By Jon Swain
I am writing this piece on 9th November, having just watched a TV programme about Japanese prisoners of war during World War II. Their extraordinary suffering, both physical and mental, epitomised the selfless sacrifice made by so many people in those desperate times.
At a time when thousands of services were due to take place across the country on Remembrance Sunday, it may be worth taking stock and considering whether we have lived up to the expectations of the lost generations. In other words are we, today, worth the price they paid? Have we ensured the preservation of the rights and fundamental liberties that they fought to preserve?
We are told today that it is essential for our safety to have identity cards and that a national DNA database is in all our interests. The right to silence, when accused, is said to be the refuge of the guilty, rather than a protection for the innocent. In a memorable phrase, the Junior Minister for Education told the nation, via Radio 4, that “the right to freedom is not unfettered”. What are the chains that our Government believes should hobble that fundamental human right? What must our heroes think, when they see arrogant politicians who have no sense of moral responsibility, but simply an eye on the latest opinion polls, so casually dispense with the values and civil liberties that they were willing to give their lives to protect? I need no ID card to demonstrate that I am who I am and nor do you. I have no wish to be a number in a National catalogue. I am a man, not a number.
What would-be conquerors have failed to achieve over the centuries is being done from within, stealthily and surreptitiously, in appeals to presumed prejudices against the weak and vulnerable. What are we doing to protect those who need that protection? Do not be seduced by the arguments of those who replicate the controlling ambitions of dictators down the ages. Is our society a fit monument for Remembrance? Be honest with yourself. Would our heroes approve of our avaricious, materialistic and utterly selfish state? I think not. It is our duty to ensure that their sacrifice was not in vain. We must not fail them.