It’s our patriotic duty to show united front

WHAT a wonderful display and example of patriotism is being displayed by the Ukrainians for their country in these troubled times.

Most countries in the world are also being damaged economically by Putin’s aggression including allegedly ‘rich’ countries such as our own. Britain’s public purse has been depleted drastically by the pandemic and now even more so by spending billions on helping Ukraine in defence measures for its very survival.

If Putin wins, perish the thought, he won’t just stop at Ukraine and the whole of western civilisation will have its back to the wall. So we all have a patriotic duty to show a united front against such aggression and back this country to the hilt to put our country in a formidable economic position to defend our values, as I’m sure the vast majority of the British population are in favour. It’s called ‘patriotism’. To me, this patriotism seems to be lacking in certain quarters on a grand scale. The leaders of the rail unions can’t wait to bring the railways to a complete standstill over pay, despite the fact that many on the railways, like the tube drivers, are already at the top of the manual workers’ pay scale.

Then we have the Civil Service unions continuing to discourage their members from returning to their Whitehall offices to enable the country to work more efficiently, despite the fact they are still claiming London Weighting Allowances under false pretences. And the Whitehall unions and the Civil Service in general tend to be ‘allegedly’ left leaning, despite having pay, perks pensions and conditions second to none.

Billions of taxpayers’ money has been pumped into the railways, the same taxpayers who pay the salaries of the Civil Service.

The unions convince themselves they are damaging the Government, but the only people they are really damaging are the ordinary people of this country, many of whom are struggling to keep their heads above water, paying the bloated wages of these ‘nose in the trough money grabbers’.

I agree that unions are there to fight for the rights of their members, but at this point in history now is not the time in our country’s hour of need to put the boot into those ‘Jams’, who are Just About Managing.

Now that would be a patriotic thing to do and follow the example of the Ukrainians.

Edward Kynaston Lydney, Gloucestershire