Our shared sacrifice

INVITING the German president to the Cenotaph service commemorating 100 years since the end of the First World War would show this country at its conciliatory and hospitable best.

The Kaiser and his generals may have been responsible for the war but two million young German men died, alongside nearly a million from Britain and her colonies.

Foes they may have been in life but all were mourned equally by families and sweethearts back home.

To coin Wilfred Owen’s words, this ceremony is not about war, but the pity of war. It is also about peace and compassion.