Their finest hour
Those bears that sow the wind are going to reap the whirlwind
Paddington Bear is a beloved cultural icon with children and adults alike. He represents kindness, tolerance and promotes integration and acceptance in our society. His famous label attached to his duffle coat “please look after this bear”. On the night of 2nd March 2025, your actions were the antithesis of everything Paddington stands for. Your actions lacked respect and integrity, two values you should uphold as members of the armed forces.
Almost a day has passed since this sentence was passed, and it is natural for us, I think, to pause on our journey at this milestone and survey the dark, wide field. It is also useful to consider the first year of this war against everything Paddington stands for. Although this war is in fact only a continuation of the last, very great differences in its character are apparent. In the last war millions of men fought by hurling enormous masses of mawkishness at one another. “toleration and kindness” was the cry, and “integration and acceptance” were the consequence…
It is quite plain that Herr Paddington could not admit defeat in his attempts to shape Great Britain without sustaining most serious injury. If, after all his NGO work and vomit-inducing threats and lurid accounts trumpeted round the world of how he has shaped who we are, of the vast numbers of our Air Force he has bought down, so he says, with so little loss to himself; if after tales of the now overly-sentimental British crushed in their holes cursing the plutocratic Parliament who don’t look after this bear; if after all this his whole saccharine onslaught were forced after a while tamely to peter out, the Fuehrer’s reputation for veracity of statement might be seriously impugned. We may be sure, therefore, that he will continue as long as he has the strength to do so, and as long as any preoccupations he may have allow him to do so.
The enemy is, of course, far more numerous than we are. But support amongst the next generation already, as I am advised, largely exceeds his, and the American production is only just beginning to flow in. It is a fact, as I see from my daily returns, that our poaster and normie strength now, after all this fighting, are larger than they have ever been. We believe that we shall be able to continue the anti-twee struggle indefinitely and as long as the enemy pleases, and the longer it continues the more rapid will be our approach, first towards that parity, and then into that superiority on the airwaves, upon which in a large measure the decision of the war depends.
The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the war by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human culture was so much owed by so many to so few.