OK ile come back ,but only if i can drool over your motorbike at the doo

not that ime a sad old biker or nuffin i just drool a lot ,

and its the bike or the buffet table

so probbably better the bike gets it

nice to be back amongst friends

Village Musings – about friends and a lunch!                                         

It is Thursday 5^th May and I am sitting in the garden of The White Lion at Ufford with a couple of friends having a light lunch. The
weather, mercifully, has come off the top temperatures of late but is still
quite warm and it is bright hazy sunshine but with a light easting breeze which
anyone around here knows is ‘cooling’.

The White Lion is externally a pretty unprepossessing place being mainly red brick which visually could have been built anytime within the previous 200 years up till
maybe the 1930’s, however internally it is a revelation in fact it is a real
old pub and thankfully without the type of ‘horse brass’ additions that plague
so many. The old brick is worn as is the somewhat uneven floor and where many
pubs would have a bar it has a proper old counter and with good food and beer
to boot, yes this is definitely my type of pub.

Here they are enterprising, the village store closed recently and one of the external
buildings is going to become the new (old) village store, as Suffolk villages
go Ufford is not exactly down at heel so I am pretty sure they will make it pay.

Roger comments that last time he was here the grass car park was full of classic
cars, which he would appreciate as he is the owner of a much loved and often
being ‘serviced’ 1954 Riley RME. Personally I love cars, but only when they are
working – I don’t work on them and the closest I would get to servicing one
would be maybe to check the oil or tyre air pressures thus I am very happy with
my 8 year old Skoda Diesel which I bought for just a few pounds at the end of
last year and in which I have been to France, Cornwall and most weekends sees
me on a 300 mile round trip somewhere and it is cheap(ish) motoring at 60mpg.
However I am into old push bikes, an interest that Roger and I share, and I
have just bought a mid-50’s Raleigh sit up and beg bike with a 3 speed Sturmey
Archer hub gear and Roger and I are planning next time to cycle out to
Westleton and have lunch at The Crown, we will look a pair of eccentric old
farts but at this age who cares.

Suffolk is an interesting county, I love it here and once you get north of Ipswich it is,
to the east of the A14 very rural with a scattering of chocolate box villages
but also a lot of communities that aren’t. It is the type of place where people
with money or a history can lose themselves, it is quiet, there are probably
more pigs than there are people and certainly in places more flies.

I am soaking up the lunch, not really paying too much attention to the actual conversation, just feeling that it is good to be here today sharing this place, this time and feeling frankly, well, fortunate. It always seems to me ironical that there are
great tragedies unfolding in one place and yet in another the world just goes
on as if nothing is happening – it always reminds me of the grazing herds in
Africa continuing to graze as if nothing has happened when one of them has just
been felled by a lion close by.

Through the fog two words penetrate – Rudolph Hess – then some other words, Churchill, Hamilton, Royal Family, leading members of the House of Lords and Commons, Eastern Front, Russia, British Empire and so it goes on and I am now trying to catch up with a conversation that I had sort of floated away from, before it
went down this track, on some revere of my own.

I am not a conspiracy theory person but the person from whom these words emanate is in his 80’s and his career, if that is what you can call it, has placed him in a
position to know many things that frankly I am glad he knows and I don’t.

Prior to this my understanding of Hess was as per the linked article.

I glean from the conversation that Hess flew here with specific proposals from Hitler for a general and honourable peace under which we would retain our empire and other overseas interests, Hitler had no wish for war with this country which he
considered a brother Nordic country and it was for that reason he had refused
to have German troops cross the channel and follow up on Dunkirk in the hope
that an accommodation could be reached between the two countries. Hitler’s
interest was Europe and particularly defeating communism and he wanted a free
hand. We would retain full independence with our monarchy and institutions
intact; the only proviso was that Churchill would have to go.

Since the WW2 we have a devotion to Churchill hardwired into our psyche and that almost prevents more rational analysis. We also have it that Chamberlain was ‘an
appeaser’ yet he had little choice, we had no weapons having virtually
disarmed after WW1 and certainly no taste for another conflict but by his
actions Chamberlain bought us a little extra time to start re-arming, this he
knew and yet he is given precious little credit and has been almost demonised
over the years. Yet we overlook or ignore Churchill’s actions regarding the
Liverpool Miners, The Dardanelles campaign and the offer to defend Poland when
we had neither the means nor the ability to do so and by our actions consign
that country to Soviet rule, proving that if nothing else we had no real interest in defending Poland and that maybe the war was for different reasons entirely.

I have obviously lived my life in a bubble because I find this point of view, well,
challenging to say the least.

Churchill refused the peace offer as did the Royal Family, maybe both on
self-preservation grounds, who knows. Certainly Churchill would have been at
risk and probably George 6^th would’ve been replaced by his older brother. Many leading politicians in both parties and in both houses plus much of the nobility were in favour.

Some of the papers have been released but the really interesting one’s sit in a vault in Windsor Castle currently due for release in 2017 but probably some will never be
released.

Of the two people Hess apparently came here to see, the 14^th Duke of Hamilton
who was also a Privy Councillor subsequently got closer to the centres of power
(Churchill) and the George 6^th younger brother the Duke of Kent who was a bit of a
loose cannon died in a plane crash in August 1942 possibly with Rudolph Hess on
board, don’t ask me how or anything about who took his place and why or
anything like that because at that point the conspiracy theory gets airborne.

Anyway we had a very pleasant lunch and I later looked up on the Internet to see what there was and yes there is loads of it.

I wasn’t going to post anything about all of this, but blow me, I get a phone call from
a friend last night to ask if I had seen the piece on The One Show about Rudolph Hess which I hadn’t, but have now watched it on BBC IPlayer, and what did I think !!!!!

Over to you….

Incidentally it is 70 years ago today that Hess arrived.

Meanwhile I am looking forward to another lunch date…….but I think I will fasten my seat belt next time and pay more attention…

My goodness Chris, you have been busy!  And as if we could forget you……silly boy!

Oh, and you clearly can control some things about your mouth……you've stopped filling it with disgusting smoke!! (says another holier than thou ex-smoker ).  Well done you.  And the wine too….my word, you are virtuous nowadays….do you have any vices left? (perhaps I'd better not ask ).

I did wonder why there were so many Saxmundham posts on Facebook…….  Good for you, Chris, making a stand against the high and mighty Tesco, keep up the good work .

Oh, and never mind us forgetting you…..don't forget about us!!!!!