Government announces 2014-18 Programme

[NigelS]

BBC Radio news is currently covering the Government's announcement of the programme for the 2014-2018 Centenary events. Nothing on-line just yet...

Yesterdays Sunday Telegraph 9th June carried a story ahead of the announcement Click ; The BBC's website gives on its 'Week Ahead' in politics page Click that there is to be a debate in Westminster Hall tomorrow (Tuesday):

Over in Westminster Hall there are debates led by backbenchers - my eye was caught by the Conservative and military historian Keith Simpson's debate (10.30am - 11am) on Parliament and commemorating World War I.

NigelS

[NigelS]

From Gov.UK Click

NigelS

[Anthony Pigott]

Max Hastings and Maria Miller on the Today programme this morning:

http://www.bbc.co.uk...rammes/b02m7fz5

(starts about 1:30 in)

[bruce]

I await with interest further details, especially about the two pupils and a teacher from each school in England (that is, state funded ones only!). One presumes that this will be a boy and a girl, plus one teacher. So then, who coordinates the filling of the coach, with up to 15 schools? To make it financially viable, there must be 45 on each coach, but with the make-up of the passengers, this will also require 45 separate bedrooms. On the basis that the trip is three days and two nights, this will be fine for those in Kent and Surrey, but for schools in Workington or Penzance? Some more thinking might be needed......Bruce

[Seadog]

I wonder just how much coverage of this will be granted to the public, should be some moving events marking what after all is the real heritage of the Great War:

The MOD have at last agreed to use DNA profiling in an effort to identify the 15 soldiers found in Beaucamps-Ligny in November 2009. These soldiers will be buried in October 2014 on a date yet to be decided and hopefully some if not all will be identified by name. That is the good news the bad news is that due to the efforts of Lord Faulkner of Worcester the chairman of the All-Party War Heritage Group we now know that there are a total of 75 SETS OF INDIVIDUAL BRITISH SOLDIERS REMAINS, held in store by the CWGC in their Arras office awaiting release for burial by the MOD. This figure includes the BL-15 so there are at least 60 sets of human remains still awaiting action by the MOD department responsible. In my opinion this is an outrage and a disgusting way to treat our dead many of which were found over 5 years ago on the battlefields of Europe. The even worse news is that the MOD intends to bury all of the 60 before July 2014 whether they have received the dignity of a name or not. What a foul way to treat our war dead in the very year which marks the centenary of the start of the slaughter of WW1.

Norman

[horatio2]

I am losing my touch. I guessed it would be twelve hours before the carping, criticism and finger-pointing started on this thread. It only took three hours!

[Seadog]

Carping and criticism?, is not Bruce (Post 4) making a perfectly valid point and even Max Hasting in his observations regarding the portrayal of Britains role in the war, as for my post what you read here are just the facts nothing more and nothing less if you find this treatment of our dead acceptable then that is your prerogative, it most certainly is not and never will be my view. I see the MOD as using the centenary to dispose of the accumulated human remains stored since 2008 which in my opinion is a deliberate cynical act to cover their total inability to undertake their responsibilities in a manner befitting our dead. Perhaps it would be interesting to consider that among the 60 sets of remains of the dead there could be and I stress could be those of a holder of the highest award for gallantry, the Victoria Cross.

http://1914-1918.inv...howtopic=190238

Norman

[Anneca]

Well said Norman!

Anne

[NigelS]

Further articles 'Children will ensure we do not forget Great War' & 'How Should we remember? (an article by Harry Mount, but not on line as yet) appear in today's Telegraph (10th June). It's unclear whether the naming of streets after VC winners idea is just to be after those of the Great War or all recipients: I would have thought all, and preferably in an area locally to where they lived. (I have been unable to find the article by Eric Pickles referred to either online or printed - said to have been written for Telegraph.co.uk - so it's probably yet to be published.)

IMO It would be rather hypocritical of the Government to make a great deal of noise on 2014-18 commemorations planned, whilst the MOD has/is not taking appropriate and respectful action over the stored remains of bodies recovered from the battlefields by planning a belated 'clear the decks' type operation that Norman (Seadog) has indicated is on the cards.

NigelS

[Dragon]

Re Eric Pickles' article: Do you mean this piece? And Harry Mount - this?

[NigelS]

Re Eric Pickles' article: Do you mean this piece? And Harry Mount - this?

That's them Dragon, thanks. The Telegraph's Search function, even though 'enhanced by Google' ain't all it could be!

NigelS

[Seadog]

Further to my above posts if members have not seen the MOD declaration about all outstanding human remains being buried before July 2014, please see post 50 on the following link.

http://1914-1918.inv...ic=189570&st=25

I cannot come to any other conclusion than that already expressed in my posts here.

Norman

[Dragon]

Nigel, I used Google News which is great for picking up stories.

[NigelS]

I've often found this in past, even an 'ordinary' Google often picks up Telegraph stories before the paper's own search; I don't always learn from my previous mistakes though...

NigelS

[Seadog]

Brace yourselves!, this is the official logo for the centenary. This special First World War Centenary logo will be used by individuals, organisations, companies and charities to mark their own centenary events and there was I thinking that perhaps some version of the poppy would be used.

Courtesy of the Daily Mail

Norman

[Anneca]

Further to my above posts if members have not seen the MOD declaration about all outstanding human remains being buried before July 2014, please see post 50 on the following link.

http://1914-1918.inv...ic=189570&st=25

I cannot come to any other conclusion than that already expressed in my posts here.

Norman

I had not seen the MOD declaration Norman, thank you for posting.

Anne

[Seadog]

No problem Anne thank you for your interest in this subject.

Regards

Norman

[Mark Hone]

To be fair, the logo has been in existence for over a year via the 'Centenary Partnership' site.

[Anthony Pigott]

The WFA web site's carrying a story entitled:

Battle of Amiens 1918 to be commemorated as part of the Great War Centenary

No sign of Amiens on any of the Government blurb that I could see, though.

[stripeyman]

Max Hastings and Maria Miller on the Today programme this morning:

http://www.bbc.co.uk...rammes/b02m7fz5

(starts about 1:30 in)

Maria Miller says she is going to "set out the facts" I think that it is impossible to do this. I have no faith in any of this official commemoration. It will be dressed up to distort "the facts".

[Chris_B]

I've not read all the news yet, but the wishy-washy plans of HMG surprise me not one jot. Did you really expect anything different? Norman, you're not alone.

P.S. I choked on my toast when I read Hastings' comment about the discussions to privatise the CWGC.

[Chris_B]

Maria Miller says she is going to "set out the facts" I think that it is impossible to do this. I have no faith in any of this official commemoration. It will be dressed up to distort "the facts".

I have exactly the same fears.

[Chris_B]

Just how many of our fellow Britons are of the generation whose parents and grandparents lived through and fought in the two world wars, and whose aunts, uncles, great aunts and great uncles and cousins etc. did the same? Is it perverse that my wife and I feel lucky we can count our war dead on the fingers of two hands? I'd like to think we've not forgotten them, nor the bereaved left behind. We don't forget the widows with children who were obliged to enter loveless marriages in order to survive. We don't forget the relative by marriage whose medical report shows multiple revisions of an amputated arm and the agonies suffered. We don't forget the suicide of another after the Great War. We don't forget the young men who never lived to enjoy family life, and with no or only distant living relatives have faded from the pages of history, in many case only to be just another long forgotten name carved in stone or forged in metal with a headstone in a far off land if they are lucky.

1914 has a particular significance for me. In November my grandfather walked the few miles from his home near Tooting Junction to the Drill Hall in St.Georges Road Wimbledon to volunteer. Earlier in the year his two cousins, brothers Samuel and Reuben, had volunteered. My grandfather survived, Samuel (”George” to the family) was killed after just a fortnight at the front, Reuben was wounded and taken POW late in the war.

To me, the paucity of HMG's mealy mouthed PC driven ideas are an insult to these men and countless others.

[Chris_Baker]

As I said at http://www.longlongt.../index.php/677/

12 November 1918: F. Foch, Marshal of France, Commander in Chief of the Allied Armies:

"After bringing the enemy's attack to a stand by your stubborn defence, you attacked him without respite for several months, with inexhaustible energy and unwavering faith. You have won the greatest battle in history and have saved the most sacred of all causes, the Liberty of the World. Well may you be proud! You have covered your standards with immortal glory, and the gratitude of posterity will be forever yours".

2013: novelist Sebastian Faulks, member of the advisory committee on the centenary, advises that by 2018 the commemorations should show "a modest sense of achievement". (The "Times", 27 April).

I still do not understand why novelists have any place on the organising committee.

[Chris_B]

Chris,

My visits here have been few and far between for the last two years. So I've not kept up with all that's been said and thank you for that reminder. I totally agree more with your comments. How is Sebastian Faulks qualified to have any input at all? Isn't it time to look beyond the simplicity of the "WW1 bad, WW2 good" view? Is there no room to understand the rivers of blood, sweat and tears shed in order not to be defeated?

My impression is that to HMG it's all a bit embarrassing and they'd rather forget the whole thing. You can just hear them say: "Let's just have a jolly football match and rapidly move on".