2442 Air Cadets Squadron - the proud Legacy of 'The Few'

Is the blurring anything to do with the toasts with port? Who can say...

When I was very young, I often thought about going into the military. My granddad was a colonel in the Middlesex Regiment and my mum had been brought up in a military family - staying at boarding school, going back to various different homes, Cyprus, Germany, as her mum and dad were posted around the world.

I still have a copy of a photo, signed by Montgomery, of my granddad receiving the Military Cross for bravery, from him; so in some ways, the values of military service were still around in my family as I was growing up even though my grandfather died when I was six. 

However, I never did go into the Services, but now the British Military Tournament has been resurrected I take my family every year, and my admiration for our armed forces is tremendous.

Cadets drill in the co-op carpark...

I may not have received a medal for outstanding bravery over the weekend - but I was still very proud to receive my certificate for being made Honorary President of Westbury-Trym's superb 2442 Air  Cadets Squadron  at their Annual Dinner in Westbury Village Hall. The Cadets did themselves proud, especially with some beautiful readings and poems.

My grandfather, Colonel Rex Waller, receiving a medal for bravery from Field Marshall Montgomery

Whenever I see the Cadets in action I am impressed by their discipline and maturity. The cadets may hail from all sorts of different backgrounds, but they are all absolutely united in their identity as cadets. I sometimes feel very old as I look on the discipline, and ethos of duty and service that these young men and women encompass, and am conscious of being grateful that our next generation hold such values so proudly. I hope that values like duty, service, and bravery will not be seen as 'old fashioned values' - but values of today, alive and vibrant in young people like our superb 2442 Squadron Air Cadets.

Hot Weekend with a Chilli Challenge!

Trepidation and milk at The Mouse Pub's infamous chilli challenge

So it seems  I've accepted the challenge from BBC Radio Bristol's Steve LeFevre to join the 'Million Scoville Club', for (ominously) Friday 13th next week, Live, On Air. [LINK TO RADIO: at 2h 40]

For those sensible enough not to spend their time testing their taste-buds and sanity with chillies with the word 'scorpion' in their name, the Scoville is the measure of hotness of a chilli. As we found out  from expert Nick ( also known as Dr. Burnorium, of the Hotsauce Emporium) on Radio Bristol this morning, Tabasco sauce is around 5,000 Scovilles, which gives you an idea of how hot a Million Scoville beastie is.

Last year, I was unwise enough to compete in The Mouse Pub's annual Chilli Eating Contest. Silly me, I thought it might have been nice bowels of chilli-con-carne, but no. It was raw chillis. We were handed nice raw chillis, getting increasingly hotter and hotter, to eat whole. No drink , water or beer, allowed - just big cartons of milk in the middle of the table. When you grabbed in anguish for the milk to sooth the inferno in your mouth and stomach, that is you out.

Suddenly the fun was wearing thin

I was quite proud to come joint fourth, with the only other lady taking part ( out of 19 I think), jointly bowing out just before a Habenaro (Orange, I think), in fear of the Scotch Bonnet...

My recollections of the evening are a bit hazy as the chilli has an extraordinary effect - all the contestents got increasingly jittery and hyper, and , yes, 'high'. And my memory isn't that clear...

What I do remember is a night of exceptional pain as the inevitabilities of digestion took their course, and swearing I would never do anything so stupid ever again.

But somehow, the good people at Radio Bristol have turned all that around. Steve LeFevre is himself a member of the 'Million Scoville Club' and it just seemed wrong to let that go without attempting to join him. All this was to celebrate Bristol's Chilli Festival this weekend.

Mad, maybe. But some say the chilli has real health benefits and, scientific or not, last year's chilli extravaganza certainly saw off a rather stubborn chest-infectiony-thing that I'd had hanging around too long...       But, political pundits, stand-by. Come next Friday's 'Million Scoville' test with Steve LeFevre, it might be by-election time...

A Right Royal Weekend!

The world's gaze may have been turned on Pippa Middleton's bottom, but had the cameras pointed to Bristol, they would have found parties and in particular a local lady in a wedding dress to rival the best!

Southmead residents, including Ronda Brace (looking magnificent in a wedding dress!) threw a fantastic party on the old Dunmail School site, demonstrating once again what a valued community asset this piece of green space is.

Southmead's very own D-Streets Dance crew came along and entertained us with some great performances.


Then I went on into Westbury which had more than its share of street parties. What was so striking was that so many people, of all ages, were enjoying celebration-quantities of food (some superb cupcakes were to be had) and drink, but not once did I see any group of people who were doing anything but having a lovely time.

It was extraordinary to see the Nation unite in a sense of such unashamed patriotism. For the Royal Wedding it was as if the whole nation felt it had been given permission to really be itself -unashamedly proud to be truly Great Britain.

Elmlea's Fair Field...

This year, the annual Elmlea School Fair had an added significance. If the Council go ahead with possible plans, it could be the last ever Elmlea Fair to be held on the existing playing field.

The Infant school is in real need of rebuilding and improvement and the Council are looking at rebuilding it on the existing playing field, and using the infant school site as the new playing field.

Anyone who knows the site will know that there will, in effect, be a significant loss of playing field land ( I'm sure some clever people are able to re-categorise things to show that there is no loss of land whatsoever, but back here in Real World, it is fairly obvious that there would be a very significant loss of playing field site.)

Let's just hope the Council see sense, think long term, and preserve this wonderful playing field for the future of the children currently at infant school, and for generations of children, and Elmlea Fairs, to come.

We will remember them

At 10.30am, it started to pour down. But the stalwart crowds who were assembled to pay their respects to the fallen brave, and our forces fighting today were not to be put off by a bit of rain.
As we laid our wreaths and sang hymns, and finished with the national anthem, I doubt there were many of us there who were not thinking of the enormous sacrifices our armed forces are taking at this very moment. Our thoughts today go out to all those who have served and fallen in the past, and all those serving in our armed forces today, and their families. Today is a special day of remembrance, but every day is a day to be acutely mindful of the magnitude of the risks being taken, and the sacrifices being made by our armed forces.

The Royal British Legion Club - about Remembrance and more

I was at the Westbury on Trym Royal British Legion Club's AGM last night ( This isn't it. This is me pulling the world's frothiest pint behind the bar. I blame the fact I was worrying about my camera, but my old employees at The Fox pub in Easter Compton will testify what a rubbish barmaid I was. I was mortified to find little had changed.)

I've been to a lot of AGMs in my time, but what was particularly poignant about this one was that after AOB, the last agenda item was 'Homage'. The chairman cited those words which always bring a lump to my throat

"When you go home, tell them of us and say
For your tomorrow, we gave our today"

and finally

" They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them. "

and we had a silence while we remembered the real significance of The Royal British Legion.

The Westbury Royal Legion Club is a remarkable place. It is run completely by volunteers, which is, as I discovered, why the beer is cheaper than usual. Previously, only servicemen and ex-servicemen could be members, but now it is open to anyone ready to join the club. I can't recommend it highly enough - not only because of the great facilities and good company, but because it is a very good and appropriate way to Remember.

Keeping it Local

On Saturday, the village of Westbury-on-Trym united in promoting shopping locally. There were all sorts of special deals on offer for those who chose to do their Christmas shopping in Westbury, instead of joining the traffic queues and crowds of shoppers at the Mall or Cabot Circus.

St.Peter's Hospice shop was giving away sustainable shopping bags with every purchase above £5, there was a prize draw in Cafe Interlude and the community worked together to promote its local stores.

As the credit crunch hits, it is not only high profile and much-loved chains like Woolworths that are casualties - small, family run businesses that make our high streets personal and interesting will be struggling as well. To put it simply, we've got to use 'em or lose 'em.

And on a day when traffic was gridlocked to the Mall and friends tell me the place was swarming to the point of paralysis, I was very glad to be supporting my local shops, with space to breath!

Harmony at Christmas

If I can get the technology right, you'll soon have the chance to hear this lot sing.

These are the ladies' Barbershop choir, and they put on a superb Christmas fayre in Westbury-on-Trym on Saturday.

But it was their singing that impressed me most- and the fact that the singers spanned so many generations.

It's Christmas, so I am allowed to be a bit clichéd - but wouldn't it be great if this kind of harmony could exist across the generations more often?
Now bear with me, while my computer labours to upload a shaky video...

Remembrance Sunday - a poppy is only the beginning

In the cold drizzle at the war memorial in Westbury on Trym, I laid a wreath this morning.

I think Remembrance Sunday is one of the most sobering and significant days of the year. My granddad fought in the second world war and was awarded the Military Cross for bravery. Unthinkable numbers like him died in performing extraordinary acts of bravery and sacrifice.

Sometimes I worry that the easy wearing of a poppy (costs around a pound or so, depending on how generous you feel) can become a substitute for thinking hard about what it, and the day, actually signifies.

It signifies remembrance for those who gave their lives so we can enjoy the life we live today. It signifies recognition of a generation who lived and fought in their own various ways through two bloody world wars not so very long ago. And it signifies remembrance and respect for our armed forces fighting today, and those lost in recent conflicts.

But as we nationally stand round our war memorials, wearing poppies and listening to Elgar's Nimrod or the the last post , our armed forces are struggling in Iraq and Afghanistan with out-of-date equipment, inadequate investment and insufficiently protected vehicles.

At home, pensioners, some of whom lived and fought through the second world war, are living on the breadline or below, with their pension funds robbed by Gordon Brown, and now struggling with interest rate cuts and fuel heating bills. Old people who survived the blitz will be struggling to live through the credit crunch.

Equipping our armed forces for the conflict to which the Government has committed them and supporting our elderly and giving them the recognition they deserve for seeing this country through its darkest hours are the true emblems of remembrance for our war dead.

If we are not prepared to protect our armed forces by providing them with proper equipment, and if we are not prepared to protect and look after our elderly and veterans today - by providing residential wardens where they are needed, and ensuring that 'independence' does not simply mean 'on your own', - wearing a poppy is little more than simply sticking a red bit of card on the lapel.

Bristol comes to Birmingham for Conservative Conference!

Our very own sub-postmaster from Westbury-on-Trym post office was invited up to Birmingham to the Conservative Party Conference this week to talk about how the role Post Offices and particularly the Post Office Card Account plays for so many people. Having campaigned so hard on this issue locally, I was very pleased to hear it raised nationally.

But it was a bit of a Bristol conference, because only days later, Dennis Stinchcombe MBE, - who's in the photo with me outside Birmingham International Conference Centre here - was invited to talk address the conference on the issue of crime and anti-social behaviour - and preventing it.

I have blogged elsewhere about Dennis' brilliant work at Broadplain Boys Club and Riverside Project. The great thing about Dennis is that he tells it like it is. He gave a great talk, and all politicians would do very well to listen to what he has to say, because Dennis doesn't talk theory - he talks about what works. And as with most successful projects, there's less talking than doing. That's a lesson to us all.

Safer Routes for Schools for...

Read about the Conservatives' campaign for Safer Routes for Schools in the Evening Post by clicking here!

When was the closest you came to getting run-over? Most people have had at least one near miss- the moment when your mind has been wandering and a vehicle whisks past your nose, or knocks the back of your bag. Then you can't help but think of the terrible sequence of ifs. IF you had been one inch more off the curb. IF the vehicle had come a second earlier... The last time that happened to me was when I was on my way to Westbury-On-Trym School's 'Red Squirrel Day'. Anyone who has been to Westbury-on-Trym Church of England School knows that you are taking your life in your hands if you go at drop-off or pick-up time. But amazingly, earlier in the year, the Council retracted on its promise to give the school funding for the 'Safer Routes to School' programme. The reasons why beggar belief:

More than 2,000 children died on British roads last year, while around 100 children in Bristol were injured or killed on the roads in the same period. What were the Council waiting for?!

1. That the school had been so successful in encouraging parents not to take their cars to the school gates that it was no longer necessary. ( you only have to go there at pick up time to see that's not quite true! said the Head to me)

2. That it was too expensive. Despite the fact the school had requested cheaper measures than the Council originally insisted on being put in place before they retracted the offer.

3. That it was not necessary because no children had yet been injured! More than 2,000 children died on British roads last year, while around 100 children in Bristol were injured or killed on the roads in the same period. What were the Council waiting for?!

You may have heard my interview on Original FM, supporting Conservative Councillor Geoff Gollop's petition to the Council meeting on 24th July. The petition received huge support and I am pleased that the Council took Geoff's petition seriously and is referring the matter for further investigation.

The School had originally requested quite modest traffic calming measures to put in place, but the Council had instead insisted on a more expensive version, which it later said would break the bank. Hopefully now they will at least let the school have the modest traffic calming measures it said it originally wanted. Before a near miss becomes a tragedy.