Today just a spectre of WW2 spirit is left

THE LAST of The Few has gone. With the death of Group Captain "Paddy" Hemingway this week at the age of 105, the final link has been severed with that remarkable band of heroic RAF pilots who defeated the might of Hitler's Reich in 1940.

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"Let us brace ourselves to our duties," declared Churchill on the eve of the Battle of Britain. No group of combatants ever did their duty more triumphantly than the men of Fighter Command, who changed the course of history with their valour.

But in addition to the sorrow at the passing of this undaunted warrior of the air, it's impossible not to feel a sense of profound loss at the erosion of the country he defended so bravely. Britain in 1940 was a united, well-ordered society, with a strong tradition of liberty, a stable, democratic system, a universally shared heritage, a powerful industrial base and a proud spirit of national identity. None of those features exist today in our fractured, indebted land.