Toby on Tuesday 

'Napoleon’s Dream'

 

A very happy New Year to the 3,000 and more weekly followers of the UKIP Thirsk and Malton Facebook and website! And in this part of North Yorkshire, 2016 has got off to a flying start with the Sunday evening appearances of our home-grown superstar, James Norton. Alongside Lily James as Natasha Rostova, Paul Dano as Pierre Bezukhov, Jim Broadbent as Nikolai Bolkonsky and Mathieu Kossovitz as Napoleon Bonaparte, James stars as Andrei Bolkonsky in the BBC’s superb six-part adaptation of Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”. We are now half-way through the series and James is definitely proof of the old belief that all the finest talent still comes out of Yorkshire! And, in true Yorkshire style, James has made his career a family affair. The Nortons’ are a delightful family of teachers, doctors and nurses from near Malton and one of his most charming gestures is that he takes his father, Hugh, with him to appear in all his productions as an extra so that he too can enjoy the adventures.

In episode 5 of “War and Peace”, the amiable Hugh will appear as a peasant crossing a town square. In James’s words, he “fancied himself as a count, but was told he was going to be a Cossack!” Now where all this relates to the looming referendum on Britain’s EU membership is that “War and Peace” is set against the background of Napoleon’s calamitous 1812 invasion of Russia at the head of the largest army ever assembled. His insane ambition had cost France over half a million men by the time of the retreat from Moscow, while Russia suffered similar civilian and military losses. Three years later, it took a British-led army under Wellington to bring Napoleon’s crazed attempts to conquer all Europe to an end.

 Interestingly, Sylvie Bermann, now France’s ambassador to Britain, declared last year that “the French had finally got over their humiliating defeat at Waterloo because the EU represented the United Europe which was Napoleon’s dream.” Well, Madame l’Ambassadrice, I have to ask you to think again, as by the end of next year Britain will have finally voted to leave the disaster zone that is the EU, will have regained control of our borders and, like Russia in 1812 when faced with Napoleon’s invading hordes, will have decided that enough is enough. And just as James Norton’s Andrei in “War and Peace” is the very model of Yorkshire grit and determination, so shall we in UKIP Thirsk and Malton play our part in thwarting the EU bullies who threaten us, be they in Berlin, Brussels or Paris!

Until next week!
Toby