Cllr. Williams’ statement about Remembrance Sunday: embarrassing and crass

In her weekly e-mail to residents sent out yesterday, the 9th November, LBWF Leader Cllr. Grace Williams tells us, next to a graphic of two red poppies, that ‘This weekend I, like many of you, will be remembering and honouring people who have lost their lives as a result of war’.

But Remembrance Sunday isn’t about ‘those who have lost their lives as a result of war’, in other words the dead in every conflict since time began.

It is much, much more specific than that.

The British Legion explains:

‘Remembrance Sunday is a national opportunity to remember the service and sacrifice of all those that have defended our freedoms and protected our way of life.

We remember the Armed Forces, and their families, from Britain and the Commonwealth, the vital role played by the emergency services and those who have lost their lives as a result of conflict or terrorism’.

So why has Cllr. Williams departed so much from this generally accepted definition?

Perhaps she’s playing politics, and wants to appear ‘inclusive’, possibly with one eye on events in Gaza?

But if so, this is particularly misplaced because Remembrance Sunday is already ‘inclusive’.

For example, the National Muslim War Memorial Trust estimates that 5.5 million Muslims participated on the allied side…during WWII’, and c. 1.5 million were killed in action.

And Remembrance Sunday is just as much about them as about anybody else.

It is said that Abraham Lincoln advised ‘Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt’.

Cllr. Williams might well take heed.