May´s Doomed Pilgrimage to Europe and WWII POW Memories of Kindness

The vote on the Withdrawal Agreement was called off until an unspecified later date - and hit even the headlines of the local paper here in Krefeld Germany this morning. During the day local and international media reported on The Stations of May´, as she travelled around Europe looking for some crumbs that might keep the sniping UK politicians at bay and give her deal a chance. Here in Germany, there was incomprehension as to why the Prime Minister thought she could get any changes on a done deal. Indeed the answers from national EU leaders and the EU negotiators themselves came in various shades of Non, Nein, and No.

As the day comes to a close, the conservative sharks were massing close to the critical 40 to instigate a leadership challenge and tomorrow may be another chaotic day.

The pound continues to gradually slide lower against the Euro and the Dollar.

It was therefore a relief and a pleasure to find myself listening to a former German prisoner of war earlier this afternoon, who, wounded at 18 shortly after being drafted in the dying stages of WWII, found himself in a POW camp near Ross on Wye in 1944.

His memories were of the kindness of local English strangers,  who politely stopped him and another POW and invited them to spend Christmas with their family; Who, after the war helped send parcels to his parents, refugees displaced from the East to what was to become West Germany; an English family that arranged for a taxi to collect him from the POW camp for a farewell visit before he finally returned to Germany after 4 years as a POW in the UK.

The heart warming thing is that these were not isolated incidents, but part of a greater humanity, shown in Britain to former enemies,  reported by many POWs of different nationalities, so immediately after a terrible war that showed the true and dark hazard of rampant nationalism.