I HAVE been relatively quiet over the weekend in terms of postings on this blog, and there is one good reason for that: I have been a very busy boy!

Not politically, well mostly not politically, anyway. On Saturday I was working, before going to my soon-to-be-uncle’s stag night and on Sunday morning, I attended a christening (one down, two to go as I shall explain in another post on another day). Sunday evening, however, I got back into politics – well, sort of – by attending an evening with Benazir Bhutto.

I say sort of because it wasn’t an evening at which I was expecting myself to get highly political (in fact I wasn’t political at all, for once) owing to the fact that I wasn’t in attendance as Alan Collins, Conservative Party member; I was in attendance as Cadet Flight Sergeant Collins, one of six NCOs who formed a Guard of Honour for Ms Bhutto (as can be seen in the video, below).

Our prescence as a Guard of Honour was regarded highly amongst the guests, many of whom were complimentary as I spoke to them throughout the evening. Even Ms Bhutto herself was heard to have said of the Guard “my goodness this is impressive!” as she entered the Corn Exchange (bend your ear to the video’s sound at the beginning and you should be able to hear it).

In the packed hall were people from all areas of the community, including the Bishop of Rochester and a representative from the United States Government, who pledged to support Reh Chishti.

But of course everyone (who did turn out) turned out to see (and hear) Ms Bhutto, so once they had finally fought their way out of the media room (with two broadcasting TV channels and numerous print media), it was time for the speeches from Cllr Rehman Chishti, an American (though shamefully I forget her name), Brigita Amey, the Chair of the Gillingham and Rainham Conservative Association, and finally Ms Bhutto herself.

The primary theme of Ms Bhutto’s speech was of supporting Reh Chishti, her former adviser, who she called a role model for politics through his hard work and determination, saying that, ultimately, her loss was Gillingham and Rainham’s gain.

Ms Bhutto spoke of terrorism and dictatorships, saying “people don’t want terror” and that “democracy is the best way to undermine terrorism. Dictatorships fuel terrorism: a dictatorship needs an external threat to justify its existence in power and so lacks the will to take on the terrorists.”

Ms Bhutto also spoke of her delight at seeing such a diverse audience: “people from the Sikh community, people from the Muslim community and people from the British community,” and welcomed the attendance of the “distinguished Bishop of Rochester for whom I have a great admiration.”

Finally, Ms Bhutto said that “it’s only when there is peace that economies grow,” an important lesson I think we can all take away as we look at the situation not only in the middle-east, but also on our own streets as gun and knife crime rises, and shootings or stabbings seem to become the norm.

The economy has been growing for 14 years, but unless something is done to stop this decline into mild anarchy, the economy may not continue to grow for much longer – and the tru value of current personal debt will become all too apparent.

[media:http://www.alanwcollins.co.uk/media/An evening with Benazir Bhutto.flv]