Not a very Merry Christmas story

We have a gentleman living in our community who is a veteran of World War II. He is in his 95th year and loves to talk about his life of adventures, and to listen to him is a marvellous education in itself. His memory is as clear on things that happened many years ago as though they happened just yesterday.

However, one of his stories has so incensed me that it should be committed to print form, so I will do that for him.

He was a part of the landing force on D-Day and carried on throughout the whole war, and survived to tell the tale. He did that so that we are free from the yoke of Nazism. To have served for so long makes him a true hero in my eyes, along with all those who served and fell. So, it was only right and reasonable for the survivors of his regiment to be called to Buckingham Palace to be recognised and honored by the Royal Family.

He received an invitation on nicely embossed plain white card and arrived and together with his compatriots they walked into The Palace along the red carpet, but at a certain point he realised that for those who held similar cards to his they were ushered to the left while others who held invitations that were gold embossed went to the right. His group were led to what might have been at one time the stables, while the others went into the Palace proper.

The were very nicely entertained, but fed on a lacklustre lunch, and Prince Charles did make his rounds stopping at each table to commend the men and women.  What took the shine off the event was the fact that they, who were prepared to give their lives to allow the British way of life to continue were segregated into the lesser class, while the others were wined and dined because of....what?

Correct me if you think I'm out of order, but I think this was an outrageous thing to do to people who were so deserving of the utmost respect of the nation. To go to all that effort to insult them by herding them into a second class group when they had every right to go first-class all the way beggars belief.

Yes, they should have been feted, but if not done properly, then it was as bad as not having been done at all. The Royal advisors have a lot to answer for. Far from honoring this gallant and patriotic gentleman, they inflicted an insult upon him that he has never forgotten, and will take into his grave.

For those responsible I say, shame! shame! shame on you!

Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael