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We will remember them
On 6 June 2021, the 77th anniversary of the D-Day Normandy landings, the new Normandy Memorial was opened at Ver sur Mer, overlooking Gold Beach. The names of the 22,442 servicemen and women under British command who died on 6 June 1944, and in the subsequent Battle of Normandy, are inscribed on 160 stone columns.…
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We’re the same as everyone else
In a recent interview with Irish radio host Brendan O’Connor, who has a daughter with Down’s syndrome, the geneticist Richard Dawkins said it is “wise and sensible” to abort babies who have either Down’s syndrome or are deaf or blind in order to “increase the amount of happiness in the world.” In 2014 Dawkins told…
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From Pitch to Pulpit
Gavin Peacock has just published his autobiography, “A Greater Glory: from Pitch to Pulpit.” Gavin’s father, Keith, played for Charlton and Gavin’s ambition was to be a professional footballer. When he was 16, he left school to play for Queens Park Rangers. Later he played for Newcastle United and Chelsea. During his career he made…
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Justice delayed is justice denied
The Court of Appeal has cleared 39 former sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses in what is the most widespread, known, miscarriage of justice in the UK. Between 2000 and 2014 the Post Office prosecuted 736 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses based on information from a new computer system called Horizon. Some went to prison following convictions for false accounting…
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Hope in the face of death
More than 3 million people from more than 200 countries have died from Covid-19. These people come from every strata of society and every age group. Most deaths have been of elderly people but that doesn’t diminish the significance their deaths. None of us can escape the reality of death for ourselves and also for…
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Remembering Prince Philip
We are remembering Prince Philip who lived a very long and active life. His early years were difficult when, following a coup d’état in 1922, the Greek royal family into which he was born was forced into exile. In 1930 his mother was hospitalised with a serious psychiatric illness. In 1939, at the age of…