WWI centenary

Biohazard · 11 Oct 2012 at 17:50

Von Smallhausen said:
Which soldiers has David Cameron sent to their deaths ? It wasn't the Tories on his watch who sent troops into Iraq and Afghanistan.

Also, and I appreciate you may not have implied it, but you could argue WWI was a more just cause than Iraq or Afghanistan.

They did not oppose the invasions in Parliament, nor did they make any effort to profess anything was amiss until it had happened.

The Establishment went to war.

nst68 · 11 Oct 2012 at 18:28

Jono said:
They should recreate the trenches so that the yoof of today know what people had to go through.

I think that's a good idea, they're talking about taking the kids to war cemeteries, the number of graves might have an effect on them, but shame they won't create a real trench with all the mud and shelling

cm1179 · 11 Oct 2012 at 18:36

£50m we're spunking on this?

obviously we have no other more attentive causes?

Uther · 11 Oct 2012 at 21:36

I would rather commemorate the end of the war in (2018) rather than the beginning of it.

MrMoonX · 11 Oct 2012 at 21:48

£50m??? Seriously , in any case you commemorate the end of a war not the beginning, and as there is no one left alive from WW1 we should commit it to the history books, frankly the whole idea is retarded.

OhEsEcks · 11 Oct 2012 at 22:58

I'm looking forward more to the parades and memorials in 2016 for The Somme and 36th Ulster Division rememberance here in Northern Ireland. The start of The Somme falls on the same day (by the old calander of the time) as the Battle Of The Boyne, so holds extra significance.

Also, while the 16th Irish Division were being gassed in Hulluch before later being moved to The Somme, the Easter Rising was taking place in Ireland. So I'm hoping to get down to Dublin for a day or two for those parades and memorials as well.

TheMightyTen · 12 Oct 2012 at 08:48

MrMoonX said:
£50m??? Seriously , in any case you commemorate the end of a war not the beginning, and as there is no one left alive from WW1 we should commit it to the history books, frankly the whole idea is retarded.

So it is wrong to mark the event that began a European war that did not end until 9th November 1989??? Every day farmers across Belgium and France find unexploded ordnance, the bodies of the lost of both sides are still being recovered and attempts made to identify and repatriate them.

The part of your quote I have bolded I find quite odd and to be honest flippant bordering on offensive, what does it matter whether anyone is alive or not, visit the battlefields, visit the row upon row of grave stones, read the horrors perpetrated and suffered in the first great industrial war or the modern world and their alone is a reason to not consign it to the history books. The war wasn't just a war on the battlefields it was a war at every level of the social strata that irrevocably changed the fabric and make up of modern Britain, a war where the current events in the Middle East can be traced directly back to. In short the events that began in 1914 are very much part of who I am and what I am, the same for all of us, it was such a monumental event it will forever leave a mark on the national psyche.

In the words of R. G. Collingwood

"History is for human self-knowledge ... the only clue to what man can do is what man has done. The value of history, then, is that it teaches us what man has done and thus what man is."

a1ex2001 · 12 Oct 2012 at 10:12

I too would much rather see this celebration in 2018, to celebrate the start seems rather odd and it will be even more odd if they then 4 years later spend even more money trying to out do the previous 'celebration'

TheMightyTen · 12 Oct 2012 at 10:18

a1ex2001 said:
I too would much rather see this celebration in 2018, to celebrate the start seems rather odd and it will be even more odd if they then 4 years later spend even more money trying to out do the previous 'celebration'

It's not a celebration, it's a commemoration, as I stated above it really would do people well to learn the difference.

Admiral Huddy · 12 Oct 2012 at 10:43

I don't think it hurts to commemorate any of the major events between those years. I don't think it needs to be a grand speculator. Just something to bring it to the attention so we don't forget not only the circumstances that led to the atrocities, but to appreciate those that sacrificed their lives for our freedom way have and enjoy today.

Just slightly off topic. I have a lady where I live who dedicates her spare time to commemorate the fallen victims of conflict. I built her a website to help ( www.galleywoodfolk.co.uk ). She has written a book too which is very comprehensive and goes into much more detail. On speaking to her, I'm always overwhelmed by the stories I hear.

Disco Boy · 12 Oct 2012 at 10:43

a1ex2001 said:
I too would much rather see this celebration in 2018, to celebrate the start seems rather odd and it will be even more odd if they then 4 years later spend even more money trying to out do the previous 'celebration'

I agree that remembrance day 2018 is a more logical time for the commemoration.

That or 28th July (the date WW1 began).

TheMightyTen · 12 Oct 2012 at 11:06

Admiral Huddy said:
..........Just slightly off topic. I have a lady where I live who dedicates her spare time to commemorate the fallen victims of conflict. I built her a website to help ( www.galleywoodfolk.co.uk ). She has written a book too which is very copmprehensive and goes into much more detail. On speaking to her, I'm always overwhelmed by the stories I hear......

Sorry Admiral, I can't view the site at the moment as it's blocked by my work filter as Adult/Sexually Explict :confused:

I will have a good look when I get home, thanks for posting

Disco Boy said:
That or 28th July (the date WW1 began).

Or it could be 4th August which is the day Britain declared war on Germany. The state of war existed form 11pm Tuesday 4th August to be more precise it was the day after a bank holiday so it took quite a few people by surprise as they had been away.

One of my favourite accounts of the start of the war and a grand example of the society and world the outbreak of war would ring the death knell of is that of Charles Chabot who was living in Bankok at the time:

We’d been playing a series of rugby football games and as a final game of the session the Germans had challenged the rest, and this was to be followed by dinner at the German Club. We were all seated around the table, mixed up obviously, there was a German here and next to him there was an Englishman and next to him there was a German and next to him there was a Frenchman and so on, and so on, and we were starting the rugby football dinner, and it was very like other rugby football dinners have been from time immemorial. A bang at the door, and a runner from the French Embassy with the extraordinary news of outbreak of war… None of the chaps here had ever seen a declaration of war before, we didn’t know what we ought to do, whether we ought to seize a knife off the table and plunge it into the next chap or what! But after a little bit of discussion we decided that as far as we were concerned the war was going to start tomorrow and it wasn’t going to start tonight, and the party proceeded and that was that.

aln · 12 Oct 2012 at 14:50

simulatorman said:
WWI was not a dubious overseas war to acquire minerals/oil or building contracts for the USA. Do you know any history at all?

Stolly said:
wwi was all about US building contracts. You heard it here first.

in other news, you are a fool.

Its funny how you read what you want from that. He was clearly suggesting that the best way to honour our previous fallen would be ensure we remained a country worth dying for in the present and future.

Neil79 · 12 Oct 2012 at 14:57

"Or should this be a special Sunday where we close the shops and have a football-free day and find ways to bring us together and understand our history and the country we have become?

What's that then?, full of immigrants,chavs, drunk louts and ruled by europe?. Actually I can't think of any our older generation who are happy with the way England has become

The only reason David Cameron is doing this is for PR, he is scum towards disabled people and as far as i'm concerned can swivel