Is VE Day our last celebration of white men?
Every year, VE Day gives the British public the rarest of gifts: an opportunity for unapologetic, unabashed pride in their country. Britain's self-loathing is deep and pervasive. We tiptoe over virtually every aspect of our past, but on May 8, we're permitted to wave flags, watch parades and enjoy a moment of licensed patriotism and unity.
It's also a celebration of predominantly white male heroes. Sanctimonious halfwits will spend the rest of the year attempting to shred former glories – tearing down statues of Edward Colston in a bizarre display of solidarity with 'Black Lives Matter', besmirching Winston Churchill, without whom Hitler would likely have prevailed, and reducing the legacy of Admiral Nelson to his moral failings by modern standards, but on VE Day, the great men of our history are safe.
This is desperately needed. Even those who ought to uphold and exalt our heritage are now denigrating it. Trump recently said that VE Day would be renamed 'Victory Day for World War Two' because apparently America 'won both Wars,' with 'nobody close to us in terms of strength, bravery or military brilliance'. The Soviet Union suffered the loss of 24 million military and civilian lives during the conflict, 50 times America's death toll. Meanwhile Putin has turned that history into a grotesque propaganda tool utilised to justify aggression in Eastern Europe, repeatedly making baseless 'neo-Nazi' claims to rationalise his illegal landgrab.
Where there isn't outright misrepresentation, there is censorship. So the gravestone honouring Guy Gibson's dog is replaced to avoid 'giving prominence to an offensive term'. The RAF Bomber Command is vilified, because soft liberals today naively believe large-scale conflicts can be fought without a single civilian casualty. As George Orwell wrote, 'those who 'abjure' violence can only do so because others are committing violence on their behalf'.
But those 'others' are shrinking in number. Around 20 per cent more people are leaving the Armed Forces than joining each year. Yet we care more about diversity in recruitment than getting our military back to strength. The only response to a shortage of ethnic minorities is to penalise white applicants rather than thinking outside of the box.
The consequences are plain to see. The Air Force – the very same which unlawfully discriminated against white men – is now facing a pilot shortage. A serving Marine recently warned that standards were being lowered for female trainees. Aggressive diversity schemes, more committed to social engineering and righting previous 'injustices' than keeping the country safe, are alienating the core group which is likely to join the military – white males. Why serve, when patriotism is a dirty word, when others are given special treatment because of their race or gender? Why serve when Kipling's famous words ''For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' 'Chuck him out the brute!' / But it's 'Saviour of 'is country' when the guns begin to shoot' ring truer than ever?
The Telegraph this week reported that Britain is secretly preparing for a direct military attack by Russia amid fears that it is not ready for war. But the issue of readiness is not purely practical. Over 20 per cent of young people apparently now have a mental health issue – a figure likely to rise inexorably given the incentives provided by our welfare state. Ipsos polling yesterday revealed just 42 per cent of 18-34 year olds would be willing to fight for their country.
It's hard to see how the relentless shaming of our national story will help restore our psychological readiness for war. Wouldn't it be better to teach our young people about Britain's greatness? Of the achievements of white men of the past? How many young people know that Britain invented democracy, many sports, trains, jet engines, the telephone, the internet, the global lingua franca? Our economic, cultural and military triumphs?
Speaking to Prince George on Monday, D-Day veteran Alfred Littlefield said: 'It's very important you are here today. It's days like this that we should use to talk about things like this, so the younger generation can have some understanding.' The passing of those who lived through the war, and of those who knew people who lived through the war will be significant. Once they have gone, it will be down to future generations to uphold pride in our history. Without it, we won't stand a chance against China or Russia.
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