Grave Robbing Scum
Around this time of year I take a little time to think of those who have given their lives in the service of our country. If I’m not working I’ll attend the local Remembrance Day parade. My children will attend with their various youth groups & one of them will wear their granddad’s WWII medals on their uniform.
I will, as I do every year, spend some time reading the names on our local war memorial.
Sadly, the people visiting Philips Park Cemetery in Manchester won’t be able to do the same since thieving scum have ripped off & stolen half the brass plaques from the war memorial.
The War Graves Commission reckon the thieves will get in the region of £200 at some bent & immoral scrap dealer but it will cost around £10,000 to replace each of the 5 plaques stolen.
Alf Heywood, 88, an old soldier with the Lancashire Fusiliers, many of whom are remembered on the plaques, said “It’s a disgrace. If these vandals experienced what we did out on the battlefields, they would not be getting into all this trouble and they would have more respect for what these plaques represent.
Sadly, Alf, no words will make any difference since people who are prepared to rob graves for their own greed have no concept of decency.
It’s not the first time I’ve blogged about this particularly scummy crime, see my earlier posts Absolute Scum & How low can you go?.
Tony F says:
ATNS has already posted about this, but, the fact that anyone can go so far as to steal such memorials shows to what a low standard this country has got to. Our useless bunch of hand wringing ‘leaders’ will blame everyone but themselves for the failure of moral standards now available on all our streets. The list is endless, and pointless to re iterate. I suspect none of them read any of these blogs. Pity really, but I suspect the truth is not something that they are familiar with, nor do they seem to want to be.
There was a debate on the radio this lunchtime. Should people (Children) be made to wear Poppies? I personally think that the ‘making’ of anyone to do something like this is a tad Orwellian.
I do believe the reason for wearing them should be taught in all schools though. It has to be remembered that many good men and women died to give us our choice of freedom. All religions lost their faithful in the fields of Flanders, on the Dunkirk and Normandy Beaches, in Egypt and Libya, and of course, still are in the current conflicts. Brothers In Arms. Truly.
November 7th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Civ_In_The_City says:
Thieving names from a war memorial for the scrap value in the same week as a veteran is banned on ‘elf ‘n safety grounds from carrying the Union flag on a remembrance day parade because he`s ‘too old’.
Call it values, law of the land, whatever you like, but something is most definitely broken in this country. And, unfortunately, the police service is not only at the forefront of the type of thinking that has led us to this point, it`s proudly standing up and demonstrating the fact at every opportunity, blissfully unaware it`s a socio-political experiment engineered by NuLabour.
I`ll be wearing a poppy again this year, because it was young men and women who died for my right to live my life (and post on blogs) in the way I want. But I`m ashamed of the depths this country has fallen to.
November 8th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Michael Hill says:
Why not visit the scrap yards to find out where they are?
November 9th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Core blimey says:
I remember one year the collecting boxes were being stolen from shops, the local druggie was eventually caught, pissed as a rat and wearing a poppy. Mr Hill, what planet are you on. If only……….
November 11th, 2008 at 9:10 pm