I have recently returned from a pilgrimage of the “I’ve-Been-There-Before” variety to Guernica. The town suffers from an odd problem in that whilst almost everybody has heard of Picasso’s famous 1937 Spanish Civil War painting that now hangs in the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, few tourists stop by the Basque town today. It was my second visit, my first being as a boy when I visited over 50 years ago with my brother and parents. My father was Wing Commander Sir Archibald James KBE MC (1893-1980), who was Conservative MP for Wellingborough from 1931 to 1945. I remember him showing me the “Guernikako Arbola”, the town’s famous oak tree under which the town’s Assembly traditionally meet, going back to being a meeting place of the local ruling nobles in the Middle Ages.