Following the shameful behaviour of the people in Ashstead in Surrey last year, today there has emerged a disgraceful episode in Woking, again in Surrey, where an injured soldier, sent home for treatment to a war wound, was kicked out of a hotel which he had booked into earlier in the day.

He had gone to Woking to visit another injured soldier, a friend of his. He booked into the Metro Hotel earlier, made his visit, and when he returned to his room to sleep at about 10pm he was asked for ID. He showed his military ID and was told that soldiers were unwelcome there!

He was promptly kicked out and had to spend an uncomfortable night in his car.

Personally, as the daughter of a World War Two RAF hero, and the grand daughter of two soldiers who fought in World War One, I very strongly object the the treatment meted out to this wounded soldier .

Sadly, on the same day that this disgusting behaviour was reported, another young British Soldier was reported to have been killed in Afghanistan.

All I can say is that, if I  should ever need a hotel in Woking, I would rather sleep in my car, or even on a pavement, than stay at the Metro Hotel in Woking.

There is a saying that all publicity is good publicity…………Let’s hope that this will prove to be the exception to the rule.

It has not had an easy ride. It has met with a great deal of protest along the way, and as it nears completion, it is meeting more opposition at the English end too.

For me this all feels a bit like ‘deja vu’ .

In the sixties , my father was involved in the construction of the massive North Sea Gas network of pipelines which wended their way all around Wales.

Talk over the dinner table involved a lot of ‘wayleaves’, and ‘compensation offers’, and also ‘backfill’ and ‘land restoration’, not to mention the occasional ‘pig’ .

Dad was very keen that full photographic records were kept of ‘before, during and after’, and he was very proud of the fact that they met with very little opposition. He felt that on the whole this could be put down to careful negotiations with each individual landowner. They all do get compensation payments, you know!

Some thirty five years on, I doubt if anyone could point out where the pipes were buried underground….. so I feel that the current protesters might be pleasantly surprised be how well the scarred countryside will quickly recover.

Once he had finished pipelining Wales, he began the task of converting every home in the country to North Sea Gas in the early seventies. Monday mornings were “C Day” (C = conversion) in a different town or region each week. Every household was visited by a fitter and every gas-powered household item had the be individually modified. It was an enormous task.

Dad was aways on site each Monday, in time for the start, often leaving home around midnight to drive to the designated town awaiting its conversion.

After it was completed and everybody was able to enjoy the benefits of the new gas supply, my Dad was awarded the M.B.E. for his services to the Gas Industry.

How quickly time passes and things around us change! The North Sea Gas has dwindled and all but run out. I am sure that my father would never have believed that this could have happened so soon.

The new gas pipeline will carry Liquified Natural Gas which will be shipped via the the much expanded port of Milford Haven from the Middle east.

So we must look forward to the future and hope that this project eventually serves the people well and does not run out too soon.

How callous and shallow can these self centred people be? How can they sleep at night? Have they ever had the worry of trying to visit a very sick relative in a town far from home? Have they, in fact, ever thought outside their tiny boxes (their minds, not their houses) about how much suffering is endured by people fighting for their country?

We are sickened by the attitude of the people of Ashstead

Anyone wishing to sign a petition to the Prime Minister can find it here:
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Headley

Whatever people’s views about the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, surely the injured folks and their families deserve as much support and help as they can get to help them to get their lives back together?