Closing St Pauls

Teapot has almost finished the French translation of the godfather's diary of his experience in the blitz. The importance of St Paul's Cathedral to Londoners at that time comes through loud and clear.

Defiant above the flames this photograph was taken from the roof of the Daily Mail building in Tudor Street by Herbert Mason. It is one of the iconic pictures of the blitz. Churchill insisted that every available fire fighting resource should be deployed to save it. There was the  unexploded bomb that struck the cathedral on 12 September 1940 and caused a 100 foot crater when later exploded in a remote location.

So today's news that the Cathedral has been closed for "health and safety" reasons because of the Occupy London Stock Exchange encampent shows how far we have progressed over the last 70 years. Sunday services have been suspended for only the first time since 1941 when Adolf and his henchmen managed it for 4 days.

Whatever the merits of the protesters' cause that seems to me like one spectacular own goal .

Granddad Ste'en tells a story

Fireman Sam was looking forward to his new home.

 It wasn't his fault his lodgings had caught fire on Wednesday morning. It was very embarrassing nonetheless. There he was having some well deserved shut eye after the night shift and before you could say Naughty Norman he was rescued by Station Officer Steele from an upstairs window in his birthday suit. Very comfortable too those lodgings had been these past nine months.

Still Fireman Sam had heard all sorts of good things about his new des res. No one had mentioned rent. There were lots of new clothes. He had lost everything in that fire.  His new landlady was known throughout Pontypandy as a whiz with the sewing machine if any of them needed altering: a nip here or a tuck there. Plenty of  marmite sandwiches too, and cider cake at last once a week. His name already on the door of his room. And he'd been told visitors always take their shoes off so as not to disturb an off duty fireman having a kip.

What more could he want.