Cambridge PC zealots wreck bid to honour WWI dead
CAMBRIDGE student union activists have been criticised after they wrecked a move to commemorate Britain’s First World War dead.
Left-wingers rejected plans by the university’s Conservative Association to be ‘more proactive’ in honouring brave veterans.
They said acts of remembrance such as a minute’s silence could glorify war and said the focus should instead be on stopping global conflict. Making a series of sweeping amendments to the Tory proposal, student campaigner Stella Swain crossed out the words ‘poppies’, ‘Remembrance Day’ and ‘British war veterans’.
The 20-year- old English undergraduate said the university should commemorate ‘those whose lives have been affected by war’ in recognition that ‘militarism has devastated the lives of so many’.
Members of the students’ union later dropped the motion after it was amended to the point it was deemed virtually worthless.
James Palmer, mayor of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, last night said the debate brought ‘great shame to Cambridge’ and showed ‘disdain’ for Britain’s armed forces. And Mo Metcalf Fisher, of Conservative Progress, said: ‘This is a shameful decision by Cambridge Students’ Union. It is a grotesque insult to our troops who risk everything to keep us safe.’
The Conservative Association’s proposal wanted to ‘hold a minute’s silence’ and enquire about the ‘availability of poppies’ ahead of next month’s centenary of the end of the First World War.
But Timur Coskun, chairman of the association, said opposition to the move was ‘as depressing as it was deplorable.’ He said: ‘Many students unfortunately do not wear poppies in late October and early November, and we wanted to raise money for struggling veterans’ charities.
‘Remembering the deaths of our fallen heroes is not a political act, nor is it something to be laughed at or mocked. The amendment had the clear intention of de-emphasising the sacrifices made by our brave armed forces.’
The association added on its Facebook page that the students’ union ‘wants to erase our memory and gratitude to war heroes who sacrificed so much for so many’. Miss Swain also removed large swathes of text from the original motion, including the phrase ‘the general valour, courage and heroism of serving and formerly serving members of the British armed forces is deserving of our sympathy’.
Addressing voters before the poll on Monday night, Miss Swain argued that the union should ‘reflect the status of the university as an international institution’.
She later told student newspaper Varsity: ‘ For many people, war is not something that can be consigned to the past, and the original motion’s focus on remembrance as “valorising” war instead of working to end its devastating impact is deeply disturbing.’
Miss Swain, from Arundel, West Sussex, is the daughter of two council officers and gained her Alevels at Chichester High School sixth form. She is a member of the Cambridge Defend Education campaign group, which has supported striking university staff.
An unnamed student said: ‘She lives for this kind of stuff.’
Demilitarise Cambridge, a student campaign seeking to end the university’s links with arms companies, said the proposed motion ‘intentionally glorified and valorised conflict.’ A spokesman said the motion was ‘jingoistic, Imperialist propaganda’.
Despite the row, the university will go ahead with Remembrance Day activities. The Royal British Legion said acts of remembrance ‘must be a matter of personal choice’.