Country’s values are still intact
JI ALWAYS find the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall immensely moving, but I didn’t expect to be spellbound this year, as I was last.
The 2018 Festival commemorated the centenary of the end of the FirstWorldWar; it was incredibly emotional and I thought last Saturday’s production would be more routine in comparison.
But it brought tears to my eyes, and not just because of the tributes to the brave troops, both British and Allied, who gave their todays for our tomorrows in the great battles of 1944: I was also moved by the ceremony’s quintessential, quiet Britishness
We’ve had a terrible three and a half years of public life here. I cannot remember a time when furious demonstrators weren’t invading Westminster. Our reputation for quiet stoicism and a stiff upper lip (an excellent quality despite Meghan’s dismissal), not to mention our staunch belief in democracy, has been shredded.
I write as someone who voted to remain in the EU, and was disappointed in the result. But I’m a democrat, and democracy only works when the losing side accepts defeat with grace.
It’s sometimes tempting, watching angry, power-crazed politicians fighting, and Extinction Rebellion stopping ordinary people getting to work, to believe that Britain has changed forever. We’re all apparently more bad-tempered and stressed. The background to our lives is noisy and nasty.
But watching last Saturday, I realised most of us haven’t changed at all.We’re still not a militant country. Our Queen wipes a tear from her eye at the Cenotaph. Wives and children quietly mourn for husbands and fathers. Our remembrance festivals are not displays of aggressive military power. The “three cheers for the Queen” after the national anthem is fond, not fearful.We remember what we owe to the past, while we look to the future.
As for the music, our military bands can do martial, but they also love to make us laugh.The Royal Navy marched in to All The Nice Girls Love A Sailor. How British is that?
In other words, those of us who love this country and its values are still intact.As Remembrance Day revealed, we’re still the backbone of Britain.