Dulce et decorum est

A backblip as I didn't get home until late last night. Finished work at lunchtime to head off to London to attend an early evening reception at the (ahem) House of Lords to mark the launch of Locality - a nationwide network of communities ambitious for change that has been formed by the merger of BASSAC and the DTA. Wine and canapes on the terrace of the Cholmondeley room overlooking the Thames in the sunshine catching up with people that I haven't seen for ages, meeting people face to face that I've only prevously had email contact with - mmmm, lovely.

Deciding to take the bus from Liverpool Street to St Pauls and then walk across the Wobbly Bridge and walk along the river to Westminster was a good move. Masses and masses of opportunities for blipping (but, alas, I only had limited time in which to make my journey) and it felt like high summer.

So: what's this, and why have I chosen it when it could have been a blip showing detail from the architecture of St Mary's church, opposite da House? a lovely lantern outside St Stephens Tavern, the watering hole of many an MP? an artsy fartsy shot of something or other?

Well. en route to the tube after the reception I happened to look across the road to check out what was going on at the Parliament Square protest camp and this just leaped out at me and kind of hit me between the eyes. Dulce et Decorum est is the title of a poem written by Wilfred Owen who died in the first world war aged 25. Graphic, beautiful and harrowing it describes a gas attack. The poem ends with the words Dulce et Decorum est, pro patria mori: it is sweet and right to die for your country.

Whilst I don't agree with that statement I am mindful of the sheer number of people who have given their lives for their country so that I can live a free life.