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???

And since when has VE Day/ Liberation Day across Europe ever glorified war? Generally it does the opposite of that.

Except the plans for Vera Lynn singsongs, and putting a cardboard model of a soldier in you window are very much on the jingoistic end of the celebrations. Where is the talk about rebuilding and promoting peace? For all the bluster about Churchill, 2 months after VE day people decided that they had had all that up to here and voted in a Government which brought in the welfare state.

@Handsoffisback I didn't say Britain didn't do anything good. I'm saying it wasn't the wonderful all-out victory so many people perceive it to be.

You are right, British troops did liberate Bergen-Belsen and that is to be celebrated. But it should not be forgotten that the only reason British troops were there to liberate the camp is because Britain had massive help from other countries to get there. Without foreign troops, supplies, transport, aircraft, weaponry, and ammunition, Britain would have been watching from the sidelines.

Another poster mentioned Russia, which I am ashamed to say I left out of my previous post as I was focussed on the western front. They are absolutely correct - Russia did more to secure victory in Europe over the Nazi regime than almost any other.

Won't be doing it.
But if we were singing Bohemian Rhapsody I'd definitely join in on the doorstep waving something, probably not a flag.

Scones yes please.

2 min silence, Churchill and a national singalong - absolutely not.

The sooner this country gets over its WWII obsession the better it will be.

Nah, not for me. I’m just looking forward to a long weekend.

I live in cul de sac of 70s terraces and since I don't really know any of my neighbours won't be engaging. May stick a bit of bunting in the window to show willing.

I'm still going care visits to my elderly parents who were tiny evacuees in WW2 so might suggest we have some nice tea and cake and watch whatever's on telly about it together.

I've not had any leaflets through my door yet. I'm not sure if my street is doing anything. They do do the NHS clap though.

For those of us who live alone, and I'm not saying this to be a bitch, how do we celebrate exactly?

If anything we should be celebrating Agincourt. Now there was a British victory to be proud of. We could restart our legitimate claim to parts of France as well

your freedom to do whatever you like

Says it all, really.

The fact that posters can’t distinguish between observing/marking the day and celebrating it is concerning.

The deaths of millions, horrific. A silence, contemplation, a prayer, totally appropriate. Bunting, cake, singalongs? Totally and completely different....

Of course the populace celebrated the war being over on the original VE Day. They’d been through something horribly traumatic and survived. But the generation eating scones and putting pin curls in their hair didn’t go through that traumatic thing, they’re not celebrating the rush of having survived it. It’s totally different and with the befit of hindsight and history we should be grateful, thankful, respectful, not gleeful.

I'm going to embrace the Blitz spirit by shagging a GI round the back of the village hall in exchange for a bag of self-raising flour and some tinned tomatoes.

Marking VE Day - yes, we will be.

Subscribing to a FB fuelled twee jingoistic day-long agenda that seems to be orchestrated to invoke fond memories of a humanitarian atrocity, on a rare day off - we will absolutely not be

That's pretty much how I feel about it.

I dont think I've had any info on VE day where I live. We live in a very liberal/Guardianish area so maybe thats why. I dont know. Its not really my kind of thing and I can't imagine my late teens will give a monkeys about it.

My father grew up during the war was evacuated etc and he's not a fan of jingoistic stuff, the royal family or any of that sentimental war stuff. He just cant stand to see food wasted and stockpiling - those are his lasting feelings from growing up with rationing and food shortages. He thinks we fought the war not to be jingoistic.

Why don’t you want people to have the choice to celebrate and show pride in their country?

Why is Victory in Europe showing pride in your country? It was an alliance, as far as the United Kingdom was concerned, very much assisted by Commonwealth troops from across the globe. Let's remember that an evil regime was defeated. Let's remember that we have to be vigilant against this sort of horror taking hold again. That for me is the real commemoration.

I think it’s a great idea. Anything to relieve the boredom. Also a great learning opportunity for the kids.

Incidentally, for anyone who would like to learn more about WW2, I recommend the series WW2 In Colour on Netflix. Slight American bias and it doesn't cover much in the way of the Mediterranean or African theatres, but it gives a good overview of the war in the Pacific and in the Eastern and Western European fronts. It's detailed and informative but doesn't get too bogged down in the minutiae.

I’d probably join in anything that’s going on at the moment!

Russia did more to secure victory in Europe over the Nazi regime than almost any other.

The Russians were the ones who liberated Auschwitz, don't forget.
Not that this meant that Stalin's regime wasn't itself monstrous. But it would have been a very different outlook for us all if Hitler hadn't been stupid enough to open up a second front with the Russians.

Oh no this won't do, this kind of jingoistic tubthumping belongs in the Cretaceous Period with all the Neanderthals that endorse it. No I think it would be much better to have a National hate our country day instead. We can all sit around a campfire (at a 2 metre distance) and see if we can all outdo each other with stories of how much we wish we weren't British. Whoever gets to slavery first of course wins.

Huh? I'm just wondering why there's so much cloak and dagger on MN about where people come from, especially if/when they take a pop at Brits and the UK.

Yeah, the coy 'in my country' thing always cracks me up.

I've seen a few threads where the poster slags off all things British and talks about how 'in my country' everything is so much better. Ask her what country she comes from and she goes all coy. Even small countries usually have at least a few million people so it's not as though she's going to out herself. So why the secrecy?

I’m firmly convinced that all this jollity, Churchill and Her Maj speeches and tea-and-cake nonsense is to distract us from making plans to start looting! “We’ll Meet Again”? Oh, please sod off

It is showing gratitude and pride in the people who contributed to the war effort and those who made the ultimate sacrifice peregrina.

My father was a young adult when the war started tried to do that in his post war work. He also tried to promote international co-operation. He would have had no time for Vera Lynn sing songs.

I take my cue from him, thanks.

@Kimtendo so not joining in a VE Day event means we all hate our country.

Got it.

I’m getting fed up of all this public virtue signaling in the bloody doorstep every 5 minutes for something or other! Won’t be doing it myself. Thanks for the heads up.