Thursday, May 30, 2019

Tributes paid to Paddy Ashdown


A memorial service for Paddy Ashdown took place at St John's Church, Yeovil, yesterday.

Among those who paid tribute to the former Liberal Democrat leader were Val Keitch, the leader of South Somerset District Council, Graham Cole, the former chief executive of Westland Helicopters, and David Laws, who succeeded him as MP for the town.

Somerset Live quotes Laws' words:
"Paddy did some of his best work not just in Yeovil and the United Kingdom, but overseas; in Bosnia; he was a passionate supporter of the European Union and the United Nations. 
“But he was very definitely not the ‘Citizen of Nowhere’ that our current Prime Minister once talked of. 
“He saw no conflict at all in his loyalty to his home village of Norton-sub-Hamdon, his constituency of Yeovil, his county home of Somerset and his country, but also simultaneously to Bosnia, to the European Union, the United Nations, to the children of Africa he fought for in his Unicef role.

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