At a ceremony at the Menin Gate in Ieper (Ypres) last year on the last Saturday before Remembrance Day which was attended by a Combined Services party from New Zealand, a piper played a lament (the Dark Isle if I remember correctly), wreaths were laid, a military band played and the whole was topped off with a war party in native dress unexpectedly performing a haka. To hear that echoing round the Gate made one's hair stand on end and was a fitting tribute to the brave and selfless men who fought and died in Flanders.

I am minded to think that the Turkish government are suffering from a very bad case of political and/or religious correctness (perhaps there's an election looming) which is most unbecoming in a country that seeks to enter the mainstream of the Western World.

Shame on you Turkey for you welcome our money much more easily.