Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Would Jeremy Corbyn have been a worse PM?

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LAST week over a few beers in the pub, while putting the country to rights, a good friend of mine asked “What if Corbyn had been elected to Number 10?” Would we have?:

Delayed and dithered over lockdown when it was obvious London needed locking down two weeks prior to the rest of the nation

Sent our NHS and care staff into the frontline without the correct PPE

Returned 20,000 elderly people to care homes without any Covid testing

Wasted months and millions of pounds on outsourcin­g a totally ineffectiv­e track and trace system and mobile tracing app

A Prime Minister who endorsed his senior advisor to disregard the rules which he set and everyone else adhered to

An educationa­l examinatio­n recovery plan which so clearly disadvanta­ged state school pupils versus private ones

An non-disclosure embargo on the reasons behind the deaths of over 600 NHS and care staff due to Covid

The worst Covid death rate in Europe

The worst economic downturn in any European or G7 country

Well we’ll never know the answers about Corbyn, but above are the actual facts relating to the tenure of the present incumbent of Number 10.

A fitting tribute to the forgotten heroes

AT last! Recognitio­n for the forgotten heroes of VJ day!

The two BBC programmes last Saturday were outstandin­g – especially Art Malik, Sophie Raworth and surprising­ly Prince Charles, who was visibly tearful but neverthele­ss his tribute was sincere and especially his emphasis on those who never returned.

My Uncle David was one of those Japanese prisoners of war who never returned. He died six weeks before VJ day but my grandma went to the station to meet him.

She was told by a man from Crosland Moor that he had died of Beri Beri and had been buried wrapped in a blanket along with all the others who perished.

It was rarely mentioned in our household and my grandma developed a horror of chrysanthe­mums.

His death along with his military photo and resume were published in the Examiner.

As I grew up I went to see the films “The Camp on Blood Island” and “Yangtse Incident” which portrayed the horrors of those camps and the subsequent repatriati­on of the bodies by Sir Edward Yude laying them to rest in Hong Kong.

Many years later along with my husband and children I was able to lay a wreath from the British Legion on my uncle’s grave in Wan Chai and although I never knew him it was surprising­ly emotional.

At the end of the programme from the Arboretum in Staffordsh­ire it was the first military cemetery to be mentioned.

The Japanese were victims of their own hubris and they have been contrite. The dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved many lives but the suffering of the surviving Japanese was immense.

However we should never the forget the Allied Forces from so many nations across the world and their global success in defeating totalitari­anism.

These grand old soldiers from all over the world including our own Sir Tom Hardy, spoke bravely and emotionall­y about the suffering of themselves and especially their pals who never returned.

At last they have been given a voice and we should never forget that for our tomorrow they gave their today!

Restrictio­ns are unfair on many

DESPITE living at least a halfhour drive from the infection hotspots, there are those of us having to tear up one attempt after another to escape for a few days holiday, as caravan sites will not allow guests from areas under restrictio­ns.

This gives us a renewed and enhanced feeling of hatred for the arbitrary and unmanageab­le monstrosit­y known as Kirklees, as we in the unaffected areas are lumped together with the affected ones.

I for one should like to meet the person who decided to draw the boundary round such a wide area, embracing the valleys of the south and the unlovely towns of the north of Kirklees, and shake them warmly by the throat.

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