'War taught me a great deal about people' - Your Letters: December 24

LESSONS FROM WAR EXPERIENCE 

Although only a small boy playing in the back garden of my parents' house, I can well remember the beginning of WW2, the lady next door calling my mother to tell her it had just been announced that we were at war with Germany. During the next six years I was to learn what war was all about, and though it might be difficult to believe, I think it taught me a great deal about people, fear, love and death, and in growing older, much, much more.

As we appear to stand on the brink of yet another major conflict, my many memories keep returning, and I realise I have much to be thankful for, to the thousands who died for me, and for a country that was once the greatest in the world. In those days the majority of us were very poor, but at least we had a different inner spirit. If we wanted something we went out and worked for it. We could say what we believed in and was prepared to fight for it. We could play conkers at school without the need for an insurance policy, tell jokes about the Scots, Irish and Welsh, laugh our heads off while they returned the compliment. Now we get locked up for being racist. It was headline news if a murder took place, now nobody cares.

And why? Because our MPs and government ministers have forgotten what justice means, and I know I speak for many to demand the return of the death penalty and give our police a fair chance.