Will my generation still remember D-Day?

In the town of Sainte-Mère-Église, just inland of Utah Beach on the coast of Normandy, a crowd had gathered before an outdoor projector to watch the British, French and American heads of state pay respects to those who served and the thousands who gave their lives on D-Day. While the dancing and drinking and celebration of the town’s 80 years of liberation went on around me, I was caught off guard by the small, dignified faces of the veterans’ broadcast on screen.

Watching the royals, Sunak, President Biden and President Macron lean down to shake the weathered hands of veterans in wheelchairs, I saw them, for a moment, as leaders whose first duty is to serve with humility and devotion. I felt much less sentimental after news broke later that evening of Rishi Sunak’s early departure from France for an ITV interview.

Sunak urged his opponents not to politicise his absence. Obviously they did, considering it felt political enough on his end, putting his campaigning before the evening memorial at Omaha Beach.