Whilst strolling around York yesterday afternoon, on a dull St Valentine’s Day, I took the opportunity to get some pictures of St Mary’s a ruined Benedictine Abbey [Wikipedia reference], in the grounds of the Yorkshire Museum, the photo above is of the west wall and the return with the open arch on the north elevation. The weather turned sour and I put my camera away as I hurried back to the car, thus missing out on the opportunity to take a decent shot of the Sir Edwin Lutyens designed war memorial adjacent to the former North Eastern Railways Headquarters. The memorial is less impressive than the more famous work by him of the Cenotaph, Whitehall, however what struck me was that the memorial was commissioned by NER and commemorates the loss of over 2,300 soldiers during the First World War, all of whom were NER (North Eastern Railways Company) employees. A horrific reminder of the tragedy of war, this on the second day of our increased assault in Helmund, Afghanistan more destruction, all very distressing.
The distress brought by war continues but our Prime Minister, seeks to show us his caring side by displaying an un-characteristic and stomach wrenching, tearful moment on TV discussing his family grief. Call me a cynic but if he cared so much he would not have allowed our troops to be so badly prepared for the IED’s encountered under his watch over the purse strings as Chancellor and later in his role as Prime Minister.
This moved me to reflect more on the past years of the labour government and I recalled an oft used quotation by the late American Adrian Pierce Rogers from 1984.
You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the industrious out of it. You don’t multiply wealth by dividing it. Government cannot give anything to anybody that it doesn’t first take from somebody else. Whenever somebody receives something without working for it, somebody else has to work for it without receiving. The worst thing that can happen to a nation is for half of the people to get the idea they don’t have to work because somebody else will work for them, and the other half to get the idea that it does no good to work because they don’t get to enjoy the fruit of their labor.
C’est la vie!