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???

My husband is a veteran so I'm sure we'll do something to mark the VE Day anniversary ourselves. It's a milestone anniversary so it is a pity it'll be lost among the Covid19 lockdown.

or even would think about it

I'll think about it - and do what I can to try to ensure that what led to WW2 and the holocaust doesn't happen again.

You really all like to think you were all so above it and not involved, dont you?

I'm not Scottish I'm one of the other nations the English fucked over

The 50th anniversary on 1995 was huge. I remember it well.

Justanother - you forgot to add 'and Scottish' to your post

And Welsh.

And Irish....

An unwelcome heritage: Ireland's role in British empire-building

www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1016/0191-6599%2894%2990043-4?journalCode=rhei20

Just to say, I’ve really enjoyed reading all the view points, some very educational!

My DH didn’t know that the Channel Island had been occupied, he only discovered this last night as we were watching the telly. I knew this as I spent several months in Guernsey in 99. I loved my time there but never got around visiting the underground hospital. I want to take DC there one day, fingers crossed the travel will resume one day soon.

there's definitely a feeling that this weird timetable of forced fun by the government is a very transparent 'ooh what jolly fun, remember when we were powerful and let's all inspire nice patriotic feelings to distract from the fact our Government have royally fucked up on the Covid-19 response and you will all eat it up

You might want to think that through for a minute. VE Day activities have been massively scaled back because of Covid19, it would have been a much bigger deal if we weren’t in lockdown.

MintyChapstick
"The 50th anniversary on 1995 was huge. I remember it well."

I've been watching classic coronation street and it's just been the 50th anniversary on there. The soaps used to feature events much more. They showed Percy revisiting Normandy months before.

VE Day activities have been massively scaled back because of Covid19, it would have been a much bigger deal if we weren’t in lockdow

I honestly think that's a good thing. I think there would have been a divide about this - or rather, just an interest from certain people in the population - and those who think that it was 75 years ago, we are friends with Europe, we are friends with former enemies and we should be working together to secure peace and to ensure events like that don't happen again.

I think there's definitely an age divide here. I don't know anyone who will be doing this, or even would think about it

Disagree. I'm old and I'm not doing it, wouldn't dream of it. Yet lots younger than me on this thread are well up for it.

It makes no difference whether it’s a good thing or not. It’s ludicrous to say it’s a cover up for ineptitude on the government’s behalf.

Regarding the age divide on this, I’m GenX, a firmly middle aged person! But all my friends and local social circle of similar age are very much into the VE celebration and very misty eyed about it indeed. To clarify, it seems to be the nostalgia that drives their need to do the whole shebang on Friday. Which is not wrong but as I don’t share this view point, I feel bit lonely

FWIW I feel less irritated about it today. I only had slept 4 hours the night before and felt anxious about everything yesterday. Today, after a lot better sleep, it doesn’t seem to annoying anymore. We still won’t take part though.

'our older generation will love it VE day was 75 years ago. You would have to be over 80 to have any recollection of it at all. 90 year olds would have been 15.'

My DGM was born in 1935 so was around for WW2/VE day but has very little memory of it, given she was 10 at VE Day. She's all in for this celebration but only because it's an excuse for her to be out of the house (not social distancing) with her friends and neighbours... like they do every Thursday for 'the clap'.

I think (apart from the singing) it sounds quite nice.

We won’t be taking part though. For a start we don’t have a front garden!

She's all in for this celebration but only because it's an excuse for her to be out of the house (not social distancing) with her friends and neighbours... like they do every Thursday for 'the clap'

Exactly. Nothing to do with VE day then... it's an excuse for a knees up out in the road and people won't keep their distance.

Do we not have silence on 11 November and then again at the Remembrance services? Too many silences devalues them.

Just what I said. Too many and a lot of people will ignore them.

It’s ludicrous to say it’s a cover up for ineptitude on the government’s behalf

It will be interesting to see if it's bigged up in the press briefings.

It will be interesting to see if it's bigged up in the press briefings

It will be. It was already mentioned this morning by a Minister on the Today programme.

Many people died in the war so we could have our NHS - which is basically what he said.

Of course it will be bigger up at the briefings It would be irresistible not to.

You’ll go a long way to find a bigger critic of this shambles of a government than me but even I can see that a scaled down version of long planned commemoration of VE Day can’t be cover up for two months’ incompetence. Or at least to anyone with half a brain.

"Many people died in the war so we could have our NHS - which is basically what he said."

Oh Christ are we now trying to backdate the NHS to wartime?

I've just got half a brain then, there are many others the same as me too, both on this thread and elsewhere. Maybe we're not the ones with half a brain?

@PhilSwagielka
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.

It will. I went 18 years ago with my Shul. I was looking for answers to the fate of my mother's extended family. I didn't get them, I think they were sent to one of the extermination camps.

For anyone interested the actual extermination camps were:
Chelmno
Sobibor
Treblinka
You were literally taken from the transports and murdered within the hour of your arrival.

Auschwitz was initially a work camp but extended into Auschwitz ll (Birkenau - the women's camp where the large crematoria were built) and Auschwitz lll (Monowitz) it's the largest.
There were many others: Dachau, Bergen Belsen, Theresinstadt, Mathausen, etc mostly in Central Europe and where the Death Marches ended up.

Apologies if you know all of this already.

It sickens me that papers like the Daily Mail and the Daily Express will big this up in their papers - when they do exactly the same thing as happened prior to WW2 and help create an atmosphere of 'them' and 'us' and hate against groups through the messages they put out.

@Roussette, I’m well aware you’ve got more than half a brain. I’m also well aware you disagree with me on principle even though we share the same politics.

If you can explain how events, which have been many months in the planning and have been scaled back, are designed to cover incompetence in the handling of a virus which was unheard of four months ago, I’m all ears.

Alsohuman I'll have you know... my brain is very tiny and shrinking by the minute with all the dross I'm watching during lockdown

I just think it will be a diversion, like Boris bebe, like his chapter and verse on how he nearly died etc etc. Baby born safely - good - move on. It oes not need to be mentioned again. Boris recovered from Clovid - good, move on, stop bringing out newspaper pieces on how horrible it was.
The trouble is... there will be people out there who hang on his every word on these aspects, and don't look at how the Govt are handling, and have handled the pandemic.