Armies, Then and Now

Derby Day! Last year I went to Epsom Racecourse for the first time. Someone had placed flowers on the spot where a woman had thrown herself in front of the King's horse in 1913 as part of a bitter power struggle. Thank Goodness! not all women are like that. Mary Ward argued against extending the parliamentary vote to women (Letters in "The Times", 23 May 1917), pointing out that men served in the Army. Nowadays groups of young men from Africa and Asia march towards the Channel ports intent on occupying the UK. An army of lawyers, activists and civil servants are busily engaged - usually at public expense - on their behalf. These people helped defeat the Conservatives' 1979 election manifesto policy to stop foreign men using marriage to live in the UK. (My petition https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/129594)  The official figure in 1917 was about 10,000 men a year using marriage to live in the UK. As a result of Mrs. Thatcher's Government not keeping its 1979 promise at least 300,000 men are living in these islands.