[Acrylic-bob]

It sounds to me like quite a lot of people would benefit from a trip to the East Lancs' Regimental Museum at Preston, like the visit that was very kindly arranged for one young man by the police last year after he had been found scrawling graffiti on the base of the monument.

I do take the point and I fully agree that it is perhaps expecting too much to demand automatic respect without knowledge. Here perhaps is yet another argument for a museum of Accrington; a place where our past is clearly set out. A place where our young can learn how their forebears felt about being English and a guide to newcomers about what it means to be British.

However, arent our young supposed to learn about the first and second world wars in school? I seem to recall criticism in the national press, not too long ago, that too much emphasis was placed on these two events at the expense of other aspects of our national history.