The absence of any British representation from the seventieth anniversary of Victory Day in Moscow was a national disgrace.
There is no other way of putting it.
A national disgrace.
Political prisoner, activist, journalist, hymn-writer, emerging thinktanker, aspiring novelist, "tribal elder", 2019 parliamentary candidate for North West Durham, Shadow Leader of the Opposition, "Speedboat", "The Cockroach", eagerly awaiting the second (or possibly third) attempt to murder me.
Alas, and no matter who had won the election, the chances are that there would have been no UK representative in Moscow for this. Because, let's face it, the Red Army in 1945 did not exactly deal with "LGBT" issues in a sensitive manner, did it? Unlike, say, our beloved Qatari or Saudi allies in 2015...
ReplyDeleteIt was more the Soviet Union's gulags and mass murder of 20 million people that kinda ruled out British representation there.
ReplyDeleteThe subsequent Soviet mass murder and rape across Eastern Europe and the later rolling of tanks over Czech students put a bit of a dampener on the "victory"...
Silly little boy.
DeleteIf you think a parade of goose-stepping soldiers and military hardware presided over by an increasingly authoritarian leader with a persecution complex is a fitting way to mark the 70th VE Day then that's your choice.
ReplyDeleteAs for myself, I believe that most of Europe's leaders were right to give it a wide berth. Sombre, low key commemorations, as seen in the UK and France, are how the death and destruction of the Second World War should be marked.
I saw a few minutes of live coverage from Moscow of an Olympic opening ceremony style song and dance extravaganza. The young, smiley dancers perfomed in Red Army uniforms while big screens in the background showed grainy black and white footage of the war. Bizarre.
PS: 'Silly little boy' is an insult, not an argument. If your repsonse does not include a verb it probably needs a bit of work.