Turnstone column: John Maiden on Clive Lewis’s oath of allegiance and air forces during ‘troubled times’

In his weekly Turnstone column, Hunstanton writer John Maiden discusses MPs’ oath of allegiance and the air forces …

It is probably too early for me to be on the lookout for comments on last week's Turnstone, but I half expected a reaction of some kind, even if it was only from Clive Lewis MP, thanking me for supporting his opposition to the oath of allegiance, demanded of all members of parliament before taking their seats in the House of Commons.

The BBC reported that Clive had to repeat the procedure a second time because he had not included the King's heirs and successors in his first oath.

He must have been as disappointed as I was, that doing away with the oath was not included in the King's speech following the state opening of parliament.

I was asked recently whether or not I took the oath when I joined the RAF in 1956. I seem to remember that as this was in order to do my national service, no oath was required.

I knew that as the RAF was considered to be a soft option by many young men, they had to sign on for three years or settle for two years in the army unless they had previous military experience in the cadets or with the Royal Observer Corps.

This is why I joined the ROC at the age of 16.

It was great fun watching the skies and spotting aircraft from the top of Hunstanton lighthouse.

It became less fun when we had to go underground in preparation for a nuclear bombardment in case the Cold War failed to keep the peace.

By way of contrast, my very good friend Sqdn Ldr David Jones, turned his back on a promising career as a Chartered Accountant, in order to keep this country safe during the Cold War as an RAF fighter pilot.

Among his many achievements was to fly an English Electric Lightning F1 aircraft at twice the speed of sound, thereby becoming a member of the exclusive 1,000 miles an hour club.

At the end of this month, David will qualify to join another, only slightly less challenging club when he celebrates his 90th birthday.

Last month David drove me and Jilly Hall down to RAF Mildenhall, where Lt Col Michael Bein handed over Command of the USAF 67th Special Operations Squadron to Lt Col Christopher Beets.

I am sure we wish Christopher and all our American allies well during these troubled times, which increasingly remind me of the 1950s.