Paying the piper

Published on 10/08/2012 00:00

At THE Edinburgh Festival I was most impressed by Pepperine University’s effective presentation of Why Do You Stand There in the Rain? the story of the Bonus Army of First World War veterans in the US. Plus ça change!

After King Charles I had been beheaded at the behest of those men who financed Cromwell’s Model Army, they tried to avoid paying the soldiers who had outlived their usefulness.

We have a history of what we might call the Pied Piper Strategy – trying to evade paying up after the rats have been dealt with.

MT Kielty

Salisbury Place

Mountblow, Clydebank