Mark Oliver 

‘We shall literally fight them on the beaches’

As the Plain English Campaign publishes a list of the language's most annoying phrases, Mark Oliver wonders what might have happened had one of history's great orators used them. So imagine that you are huddling in an air raid shelter, listening to the wireless as Winston Churchill begins to speak ...
  
  


Basically, we shall literally prove ourselves once again able to defend our island home, to ride out the awesome storm of war and, at the end of the day, outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone.

Because, with all due respect, it's not exactly rocket science.

At any rate, that is what we are going to try to do at this moment in time. Because the fact of the matter is that the blue sky thinking and resolve of His Majesty's government, literally every man of them, will address the issue. That is, basically, the ongoing will of parliament and the nation - all of us singing from the same songsheet.

The British empire and the diamond geezers of the French republic, linked together in their ongoing cause and in their need, our crack troops will defend to the death their native soil 24/7, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength and thinking outside the box.

I hear what you're saying but, even though we are between a rock and a hard place, and large tracts of Europe and many old and famous states have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail or move the goalposts. The glass is half full.

We shall go on to the end, we shall literally fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall touch base and, going forward, fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air that boggles the mind.

We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall literally fight them on the beaches, we shall push the envelope and literally fight on the landing grounds, our crack troops shall literally fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall literally fight in the hills, we shall prioritise and never surrender.

And even if, at the end of the day, this awesome island, or a large part of it, were subjugated and literally starving, then our empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British fleet, would carry on the struggle, until the bottom line, in God's good time, the new world, in terms of all its power and might, basically steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old. Do you know what I mean?

 

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