What fresh hell is this? National VE day

[wetpants]

This has popped up on my local FB page, villagers are all up for it too. Apparently it’s a nationwide incentive??

The thing is, most front gardens are tiny or non existent here. There’s no way you could be 2m away from your next door. Also these villagers who are up for this are the same people who few weeks ago cried about a lone bloke sitting on a crass verge, well away from any pedestrians. How is this any different?

I’m not British (have lived here a long time though) so maybe I’m just not getting the fervent VE day misty eyeness

And don’t get me started on 9pm nationwide singalong WHO comes up with these things???

Maybe we should celebrate the birth of the NHS on 5 July at an official 'Bevan Day'. It has certainly done more than war ever could... I'd rather celebrate saving lives than taking them by any country for any reason.

I laughed at the person upthread that asked if the OP was from an individualistic country - see UK
www.hofstede-insights.com/country/the-uk/ - only trumped (haha) by the US and Australia

I won’t be doing this - my family background is not English, although I’ve lived most of my life here. DH is from a commonwealth country, I’d bet my marriage that this isn’t his scene. I have no objection to people cracking on but don’t expect that everyone will blindly fall in line and do it and that should be a valid decision too.

I can’t help think that all the lessons from WW1 and 2 are being lost and as we look to the past for a sense of national pride, it’s stopping us moving forward to a new future as a nation.

It's too much I find it draining. Curtain twitchers where I live are loving all this to just nose at who isn't PARTICIPATING and then publicly shaming them. Not sure what's coming after this, probably a public hanging if you aren't waving St George's flag outside your house because you're a traitor.

finlandabroad.fi/web/gbr/finland-in-uk
20.000 Finns in the UK

@alsohuman you need to read Dollywilde's post at 11:17. It sums up my reply to you. Of course on the original VE Day everyone had a massive rush of relief that they were still alive basically. I was talking about attitudes more longer term than a few hours of drinking and dancing

I agree TooGood I’m just unable to word it. Weekly clap and your daily Politburo approved walk. It is depressing.

VE celebration day in itself isn’t a problem when I think about it, it’s the yet another public door step shite that pisses me off. Local people are already talking about playing 40’s music through Alexa etc on the day. It is a problem when you are faced with neighbours who take everything literally and blame you for being disrespectful if you are not stuffing scones in your gob on your front garden.

This sounds awful, I live in a large block of flats so can just imagine the singalong.
I may go out on the patio for scones, assuming there are any left in the shops and I think I will be watching the Queen's speech but that is it.

@CatWithKittens Yeah, Dachau was a prison camp, initially for political prisoners, while Bergen-Belsen was a death camp like Auschwitz and Treblinka. I think Anne Frank and her sister died there. They did carry out executions at Dachau, IIRC, mainly shootings. There is a gas chamber but no-one knows whether it was used to kill people or not.

I kind of want to go to Auschwitz but it will fuck me up. I know a lot of people who've been and said it stayed with them.

@wetpants exactly, of course VE celebrations are good but compulsory, forced activities where you will get shamed if you don't sing 'we'll meet again' outside your door is ridiculous.

Peregrina good job it all starts with two minutes silence at 11.00am then! If you are going to sneer, at least read the OP.

I'm always up for anything that involves coffee and cake, but there my enthusiasm will end. I'm not decorating the house, and I'm certainly having no part of communal singing.

There's a lot of drama on this thread. Spike of deaths by people eating scones in the garden, best not celebrate it in case it offends someone.

Indeed. Or directives as to what The Rules are - such as visiting parents when you happen to be a carer - when The Rules have been (probably wilfully) misunderstood in the first place. And then helpfully 'reminding' everyone else of The Rules, which were never The Rules in the first place.

Gratuitous offence has been taken upthread to the suggestion that people are revelling in this sort of Neighbourhood Prefect act. But it's patently obvious on reading some of these comments that this is what's happening.

Also a bit patronising by the PP who claimed that some of us might need to google Bergen-Belsen!

I wouldn't mind betting that a lot of younger people now will know very little about Bergen-Belsen, and they most certainly won't have heard Dimbleby's recording. They will probably know about Auschwitz, but probably even then just not realise how big it was.

'Oh - and just a reminder - this is nothing to do with Brexit - Europe is NOT the EU - we are still part of Europe'

Your username says something different, 17million.

If you trendy younger types don’t want to celebrate your freedom to do whatever you like then maybe you don’t deserve it

This has to be just about the least self-aware post I've read in ages!

@BubblyBarbara maybe read what you posted again, and see if you can find the flawed logic in it.
(Oh, and I'm an oldie who enjoys her freedoms. Including the one that says I don't have to join in something if I don't want to. There's a hint for you there)

who is supplying the coffee and cake or tea and scone or are we meant to pop to Tesco for our own essentials :)

Actually, the problem with street celebrations at the moment is that we have no excuse not to join in. Everyone knows we're not going to be going anywhere.

@Candyflosscookie, I don’t need to read anything. And a silly face adds nothing to any post.

I’m with you, OP. This enforced jollity isn’t my thing at all and we won’t take part.

17million the war was most definitely not over on VE Day.

Lol, for some reason, this reminded me of the Russian war memorial celebrations the Saturday after our general election in 2015.

Everywhere else there were people standing around by war memorials, laying wreaths and such like. For some reason, Nicola Sturgeon and the 56 were standing underneath the Forth Bridge... and in Russia there was this full-on military procession. It was all like, "And Russia is commemorating the end of the Great Patriotic War. Regard - the latest nuclear missile, designed just this year. And look, here are the tanks rolling down the street, just to remind everyone that they still have them..."

We're on our way to 30,000 deaths because of the piss poor handling of this pandemic in UK and I just don't feel this sort of celebration is appropriate

Quite. It's all a bit "bread and circuses", to distract us from all the shite that is really going on.

Does anyone else remember the idea of spam fritters - John Major's plans to celebrate 50 years after D Day?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46692421

It’s the sheer hypocrisy that gets me too. Few weeks ago you would have been ridiculed if you went out for some scones, cream and jam. It is not essential!!!!!!! Now it’s doing your bit for the country

Locally people been photographed and shamed on social media when out and about. But now it’s suddenly ok for everyone to spread out? My DC are bit older but if they were younger, it would have been a mare to keep them stay put on the picnic blanket. Isn’t this obvious for anyone? To me it doesn’t sound like fun, just stressful. It’s almost cruel to put small children through this. Oh no, you can’t run off to meet your friend down the street. You must sit on you blanket!

Quite. It's all a bit "bread and circuses", to distract us from all the shite that is really going on

Agree. I think it's a cynical ploy to get a surge of pride going to distract from the fact there are more deaths than the Blitz.