It is not today. It is on 11th November, and the whole point of it is that it is not a public holiday. Rather, at eleven o’clock in the morning, the ordinary routine of daily life is interrupted. Or, at least, it used to be. And it should be again.
As for improving relations between the general public and the Armed Forces, the latter should be brought home from Afghanistan and Iraq, and certainly not sent to Iran. If they are not, then they should simply bring themselves home, thus causing our rancid Political Class to collapse without so much as a shot's needing to be fired. Now that really would be doing their duty in the defence of the Realm.
The 11th November thing had fallen by the wayside until quite properly revived by the Major Government in the early 1990s.
ReplyDeleteIn that first year the 11th November was a Saturday. I remember it well because I was actually on assignment in London (near Covent Garden) and walked out from my hotel to Covent Garden to see what happened at 11am.
Since then it has I think peaked and as you observe showing support for them has in some way become entangled with support for the "Governments policy".