View across the Outer Harbour of Stornoway

Thursday 24 February 2011

Wednesday 23 February

A very wet and miserable day. Although we had a bit of sun around lunchtime, it took until nearly sunset before the clouds finally broke. The wind is picking up, leading to the cancellation of our freight ferry, which departs here at 11.30pm.

I have been tallying up the number of gravestones of local servicemen who are mentioned on private gravestones, as opposed to the official CWGC stones that I have focused on in the past. The number of the former stands at 123. I also found that 600 of Lewis's 1300 wardead from the First War have no known grave; half of them perished at sea; others disappeared into the mire of France and Flanders.

The campaign to save the coastguard service in the UK is progressing, and next week there will be a meeting here in Stornoway. Representatives from the MCA will come to the Nicolson Institute to answer questions from the general public, and boy, will that be a lively session.

The situation in Libya is just plain awful, exacerbated by the apparent lassitude from the UK government to get themselves into gear to extract UK nationals. And searches continue for survivors from the NZ earthquake, with the deathtoll rising to nearly 100.

2 comments:

  1. Apparently you've sent your nasty weather our way! We are to have heavy rains & high winds through tomorrow. The earthquake in NZ is very sad indeed.
    Lisa

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  2. I am often in a dilema when it comes to Expats trapped in areas of friction overseas. They invariably expect to be 'rescued' by the UK taxpayer while spending their working lives outside the country, on tax-free incomes mostly, and contributing little by way of revenue to the UK Treasuary. It's a difficult issue.

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