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22nd October 2003

WELL SAID By Mike McCabe I'm on holiday in France and have only just seen the most recent Sunday Telegraph. It included a fairly skewed article, apparently designed simply to promote Dr Saul David's new TV documentary on Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift. This already seems likely to generate heat, rather than light and appears (based on the Telegraph article) to be of the "Titanic Did Not Hit Iceberg After All - New Research Explodes Popular Myth" variety. It was therefore especially pleasing to see the dignified and wise remarks attributed to Alan Critchley that added measured sense to this otherwise rather sensationalised report. Sad to think that the many soldiers, volunteers and warriors who died all those years ago, and might be about to be rembered almost 125 years later primarily by yet another attempt to raise interest by distortion and sensation. It would be rather nice if some balanced and objective scholarship were to characterise this documentary. All the signs are there of yet another "dabbler" just using the event and circumstances in the quest for beef and claret. Hopefully; the programme as televised will prove my apprehensions to be unwarranted. A touch more humility and understanding might lead to a better way of rembering these people and events. However, well done Alan for speaking out. Mike McCabe