Laurence Fox is an ignorant, spoilt brat.

[longwayoff]

What is wrong with this fool? Apparently in James Delingpole's podcast, heavy sigh, he criticises Sam Mendes for featuring a Sikh soldier in WW1 film. Ever heard of the British Empire, Laurence? How many Indians died for Britain? AIBU to say LF is being deliberately divisive and provocative and evidently doing his own publicity?

The Battle of Britain was not just fought by white British males. There was a massive contribution from the Commonwealth. The RAF after the battle had aircrew from many countries. The British army was probably really the Allied armies and had troops in from many countries which stood with Britain against the Axis power.

That s the point. We were not fighting alone.

So you don't possibly think that because he was wrong about the Sikh thing he could be wrong about everything else ?

I haven't mentioned the Royal Navy or the Merchant Navy. I an sure that there would be a massive contribution there as well.

Plus nurses and doctors.

Quite clearly we weren't and it's another myth. I'm not in the least surprised to know that as wars are normally seen from the POV of the victors.

There was an Indian SOE agent in Dr Who recently. I didn't know her story although I did know about some of the other female SOE agents.

"We were not fighting alone." Indeed not. I'd like to confirm, in my continuing series of statements of the bleedin' obvious, that Britain is a part of Planet Earth, always has been, always will be. The rest of the world is not going to go away no matter how much some people would apparently like it to.

I hardly studied any history in school, except for some in Latin. Lizzie, there was such a thing as the British Empire. Its territories included places such as the countries today now known as India, Pakistan, and various places in Africa. All were called on in the British Empire's struggle against Germany's desire to create itself an empire in WW1. It has been said that Britain sacrificed its empire to stop Germany getting one. Most of the people in those territories were not white.

And yes,in the case of both wars the clue is that they were world wars, not just Britain winning against the enemy and winning against all the odd??

@ExEUCitizen I do know about the British Empire, I've mentioned it in previous posts. Quite clearly those fighting in the BofB weren't just white Englishmen. Though that's the impression that war films give us.

Lizzie.

You might want to look at the African campaign. Plus the campaign in the Far East. There was an army called the Forgotten Army because so much of the focus was on the European theatre.

It has been said that Britain sacrificed its empire to stop Germany getting one. Most of the people in those territories were not white.

I haven't heard that one but it's definitely apt.

Sorry I've not looked at the whole thread, just saw that bit asking about how BAME attitudes were relevant. It's weird how our general stock of knowledge seems to have vanished.

@chomalungma thank you, I will. I've always thought that the war in the Pacific has been overlooked and that the Japanese war crimes have been minimised in comparison with the Nazis.

(Cos they cant moan about Brexit any more cos thats all sorted)

OMFG.

I think, "I'm happy for you that you think that," is probably the best I can manage there.

Back in the real world... No. It's not "sorted". We haven't even reached the end of the beginning (to keep in theme).

But the media have stopped the wall-to-wall Brexit coverage now a large Tory majority govt has been installed.

Brexit is not sorted.

People didnt vote Tory because of rhe left being "woke".

No one has to shut up about brexit, rather hypocritical as the political movement that brought us it didn't shut up for 41 years.

Although I suppose hearing "Brexit's all sorted" is a timely lesson that people's understanding is heavily influenced by tone and quantity of media coverage, rather than the facts.

So, pretty much where this thread came in...

' In 1939, Britain stood alone in Europe '. But not for long, as mentioned by pps. People of many nations across the world joined the fight against fascism and it took seven years and many deaths to beat it back. Now look at us, blindly heading towards it again and engaging in unnecessary point scoring against each other instead of taking a measured look at the politicians we've elected and recognising them for what they are.

chomolungma

Noor Inayat Khan was one of the bravest SOE agents. She died at Dachau and was award a posthumous George Cross. Her story is a fascinating one.

It was obvious from Twitter that most people had no idea who she was as she barely got a mention while there were hundreds of tweets about Ada Lovelace.

The Battle of Britain was not just fought by white British males. There was a massive contribution from the Commonwealth. The RAF after the battle had aircrew from many countries

A contribution to the BofB yes, but in what way was it massive? Do you mean in numbers?

Contribution from the commonwealth came in the support in resources as well as men.

Also ground crew, and all sorts of other support staff.

As someone of Polish heritage I thought I’ll chip in and proudly add that the Polish squadron of RAF was the highest scoring one in BoB. True story

"Had it not been for the magnificent material contributed by the Polish squadrons and their unsurpassed gallantry," wrote Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, head of RAF Fighter Command, "I hesitate to say that the outcome of the Battle (of Britain) would have been the same."[7]

I think this really speaks for itself.

By the way, Churchill did his level best to say thank you for that by allowing 200 polish allied troops veterans to settle in the UK after the war (if they went back to Poland which at that point was under Soviet control they’d be imprisoned or killed). He did that in the face of huge opposition and media campaign to send the Poles back.

Also, stop press. The first people who cracked the enigma code were poles in Warsaw. We then shared it with Bletchley park where it was perfected. It was finally officially acknowledged in 2014 at last.

A Polish ship found the Bismarck.

Correction: 200k Polish troops not 200 people. Typing on my phone so fat fingered mistakes everywhere. Soz.

Yes there were thousands of Poles local to my parents in Scotland.