Cameron’s crony gongs insult my grandad’s heroism
THE proudest day of my grandfather’s life was when he went to collect his MBE.
Charles Francis Edward Platell (Warrant Officer Class 1) attended the ceremony on January 1, 1955, with his wife Gladys, and their oldest child (who became my dad).
The award was for military services in North Africa during World War II and the ten years after its end. Immensely proud, he went to the ceremony wearing the Africa Star (right, a medal with ribbons made in colours to represent the sand of the desert and the Navy, Army and RAAF) which he’d been previously given for wartime duties in Egypt.
In subsequent years, my father recalled: ‘He was quite overcome — and so very honoured to be recognised for his service.’ After Grandad died, his MBE certificate was placed in a frame and hung on the living room wall of our home in Australia.
Dad would often retell his father’s story of courage and modesty. The son of a railway worker, ‘Pop’ (as we always called him) had been orphaned at ten and raised in a tough boys’ home. He then got a job as a farm labourer.
After marrying and having five children, he signed up at 37 to fight in World War II.
My dad was 14 and remembers the night Pop sat the family down and explained why he’d volunteered to fight in a war in a country thousands of miles from home even though he didn’t need to because he was over the age-limit of 35. He said: ‘If I’m not prepared to fight for my family and my country, how can I expect anyone else to?’
When I was little, Dad would often point to Pop’s MBE citation on the wall and read out the section that said: ‘We appoint you to be an ordinary member of the military division of our most excellent order of the British Empire.’
Dad told me and my brothers: ‘You see — even ordinary people like us can do great things.’ We felt inspired and privileged to be part of Pop’s family.
That is why I feel so insulted by David Cameron’s crony-filled resignation honours list. It is such a betrayal of the values of ‘ordinary’ people like my grandad who were, and who still are, the backbone of this country and other Commonwealth nations.
Once again, Cameron revealed his true nature. He displays a brazen contempt for public opinion by showering gongs on chums, cronies and second-raters.
How appalling that a man of privilege (son of a stockbroker, an Old Etonian, Oxford graduate and wedded to a woman whose father is worth £20million) is happy to perpetuate privilege by dishing out honours to such a motley crew.
How on earth does someone most famous for fussing over George Osborne’s choice of hairstyle merit an honour higher than those given to brave soldiers who fought to save their country?