10th January 2016

Yesterday the French paid homage to the victims killed by terrorists one year ago. I often hear, especially from young people, that we shouldn't dwell on the past but move on. However, this is a mistake that has proven costly over the centuries. A few weeks ago France opened access to police and legal archives drawn from one of the country's darkest hours when the Vichy regime collaborated with the Nazis. On the right you can see the covers of my two books covering WW2, to be published in Feb and May.  In the second, Vichyssoise, I've attempted to show that atrocities can also happen indirectly via such things as weak leadership and poor governance. In the chaos theory of life, bad things are sometimes played out not by obvious evil but by an accumulation of events that start by the election of the wrong people at the helm. Petain was not Hitler but the outcome was almost the same! Whatever country you live in, remember this:  elect someone who is well-educated, of proven balanced mind and not so old that they take the easiest option at times of crisis as Petain did. Never forget. Our futures may depend on it.