Labour council criticised after banning military equipment from Armed Forces Day celebrations
Labour-controlled City of York council made the decision to ban the equipment over fears that the Peace Pledge Union (PPU), a pacifist organisation, and ForcesWatch, which is committed to 'demilitarising the future', said they would hold protests in the city this weekend.
York marked Armed Forces Day on Saturday following the official national commemorations last week, but city authorities banned equipment ranging from weapons to vehicles from the parade by local military groups and institutions.
The city instead introduced a 'brand new Armed Forces Day Trail', a self-guided tour of its key military sites with a map and guidebook.
'With our military partners, we carefully considered residents' concerns and decided that the day will go ahead as planned, with the only change being no military equipment on show,' explained council leader Claire Douglas.
'This decision in no way diminishes how seriously we take Armed Forces Day and our deep respect and commitment to those who serve and have served. We look forward to a fantastic day.'
While Ms Douglas did not confirm what the residents' concerns in question were, one soldier who lives in the region told the UK Defence Journal it was over 'fears it would spark protest'.
'It's frustrating, especially when Armed Forces Day is meant to be a chance for the public to see what we do and engage with us directly,' the soldier said, adding that it was a 'ban by any other name'.
But the PPU argues that Armed Forces Day events give children a 'simplistic image of armed force as glamorous and fun' and helps to fuel the rise of 'militarism in everyday life in the UK'.
Over the years, protest groups have regularly staged protests across Britain on the day of military celebration. But the number of events being held on the day across the country has dwindled over time.
ForcesWatch and PPU recorded a record number of demonstrations on the national Armed Forces Day last weekend, claiming that protests had tripled compared to last year, taking place in more than 50 locations.
Chris Steward, leader of the conservative group of councillors in York, said military equipment was a 'crucial part' of the day. He told the Telegraph:
'What use is any military without equipment? We totally condemn this decision of the Labour councillors. There has been no cross-party involvement,' he said,
Mr Steward accused the Labour party of falling from a 'proud, patriotic party' to one which is 'more concerned how their actions may offend their increasingly extreme supporters'.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
31 minutes ago
- BBC News
BBC's twin-crises prompt apologies and promises - but will it work?
One report about failings in its programme-making is difficult for the BBC. Two on the same day could be catastrophic - and that's what BBC bosses woke up to on Monday day has been about publicly apologising, announcing action plans and trying to turn a corner - on the Wallace misconduct story and on the failures over its Gaza documentary - after a deeply damaging few will it work?On Wallace there are still questions about whether the BBC created a culture where presenters lived by different rules (something the recent culture review aims to get a grip on) and also whether there was enough active monitoring of what was going out on its platforms.I think the BBC has a good case to say it did get a grip in the later years. Kate Phillips, now Chief Content Officer, warned Wallace about his behaviour in 2019 and after that, according to the report, no complaints were escalated to the BBC. If that is correct, the BBC can argue it thought the issue was the Gaza documentary about children in a warzone, with an investigation now launched by the regulator Ofcom into the BBC misleading audiences, it is by no means the end of the the review has on the face of it given the BBC a bit of breathing space. The culture secretary, who recently asked why nobody had been fired over the Gaza documentary, seems to have rowed back. I understand that Director General Tim Davie and Chairman Samir Shah met with Lisa Nandy last week to reassure her. Her more conciliatory tone will have prompted a corporate sigh of relief after her recent pointed attacks directed at the BBC's leadership. Questions still remain around whether anyone inside the BBC will lose their job. We know that the BBC team failed to get answers on the boy's family links, the investigation holds them partly responsible for the failures - and that the BBC says it is taking "fair, clear and appropriate action" to ensure is a question asked inside the BBC in situations where there have been failings. Will heads - or rather deputy heads - roll? It is a cynical take on whether there is real accountability at the top when something goes wrong. We still don't know the outcome more broadly, when it comes to Gaza, these past few months have been Davie gave evidence to MPs in March, a few weeks after he had pulled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone from iPlayer, he told them he "lost trust in that film" once the fact that the child narrator was the son of a Hamas official became is not an exaggeration to say that the ongoing war has led others to lose trust in the BBC and its coverage of what is happening in Gaza, where access by foreign journalists is prevented by corporation has been accused of antisemitism. Broadcasting a documentary without knowing that fact about the link to Hamas - and not informing the audience of it - opened it up to those did the BBC's failure properly to deal with the livestream from Glastonbury when the punk duo Bob Vylan chanted "Death to the IDF" and made other offensive are people inside and outside the corporation who feel betrayed by the BBC's coverage. Some say it is biased against Israel and that the attacks on October 7th and the hostages have been forgotten. Some accuse the BBC of ignoring the plight of Gazans and Israel's actions in its coverage of the war. It recently axed another documentary about the conflict, Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, because it said broadcasting it "risked creating a perception of partiality that would not meet the high standards that the public rightly expect of the BBC".Less than two weeks ago, at a packed screening at London's Riverside Studios, hundreds watched it on the big screen, after it had been shown on Channel 4. I was there. The woman sitting next to me was in tears as the horrors unfolded on screen. She wasn't the only BBC has said it first delayed running the Gaza: Doctors Under Attack film in light of the investigation into the other documentary. It then dropped it, deciding it could not run after its presenter went on BBC Radio 4'sToday programme and called Israel 'a rogue state that's committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing and mass murdering Palestinians'.The filmmakers at Basement Films have pushed back on that. On Monday they said "the film was never going to run on BBC News and we were given multiple and sometimes contradictory reasons for this, the only consistent theme for us being a paralysing atmosphere of fear around Gaza".Whatever the true story about why it wasn't shown on the BBC, that claim - that the BBC's Gaza coverage is compromised by fear - is just as damaging. The BBC refutes it, but in some quarters, it appears to be taking the screening room, Gary Lineker came onto the stage and said the BBC should "hang its head in shame" for not screening what he called "one of the most important films" of our time. He accused the BBC of bowing to pressure - and the audience noisily the Israel-Gaza war has tested the BBC almost like never before. One insider said to me that neither side wants impartial reporting, what they want is partisan reporting. But, from all sides, the BBC has come under BBC says it is "fully committed to reporting the Israel-Gaza conflict impartially, accurately and to the highest standards of journalism". It also says "We strongly reject the notion – levelled from different sides of this conflict – that we are pro or anti any position".Two years ago the annual report was overshadowed by the Huw Edwards crisis, last year it was the Strictly allegations, this year it is not one but three most important job for a director general is to secure charter renewal and the BBC has a strong story to tell and sell. But the difficulty for Tim Davie is that no matter how loud he bangs the drum for the BBC and its future, it is hard to be heard over with the din of crisis.
Telegraph
33 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Miliband's climate statement not so much historic as histrionic
Have MPs started their holidays early? If so, Bangkok's loss is our gain. Westminster was cool and peaceful; the Commons half-empty. Only 42 Labour MPs attended Ed Miliband's statement on the climate, billed as 'historic'. The rest will remember where they were when it happened because they had such a lovely day at Lord's. 'The UK's climate is getting hotter and wetter,' ranted Ed. 'Thank God there's somebody in this chamber trying to save the planet!' squealed Stella Creasy. She can probably thank the whips there was anyone in it at all. A few sad sacks with nowt better to do congratulated the Environment Secretary for putting solar panels on school halls, gyms, even on the pupils – but this was a subject Ed would've been quite happy to talk about all by himself. Indeed I'm told by concerned members of staff that he frequently does. 'I notice there are young people sitting in the gallery,' he observed emotionally, thinking of all the rain they'll have to endure: 'future generations who have genuine anxiety about what world they're going to inherit.' One of the teenagers had a green mohawk. I felt more anxiety about meeting him down a dark alley than he's probably ever felt about coastal erosion. If the kids looked bored, who are we to judge? Labour plays its eco card by a tedious script. Appeal to bipartisanship, 'this is not a party political matter', then call anyone who asks questions a Right-wing crank. The Tories requested a costing for net zero; Miliband denounced them as 'anti-science… anti-jobs and anti-energy security.' This wasn't historic so much as histrionic, though at least Ed believes what he says. Even fewer MPs turned out to hear Yvette say what she doesn't, i.e. that borders are sacrosanct and illegal crossings unwelcome. For this Home Office statement I counted only 17 Labour MPs, 18 if you include Angela Eagle's massive handbag. Black and bulging, it looked as if she had dismembered a corpse and was looking for a place to dispose of it. In the Thames, perhaps? That would be illegal. Labour nabs serial killers for littering. Cooper is proud of the 'one-in, one-out' deal Britain has negotiated with France, along with a special offer on magic beans. It shows that 'treating other people with respect can result in positive action,' said Clive Efford. It also shows what you can get if you pay over the odds. Under this arrangement, if Britain returns a person who came by boat, France will deliver us a legitimate refugee – akin to rewarding a family who fends off a burglar by sending a complete stranger to live in their house. The public isn't interested in such reciprocity. They want lower numbers. Tory Chris Philp, who had an unsightly stain on his tie, accused Cooper of 'sounding rather pleased with herself' – but was dead wrong. She sounded exhausted. One year in, Labour is worn down. Perhaps its sole achievement is to liberalise attitudes towards recreational drugs. Lib Dem Josh Babarinde asked the Government if it could help tidy the verges of Eastbourne and 'make our grass great again!'. Never mind mowing it, I'd be tempted to smoke it. I wondered if Master Mohawk knew where to score some Eastbourne Kush.
Daily Mail
40 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
GRAHAM GRANT: Swinney wants to steer Scotland to bright new horizons, but with his hand on the tiller we are heading for the abyss
Musing on Scotland's future at a recent conference, John Swinney waxed lyrical about 'taking charge of our own destiny, with our own hand on the tiller'. He sailed on with the nautical metaphors, speaking of the need to 'ride the waves of change' - though presumably not on one of the ill-fated CalMac ferries.
