Could Hun Invade Grief of Heroes' Families?

A new medal, the Elizabeth Cross, is to be given to the families of those military personnel who have been killed in combat since the Second World War. "Ever since Christopher died I have wondered what I will say to the children of his younger brother when they ask 'What did Uncle Christopher get from this country?'" said the mother of one non-collateral detrimentation. "I will now be able to point to the Elizabeth Cross and say 'That's what Christopher got'." A great comfort, no doubt. The Chief of the Defence Staff said he thought the medal would be worn with "immense pride" by those whose relatives paid the ultimate price in wars of liberation from Malaya to Aden to Kenya, and more recently for Halliburton's profits and the Vicar of Downing Street's echt-Churchillian posturings - matters to which the Chief of the Defence Staff tactfully referred as "our security and freedom". The Queen observed that we have an "enduring debt to those who are killed while actively protecting what is most dear to us all" and implied, rather offensively, that this kind of solemn hypocrisy is a facet of our "national character", whatever that may be.

Since the contract to manufacture the medals has to be tendered across the European Union, a headline writer at the Independent seized the occasion to flash his Britishness by practising his Daily Mail skills, highlighting the EU's inexcusable interference in a matter of exclusively British glory, and the possibility that the medals may end up being made in a country defeated in the two wars and one World Cup What We Won - issues which together occupy almost one-eleventh of the story's length.