please empty your brain below
Sounds fair to me.
It's a similar idea to Anzac Day. Here in Oz we have a public holiday in April to commemorate Australian and New Zealand losses at Gallipoli in World War One. All the original veterans have passed away now but more recent 'vets' are recognised as well. Over here it's not about glorifying war, but more about recognising the sacrifices made by those young men and women in years gone by.
I quite like Anzac Day. I'm not sure how the UK one would go down. It's probably about 60 years too late.
Although sixty years ago, the British were too "sovereign" to need such tokenism.
The UK is a country that has for too long been living beyond its means, not only financially, but also on the world stage. It is going to have to come to terms with the fact that is a just an insignificant offshore island.. The "Isle of Wight" of Europe, so to speak. No more, no less.
The introduction of such a day is another depressing sign of how, the english, scots and welsh (on purpose without capitals) are beginning to feel very insecure. Something, which in the long term, can be very dangerous and can also prepare the ground for that nasty sort of nationalism that the UK up till now, has always been able to avoid.
It sounds like a Sun's readers wet dream.
That there's concern over loss of morale and status in the armed forces is not news. Has it escaped the MoD (probably not, since this sounds like classic displacement activity) that this might have something to do with sending them off to fight wars people at home don't entirely approve of, with insufficient equipment and crap housing for their families to have to cope with on top of all their other anxieties?
This is the sort of thing that caught the mood in 1945 (when there was cause for celebration):
Better by far
For Johnny-the-bright-star,
To keep your head,
And see his children fed
People in the armed forces are only doing what they are paid to do (and for many kids joining up is a way out of a vicious circle of deprivation perpetuated by an eduaction system that increasingly does not meet their needs).
How about a bank holiday for people who do *good* in the world... many of them voluntarily, in their spare time...
.We already have sufficient Occasions when the military can be merely decorative.
Respect to the fighting men - who are doing a difficult job, in difficult circumstances, with inadequate support. But let's not glorify war. Specially the wars for dubious reasons - which, I suppose, includes most of them!
So I take it you're not coming to Southend next week on bank holiday monday (or the day before)...
(or any other late May Bank Holiday Monday or the day before)
I would prefer St George's day to this (especially if it were moved to the middle of summer).
Maybe england needs a new patron saint with their day in July or August
OK so lets mock those people who in past generations were our Grand-Fathers and Great Grand-Fathers; this latter group dieing in hideous quantities throughout Northern France and Belgium.
For what? So that we can have the complete freedom to vote ex-Eton 'toffs' to become mayor of London (and possibly in two days time some 'Tarporly Toff' into the 'safe' Labour seat at Crewe and Nantwich.)
Yes, some of the government's proposals are a bit 'naff' as The Priness Royal might say, but as a nation we need to do more to recognise the absolutely brilliant job our armed forces do day in and day out. Yes, this parsinmonous piss-poor government of ours needs to do much more to provide them with descent housing and equipment but that's not what this is about its recognising that we require a military to protect us, our way of life and project the values we treasure.
[/RANT]
But we are mocking the tokenism of politicians of all colours, who try to use the military now and then to get themselves off the hook in difficult political situations.
I'm afraid I also don't accept this fairy-tale theory that they died for "us"...
In the WW1, most died in vain in an unwarranted cynical wargame that only ended up causing WW2.
In WW2, the british military was fighting to save its own skin.. and certainly not for us who came later. Britain was defeated on paper in 1940 and had the enormous luck to have an incompetent enemy, who luckily threw all his advantages to the wind. "We" got away with it by the skin of "our" teeth.
It must also be remembered that 98\\% of Brits only found out about the evils of the Concentration camps in 1945, when Belsen was liberated. So in 1940 they weren't fighting to stop the holocaust, they fought to stop Britain being invaded and their own skins. Which brings up another whole argument, that perhaps we shouldn't go into here. That is, why instead of bombing German cities , the allies didn't use the 2\\% of its air forces needed to bomb the railway lines leading to the extermination camps or even bomb the camps themselves?
War is not a pleasant thing, so don't think it was all a one sided affair between the badies and the goodies..
And lets not forget there were thousands of heroes in WW2, many of whom gave their lives and we remember them with honour on rememberance day. But they really were fighting for their own survival.. not for any other deeper cause (like the generations to come). And we don't need another day to prove that we haven't forgotten them.
**But the item does mock those who serve NOW and who do indeed die for us NOW.**
I'm afraid I also don't accept this fairy-tale theory that they died for "us"...
** So who the f**k did they die for? Are we to understand that our complete freedom to vote, for whom so ever we like, would have existed if we'd been defeated in either 1918 and 1945? **
War is not a pleasant thing, so don't think it was all a one sided affair between the badies and the goodies.
**I agree **
And we don't need another day to prove that we haven't forgotten them.
** I agree to a point. What we do need to do, a bit more often, is to recognise those that serve and stand ready to fight for our freedom. **
98\\% ? where do you get such statistics?
This is rubbish.
As a long-aired yoof in the 70's I wasn't into, like WAR, man, but now realise to my constant embarrassment, that there are always those who are prepared to do for me, and my countrymen and countrywomen what I was not and am not prepared to do, and for that I thank them, despite my disagreements with the Government that sends them into conflicts that are dubiously entered into.
Germany owes Britain a huge debt, having used its position to build a powerful manufacturing base, whilst Britain paid its mentor, the USA for 50 years, for the debt that that immoral country demanded.
I would urge you people to research the enforced scuttling of ships ordered from the US for which the British continued to pay.
And you sneer at the suggestion of a day to salute those that choose to serve as choose not to.....
That you didn't have the courage of your convictions to leave your contact address didn't really surprise me..
As you said, you live in France.. the country where there are more facists in power than anywhere else in Europe.. Say no more..
Yes I do sneer, because there are idiots like you that are not prepared to see the truth..
And BTW, if you are such a proud Brit.. what on earth are doing living in France.. discussion closed..
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