RBL branch needs new home after sale completed (From Bucks Free Press)

Rev. Blease and his wife have got what they want. Well done Geoff. It is a shame that in expanding your "church" you have to destroy part of the town's history. Oh well, as long as you can build your brand of Christianity it doesn't really matter, does it.
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What do you actually bring to the town? All I can see of your "community events" is to increase the size of your flock".

geoffW wrote:
Rev. Blease and his wife have got what they want. Well done Geoff. It is a shame that in expanding your "church" you have to destroy part of the town's history. Oh well, as long as you can build your brand of Christianity it doesn't really matter, does it. . What do you actually bring to the town? All I can see of your "community events" is to increase the size of your flock".

Er really? Sounds to me like regardless of who bought it (and let's remember - they did put it on the market), you'd have a problem with the lucky recipient. If a butchers had one you'd say "selling your steaks is destroying a part of the town's history"! If a doctor set up a drop in clinic it would be "it's a shame that making the people of our town better is etc etc" You get the idea!

I can think of far worse organisations to put up the winning bid - perhaps a new Starbucks? A local vivisectionist maybe? The HQ for the Bucks wing of the National Front?

ArnyP_HW wrote:

geoffW wrote: Rev. Blease and his wife have got what they want. Well done Geoff. It is a shame that in expanding your "church" you have to destroy part of the town's history. Oh well, as long as you can build your brand of Christianity it doesn't really matter, does it. . What do you actually bring to the town? All I can see of your "community events" is to increase the size of your flock".

Er really? Sounds to me like regardless of who bought it (and let's remember - they did put it on the market), you'd have a problem with the lucky recipient. If a butchers had one you'd say "selling your steaks is destroying a part of the town's history"! If a doctor set up a drop in clinic it would be "it's a shame that making the people of our town better is etc etc" You get the idea! I can think of far worse organisations to put up the winning bid - perhaps a new Starbucks? A local vivisectionist maybe? The HQ for the Bucks wing of the National Front?

The local RBL should have kept it. The problem was Arny had you have looked into it before commenting you would see that the local branch offered £500K for the building from a local donator, but the church gazzumped the incumbent branch to buy it for themselves.
I doubt a local butcher or doctor would stoop to such depths, hence the kind of comments you are now seeing which may appear anti-Christian but are in fact anti this bunch.

geoffW wrote:
Rev. Blease and his wife have got what they want. Well done Geoff. It is a shame that in expanding your "church" you have to destroy part of the town's history. Oh well, as long as you can build your brand of Christianity it doesn't really matter, does it.
.
What do you actually bring to the town? All I can see of your "community events" is to increase the size of your flock".

Well said geoffw,Mr Blease is only interested in himself and his flock at any cost! what he has done is not and cannot be considered to be Christian in any way shape or form. He conveniently forgets what he said at the public meeting in front of 200 plus attendees. He would not bid against the local RBL branch, the town council, or the people of the town, how can he say that he didn't know who he was bidding against when it has never been a secret that the local branch were bidding? the only secret was, Mr Blease not making any statement that he was bidding.
He certainly is someone I would not trust. It poses the question what damage has he done to the Christian faith in general?

handsworth wrote:

ArnyP_HW wrote:

geoffW wrote: Rev. Blease and his wife have got what they want. Well done Geoff. It is a shame that in expanding your "church" you have to destroy part of the town's history. Oh well, as long as you can build your brand of Christianity it doesn't really matter, does it. . What do you actually bring to the town? All I can see of your "community events" is to increase the size of your flock".

Er really? Sounds to me like regardless of who bought it (and let's remember - they did put it on the market), you'd have a problem with the lucky recipient. If a butchers had one you'd say "selling your steaks is destroying a part of the town's history"! If a doctor set up a drop in clinic it would be "it's a shame that making the people of our town better is etc etc" You get the idea! I can think of far worse organisations to put up the winning bid - perhaps a new Starbucks? A local vivisectionist maybe? The HQ for the Bucks wing of the National Front?

The local RBL should have kept it. The problem was Arny had you have looked into it before commenting you would see that the local branch offered £500K for the building from a local donator, but the church gazzumped the incumbent branch to buy it for themselves. I doubt a local butcher or doctor would stoop to such depths, hence the kind of comments you are now seeing which may appear anti-Christian but are in fact anti this bunch.

Hi Handsworth - bit of an assumption that I didn't look into this before commenting. I'm well aware of the history behind this report. Mr Blease has done nothing illegal and it is my opinion that whilst it is unfortunate for the RBL (whom I do support), he's done nothing immoral either. A case of "C'est La Vie" - an opinion that I am sure you'll agree that I am entitled to.

ArnyP_HW wrote:

handsworth wrote:

ArnyP_HW wrote:

geoffW wrote: Rev. Blease and his wife have got what they want. Well done Geoff. It is a shame that in expanding your "church" you have to destroy part of the town's history. Oh well, as long as you can build your brand of Christianity it doesn't really matter, does it. . What do you actually bring to the town? All I can see of your "community events" is to increase the size of your flock".

Er really? Sounds to me like regardless of who bought it (and let's remember - they did put it on the market), you'd have a problem with the lucky recipient. If a butchers had one you'd say "selling your steaks is destroying a part of the town's history"! If a doctor set up a drop in clinic it would be "it's a shame that making the people of our town better is etc etc" You get the idea! I can think of far worse organisations to put up the winning bid - perhaps a new Starbucks? A local vivisectionist maybe? The HQ for the Bucks wing of the National Front?

The local RBL should have kept it. The problem was Arny had you have looked into it before commenting you would see that the local branch offered £500K for the building from a local donator, but the church gazzumped the incumbent branch to buy it for themselves. I doubt a local butcher or doctor would stoop to such depths, hence the kind of comments you are now seeing which may appear anti-Christian but are in fact anti this bunch.

Hi Handsworth - bit of an assumption that I didn't look into this before commenting. I'm well aware of the history behind this report. Mr Blease has done nothing illegal and it is my opinion that whilst it is unfortunate for the RBL (whom I do support), he's done nothing immoral either. A case of "C'est La Vie" - an opinion that I am sure you'll agree that I am entitled to.

The bankers don't do anything 'illegal'.

ArnyP_HW wrote:

handsworth wrote:

ArnyP_HW wrote:

geoffW wrote: Rev. Blease and his wife have got what they want. Well done Geoff. It is a shame that in expanding your "church" you have to destroy part of the town's history. Oh well, as long as you can build your brand of Christianity it doesn't really matter, does it. . What do you actually bring to the town? All I can see of your "community events" is to increase the size of your flock".

Er really? Sounds to me like regardless of who bought it (and let's remember - they did put it on the market), you'd have a problem with the lucky recipient. If a butchers had one you'd say "selling your steaks is destroying a part of the town's history"! If a doctor set up a drop in clinic it would be "it's a shame that making the people of our town better is etc etc" You get the idea! I can think of far worse organisations to put up the winning bid - perhaps a new Starbucks? A local vivisectionist maybe? The HQ for the Bucks wing of the National Front?

The local RBL should have kept it. The problem was Arny had you have looked into it before commenting you would see that the local branch offered £500K for the building from a local donator, but the church gazzumped the incumbent branch to buy it for themselves. I doubt a local butcher or doctor would stoop to such depths, hence the kind of comments you are now seeing which may appear anti-Christian but are in fact anti this bunch.

Hi Handsworth - bit of an assumption that I didn't look into this before commenting. I'm well aware of the history behind this report. Mr Blease has done nothing illegal and it is my opinion that whilst it is unfortunate for the RBL (whom I do support), he's done nothing immoral either. A case of "C'est La Vie" - an opinion that I am sure you'll agree that I am entitled to.

Handsworth didn't mention Mr Blease personally Arny, I am sure you didn't mean to suggest that they had. I am sure that you have no personal connection the the gentleman.
Illegal actions and unpalletable actions are unrelated and in this case this particular church has behaved unpalletably offending the majority local opinion.
You may well disagree with this viewpoint, however it will remain to be seen how long it takes for the bad taste in the public's mouth to manifest itself in a form that brings the prodigal chickens home to roost to this hard skinned, arrogant and un-Christian group of selfish self-servers.
That is the distinction between the Chiltern Christian Fellowship and the Royal British Legion, one has proved itself and its individuals to be utterly selfish, the other utterly selfess.

Now it's all over the organisation that comes out of this with the most egg on its face is the HQ of the RBL. When handing the lease of the building to their new superclub company they made a promise to the local branch which they were unable, legally, to keep. All the rest has been a load of posturing because no-one could have run the building at a profit.

Now it's all over the organisation that comes out of this with the most egg on its face is the HQ of the RBL. When handing the lease of the building to their new superclub company they made a promise to the local branch which they were unable, legally, to keep. All the rest has been a load of posturing because no-one could have run the building at a profit.

Lastbastionofhope wrote:

ArnyP_HW wrote:

handsworth wrote:

ArnyP_HW wrote:

geoffW wrote: Rev. Blease and his wife have got what they want. Well done Geoff. It is a shame that in expanding your "church" you have to destroy part of the town's history. Oh well, as long as you can build your brand of Christianity it doesn't really matter, does it. . What do you actually bring to the town? All I can see of your "community events" is to increase the size of your flock".

Er really? Sounds to me like regardless of who bought it (and let's remember - they did put it on the market), you'd have a problem with the lucky recipient. If a butchers had one you'd say "selling your steaks is destroying a part of the town's history"! If a doctor set up a drop in clinic it would be "it's a shame that making the people of our town better is etc etc" You get the idea! I can think of far worse organisations to put up the winning bid - perhaps a new Starbucks? A local vivisectionist maybe? The HQ for the Bucks wing of the National Front?

The local RBL should have kept it. The problem was Arny had you have looked into it before commenting you would see that the local branch offered £500K for the building from a local donator, but the church gazzumped the incumbent branch to buy it for themselves. I doubt a local butcher or doctor would stoop to such depths, hence the kind of comments you are now seeing which may appear anti-Christian but are in fact anti this bunch.

Hi Handsworth - bit of an assumption that I didn't look into this before commenting. I'm well aware of the history behind this report. Mr Blease has done nothing illegal and it is my opinion that whilst it is unfortunate for the RBL (whom I do support), he's done nothing immoral either. A case of "C'est La Vie" - an opinion that I am sure you'll agree that I am entitled to.

Handsworth didn't mention Mr Blease personally Arny, I am sure you didn't mean to suggest that they had. I am sure that you have no personal connection the the gentleman.
Illegal actions and unpalletable actions are unrelated and in this case this particular church has behaved unpalletably offending the majority local opinion.
You may well disagree with this viewpoint, however it will remain to be seen how long it takes for the bad taste in the public's mouth to manifest itself in a form that brings the prodigal chickens home to roost to this hard skinned, arrogant and un-Christian group of selfish self-servers.
That is the distinction between the Chiltern Christian Fellowship and the Royal British Legion, one has proved itself and its individuals to be utterly selfish, the other utterly selfess.

Well spoken Lastbastionofhope, the distinction is exactly right. Self and selfless. Just to point out Yorkshiretyke1 seems to believe that the local branch couldn't run at a profit, the fact is that for 50 years they did run in profit, it was only when the New Legion took over that it made a loss, which is suspect anyway as they were a failing company, as was proved, because a year later they went out of business, very conveniently.

The RBL's national HQ deserve huge criticism over this saga in Risborough but also because they employ very well paid executives who are on good senior rank ex-service pensions added to large amounts of RBL pay while the charity scratches around to collect for needy cases. These executives earn well over £100,00 a year. They should be paid less to ensure that all that poppy money collected by unpaid volunteers in all weathers is not frittered away on top brass pay. Then today I see the RBL has huge very costly full page adverts in the national press because they campaign to want an inquest coroner to deal with only all those young men killed in Afghanistan etc etc. They don't want ordinary coroners to handle these inquests. This further damages the appeal of the RBL at a crucial time when income is all the more precious to help welfare cases of maimed young men, or relatives of those killed, who come to them for help. Sad business all round.

The RBL's national HQ deserve huge criticism over this saga in Risborough but also because they employ very well paid executives who are on good senior rank ex-service pensions added to large amounts of RBL pay while the charity scratches around to collect for needy cases. These executives earn well over £100,00 a year. They should be paid less to ensure that all that poppy money collected by unpaid volunteers in all weathers is not frittered away on top brass pay. Then today I see the RBL has huge very costly full page adverts in the national press because they campaign to want an inquest coroner to deal with only all those young men killed in Afghanistan etc etc. They don't want ordinary coroners to handle these inquests. This further damages the appeal of the RBL at a crucial time when income is all the more precious to help welfare cases of maimed young men, or relatives of those killed, who come to them for help. Sad business all round.