Tim Newark
against this aggression before it impacted directly on British interests – simple as that.
Stories of German soldiers bayonetting Belgian civilians, including women and children, which so enraged our young men, were dismissed by Leftwingers at the time as propaganda. It now turns out that many of these atrocities were real, part of a German strategy intended to frighten civilians into submission.
It was a chilling precursor of the horrors of the Second World War. But I wouldn’t expect Corbyn and his Communist comrades to know or understand that. Their grasp of history is always skewed to suit their prejudices and will always seek to put down Britain’s past.
Our sacrifice and eventual victory in the First World War should be celebrated, but in a sombre and reflective way, acknowledging the enormous human cost but never calling it futile. It was not.
Corbyn does our servicemen and women a great disservice by disrespecting their contribution to this horrendous but necessary conflict.
The memorial that Corbyn harangued the Government for spending “shedloads of money” on turned out to be the field of 888,246 ceramic poppies that surrounded the Tower of London in 2014 – one poppy for each British or colonial soldier who died. Having visited many memorials to the Great War I thought this was one of the most effective I’ve ever seen and it proved to be very popular with the public.
Attended by some four million people, it raised much money for military charities. So much for Corbyn’s judgment on the value of this expenditure – especially coming from a man who would be happy to waste billions of taxpayers’ pounds on misguided socialist schemes if he ever gets into power.
The power of the poppy has proved enduring and it is a way for all parts of our society to come together to remember those who’ve laid down their lives to protect our freedoms.
IT IS shocking when this week we hear of a Pakistani Christian apparently being beaten up by British Muslims for putting poppies and a cross in his car. It is a stark reminder that not everyone in our society shares the same values.
By the end of the next decade there will be 70 million Britons in this country and if we’re not careful to protect our values it will be more divided than ever. Multiculturalism has allowed parallel cultures to grow up within our cities and uncontrolled mass immigration has only strengthened the disconnect between different parts of society.
Left-wing teaching in our schools and universities continues to chip away at the high points of our island’s history.
That’s why it’s more important than ever to pull us together with national ceremonies that demonstrate what it is to be British. Remembrance Sunday is one of those moments and to have it constantly undermined by Left-wing criticism of the worthiness of the conflict in the First World War does us no favours at all.
The exposure of Corbyn’s complaint about spending money on Remembrance reminds us only too clearly how his vision of Britain is determined by a slavish devotion to an outdated, wrong-headed Marxist ideology.
No doubt he and his closest comrades would rather spend our money on a ceremony commemorating the hundredth anniversary of the Russian Revolution.
‘Sacrifice and victory should be celebrated’