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New Blackmore Vale, 24 June 2022
blackmorevale.net
Letters
Memories of Wellington the goat I was sad to read in The New Blackmore Vale edition 45 that Bruton School for Girls is to close. I wonder if any ‘old girls’, now in their 60s, remember the head gardener keeping goats? I bought a kid from him in about 1970 to help me tame a wild patch overgrown with brambles and tall grasses, beside my 300-year old cottage in Higher Chillington. Wellington, as he was christened, had a huge crate – used to deliver aircraft engines – as his house, and I divided the field with glider towing wire, to which he was clipped. In about two months, he had reduced the area, of about two tennis courts, to a pleasant meadow. He would accompany us on dog walks, never straying more than five metres from us. He loved to head-butt a football back to us and he was also very fond of the mint with a hole in it. Vernon Phillips Mere
I brought my scattered family to the Friday afternoon Platinum Jubilee Wincanton Town Festival. A great event which adults and children thoroughly enjoyed. My grateful thanks to all involved with its organisation. The Town and Black Dog Blues Band combined to deliver that special ‘70 years celebration’ spectacular. As the leader announced the last song of their set was from ZZ Top: The first thrash of guitar. A brilliant flash of lightning across the sky. Immediate deafening clap of thunder. “Somebody likes it then!” he quipped, and they rocked on. Her Majesty would surely have been delighted witnessing Somerset’s version of rock band pyrotechnics. Pity she was otherwise engaged. Alan Webber Pen Selwood Vladimir Putin has a habit of misunderstanding history. I noticed he had a portrait of Peter the Great hung in his office. The Russian president is
his country’s citizens, who should be asking themselves why does everyone else bordering them talk about enjoying life and having improved living standards. The Kremlin-run media peddles propaganda, war and destruction constantly which is of no value to ordinary people. And as a direct result, the Russian public doesn’t know that it has lost thousands of young soldiers and further thousands are left with life-changing injuries. I wouldn’t want to be in Putin’s shoes when they find out. Mike Fry via email
Cartoon by Lyndon Wall justsocaricatures.co.uk
obsessed with the past and the shaping of his nation’s narrative. He boasts of his admiration for the ruler credited with launching Moscow’s expansionist empire during a remarkable 42-year reign 350 years ago. Both share the characteristics of being capable of great cruelty and being chillingly ruthless in pursuit of their goals. So, what an irony that Putin’s botched invasion of Ukraine has sabotaged the legacy of Putin’s hero. Far from demonstrating Russia’s strength and status as a great power, the Kremlin’s failure to seize Kyiv and impose a puppet regime has only underscored weakness and diminished its global standing. Peter was driven by fervent desire to engage with Europe, modernise his nation and attempted to eliminate corruption. In contrast, Putin has turned Russia into a pariah state and done little to develop the country while funnelling vast resources into the
pockets of wealthy billionaire cronies to the detriment of his citizens. Peter was also a great military leader and some of his tactics are used in today’s modern warfare. An oft-repeated military adage is that amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics, by concentrating a significant proportion of their war effort on destroying and interrupting the capacity to move equipment and supplies. In contrast, Putin has displayed military incompetence and logistical ineptitude which must have Peter the Great turning in his grave. Now the floundering president, who has been defeated in battles for Kyiv and Kharkiv by a nation whose existence he denies, has turned his four-to-one advantage in army size, on taking the Donbas region. The big dog may have a big bite but the little dog is all bite. Putin deserves to be crushed for the sake of his continent and
It has been my great pleasure to represent Bruton, Wincanton, Pen Selwood, Charlton Musgrove, Bayford and Stoke Trister, Pitcombe Shepton Montague, Brewham and Cucklington, and all of you as a parish, district and county councillor for over 20 years. I wanted to thank you all so much for your support and friendship. My new task is trying to help the trustees and volunteers at Bruton Library to raise funds to bring the facility up to today’s standards. I hope many of you will feel it is really important to keep and support this wonderful building and service in our community. Anna Groskop Bruton In defence of David Warburton MP, David Norris asks ‘was the article in the Sunday Times true?’, to which the obvious response is: if it wasn’t true, why doesn’t Mr Warburton sue the newspaper for libel? Steve Veness via email Simon Hoare is chairman of the Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee. He is an arch Remainer who, I believe, represents a strong pro-Brexit constituency. Before and since the vote on leaving, he has frustrated every move to implement the democratic wish of the electorate. This included blocking a ‘no deal’ exit. Unfortunately, it would
