Fisticuffs at the cenotaph memorial

[Gulfalan67]

Morning folks.

This morning I was reading the news over my porridge and came across a story about the shouting and pushing of then right wing protestors at the war memorial in UK. I went on to watch some video footage of these dullards facing off with the police.

Hope none of you mob were there, practicing your Nazi salutes, because I consider the entire performance disgraceful and a complete disrespect to all the people who had given their lives and who’s sacrifice is honoured at the memorial.

They were baying something like ‘England until I die’. It sounded like footie hooliganism but I’m sure the sentiments were darker.

The other thing that struck me ( and I’m kinda embarrassed at this), is the cookie cutter similarity of the rabble. They were mainly older blokes, close to our age, white and if a certain socio-economic demographic. Lots seemed to have their right arm raised?

Look I get it. The cost of living crisis, people forced to make impossible choices to provide for their families, how easy to define somebody else as the source of your misfortunes. Exactly the same sentiments were deployed in 1930s in Germany.

But really, can anybody defend the behaviour of that rabble at the cenotaph? The UK seems horribly divided now. I do hope a new government can restore hope to everybody and rebuild a sense of community. If you guys can’t do it in your oldest democracy, what hope for us?

Really sad to see that

Alan

 

[Ystranc]

The complete lack of respect and decorum that was shown over the weekend would have been unthinkable only a few years back. There are no excuses for this behaviour, I see it as another symptom of the breakdown of our society.
Armistice day and Remembrance Sunday to me have always been a strange mixture of sadness and pride. A time to come together and show our respect for the fallen and those who served from all over the world.
Perhaps I’m getting old but I‘m getting to the point where I no longer want to watch news or television.

 

[cuckoo996]

It's completely disgraceful and disgusting inmho! It's the current government that have created this whole situation. Smoke screen I reckon. Get the people to divide and it causes a distraction. Look throughout history and whenever the conservatives have been in power, something along these lines always happens. Thatcherism created a whole North-South divide. I personally wouldn't rely on the government for anything more than making the situation worse. I rarely turn the telly on nowadays unless it's Attenborough.

 

[38thfoot]

Not sure that thatcher created the North South divide given it dates back to at least the war of the roses!

In terms of the ‘protestors/protectors’ my view is that the reality is that it’s a mix of many factors in people’s motivation. Some people will have genuinely attended because they felt there was a need to protect the cenotaph from a threat, others will have gone because they hoped there was a threat and they would be able to don their metaphorical suit of army and step into tue breach, others wouldn’t care if there was a threat and were just looking for a fight with the police. Within this range of motivations there would also be a degree of political manipulation from the full range of the spectrum.

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