Article For Folkestone Herald and Kentish Express

3 February 2005

The Tsunami and Auschwitz played a large part in my weekend last week. In a way they both illustrate the frail and fragile nature of the human condition. The Tsunami reminds us how helpless we are in the face of nature. Auschwitz reminds us of the depths of evil which human beings are capable of.

On Saturday I went to the Old High Street to see a remarkable exhibition of photographs by Malcolm Stokes taken on a visit he made to Auschwitz a few years ago. The photographs are very moving. The desolation of the builds which remain, the images of the shoes and the hair of those who were murdered – all add up to haunting testimony to the unspeakable horror of the death camp.

From there I went to the Music Room to meet Mike Read who wrote the song which has been recorded and released in aid of the Tsunami. The response to this catastrophe has been amazing and the record is high in the charts – on its own merits.

On Sunday I went to the Memorial Service for the victims of the Tsunami at St Leonard’s Church in Hythe. It was well attended and we listened to a moving address by the Bishop of Dover.

Shepway District Council have pledged their full support to my suggestion that Shepway match itself with Hikkaduwa in Sri Lanka. We are now waiting to hear from the Sri Lankan High Commission and the local authorities in Hikkaduwa to see whether they think this initiative would be appropriate.

Elsewhere the turn out in the Iraqi elections was very encouraging though, as I write, it remains unclear how many Sunni Muslims voted so there are, alas, still likely to be many difficulties ahead.

The loss of the Hercules with so many British personnel on board is a very painful remainder of the sacrifices we and others have made to bring these elections about.

Whether the end result will be a stable and sustainable Iraq is still far from clear. Whatever our views on the war we must all hope that this will be the case.