The Cenotaph in London's Whitehall
But this is complete bunk. It isn’t about flag shagging, it isn’t about giving Johny Foreigner the finger, it isn’t about How We Won Two World Wars (mainly because the UK was, increasingly, a bit-part player in those victories), it isn’t about putting one over on anything defined by our free and fearless press as WOKE, and it certainly isn’t about rabid nationalism.
It is, however, about remembering all those who went off to war on the say-so of a variety of Governments (Liberal in 1914, Tory in 1939, Labour in 1950), and never returned. It is about giving thanks to those from Empire, and later Commonwealth, countries, who volunteered in their hundreds of thousands to fight for the UK, men of many races, and many religious faiths.
That is why those war graves cemeteries contain so many headstones not only bearing the Christian cross, but also the Star of David, and the crescent moon and star, or Arabic script. Yes, many of those Scary Muslims™ fought and died for this country, and scant respect is given to their memory from all too many, including politicians and other opinion formers.
All those High Commissioners, all those Ambassadors, all those religious leaders attending the service at the Cenotaph, their presence should be a starting point for those who don’t understand why they are there to find out, to learn, to understand. We didn’t win any of those wars on our own; even the Falklands conflict depended on co-operation from other states.
What too many people in the UK will also not learn from that service of Remembrance is what happened to this country in the process of engaging in so many wars: an Empire in 1914 was, by 1945, so weakened that it was almost bankrupt. It took far too long for our politicians to learn that they must join the European club in order to retain any credibility as a world power.
That should have been glaringly obvious after the Suez débâcle, yet here we are 66 years after Suez, bad faith political actors still swaggering and sounding off, and having recently imposed sanctions upon ourselves by leaving the European Union. The most notorious of those bad faith actors never do show up at the Cenotaph, do they? Just a thought.
No, those bad faith actors will carry on telling that dwindling band willing to listen to them that it was NATO that kept the peace in Europe, not the EU. But this, too, is a basic misunderstanding of both history and geography: NATO was about collective defence against the then USSR and it satellites. It was the EU that brought economic cooperation, and with it, peace, within Europe.
All those Empire realms are no longer tied to the UK. They aren’t about to come running to our aid any more. Yes, they will remember with us all those who went to war and did not come back, because their people suffered losses too. Remembrance is about respecting those lost people, those lives cut short, those families and relationships that never were.
But it does not mean the UK is better than A N Other country. That penny may never drop in the land of the Brexiteer right-wing, people who got the legacy of Empire wrong, got our relationship with the Commonwealth wrong, got the understanding of all those wars wrong, got the EU wrong, got Brexit wrong, got the economics wrong, and are now getting Remembrance wrong.
We remember and honour the dead. But too many do not get the message.
https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton
Well said, Tim.
ReplyDeleteBritain will never find a decent and commonsensible place in the world until it comes to terms with its past. So far that possibility seems as distant as Rorke's Drift.
Everyone I know lost somebody in both World Wars and other useless, evil conflicts. All of it caused by the greed, ignorance and stupidity of a deluded ruling class on both sides. The same kind of people and their apologists still rule.
Which is why......
Well said. What needs to be put to bed is the notion that the British fought both world wars alone. A total myth and impossibility from a nation commanding 25% of the planet at the height of its imperial prowess.
ReplyDeleteYes. A hundred times, yes.
ReplyDeleteVery well written and argued, Tim. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteAs regards those of different faiths, you'll no doubt be gratified to know that your old stomping ground of Bristol now has a Sikh war memorial and garden of remembrance in Castle Park in the city centre.