Old Soldiers Never Die

They just fade away, which is presumably why the government feels that it can ignore with impunity the needs of those who pay the price for having taken The Queen's shilling. No one can doubt that were the Guardian reading classes disposed to consider the welfare of serving and former members of the armed forces with the concern they feel for criminals, illegal immigrants and the growing battalions of illiterate, ill-mannered, anti-social trash the country might not be in quite the state it is.

It is not necessary to be a 'jingoistic blimp' to express concern or anger at the disgraceful neglect of those who, for whatever reason, have served our country and it is right and proper, once a year, to wear a poppy and recall the lines:

They grow not old, as we who are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn,
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,
We will remember them.

but it is necessary to remember, every single day, that those who were, and are, left do grow old, often with injuries, scars and needs that we who enjoy the freedom they have guaranteed do not suffer and cannot really imagine. The Cenotaph and the Tomb of The Unknown Warrior are fitting memorials to the fallen but the living need and deserve a good deal more than The Abandoned Soldier.