me the time of day six years ago, wave and shout 'Hi' from the other side of the street!  They see me as a different person, but I don't think I've changed.