Bert doesn't like to think about too many people from home. He misses them a lot and there's nothing he can do about it at the moment. "He's not here to say, and even if he was I fear he'd just ask us what we thought, we've been here longer, aye?"

He wasn't going to pretend to know Roland's mind on this or any matter. Well, he might, but this wasn't the time for trying to crack that difficult nut.