To not want to 'celebrate' VE

[Ramblethroughthebrambles]

I've been asked to take part in VE celebrations this week. I've politely declined. It feels OK to me to join in a solemn commemoration, with a focus on how to make sure this never happens again, but not a celebration of victory which all the UK events seem to be. I'm grateful for the sacrifices so many soldiers and others made and that we didn't become part of the Nazi empire. I completely get why people originally celebrated the end of such an awful war and its hardships. But celebrating military victory 80 years on doesn't sit right with me, especially given the conflicts in the world today. It seems to normalise military intervention and sends the message that military victory is a 'good thing' when often it's a result of failures in international diplomacy/ strategy / long term thinking. I'm not a complete pacifist and recognise there are times when military intervention is a necessary evil. But that doesn't make me want to celebrate it.

I never hear anyone else expressing this view in public. There seems to be an expectation that we'll all want to get the bunting out and have a tea party. So AIBU?

I get exceedingly tired of all the flag waving and let's all have a jolly cuppa sitting in the underground to keep safe from the nazis. It was a dreadful war. Horrid things happened. Let's not try to do it all again. And again.

Meanwhile where I live the same people who are shouting at the council for overspending are also shouting that the council hasn't forked out for a big VE party. And then shout that the council is stupidly spending money to commemorate veterans who were based in our area but who happen to be from India originally.

I dunno, I think you'd have been celebrating if we'd lived then.

VE Day - bit of mild jingoism and some prime virtue signalling thrown in. What's not to love ...

My issue is that all the coverage was mainly about the Royals and that tart Camilla .

Would of been good to see some actual footage of VE Day, more of the veterans and events around the Country

Sigh. 🤷‍♀️🙄

Thank you for this comment - I completely agree. Have just been torn apart on Gransnet for expressing this exact sentiment!!!!!

My Dad sailed on the North Atlantic convoys to Russia - so freezingly cold and dangerous with the German U-boats patrolling. He was totally opposed to the glorification of war (and the Royal family)!!!! I haven't watched the tv today but have been remembering my lovely Dad - coincidentally it's his birthday today.

We should be looking forward, for the sake of our young people, not back.

Oh stop, for goodness sake.

Its a pretty happy day for me, when I think of the indescribable relief Jewish (and other persecuted people) must have felt on that day.

Of course. Celebrate the end of the war on our immediate doorstep and bombing if our country absolutely.

80 years later? Commemorate it.

I see it as celebrating that good triumphed over evil. War is awful so bringing it to an end and saving lives that would otherwise be lost can only be something to celebrate.

Hopefully not to be insensitive, but is that not also tinged with a great sadness, thinking of all the Jewish people who suffered and died, and have done in many places since?

Of course, I’m saying it would also be tinged with great sadness for us also, as humans.

But evil is seriously threatening good again on more than one front. I wonder how many of the people attending The Mall today care about anything other than the chance to see some Royals and have a day out?

I think it’s pretty ironic that Starmer and co were front and centre of the celebrations today, whilst continuing to vote to support the genocide in the Middle East. We clearly haven’t learnt anything from the past and I also think it’s pretty crass to celebrate the UK as some sort of heroes on the “right” side of history, while we’re literally funding the bombing of innocent civilians, including babies, children, healthcare workers and journalists in at least a couple of other countries as we speak.

I do think it’s right and important that the living veterans themselves are commemorated and commended though - we do all owe them a great debt.

As the daughter of a German Jew who came to the UK as a refugee in 1939, I think there is plenty to celebrate. Why not wave a few flags?

Bloody Ross Kemp now on TV saying it was a good day out .

It is a celebration of the courage and sacrifice of those who fought and died that we may live and is a public recognition of thanks rather than a Trumpish 'we won, suck it up losers' statement. So YABU.

🙄🤦🏼‍♀️

Then don’t OP.

'That tart'?!

It's not for anybody else to tell you ŵhether you are being unreasonable. I shall be celebrating it because it is and always will be a significant event - to me.

Well she wouldn’t give him the time of day if he was Charles the self serve supervisor would she.

Everyone addressing her as “the Queen” as well need to give their head a wobble.

And?

Seriously, stop trying to derail the thread.

I’m immensely grateful that we didn’t get a nazi victory here, my mother would have never met my father, or she might not have been allowed to live. I am so grateful for how this nation stood firm for its beliefs against evil. I’ll celebrate.

You sound like a typically ungrateful leftie unable to grasp your own privilege, and the sacrifices made to give you the freedom to post your thoughts in English today on a forum.

How do you think things would have turned out without the victory??