Reader’s Letter: The Queen should knight President Zelensky of The Ukraine - Open letter to Huw Merriman, MP for Bexhill and Battle.

I am writing to you as a constituent, colleague, friend, community and business leader. The people of Bexhill, Battle, Hastings, Rye and Rother, 1066 Country, need you now more than they have ever needed political leadership since the Second World War. You are our representatives in power, you are our voices. We need you to make us heard like we have never been heard before.

The people of the Ukraine also need our small distant community to be heard, President Zelensky, possibly the bravest man in the world right now, who may be dead by the time you read this, needs to hear us too.

As one let 1066 Country cry; “UKRAINE YOU ARE NOT ALONE!” We stand shoulder to shoulder with you. We are a region born from foreign invasion and when our parents, grandparents and great grandparents faced a tyrant from across the sea in 1940 they faced him alone with broomsticks and carving knives ready to die for our right to be free. We must not leave the people of the Ukraine to stand alone to die for their right to be free.

I personally ask for one simple thing. Use whatever lines of communication you have to the highest powers and implore the Queen, in her Platinum Jubilee year, to bestow a honorary knighthood on President Vladimir Zelensky, this is possibly the most powerful gesture of solidarity we have short of all out war, he may well reject it in favour of more missiles, but the signal it will send to the world will be phenomenal, Britain stands up to tyrants, stands up for freedom and stands by our friends even when we have nuclear weapons pointing at our heads. The mandarins will claim it’s a diplomatic problem, it will provoke Putin even more to say Ukraine is a puppet of the West etc – but isn’t that what this is about, our freedom to do whatever we want for whoever we want? And who knows the fear of the martyrdom killing an appointee of the Queen may create, may save President Zelensky’s life!

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As a community, as politicians, as leaders we must do what is right. We must open our doors to those women and children seeking refuge, let’s see in their eyes the tears for the loved ones they have left behind and offer them a welcome place to cry. While the world wields economic sanctions and sends weapons of war, our thoughts must not only be with the Ukrainians fighting to save their sovereignty but also our own brave men and women we know will also be in harms way.

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As our political leaders, please lead. Tell us as your constituents what we can best do to make our voice heard in Ukraine. Is it to go up to London and protest outside the Russian Embassy? Is it to collect bags of clothes in school gyms knowing not where they will go or how they will get there? If we wish to make a donation to support the Ukraine what is the legitimate way, how do we avoid unscrupulous scammers? How do we take a personal step to hurt the Oligarchs, who/ what should we boycott? We know we will leave the fighting to the professionals but please give us the weapons of protest and support.

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