2020 September - “The Lord is my strength and shield. I trust him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving.” August August Psalm 28: 7 have hope.” (Romans 15:4) 1 | P a g e Contents Page H@H Chairman’s Letter 3 Rt Hon Alistair Burt – 50 Years and still going! 4 Books of the Bible Quiz 7 Final Victory for Forgotten Army 8 Delia’s Little Sticky Toffee Puddings 13 Memory Lane 14 A Flowery Quiz 15 Flexibility Exercises 16 Name These Household Objects 21 Vicar’s Afterword 22 Oh the Joys of Pounds, Shillings and Pence 23 Quiz Answers 24 Thank you to all who have contributed articles for this special edition of Life magazine. Please note that the deadline for submissions for the October/November 2020 edition will be 11th September 2020. Submissions are emailed to: [email protected] 2 | P a g e Hello everyone! We at Christ Church hope you are keeping well and keeping safe! The government says we must keep alert – so watch out for a big red COVID football with spikes floating along your street… What a strange few months we have been having! From January to March your Committee was planning a great programme for your ‘Holiday at Home 2020’ this month! We had some great speakers lined up for you, and some musical items and demonstrations. And we had planned a very special Day Out (rumours of a day trip to the South Pole to see the penguins are entirely false). We are pleased to say that our two main Speakers have kindly agreed to pen a short version of their talk for you, complete with some photographs. Marking the VJ Day Anniversary this year, Col Mark Adkins has written about the war in the Far East, a little talked-about issue for many Bedfordshire families whose loved ones served in that campaign, some suffering internment under the Japanese. Following his standing down from the Government, the Rt Hon Alistair Burt (who was highly regarded as a long-standing local MP and Government Minister) has penned a brief autobiography about his political career and his faith We hope you will enjoy reading these articles and trying your hand at the puzzles and quizzes in our H@H Magazine. There are also a number of other ‘goodies’ we have brought together to tempt you, and to show how much we will miss your company this week. Roll on August 2021 when we all hope life will be back to our normal programme again! With our best wishes John Braithwaite Chair – Holiday at Home Committee 3 | P a g e First and foremost a warm greeting to all readers, and I hope this finds you well and safe. What a time this has been, and I am sorry that ‘Holiday at Home’ has been unable to proceed as normal. However, I am delighted a way has been found to provide a substitute event, and thank you for letting me take part! Fifty years ago this month I joined the Young Conservatives, and still have a letter of welcome from the then PM Ted Heath. It included the encouragement “The door is wide open to you to make your own direct personal contribution by moving on to become a local Councillor, a Parliamentary candidate and eventually perhaps a Member of Parliament.” Well, I took him at his word! So began what I describe as a life of public service through politics; not everyone’s cup of tea, but as I appreciated at an early age, someone has to fill certain offices, and if not us, who? I was lucky to be brought up in a Christian environment, at home, at Bury Grammar School, and at Bury Parish Church. The Church had an inspiring Rector, a Lancashire man of fierce commitment to his town, and a lifelong support to me. From him, and from my father, a devoted family doctor who at 98 still worships at St James, Biddenham, I developed a strong sense of vocation, that whatever talents I had were to be used in the public sphere. I was not destined to be a doctor- science wasn’t my strong point, and besides, I could not stand the sight of blood- but I was a good talker, and always interested in the world of current affairs around me, and the needs of people to be represented. I do not come from a long line of MPs or the like, but I found our politics in the UK to be easy to join, and if you were prepared to work hard, as Ted Heath had said, opportunities arose. From joining the YCs while still at school, to becoming a councillor in Haringey in 1982 while a London solicitor, and an MP for my home town just a year later at 28, I felt that vocation and me were well matched. Quite rightly I was a backbencher for most of my early years in Parliament, which left me time to get to grips with representing my constituents, and exploring what were to become the building blocks of my Westminster career. I spoke out about 4 | P a g e unemployment in Bury as the country’s economic base changed, and promoted smoke detectors and home safety after nine people died in a Bury house fire on Christmas Day 1984. I joined the Christian Fellowship, becoming its secretary for a number of years, and participated in the Christian life there. Despite appearances to the contrary, it is not hard to have a faith in Parliament. Every day begins with prayers, there is a Chaplain to the Speaker, and there is a warmth amongst fellow believers across the parties, with whom you can have the best friendships, because, of course, your opponents are not rivals for any front bench job you might aspire to! I formed a prayer partnership with a Labour and a Liberal MP, with whom I travelled to South Africa a number of times in the 80s, to visit followers of Jesus seeking an end to apartheid and peaceful reconciliation. We dodged tear gas in Crossroads, met political and church leaders in Soweto as well as Premier PW Botha and white South African MPs. When, after many visits, I found myself late one night in 1999 as an election observer for free elections in Gugulethu I felt a part of my life had been worthwhile. Looking back, perhaps also then I realised that my political horizons, which I had always assumed would be domestic, were no longer so, and that a calling to work for values abroad would become part of my vocation. During these years, and when I first had ministerial office under John Major dealing with low income benefits, poverty and family issues, we were regulars as a family at Spring Harvest, the Easter Evangelical Christian Festival, and indeed I received my call to become a Minister in a caravan at Skegness Butlins! Not too many colleagues can claim that! I mixed with, and was much influenced by Clive and Ruth Calver, Joel Edwards, Graham Kendrick and others. I loved the books of the time by such authors as Philip Yancey, John Ortberg, Max Lucado and Jeff Lucas, who remains a firm friend. This background helped me and the family cope with the sadness of losing my hometown marginal seat of Bury North in the election of 1997, and the blow to whatever ambition I felt I had. But I had absolute faith that we were still held firmly in the palm of God’s hand, for whatever was the right thing for us all. We moved to Bedford knowing no-one here, solely because of a school connection of my daughter, and because I had accepted a job in London, and it was a good commute. 5 | P a g e And my wife and I said, as we walked the Embankment one night –‘Ok, God, we’re here. Now what?’ Well, the ‘what’ was that a chance appeared with the unexpected retirement of Nick Lyell to become the MP for NE Bedfordshire, and to resume my commitment to public life as an MP, and I am forever grateful to those who selected me and my constituents for giving me that chance. As the years rolled on from 2001, I found my passion to be a constituency MP never flagged. Locally it is a pastoral role, rather than a political one. Many more people contact an MP about personal matters and concerns than party political issues. I always felt the influence of my father as a GP, being involved with the day to day worries of people, and trying, sometimes successfully though not always, to get a resolution. With a wonderful team, without which an MP cannot function, I feel we achieved a lot. I enjoyed the engagement with parish and town councils, from Upper Dean to Arlesey, and particularly with the farming community. I learned quickly that the way to a farmers’ heart is to enter the parlour, say you know nothing about farming, and ask for help, and then pull up a chair for the next four hours and just listen! My life took an unexpected turn in 2010 when David Cameron asked me to be the Minister for the Middle East and North Africa, just before the Arab Spring erupted throughout the region. I discovered that interest in ‘abroad’, sparked by South Africa, was now to become the dominant feature in my political life outside NE Bedfordshire.