WOOTTON BASSETT

Have just been watching the BBC evening news and another lot of hearses passing through the small town of Wootton Bassett which I used to pass through quite often when I lived not very far away and visited Swindon in the 1970s/1980s. Our soldiers who have been killed in Afghanistan have for the last few years been brought to RAF Lyneham (before that it was Brize Norton) and Wootton Bassett is the first town on the hearses the route. The good, decent, and ordinary people of Wootton Bassett had a tradition of quietly lining the route and silently paying their respects to the fallen. It seems to have started in a very informal way almost by accident and gradually grew as shopkeepers closed for a few minutes whilst the cortége passed. A very humbling and moving experience. Until that despicable organisation the BBC got hold of it and started to publicise it. So the event is getting the "I want to be on TV" treatment. Clearly many of todays crowds have no connections with Wootton Bassett or even Wiltshire. They are there to be on TV. Today some of them even clapped. Clapping at a funeral. What is this nation coming to? Thanks to the BBC and its mission to entertain rather than inform Wootton Bassett is now a on its way to becoming a funfair. I did read a press article just a few days ago which led me to believe that many townspeople would prefer the old informal quiet showing of respect to our fallen troops rather than publicity induced razzamatazz. A townsman pointed out that it has been suggested that "High Street" should be renamed "Highway of Heroes". The suggestion came from a person living over 300 miles away. Unfortunately my belief is that the decent people of Wootton Bassett (and England) are going to be submerged by a mass of people who want to turn a once dignified demonstration of respect for the dead into a funfair.