Are we forgetting the lessons of VE Day?

There is a grim irony in today’s announcement of the commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of VE Day on 8 May – at the very time that the Western alliance is collapsing. The plans include dressing the Cenotaph in Union flags, a military procession and flypast in London and a service of remembrance and thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey, followed by a concert. All good, and all appropriate. 

But, according to the government press release, ‘street parties will also be held across the country’. Really? The symmetry is obvious, of course. VE Day was one big street party as the country celebrated the defeat of the Nazis and the triumph of freedom. The events in the White House over the past few days, however, and the sudden volte face in which the US has gone from being the leader of the free world to siding with Russia, North Korea and Belarus against Ukraine in a vote at the United Nations, have changed everything.