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David Cameron today used a speech at the Imperial War Museum to reveal a £50million programme for Britain to commemorate the landmark anniversary of the start of the Great War. Schoolchildren will learn about the conflict and visit the battlefields, memorial services will be held across the country and major new exhibitions will explain the war to a new generation.
Is that taxpayers’ money well spent? :roll:
I was just reading about this and had very mixed feelings.
On the one hand I think we should be marking it, that we should make sure it’s never forgotten…
On the other hand does it really need to cost £50 million when we’re in the state we’re in? It’s not even as if it will benefit the economy or provide new jobs or help the long term unemployed and/or disabled get back into work or…I could go on and on.
Hmmmmm :-k
I know what you mean Jen and we already commemorate the end of the war as it is with Armistice Day.
Cameron needs to look as if he’s busy, but I think his advisors have got it wrong with this idea.
I agree. I watched a documentary about our soldiers coming back from Afghanistan, to rotten (some of them on the zemth floor of a high-rise flats who have lost limbs) council flats/houses etc etc – surely the zillions would be better used to give them better housing, and more sufference pay than they are getting now which is pittance?! I could go on, and on, and be more specific, but I think you’ll know what I am on about.
@anc wrote:
I agree. I watched a documentary about our soldiers coming back from Afghanistan, to rotten (some of them on the zemth floor of a high-rise flats who have lost limbs) council flats/houses etc etc – surely the zillions would be better used to give them better housing, and more sufference pay than they are getting now which is pittance?! I could go on, and on, and be more specific, but I think you’ll know what I am on about.
Good point anc.
You know, we go from election to election knowing that whoever takes charge of this country won’t be up to the job and it kind of makes you wonder if there is actually a point to voting.
@terry wrote:
You know, we go from election to election knowing that whoever takes charge of this country won’t be up to the job and it kind of makes you wonder if there is actually a point to voting.
These days I find myself more and more confused on who to vote for, they all seem much of a muchness, each as bad as each other, and I don’t have any confidence in any of their abilities to run the country. There don’t seem to be any strong characters that could deal with a crisis and their policies seem to pretty much merge into one big amorphous mess. Do they have the foggiest idea on how to get us out of our current mess? I don’t really think so.
So is there a point to voting? Yes. Women suffered so I can vote, there are people all over the world who still have no right to vote, to squander such a right would not sit easily on my conscience and the fact that I live in a party stronghold where my vote doesn’t make much difference is immaterial. Besides, if you don’t vote, how can you complain? :wink:
Jen
I agree with the point you make about there being no divisive line between policies.
For instance, none of the three main parties has a policy for opting out of the EU and yet there is a large groundswell of support throughout Europe for an end to the EU.
The only party I’ll ever vote for is one that will give a referendum on our EU membership.
Apart from that, as you say, none of the leading lights in politics has the charisma or ability to unite the voters behind them.
I just think we’re suffering as a country and urgently need somebody to take charge and make decisions (however unpopular those decisions might be).Yes.
There are clear parallels between the Great War and life today, especially on message boards.
Where once you saw your guts being blown to bits in slow motion at the Somme, you now relive the moment mentally by reading a sir actor thread; where once you fed obese trench rodents upon newly acquired shrapnel wounds, now you have to chat to the fella in a room and do that weird keyboard thing that your whole genetic structure is throwing banshee cries at.
DISCLAIMER
** no semi-colons were harmed, or even slightly insulted wotever, in this post **This isn’t new, my kids have all had school visits to the battlefields and done projects on them, Looks like Cameron wants credit for someone else’s initiative, quick as he is to try to blame someone else for any problems . . Quelle surprise!
@terry wrote:
I just think we’re suffering as a country and urgently need somebody to take charge and make decisions (however unpopular those decisions might be).
And to do it in a firm and decisive way, not caring for scoring media points or apologising and saying things like “I know it’s tough but it’s tough on all of us, we’re all in this together” when we’re blatantly not.
I can’t see anyone like that on the political horizon though :(
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