A MATTER OF HONOUR

SHAMEFULLY there will be no monument on Remembrance Sunday to 96,000 Chinese labourers largely airbrushed from history, despite serving and dying alongside British troops in the First World War.

Upwards of 2,000 were killed yet disappointed campaigning East Ham MP Stephen Timms informs me a proposed memorial on London’s redeveloped Royal Albert Dock won’t be erected for the centenary of the bloodbath’s end. Treated appallingly and corralled behind barbed wire, the Chinese Labour Corps transported 10,000 miles to dig trenches, clear shells, bury casualties and support tanks in France are a reminder Great Britain didn’t win or fight alone.

Soldiers from what are now India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and Caribbean islands gave their lives too.

The Chinese dead must be marked. CAMPAIGN MP Stephen Timms CONSERVATIVES will hide under desks when School starts tomorrow. The BBC2 six-parter lays bare their party’s education austerity. Blocked sinks, broken windows, scrapped help, classrooms so cold pupils must wear coats and pay cuts for overstretched teachers are the grim realities behind Chancellor Philip Hammond’s “little extras” insult.

By the way, can you name the Education Secretary? Working in Parliament is the only reason I know. Invisible dunce Damian Hinds will receive low marks when parents discover who he is.