As many people will know, I have held the opinion, consistently, that the government of Blair/Brown is the worst in my life-time; not just by a bit but by miles. Polly Toynbee not withstanding, I can think of few redeeming features to attach to this government. We have had some shocking governments in the past and, sometimes, I think that I am being a bit too harsh on Blair/Brown. And then they come along with another great cock-up that adds to the body of evidence against them.
This time it is the 65th commemoration of D-Day. The government has played down the importance of this anniversary and has shown little interest. The reality is that this will probably be the last occasion when men who took part will be able to go in any numbers to Normandy. By the time of the 70th anniversary there will be only a handful of men in their nineties. The event was to remain low key until it was revealed that President Obama was coming for his first visit to Europe as president; he would attend the commemoration and would be there with President Sarkozy. This raised the status very significantly but, Mr Sarkozy told us, this was to be primarily a Franco-American affair. At that point any half-decent government would have reacted and would have stepped in to correct a few misapprehensions. But, no!
What were the facts? On 6th June 1944 more than 83,000 British and Canadian troops landed on the beaches of Normandy with the support of 8,000 airborne troops; there were 73,000 Americans. There were no French forces. On the first day of the invasion there were about 4,500 Allied troops killed, more than half being Americans. The War Cemeteries of Northern France hold the bodies of 30,000 British, American, Canadian and Polish forces as well as 80,000 Germans. These are not facts that we should forget. On the Internet there is a great deal of information about D-Day - much of it American in origin - and reading this, it is difficult not to believe that Britain is being written out of the war. We expect this in Hollywood films but not in real life. The French resent the fact that the D-Day landings and the invasion of Normandy were necessary to liberate France. The French forces arrived in August.
The Queen was not invited although Gordon Brown was going. President Sarkozy and President Obama are heads of state. HM Queen is our head of state and, what is more HM Queen and Prince Phillip are the only world leaders still in office who served in WWII. President Obama seems to have realised this and now after some behind the scenes diplomacy Prince Charles will go and represent HM Queen. If the Queen was fit to travel, she should have been there but for her to be slotted in at the last minute would have been too much of a slight so her eldest son will go instead.
Is there anything that Brown and his incompetent crew can possibly get right? Or is it just that they are too tied up sorting out their expenses?
1 comment:
Very good article! I am so shocked, appalled and heartbroken at the way Britain has been treated at the D-Day memorial. If not for Britain and the heroic leadership of Winston Churchill when Britain stood alone against the Nazis we would never have even had a D-Day, we would all have come under Nazi rule! We deserve some recognition and gratitude!
Post a Comment