there we re ashdown of norton—sub—hamdon.al at paddy's request. in our prose... though the service was beamed live to the village also those not invited to the church could pay their respects and say their farewells. jeremyjohn ashdown... it is perhaps easy now to underestimate what paddy ashdown, a former royal marine, achieved when he was elected mpfor marine, achieved when he was elected mp for little yeovil in 1983, taking a seat that had been solidly tory since 1918. i have depended -- defended britain aboard in the active service, represented britain in the service, worked in local industry and local government as a youth worker and twice been unemployed. there is a range of experiences and for an mp, it's not too bad i must tell you it was unplanned. this agent even before he became an mp was val keech, who went on to become a close family friend. i remember going to the party conference with him and saying, he will lead this party one day and she looked at me and said, he's not even elected. but i said, he will be. he

we can cross to our correspondent clinton rogers in norton—sub—hamdon.g today guessed what they are feeling now. and the village they still cannot believe it, the funeral service todayit believe it, the funeral service today it was set out in something as small as cancer defeat someone as large as paddy ashdown and that is how the people here are feeling. he was of course an internationally famous politician but he was simply hear paddy, theirfriend and neighbour who went down to the village pub must read in its. the funeral service was in the church behind me at 12pm, paddy ashdown's mccaughan return before that. the service was for family and friends although there was at least one famous faces, the former conservative prime ministerjohn major are also in the village hall to my left the service was beamed via video link so local people who cannot get into the church could and should pay their respects and see what was going on and that village hall was standing room only as they watched that service. it was a service reflecting paddy ashdown's life, on