HAPPY VE DAY!! 🙂
Today, we celebrate a victory of peace over fascism and Nazism.
Today, we celebrate the men and women who fought (like my Grandad), who drove ambulances (like my Nan), who broke codes, who cared for the injured and who, after the War, rebuilt a broken Britain and, under a Labour Government (just in case any Tory Dorset Councillors tell you different), founded the NHS.
We also honour all those from other countries who fought against the fascists and Nazis…… from all over Europe, the Commonwealth, the whole world…… including the Sikhs, the Hindus, the Russians, the Muslims and the Germans (yes, many Germans fought against the Nazis too!)
To me, whilst it is important to recognise the sacrifices of those who fought fascism, today feels like an utterly hollow celebration. I say that for several reasons:
1. We have been embracing our own forms of fascism – increasingly authoritarian government (especially in the US and UK as well as in places like Brazil, Hungary and, most appallingly, Israel). This is manifest in: the destruction of democratic checks and balances on authoritarian power; the greatest shift of wealth and power into the hands of a ‘few people’ ever known; the large increases in poverty and destitution; the attacks upon, and removal of, people’s human rights; the lack of a truly free and impartial press, willing and able to hold government to account; the rise of Far Right groups and individuals and the increase in hate crimes; and rampant racism and xenophobia.
2. Our recent isolationist ideology and exceptionalist rhetoric – leading to our continual shift away from co-operation and peace and towards competition and perpetual war.
3. Our government’s recent decisions that have directly led to the death of over 50,000 people from the coronavirus – though they are cynically hiding and refusing to count over 20,000 of those by not doing testing outside hospitals and then only counting those who tested positive! They say they are being ‘led by the science’ but, every day, we learn more about how they are NOT! Today, we have the revelation that, after criticism of their lack of transparency, the government released heavily-redacted SAGE documents…… and the scientists present say the redacted chunks are where the scientists warned the government about the dangers of their policies! 😮 >:(
They say the first casualty in war is the truth!
4. Today is VE Day. That is, and always has been, ‘Victory In Europe’. The Daily Mail just decided to rename it ‘Victory Over Europe!’ >:(
We must never forget that The Daily Mail was highly supportive of the Nazis and also the British Union of Fascists, running headlines like “Hurrah For The Blackshirts!” The Spectator responded: “The Blackshirts, like the Daily Mail, appeal to people unaccustomed to thinking. The average Daily Mail reader is a potential Blackshirt ready made. When Lord Rothermere tells his clientele to go and join the Fascists some of them pretty certainly will.”
Nothing has changed! :'(
The Daily Heil can go fuck itself….. and so can anyone who still buys it! It is not a ‘patriotic’ newspaper….. just like The Sun and the Express, it promotes racism, xenophobia and fascism. It stands for exactly what our forebearers fought against in WWII!! If you buy those right wing propaganda rags, you are dishonouring those who served in WWII! 😮
5. The government, in failing in its duty to protect the public from the coronavirus through a series of catastrophic actions (and inactions), this government is now responsible for the mass death of more people than died in The Blitz.
It is disgusting and sickening that so many of them are our elderly and vulnerable, including those who served, fought and died fighting fascism – so many of the last remaining WWII veterans, left to die in care homes – unprotected, many denied hospital admission….. and many untested so they don’t have to be counted! >:(
Given that they came out so strongly against Brexit in favour of a co-operative Europe, given that they fought against the most extreme form of racism and we now see racism rampant in our government policy and rhetoric (not to mention the media), given that they built an amazing new National Health Service only to see it being decimated and destroyed, our Veterans will be turning in their graves.
It’s an utter disgrace that this now applies to many more….. >:(
Tom Lane : Dorset
