The Guardian view on the VE Day anniversary: never again, 2020 style
The decision to move the early May bank holiday of 2020 to a Friday was taken when Theresa May was prime minister. The primary intention was that the change would enable Britain to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day, 8 May 1945, more extensively. The secondary motive was that the Conservative party has also wanted to get rid of the May Day holiday for ideological reasons ever since it was first introduced in the 1970s.
As things have turned out, however, many of the plans for a national VE Day celebration have had to be scrapped or scaled back because of the Covid-19 outbreak. There will still be events to mark the anniversary, as there should be, including another national broadcast by the Queen. But Britain is still in lockdown, the virus is still lethal, and most of us have more pressing issues on our minds right now. Street parties and march-pasts would be inappropriate – though some will still occur.
The defeat of Germany in 1945 was without a shadow of doubt a historic event for Britain and its allies. Although the war with Japan was still raging in May 1945, the defeat of Hitler meant that war in Europe would now be replaced by the scarcely less difficult challenges of peace and reconstruction. The evidence of eyewitnesses in 1945, in Britain as elsewhere, is that although rejoicing was wholly justified, the mood was relieved and temperate. Few thought victory was in itself the solution or the end of all problems and difficulties. They were right.
The issues in May 1945 were mainly about the future. The national mood was expressed in the words “never again”. Europe lay in ruins for the second time in 30 years. Millions had died on the battlefield and in bombed cities. Europe’s Jews had come close to extinction. Russia, which fought the decisive campaign against Hitler, also suffered many more military and civilian deaths than the other victorious allies. America was the decisive and richest victor in the west. The British empire was on its way into history.
VE Day should continue to be remembered in the national and international calendar. But it is also right to ask ourselves how long the many anniversaries of the second world war should continue to be marked in the manner that, had it not been for the pandemic, we would have seen again this week. This question should be asked without prejudgment or the wish to provoke or divide. It is a deeply patriotic question for an evolving nation to pose to itself. The era in which Britain defined itself by the war against Hitler has been long and remarkable. But, just like the British empire 75 years ago, that exceptionalist Britain is on its way into history too. Brexit shows it is not going gently. But go it will.
Britain, in the best possible way, still needs to get over the war. Were it not for the pandemic, Boris Johnson would have commandeered this holiday to elide the Britain of 1945 with that of Brexit. He would have offered a vision of renewed global greatness, with himself as the new Churchill. He may yet try. But events have made such claims immoral as well as preposterous. This is not a time for rejoicing or false pride. There is no British victory to celebrate today. Instead, there is a Britain whose state institutions were unprepared and insufficiently resilient to minimise the Covid-19 crisis. As in May 1945, the real questions facing Britain are not about the past. They are about the future.