Let politicians fight for the oil

My old man used to visit food factories and he said if we knew the whole process, we wouldn’t eat anything ever again.

I went on an educational trip to the bacon factory once and have never eaten a black pudding since. Knowledge isn’t always a good thing. Our government doesn’t want us to have full knowledge of anything. They try to fool us by adding spoonfuls of sugar to everything as the Westminster factory churns out unpalatable garbage every day. Or as quoted they ‘sex it up’.

We get ‘lies, damn lies and statistics’ and they’re not always easy to digest. If we knew everything that is being done in our name, we would never sleep at night.

I know it’s not strictly true but it seems as though we are slowly moving the whole of our armed forces across the world to do the dirty work for other nations while they are moving every Tom Dick and Harry over here to live on welfare.

Not a fair swap in my book. Is it our government’s way to beat immigration?

I hear politicians’ voices in my head. ‘Why don’t we ship out thousands of youngsters to foreign lands and with a bit of luck some might decide to stay and bring our numbers down?

We make a big show of being a sharing, caring country who will feed and clothe everybody who comes to us but don’t want contribute.

Coincidentally the places where our citizens are shipped out to are usually full of sand and oil and who ever brought a bag of sand home?

Take the latest crusade, Libya, for example. Once again our leaders have decided to get involved. I say if they feel the urge to fight let them go and we’ll support them from our armchairs. It would make a great reality TV show.

I thought I saw on TV shops open for business and selling everything under the sun, even during the conflict. I Googled this piece. ‘Hard as it may be to believe, Britain's best known retailer has a branch in the war-torn country's capital, Tripoli. The UK embassy here is shut, the ambassador's residence has been destroyed, but the British stalwart of the high street, MARKS AND SPENCER, is still open’.

Full marks to them I say. I wonder if there’s a sale on. If they have a Tescos too then it’s problem solved. They want to take over the world. Now is the time. We are sending food and supplies. Why don’t they just do an interbranch stock transfer from ‘Marks’ over here to ‘Marks over there and via the Tesco Express?

I thought I heard we were sending fuel. It must have been a dream. We can’t afford to put petrol in our cars yet I read that Libyan oil reserves are the ninth biggest in the world. Can’t they swap us oil in exchange for more Tescos? I’m sure our independent shopkeepers would be pleased if they all moved over there. Now we are now ceasing repatriation of our service men and women at Wooten Bassett because of the closure of RAF Lyneham. Cost cutting is it?

Our youngsters have made the ultimate sacrifice so why can’t the tradition continue? Wooten Bassett has become known across the world for the respect it pays to the UK’s fallen servicemen and women as hundreds line the streets to honour their return home.

About 345 servicemen and women have been repatriated through RAF Lyneham and Wooten Bassett since the ceremonies first began in April 2007.

It started with a dozen men standing to attention by the war memorial because they had heard a serviceman's coffin was coming through has become an established tradition. Hundreds have regularly lined the streets of Wootton Bassett to mark the return of the fallen.

I believe, as the crow flies, it’s about 30 miles between RAF Brize Norton, the arrival airport, from RAF Lyneham. Why couldn’t they have continued with the tradition and drive through WB? Why has it been stopped? Not to save on a fuel bill, surely?

Our servicemen and women fought for the oil so they’re entitled to a couple of gallons to make the journey. Stick the cost on to an MP’s expense account.

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