This week marks the 80th anniversary of VE Day – the day when the allied forces in Europe accepted the unconditional surrender of the German forces at the end of World War II.
There are a number of events across the district to celebrate the day, an echo of the street celebrations that happened around Stroud that evening in 1945.
We should all take a moment to think about what the UK achieved during the war. It was, by any measure, a remarkable military victory, pursued by our armies, but sustained by the sacrifice and hard work of people at home. It’s good to remember that it was only possible because we worked closely with other countries around the world.
It was a time when people came together to defeat a common threat.
The war saw the back of the Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists. During the war the country utterly rejected the politics of division and hatred that they had espoused through the 1930s, when they were cheered on by, notably, the Daily Mail, and others.
It’s been a long journey since 1945. Some things have changed for the good – the NHS, welfare state, and education, for example, while others have come and gone: nationalisation, membership of the EU, and our role as a country that could lead the world. While I believe that living standards are unquestionably better for most people today, it is also true that inequality is worse.
The country has largely stagnated for the past 20 years, maybe longer. Sometimes it feels as if the reward we should be getting for our hard work – and people work very hard – simply disappears into thin air. People know that life could be better and are understandably searching for a change of direction: we know that we are somehow being short changed.
Ironically, as in the 1930s, there is a growing appeal in the easy answers. It’s very easy to scapegoat certain groups in society, especially those who are ‘different’.
I believe that the answers lie in the approach we took in 1945: tackling inequality, raising living standards, investing in our future, improving housing and transport, celebrating what we have in common (and what makes us different), and looking outwards, and working with other countries, not against them.
That, I think, is the legacy of VE Day, and what we achieved in WW2.
