Doug Pickford: What's making Moorlands writer Doug smile - or grimace

NOT so many years ago a handful of incongruous madmen, led by Adolf Hitler, had the notion they could rule the world.

As a consequence, hundreds of young men and women from Leek and the Moorlands put their lives on the firing line to prevent them from so doing.

Some, including members of my family and perhaps yours, paid the ultimate price.

Today, a bundle of avaricious people, egged on by greed above and beyond the conception of most folk, are attempting to rule the world by manoeuvring themselves into a position of strength whereby they can manipulate the lives of billions around the globe by engaging in a cat and mouse game with the world's economy.

By possessing this untold wealth, they hope to gain ultimate financial power and, in consequence, be able to manipulate us.

And many of us may find we are the innocent victims of an economic line of attack spearheaded by gluttony. Unless, that is, there is another Winston Churchill out there, although I haven't yet noticed anyone.

Alas, it would appear that, in the process, those self-same heroes and heroines who stood up to the despots of the Second World War could suffer again.

What do I mean? Well, one of the main organisers of the 2008 poppy appeal has this week informed me of fears that, because of the economic climate, the Royal British Legion's Poppy Appeal might struggle this year.

Afterwards, my thoughts went back to my Dad, his mate Eddy Loton – who became a leading light in the Leek RBL – and Danny Brough standing at the bar in The Welly.

All three have now marched to the great parade ground in the sky, but this trio had, during the war, found their paths crossing at more than one battlefront in those turbulent and evil times.

Thankfully they came out of it. Not unscathed – no-one did that – but alive.

Afterwards, they would meet up and reminisce.

Sometimes they would be joined by others who, like them as young lads, had left Leek for the battlefields of France, Italy, Africa and beyond into the unimaginable arenas such as Burma and Singapore.

On occasions, the old comrades would be joined by a couple of Polish ex-soldiers who had fought not only against the Nazis, but Russia as well.

One in particular, a well-known character in and around Leek who welcomed the nicknamed of Johnny Pole, had escaped from Colditz and walked across Europe before setting sail for England across the Channel.

Earlier, as a young teenager, he had seen his family destroyed by fighter planes which attacked his farm.

I felt privileged to be allowed to listen to their recollections. They told of unimaginable hardship and deprivation, and heroism and valour.

Now, the bullets have changed their shape – they are pound coins. The enemy is faceless, yet as determined. The battlefields are the stock markets, but the victims are the same.

So, when we see the volunteers standing on the street corners with a tray of poppies between October 25 and November 8, don't pass them by. To hell with the credit crunch – look after those who looked after us.