This picture comes in the BBC history section with the heading 'When Ken Dodd learned Welsh'.
We do not choose the when and where of our birth and my Dad was born in a most unfortunate situation from the point of view of Secondary education. At about the age that we were exercised about 'which school is best', Ken Dodd, my Dad and thousands of others were evacuated from Merseyside to the perceived safety of Wales.
This may or may not have been a good idea by the Government though it had the obvious difficulty of breaking up the family. Families still break up today of course for different reasons. I was very blessed to be part of a family that was not broken up and this is another reason to be grateful to God for my Dad. I have met plenty of people whose lives can recover the sense of stability that I enjoyed as a normality.
Governments do affect us. The death of Margaret Thatcher has brought this starkly to light. The wartime Government is regarded as heroic (presumably, as in the manner of a successful football manager, because it won).
It wasn't so heroic for my Dad though. Having sent him to Wales away from danger but also family it decided it was safe to return after all. So back he came to his home round the corner from a great shipyard - just in time for the actual blitz. His teenage equivalent of my football on Saturdays was climbing around bomb craters in the middle of Merseyside.
We do well to trust in another Power than that of the State.
