HOLIDAYS
This subject deserves a chapter of its own as the holidays we had from the late sixties on have a very special place in my memory.
Whilst we had the shop in Shudehill it was not easy to take time off as we needed to employ someone to run the shop whilst we were away. The economics were such that we could not afford to pay for that help so the only solution was to use a member of the family. As in most small businesses, the family was very important and fortunately, our elder daughter, Linda, was able to help.
I loved the idea of holidays away from the madding crowd, my love of the countryside stemmed from my days walking the hills and dales of the Peak District, so when a customer suggested that we borrow his touring caravan for a week in order to get a break, we accepted his offer. I had a tow-bar fitted to my car, made arrangements with Linda and having discussed with Clare where to go on this, our first venture with a caravan, we set off for the Cornish coast. Towing a caravan is not something one should do without first having some instructions. But we were so keen to get away that off we went knowing nothing about the do's and don'ts of towing. All went well until we drove onto the motorway and the first big, articulated lorry overtook me. The effect of a huge wagon passing a caravan is that a vacuum is caused between the two vehicles, the caravan and the wagon. The suction causes the smaller caravan to start to swing. The affect in the car is quite frightening when you first experience it. As we felt the effect on the back of the car Clare got quite a scare and automatically her hand went to the steering-wheel, not realising what she was doing. I re-acted by knocking her hand away and re-gaining control of the car. Fortunately, by this time the wagon had passed and the car and caravan straightened up. After that I kept a keen eye open for any more wagons and slowed down as each one passed. Unknowingly, I had found the answer to the problem. Slow down as the wagon comes alongside and slowly increase speed so that the pressure between the two vehicles is reduced and the suction on the side of the caravan is less so the caravan does not start to swing. From then on we had a good run down to Cornwall and spent a very enjoyable week.
After that first experience of holiday in a caravan we were hooked and we decided to buy one.
The first 'van we bought was a four berth ELDDIS, a lovely 'van but Clare was not satisfied with it as she wanted to be able to take Linda, Clive and the two children with us so that they would get a holiday as well. Always in her mind was the fact that Linda and Clive could not afford to take the children away, so if we got a bigger 'van they could use it as well. So off we went to trade in the ELDDIS for a bigger caravan. This time we saw a 'van that was ideal, a SPRITE MAJOR with six berths. The car I had at the time was a Hillman saloon and as the Sprite was of a very light construction we could tow it quite easily.
Holidays for the next ten years were absolutely great. We toured all over the country, Wales, Scotland, Cornwall, the Lake District. We would often take the two children away leaving Linda and Clive to run the shop, then they would join us for a week-end and we left them in the 'van and we came back to open the shop. So we all got good use of the 'van. It was certainly a good buy. We eventually had all kinds of extras added like an electric water pump, a portable TV, and an awning fitted to the outside so that we could take extra guests. On one occasion we had nine people sleeping in the 'van and awning, six inside and three outside.
The two children, Julie and Beverly, had wonderful holidays. I would get them up early and we went off looking for mushrooms for breakfast, they helped in so many ways, fetching water in the water barrel, emptying the waste and generally having a great time.
Whenever we pulled onto a new camp-site the two of them would go off to inspect the shower block and toilets, back they came and if they said OK Nanna!!! we stayed. If they thought Nanna would not like the toilets then we moved on. One particular journey always remains with me. I had changed my car and the "new" one was a Princess Van Den Plas 3litre. It had a tow bar fitted and the 7 pin plug for the electrics was supposed to be OK. I picked up the car the day before we were due to go to Scotland taking the two children with us. I had been assured by the dealer that all I needed to do was hitch up the caravan and off we go. Unfortunately, the electrics did not work. By the time we got it sorted time was getting on with the children getting edgy. Off we went with the caravan on the back. I had never towed the 'van with such a big car. Towing with a 3 litre engine was so easy that I did not realise that I was exceeding the then speed limit for towing which was 40mph. We had been on the M62 a very short time when a police car signalled me to pull over. "Do you know what speed you were doing?", "No officer, I've only just taken possession of this car and did not realise what speed it would do with the caravan on the back." "Well I'm booking you for breaking the speed limit for towing a caravan."
Off we went and from then on the two little ones in the back watched the speed I was doing and every now and then from the back would come "Granpa, you're going too fast."
Well, what with starting out late and then being stopped by the police, we realised that we would not get to Scotland before dark so we drove onto a motorway service station and decided to find a camp-site nearby to stay the night. Having parked I asked Clare to give me the camping book that we kept in the glove compartment so that we could find a site for the night. Having sorted out a site, I switched the starter switch and nothing happened except the horn sounded. Tried again, same thing. Up with the bonnet to see if I could trace the problem, no joy. Another motorist parked nearby came over to offer assistance, "Disconnect the horn, you don't need it at night." So, horn is disconnected, engine still will not start.
We decide to stay the night on the service station and Clare says, "Go and see if there is a mechanic in the garage." Sure enough, I find a mechanic who comes over to see if he can help. After he looks at the engine he gets into the car and starts the engine. Great!!! "What did you do?", he then explains that there is a hidden switch in the glove compartment which cuts off the ignition and sounds the horn, in other words, 'a burglar alarm'. What had happened was that when Clare took the camp-site book out of the glove compartment she switched on the burglar alarm.
So, we stayed the night on the Service Station car park and the following morning we got off to an early start and made our way to a camp-site on the southern coast of the Solway Firth, a place called Silloth. We had picked this site out of the book as it seemed to offer the sort of facilities that would suit us but on arrival we realised it was not for us. A bingo-hall, loud music, it certainly was not the sort of place we would enjoy. So we headed further north and found a site on the northern coast of the Solway. A little fishing village, Palnackie. An ideal spot, a few miles from Castle Douglas.
After the first week, Linda and Clive arrived and Clare and I left for home, leaving the children to have a further week.
And that was the pattern of our holidays in the caravan.
I had for many years hoped that one day I would go to the Soviet Union. The first country that attempted to build a Socialist State.
As mentioned earlier, we had by now sold the shop, I was working at Radcliffe Paper Mill and Clare was working at Hall's Toffee Works.
My two brothers, Leon and Conrad, had been members of the British-Soviet Friendship Society for a long time. Con in fact was chairman of the society for many years and was deeply involved in the work of building friendship links between Britain and the Soviet Union. One way to do this was to bring about a twinning agreement between Manchester and Leningrad, which Con, along with the members of the committee were able to do and to this day that link is still in place. Another method was the organising of visits to the Soviet Union by members of the society who would enjoy the hospitality offered by their opposite numbers in the International Friendship Society in the USSR. In alternate years, members of the Soviet Society would visit Britain.
The BSFS was organising a visit to the Soviet Union in 1980. The trip was to last two weeks and would visit Leningrad and Moscow with a visit to either Sochi on the Black Sea Coast, Odessa, Tallin the capital of Estonia, or a city in Siberia.
The cost was in the region of £250 each.
When I heard that there were a few places left, I discussed it with Clare. She had retired from Hall's in January on her 60th birthday, after five years of hard work, during which time she had managed to save some money. She often says that was the only time she had money that she could call her own. Knowing that the visit to the Soviet Union was my one ambition, she agreed to pay for the trip. I was over the moon; Clare always says whenever this topic comes up in conversation that I cried for joy when she agreed to go.
About 140 people boarded an Aeroflot Tupolev 134 at Manchester International Airport bound for the cradle of the revolution, LENINGRAD. We were to spend five days in the city. LENINGRAD, the city of Lenin who led the revolution in October 1917 that was to lead to the establishment of the first Workers' State. To quote Harry Pollitt on hearing the news of the October Revolution, "The thing that mattered was that lads like me had whacked the bosses and the landlords... that was enough for me. These were lads and lasses I must support through thick and thin."
After clearing customs at the airport, we climbed aboard the buses that were to be our transport during our stay in the city and headed for the hotel. On the way to the hotel we made our first sight-seeing stop at Victory Square. An impressive memorial to the defenders of the city has been built in the centre of the square. The Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad is so imposing that I was reduced to tears. It is the only piece of sculpture that has had such an effect on me. I just stood there and cried.
The memorial was unveiled on 9th May 1975 in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the victory over fascism. It was built by volunteers who contributed their spare time to the building of this magnificent memorial.
Next stop, the Mir Hotel in Victory Park. The Russian word Mir has two meanings, Peace and World, so one could say we stayed at a hotel dedicated to a Peaceful World. Many of the hotels were owned by the trade union movement and provided holiday accommodation for the membership at very reasonable cost. Soviet legislation was the first in the world to be passed laying down mandatory annual paid holidays, June 14th 1918. So, just over six months after the October 1917 revolution, it was decided that workers must be entitled to paid holidays at the expense of the enterprise at which they worked.
While in Leningrad we took the opportunity to visit the places of interest like the Hermitage, the Winter Palace, the Summer Palace at Petrodvorets on the Gulf of Finland. In a city with over 2,000 palaces and houses of culture, it was obviously impossible to see everything in the short space of five days, but what we did see made a lasting impression. Out of the many interesting incidents that we experienced, two stand out. First must be the visit to the Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery. Over 500,000 citizens of Leningrad were buried in common graves.
At the far end of the cemetery there is the only monument, a statue of the Mother-Country. Engraved on the wall of the monument is the following:
Here lie the people of Leningrad
Here
are the citizens, men, women, children...
They gave their
lives
Defending you, Leningrad,
Cradle of Revolution,
We
cannot number all their noble names here,
So many lie beneath the
eternal granite,
But know as you look upon these stones,
That
no-one has been forgotten, and nothing
has been forgotten.
I cannot describe my feelings standing there in the presence of so much heroism, grief and evidence of "man's inhumanity to man."
The second incident that always comes to my mind when I think of that holiday happened one night in Leningrad. We were taken to a concert arranged for us by the Leningrad branch of the Friendship Society at the House of Friendship on the banks of the Fontanka Canal. After the concert we gathered in the reception area talking to our hosts whilst we waited for coaches to take us back to the hotel. It was a very hot, sultry evening, so I said to Clare, "I must get some fresh air, I'll go outside by the canal and wait for the coach." "Don't go far, the coach should be here soon." "OK," and I went outside. Two other members of our party had the same idea, and together we walked along the side of the canal till we came to the bridge over the canal that was Nevsky Prospekt. Chatting away, we went up onto Nevsky Prospect and saw an open delicatessen selling all kinds of foodstuff. So we went in just out of curiosity. Then we realised we had been away too long and the coach would be waiting for us, so back we went to Friendship House only to find no-one there, no coaches. We knocked on the door and found it opened by a caretaker who did not speak English but realised who we were. Off he went and soon came back with a young man who spoke perfect English. He told us that the coaches had waited some time but then had to go without us. "Don't worry," he said, "we will get you a taxi back to your hotel. Come inside and wait." So we went in and sat in the bar, drinks appeared and our new-found friend and two young women, who also spoke English, sat with us while we waited for the taxi.
This episode was important in that it was proof for me that all the talk about not being free to have a proper conversation with Soviet citizens, because they were not allowed to talk to foreigners, was so much rubbish. Throughout the whole of our visit to the Soviet Union we never once had any problem talking to people. Wherever we went, if I needed to find someone who spoke English, I just called out at the top of my voice, "Does anyone speak English?" and sure enough, we would be surrounded by people who wanted to practice their knowledge of the English language.
We were taken on a trip across the Gulf of Finland to see the magnificent Summer Palace. This building had been burnt to the ground by the Nazi invaders and all that was left was a shell. It was the policy of the Soviet government to restore these historic palaces to their former beauty.
On going round this magnificent building I was struck by a thought Where did they find the craftsmen to restore this amazing place?" So I asked our guide that very question. She looked at me as though to say "What a stupid question," then she said "We don't find them, we train them." So despite all the massive industrial reconstruction that they had been faced with after the war, time and money was found to ensure the restoration of works of art.
It is difficult to decide what made the biggest impact in Leningrad, was it the beauty of the city with it's magnificent architecture, or was it the warmth and friendship of the people, they both had a lasting effect on us.
At the end of our stay in Leningrad we flew to Sochi on the Black Sea. This was a very popular holiday resort with many trade union-owned hotels and sanitoria. The trade unions played a very large part in the social life of the people, providing them with holiday accommodation, health resorts fully staffed with doctors health specialists, ensuring that the workers got the best treatment available. At the time we were there, some 10% of hotel holiday accommodation was provided free and 20% of space at a health spa was free. A large number of reservations were sold at 30% of the actual price with the rest being paid by the social insurance budget run by the unions.
It must be said, of course, that not everything came up to our standards. An example was the provision, or lack of, high quality public toilet facilities. The hotel we stayed at in Sochi had a beautiful outdoor swimming pool. In order to use the pool one had to be examined to make sure you were not carrying any infection that would be transmitted in the pool. Wonderful!!! Some two hundred yards from the pool was a public toilet that was so bad the smell was awful. When I made the point to a doctor at one of the sanitoria, he shrugged his shoulders.
But one has to say that the overall impression of Sochi was of a magnificent holiday and health resort providing the Soviet people with good, affordable holidays.
From 1983 to 1989 we had five holidays in the then German Democratic Republic. These holidays were organised by the Britain GDR Friendship Society, of which Clare and I became active members.
The fact that we went to the German Democratic Republic on five separate occasions is proof of the fact that not only did we have a enjoyable holidays, but that we found the conditions for the people, their way of living, the fact the wherever we went they were welcoming and open, so refreshing.
On our first two visits we flew from Manchester Airport to Leipzig and then toured the country in a coach provided by the German tour operator.
We saw so much of the country, East Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, Weimar, the Hartz Mountains and so much more. Every town, every village has a special place in our hearts. I must say that the one place that had the most profound effect on me was the concentration camp at Buchenwald. I was given the honour to lay a wreath on the memorial stone to the British and Canadian prisoners who died there.
It is estimated that a quarter of a million people were imprisoned there of whom 56,500 died and 160,000 were sent to work in armaments factories or were sent to other camps.
Buchenwald was the only camp where the inmates took up arms and liberated themselves.
German communist prisoners initiated solidarity actions within the camp and set up committees of prisoners from the various national groups. In 1943 these national committees of prisoners were combined into an International Camp Committee. The then organised the prisoners into a common front preparing to fight the SS guards.
As the Red Army advanced from the east, the American forces from the west advanced into Thuringia. The International Committee within the camp gave the order for the attack on the garrison about noon on 11th August 1945. The organisation consisting of 178 groups made up of 850 prisoners rose to attack the prison guards. The main gate was taken at 2.30pm, the guards arrested and disarmed. At 3.15pm the banner of liberation was hoisted over the camp gate. The Committee took command of the camp.
Clare was very upset and very emotional while we were in the camp. She managed to control her feelings for a short time and stood with me at the Memorial Stone for the Jewish victims whilst I recited the Jewish prayer for the dead, the Kaddish. She then broke down and one of our friends, Sheila Wainright, took her out of the camp and they waited in the coach until the rest of the group returned.
I must say that the feeling of despair and anger at what had been done in that awful place was somewhat relieved on seeing a group of schoolchildren being taken round the camp by their teachers, who, were told, explained to their charges the significance of Buchenwald. The immense importance of teaching the young people of the GDR the lesson of their recent past could be seen in these tours of the camps. Throughout the country, the children were taken to see the evidence of what fascism had meant to the people.
On our first visit to the GDR Clare became ill while we were staying at the Chemnitz Hotel in Karl Marx Stadt. I told our guide/interpreter that Clare was not well and was staying in bed. She immediately called for a doctor and within a very short time and ambulance arrived with two doctors who examined Clare and recommended she be taken to the hospital.
On arrival at the hospital, she was examined by a senior doctor and then admitted to a ward. I was called into the doctor's office and he gave me a full explanation of what the problem was and what treatment they would give her. The interesting point about this is that Clare had been to Bury General Hospital about two weeks before and been told there was nothing to worry about, but in Germany the doctors told her exactly what was wrong and then put her on medication that proved to be correct and the problem was eventually cleared up.
From Karl Marx Stadt the group went to East Berlin. Clare was taken from the hospital in Karl Marx Stadt to the Charité Hospital in Berlin by ambulance with two doctors in attendance.
Part of that first trip to the GDR was spent in the Hartz Mountains where we stayed for three days during which we went by cable-car to the top of the mountain to a wonderful playground with an open-air theatre, restaurants, barbecues, children's playground, a veritable delight, where the people relaxed in the most beautiful surroundings.
On our second visit to the GDR we met a man with whom we have stayed friends ever since. He was a teacher of English and Russian and we met at a tourist attraction where he had taken a group of children from his school. He heard me and a friend talking whilst we waited at the bar for a glass of beer. So he came over to speak to us, obviously wanting to see if he could converse with us. We spent some time talking to him and bought the children some trinkets. Then I took some photographs of them. The teacher, Herr Wilfried Bucher, gave me his name and address so I could send him copies of the photos. From then on we became friends and on all our subsequent visits we spent time together, and we still keep in touch.
During our visit over the Christmas and New Year period 1986/87, we stayed at the Hotel Mercur in Leipzig for part of the holiday. Wilfried and his wife Margrid had invited us to spend a day with them in their home in the village of Hormersdorf outside the city of Karl Marx Stadt. They arranged to stay with a relative in Leipzig one night so as to be able to pick us up the next day and drive us to their home, about a three hour drive away. The drive through a winter wonderland, with the snow getting thicker as we went up into the hills. Soon after our arrival we sat down to lunch and I was amazed as our host said grace before meals. We had no idea that as it turned out, the family attended church regularly and Wilfried was an active member of the church. This of course led to a discussion around the position of the church in a socialist state where the church and state were separated.
Wilfried was the assistant head teacher at the village school. When the head teacher died it was decreed by the authorities that, as Wilfried was not a member of the Socialist Unity Party (SED), he could not be appointed to the position and a teacher was brought in from another area. When I asked him how he felt about the fact that despite him being assistant head, he was not given the promotion, he said that he understood the situation and agreed that it was necessary to ensure the government policy on education was put into practice.
During our visits to the GDR we enquired into many aspects of life for the people. As pensioners we were interested in the treatment of the elderly citizens and made a point of seeking out pensioners. We visited many in their homes and had long discussions with them. We found that the rights of the older generation, laid down in Article 36 of the Constitution: "Every citizen of the German Democratic Republic shall have the right to social care in case of old age and invalidity. This right shall be guaranteed by a rising standard of material, social and cultural care, and care of elderly and disabled citizens.", were thoughtfully and lovingly carried out.
An organisation called Volkssolidaritat (People's Solidarity) co-operated with the trade unions, tenants' committees and other public organisations and the families concerned to ensure that the senior citizens enjoyed the care and attention of the whole community.
On a number of occasions we were invited to visit a home of the elderly. One of these was at a seaside resort on the Baltic coast not very far from the port of Rostock. The house had belonged to a wealthy merchant and on his death his widow gave the house to the state to be used as an old people's home with the proviso that she would be given accommodation within the house.
On the day of our visit we were taken round by the matron and spent time talking to some of the residents. It is often said that a society can be judged by the way it treats its very young and its very old. In which case the GDR, on the evidence we saw, must be judged very highly indeed.
The whole of the country was one huge building site, wherever we went new buildings were going up, old ones modernised, and of course the damage done by Allied bombing during the war was being repaired or or demolished to make way for the new. Wherever possible the old architecture was renewed. So buildings like the famous Semper Opera in Dresden, the St Nikolai Church in Berlin, and far too many more to mention, were restored to their original beauty. What fascinated me was the way the old and the new were built to complement each other, and the use of water in new, decorative fountains in the squares of the cities, making shopping a pleasure in beautiful surroundings.
Housing was of course an important part of the new developments and blocks of flats were springing up all over the place, each block having a nursery, crèche or kindergarten as an integral part of the building ensuring parents had no trouble looking for child-care.
On the two trips we made to Germany in 1988/9, we went from England by coach using a local Manchester Coach Company. The had recently bought a brand new, luxury coach and when we entered the GDR in this state of the art machine it caused quite a stir as we passed through the villages. On one of the many trips into the countryside, we were stopped in a small village by the local "oompah" band who had come out to welcome us. The whole population assembled on the road with the band playing as loud as they could and an impromptu dance taking place with all the passengers dancing with the villagers. It was again proof that there was no bar to contact between the citizens of the GDR and "foreigners".
On this particular trip we stayed at a trade union hotel in the town of Oberhof in Thuringia. This was the centre for winter sports where the Olympic athletes trained. Close by was the area where the skiers and bob-sleigh teams prepared themselves.
The hotel was part of a chain of hotels owned by the trade unions and therefore all the guests were trade unionists from all parts of the GDR plus foreign guests like us. It was a wonderful experience to walk into the bar or the lounge and find people from all parts of the Socialist world enjoying each other's company, swapping stories in half a dozen different languages. We met and talked to workers from the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Cuba and many more. There was always somebody who could speak English and they were kept busy as interpreters.
Our friends Wilfried and Margrid Bucher joined us for a few days, staying with some friends nearby. They would join us after breakfast and spend the rest of the day with us.
I could turn this into a travel guide of the German Democratic Republic but suffice to say that our five trips to that country certainly proved to me that given the opportunity ordinary working-class people can build a society in which the aim of the socialist pioneers are put into effect. Where the "common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange" is achieved and resulting from that, the people enjoy the full and healthy life to which we are entitled.
It must be said that there were mistakes made, but as someone once said, "He who never makes mistakes never makes anything."
As well as going to the socialist countries of Eastern Europe we had a holiday in Italy when we went to a small seaside town on the Adriatic coast, Pesaro, a town made famous by its musical connections. The composer Rossini was born there and he is commemorated by the naming of a street after him, and the opera singer Luciano Pavarotti has a villa there.
After settling in at the hotel, a few of us went for a walk to find our way about and we soon found ourselves in the central square or piazza. There was a lot of activity with people building a stage and putting up banners. Obviously some important event was about to take place, so in my usual way when needing to find someone I could converse with in English, I shouted "Does anyone speak English?" and sure enough a man came over and said yes, what could he do for me? So I asked what all the activity was about and he informed us that a pensioners' meeting and dance was to take place that evening. When we told him we were part of a group of pensioners from England he immediately invited us to come back later and join in the festivities. When they heard who we were I was asked to go up onto the stage and speak to the assembled throng. I will never forget the reaction of those wonderful Italian pensioners when I gave them greetings from England. We spent the evening drinking, dancing and generally having a great time.
Whilst there we had a day in Venice and another in the Republic of San Marino. I must say our trip to Venice was not the success it should have been. The problem being that we spent very little time there and one needs to spend at least 3 or 4 days to see the splendour that is Venice. San Marino was very enjoyable as we happened to arrive on the day that a new president was being installed. The Republic covers an area of 23 square miles with a population of some 22,000. Situated at the top of a mountain, the views over the countryside are magnificent. Its main industry is tourism and the sale of tobacco and alcohol, which are duty-free.
On arrival, the coach driver dropped us outside a liquor shop, he obviously had an agreement with the owner of the shop. It was therefore natural that we all trooped into the liquor store to be faced with an array of every kind of alcoholic drink imaginable, and at very low prices. Behind the counter stood the owner of the shop with sample glasses waiting to be filled. He welcomed us into his store, sating "What would you like to taste? You can taste any drink you want." The response from one of our party was "I never thought I'd get to heaven so quick." Free drinks were poured, we all made our purchases and then went off on a sight-seeing tour of this tiny republic with cameras at the ready. The main interest was in the Presidential procession. Starting in the square outside the church on the hill, the procession, which consisted of the army of the Republic, the president and his entourage, and all the members of the government, wended its way down to the government building. The whole event gave me the impression of taking place in a comic opera. The uniforms of the soldiers and the dress of the officials were straight out of Gilbert and Sullivan. The military had plumed hats and the and the officers carried swords. The civilians were dressed in flowing capes and a strange sort of beret.
When the procession had left the square we went into the church to find a magnificent interior which belied its outer appearance.
We can no longer afford the expense of foreign holidays so we have taken coach holidays mainly in Scotland.
We saw an advertisement in the local evening newspaper for holidays in Scotland. The company is called Lochs and Glens and has hotels and a fleet of coaches. As we have always loved Scotland we booked a holiday at their hotel on Loch Awe. The hotel is situated at the head of the loch and is about a thirty minute drive from the port of Oban from where the ferries leave for the various isles.
Since that first holiday at Loch Awe we have been to two more of the Lochs and Glens hotels, one on Loch Lomond and the last one a new hotel opened this year (1999) on Loch Tummel.
These holidays suit us as I don't have to drive and of course the scenic views are magnificent. Loch Tummel is in a part of Scotland that we have seen very much of so this last trip was very interesting. The area around the head of the loch was made famous by Queen Victoria as it was a favourite of hers and there is a particular view of the loch that has the name Queen's View. It is at the head of the loch looking down its length and is absolutely beautiful. I must say the day we went to Queen's View was spoiled for me by a low-flying Royal Air Force jet fighter screaming down the whole length of the loch. So many of the loveliest parts of our country are spoiled by low-flying exercises of these horrible death-dealing machines. At a time when people are dying of incurable things like cancer etc., vast amounts of our money are wasted on these weapons of war. In a world of plenty, where three individual multi-billionaires have more resources at their disposal than a huge number of third world countries have to feed their poor, money and material is squandered to feed the greedy multi-nationals in their quest for maximisation of profit. An example of how far capital will go to increase profitability is the fact that manufacturers of cattle feed have been mixing human excrement into the cattle feed. So human beings have been eating their own excrement and paying for the privilege. Marx was right when he said that "A capitalist will sell you the rope to hang him with if he thought he could make a profit."