So which will you take? The red pill or the blue pill? The choice is yours

So which do you choose?

No early morning article today because I have a dilemma and you will have to have seen the movie, The Matrix, to understand the nature of my dilemma and why it has taken me this long to produce this short piece.

For those of you who have not seen The Matrix trilogy of films, then you have missed out, but briefly the film starts with the main character Neo, played by Keanu Reeves, having to make a choice between embracing an unpleasant and painful truth, or to continue to remain ignorant as to the way our world is run and live as a slave - albeit a slave who thinks he is free.

So for the purpose of this exercise, I will continue with The Matrix theme, and play the part of the character Morpheus, who knows the truth and is offering to show it to Neo by giving him the choice to choose between the symbolic blue pill or the red pill.

This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember, all I'm offering is the truth – nothing more.

Neo takes the red pill, discovers the truth and fights to waken the world to it.

Another character, Cypher, who takes the red pill and also discovers the truth finds it too much to handle (shades of "You can't handle the truth") and betrays Neo, in return for being allowed another chance to take the blue pill, have his memory erased and to hide from the painful truth.

So what does a Hollywood science fiction movie have to do with the closure of a small Fire Station in the former mining village of Blaina, South Wales, you ask?

Much much more than you can imagine but I am just not sure whether you are ready for the truth and so I will give you the same choice that Morpheus gave Neo - which is, will you take the "red pill or the blue pill?".  Tell me.

You see Huw Jakeway, I know why you were appointed, just as I know about the Chief Fire Officer of Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service, Lee Howell being appointed as the Welsh Government's Fire and Rescue Adviser, and why he was appointed.

However, I bet there are very few, if any, on the Fire Authority in Blaenau Gwent who know the truth, yet.