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Some things need to be remembered

I was walking down a London street today and came upon a reminder that the reason Donald Trump is visiting the UK is not entirely about current affairs. And whatever you think of him personally, it is worth remembering why he is here.

17 comments to Some things need to be remembered

  • Albion's Blue Front Door

    Good reminder of the sacrifice that many made, even when they thought they were relatively safe.

    It would be good to think many Brits will pause, if only for a moment, on June 6 and remember the events of 75 years before. Sadly, I don’t think the events of that day will mean much to many living in the UK today. Perhaps they will not even be the slightest bit aware of it.

  • bobby b

    England has always been at war with America.

  • Bell Curve

    But not Scotland & Wales? Sorry but one inane remark deserves another

  • Julie near Chicago

    Um, bobby’s remark for some reasons reminds me of this:

    Oceanea has always been at war with EastAsia.

    I can’t say that bobby is known for inanities….

    Connected:

    Perry,

    Thank you.

  • Mr Ed

    The UK media do like echo chambers, and give undue prominence to those who are foul and revel in their foulness, hence the prominence given to the demonstrators who do such frankly bizarre and childish things like flying caricature blimps. From my own experiences, you have to look for social science and arts graduate, public sector types to find anti-Americanism in Britain. Normal people have no time for this sort of nonsense, but that it not deemed ‘newsworthy’.

    Having said that, I had a colleague around 20 years ago, born around 1972 who on overhearing a conversation in the office about that year’s D-Day commemorations, asked what it was, she was genuinely ignorant of it. This I put down the culture in British State schools of cultivating ignorance.

    I am with Julie’s take on bobby’s comment. Around 100 people, wiped out in one fell swoop, some may have siblings still living, you would hope that this would be noted.

  • bobby b

    Thanks, Julie! (Although some would disagree.)

    In Bell Curve’s defense, if I failed to give sufficient clues to trigger that other sentence you mentioned, then my comment would come off as kind of inane. And I’m still weak on choosing between England, the United Kingdom, Great Britain, Britannia, Albion, West EU, . . . . 😉

    Heck, even my use of “America” is technically wrong, I think.

    Point being, it’s said that the winners write history, and I first took that to mean that, once you win, you could write what you want, but Orwell made it clear that I was confusing cause and effect – they win because they’ve rewritten history.

  • XC

    In the 80’s I heard this Hawaiian comedian do a riff on Pearl Harbor, it went something like this: “The Japanese spies visited Hawaii and told the high command: go for it, these guys are stoned all day and will roll over. I’ve visited my mother’s family in Alabama and I could have told them that they were making a huge mistake.”

    We still have those guys. If you need us, we can come over.

    -XC

  • Steve P

    Regarding the “blimp,” I’ve seen bigger party balloons in Clintons!

  • I always used to think of the Brits as the epitome of class.

    This episode with Trump has made me rethink.

    “Close the eyes of the Dead so as to not to embarrass anyone.”

  • CharlieL

    We may have come late to the party, but we did get there, apparently in the nick of time. People who have spilt blood together in common cause should remember each the other.

    Seems there is not enough remembering these days. All those white crosses (and stars of David).

  • Bulldog Drumond

    I always used to think of the Brits as the epitome of class.

    Every nation without exception has its “self-indulgent-turd class”

  • bobby b

    “I always used to think of the Brits as the epitome of class.

    This episode with Trump has made me rethink.”

    Be fair. Our loudest and most in-your-face people are composed of Antifa, sexual warriors, and climate hysterics.

    We can only hope that people of other nations don’t assume that such types speak for us.

  • We can only hope that people of other nations don’t assume that such types speak for us.

    Not at all, I think Bulldog in the comment above said all that needs saying 😉

  • Johnathan Pearce (London)

    My Uncle Philip, who was in the infantry, hit the Normandy beaches on D-Day+2, and was involved in the fighting around Caen, the subsequent breakout and push towards the Rhine, and finished up being stationed in northern Germany, near Hamburg, before returning home (and with a German wife) in the late 1940s. He passed away three years ago. Just before he died, the French government gave him and his comrades the Legion d’honneur for his actions.

    He was a fun chap, liked a good debate over a single malt whisky, was an Ipswich Town supporter (poor bugger like me) and told me once about his experiences in the terrible Ardennes (“Battle of the Bulge”) winter of 1944.

    My family haven’t forgotten. I went to Normandy with my folks (my father was in the RAF during the 50s) and my wife a few years ago and visited the beaches, some of the memorials and Pegasus Bridge.

    I strongly urge people to visit Normandy. The Calvados and cheese are also great.

  • I always used to think of the Brits as the epitome of class. This episode with Trump has made me rethink. (M. Simon, June 4, 2019 at 9:07 am

    When these people are not showing their hatred of Trump, they are showing their hatred of the UK (and, solely from that hatred, their love for the EU). They were around during the war, as Orwell notes:

    Within the intelligentsia, a derisive and mildly hostile attitude towards Britain is more or less compulsory, but it is an unfaked emotion in many cases. During the war it was manifested in the defeatism of the intelligentsia, which persisted long after it had become clear that the Axis powers could not win. Many people were undisguisedly pleased when Singapore fell or when the British were driven out of Greece and there was a remarkable unwillingness to believe in good news, e.g. of El Alamein or the number of planes shot down in the Battle of Britain.

    The average intellectual of the Left believed, for instance, that the war was lost in 1940, that the Germans were bound to overrun Egypt in 1942, that the Japanese would never be driven out of the lands they has conquered, and that the Anglo-American bomber offensive was making no impression upon Germany. He could believe these things because his hatred of the British ruling class forbade him to admit that British plans could succeed. There is no limit to the follies that can be swallowed if one is under the influence of feelings of this kind. I have heard it confidently stated for instance, that the American troops had been brought to Europe not to fight the Germans but to crush an English revolution. One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe a thing like that; no ordinary man could be such a fool. [Notes on Nationalism, 1945]

  • Gavin Longmuir

    Niall K quoting Orwell: “One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe a thing like that; no ordinary man could be such a fool.”

    It is unfortunate that, these days, it seems the intelligentsia are driving the bus.

  • Paul Marks

    Very good reminder Perry.