Advance, Australia

Australia has increased the pressure on the UK to grant asylum to Iraqi interpreters who have worked with our forces by offering resettlement to those who have worked with Australian forces in Iraq.

The Australian government will grant permanent humanitarian visas to Iraqi citizens whose lives are in danger because of their work with Australian forces.

Why, oh why, can't we do the same? We owe these people a debt of honour and I would still like to believe that the English respect a debt of honour. I know we can be one of the most cynical nations on the planet but fair's fair.

Martina Hyde, in a recent Guardian article, was writing about Englishness, and our concept of nationhood. She quoted from a Second World War poster and I admit it caught my attention and interest. "Keep calm, and carry on."

It appeals to me because I have always believed in the sentiments of the "If" poem and have used them throughout my life as a sort of moral bearing.

"If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same:"

"If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build' em up with worn-out tools:"

"If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

"If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!"

Thank you, Rudyard Kipling.