During the War…

[Sugar Ape]

Why do all these right wing cunts fetishise the war? It’s fucking relentless, the absolute worst are people around the age of IDS who seem to think they actually fought in the war rather than being born after it ended. 
 

We had that article about home working yesterday but this one today takes the piss. People secretly enjoy scrambling around trying to get fuel and food? 

 

 

[Harry's Lad]

[Kevin D]

 

 

 

[Bjornebye]

[johnsusername]

Blitz spirit? Fucking hell. For people like this, the war is seen as something like Allo Allo. 

 

They should be tied to a chair and forced to watch The World at War. 

 

This, sadly, is more realistic of what was happening to many normal people- 

 

Durning Road disaster 1940

An estimated 300 people were sheltering in the basement of the three-storey Ernest Brown Junior Instructional College when it was struck in the early hours.

 

Among those sheltering were workers from nearby factories and passengers who had left trams during the air raid, in addition to local residents.

 

The bombed building crumpled into the shelter with the college furnaces exploding and people scalded by boiling water and steam.

 

Burst gas pipes were set alight while above the basement fire raged amidst the bombed out building.

 

Wardens, firemen and volunteers worked tirelessly to recover survivors and it took two days to pull the bodies out from the shelter.

 

Finally, with the fear of disease rampant, body parts that had not been recovered were covered with lime and the basement was sealed.

[Harry's Lad]

3 minutes ago, johnsusername said:

Blitz spirit? Fucking hell. For people like this, the war is seen as something like Allo Allo. 

 

They should be tied to a chair and forced to watch The World at War. 

 

This, sadly, is more realistic of what was happening to many normal people- 

 

Durning Road disaster 1940

An estimated 300 people were sheltering in the basement of the three-storey Ernest Brown Junior Instructional College when it was struck in the early hours.

 

Among those sheltering were workers from nearby factories and passengers who had left trams during the air raid, in addition to local residents.

 

The bombed building crumpled into the shelter with the college furnaces exploding and people scalded by boiling water and steam.

 

Burst gas pipes were set alight while above the basement fire raged amidst the bombed out building.

 

Wardens, firemen and volunteers worked tirelessly to recover survivors and it took two days to pull the bodies out from the shelter.

 

Finally, with the fear of disease rampant, body parts that had not been recovered were covered with lime and the basement was sealed.

Churchill spoke of this in the House of Commons. He said it was the worst civilian disaster of the war.

Some of the stories about it are horrific. 

 

[Bjornebye]

16 minutes ago, johnsusername said:

Blitz spirit? Fucking hell. For people like this, the war is seen as something like Allo Allo. 

 

They should be tied to a chair and forced to watch The World at War. 

 

This, sadly, is more realistic of what was happening to many normal people- 

 

Durning Road disaster 1940

An estimated 300 people were sheltering in the basement of the three-storey Ernest Brown Junior Instructional College when it was struck in the early hours.

 

Among those sheltering were workers from nearby factories and passengers who had left trams during the air raid, in addition to local residents.

 

The bombed building crumpled into the shelter with the college furnaces exploding and people scalded by boiling water and steam.

 

Burst gas pipes were set alight while above the basement fire raged amidst the bombed out building.

 

Wardens, firemen and volunteers worked tirelessly to recover survivors and it took two days to pull the bodies out from the shelter.

 

Finally, with the fear of disease rampant, body parts that had not been recovered were covered with lime and the basement was sealed.

Jesus, just had a read up on that. Poor sods. 

 

I can't imagine what it must have been like, actual bombs falling from the sky night after night. Terrifying. 

[Chairman Meow]

1 hour ago, Sugar Ape said:

Why do all these right wing cunts fetishise the war?

 

 

That and national service that most of them never did.

 

Although they all seem to be less keen on anything war related if it means they might have to do something which means veterans don't need to rely on charities..........

 

 

[AngryOfTuebrook]

1 hour ago, Kevin D said:

 

 

 

In the wartime spirit of being alert and reporting questionable behaviour to the relevant authorities, I'm reporting this flagrant breach of the law to @Evelyn Tentions

[AngryOfTuebrook]

23 minutes ago, Bjornebye said:

Jesus, just had a read up on that. Poor sods. 

 

I can't imagine what it must have been like, actual bombs falling from the sky night after night. Terrifying. 

 

[Babb'sBurstNad]

It's the ultimate form of exceptionalism, as dependent on the target, it allows haughty blowhards to feel superior on either generational or national lines.

 

Henning Wehn had it right when he said those not of fighting age at the time were a drain on resources, and therefore technically helping Nazi Germany.

[Kevin D]

21 minutes ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

In the wartime spirit of being alert and reporting questionable behaviour to the relevant authorities, I'm reporting this flagrant breach of the law to @Evelyn Tentions

 

Her article is the subject of the thread. 

[Rushies tash]

I think I get it. Food and fuel shortages under Labour = bad. Food and fuel shortages under Tories = fun.

[Daisy]

The media at the moment is just out of control. I'm sure it was never this bad before brexit was a thing. 

[YorkshireRed]

During the war we were asked to pull together, stop complaining, put up with hardships and, if necessary, make the ultimate sacrifice in order to defeat the danger posed by a facist regime from a foreign land. 

 

Today we are being asked the same in order to support a facist regime from within our own Islands. 
 

They may not be dropping physical bombs on us but they’re certainly a threat to our lives and liberty. 
 

I vote we tell them to go bollocks. 

[Arniepie]

Having  a cunt in charge who thinks he is Winston churchill and constantly uses war allegories probally doesnt help.

[Section_31]

It's funny how the people who bleat on about the war the most are the Daily Mail - who were big fans of Hitler and fascism itself - and the Tories, who resisted Churchill being made PM and agitated behind his back for a separate peace with Hitler. 

 

Pre-war was marked by British industry actively selling components to the Luftwaffe, knowing full well they were going to be heading this way anytime soon, while the early stages of the war were marked by a series of disasters due largely to the fact we had people in charge purely because they went to private school, and it was only when they were quietly moved to the side and replaced with people who actually knew what they were doing that tactical operations stopped being shit. 

 

It's no coincidence perhaps that Britain's greatest wartime achievement was getting its entire army stuck on a beach due to the planning of blue-blooded buffoons, then them being rescued by pensioners on narrowboats. 

 

I'd say the greatest thing about Britain when it comes to wars, be it pandemics or armed conflicts, is that it survives IN SPITE of its ruling class, not because of it, whether it's nurses and shop staff hurtling into the front lines, or fellas running around Burma in their bare feet while General Cuntflaps snorts snuff and sips Bombay Sapphire three thousand miles away.  

 

[Bjornebye]

 

 

 

[PestiRed]

During the war my grandfather was in Burma fighting on the Tiddim Road. He won the Military Medal during that campaign when he went into action as a Warrant Officer and came out as an acting RSM basically leading because there were no officers left. He was a career soldier and eventually ended up training soldiers as his last posting. After he left the army he threw all his medals away because he felt medals were all bullshit. I’m very proud of him doing that. Daily Mail readers would probably have a different view on that despite the fact that he is a perfect example of what they think Tommy was

[Captain Willard]

Nearly twice as many British civilians (135,000) have died in 18 months of COVID than died during the whole 5 years of WW2 (70,000). Not a widely reported comparison though.  

[VladimirIlyich]

3 hours ago, Section_31 said:

It's funny how the people who bleat on about the war the most are the Daily Mail - who were big fans of Hitler and fascism itself - and the Tories, who resisted Churchill being made PM and agitated behind his back for a separate peace with Hitler. 

 

Pre-war was marked by British industry actively selling components to the Luftwaffe, knowing full well they were going to be heading this way anytime soon, while the early stages of the war were marked by a series of disasters due largely to the fact we had people in charge purely because they went to private school, and it was only when they were quietly moved to the side and replaced with people who actually knew what they were doing that tactical operations stopped being shit. 

 

It's no coincidence perhaps that Britain's greatest wartime achievement was getting its entire army stuck on a beach due to the planning of blue-blooded buffoons, then them being rescued by pensioners on narrowboats. 

 

I'd say the greatest thing about Britain when it comes to wars, be it pandemics or armed conflicts, is that it survives IN SPITE of its ruling class, not because of it, whether it's nurses and shop staff hurtling into the front lines, or fellas running around Burma in their bare feet while General Cuntflaps snorts snuff and sips Bombay Sapphire three thousand miles away.  

 

I can't rep but spot on Sir. I remember listening to a recent Alexi Sayle podcast when he said that the reason people voted Labour and for the NHS and Welfare State was their complete distrust for the ruling classes after spending so much time close to them during WW2 and seeing how completely fuckin hopeless they really are. 

[Section_31]

8 minutes ago, VladimirIlyich said:

I can't rep but spot on Sir. I remember listening to a recent Alexi Sayle podcast when he said that the reason people voted Labour and for the NHS and Welfare State was their complete distrust for the ruling classes after spending so much time close to them during WW2 and seeing how completely fuckin hopeless they really are. 

As a mate pointed out to me once, real social change has only come about in this country when there were large numbers of men around who knew how to use guns and had nothing to lose.

[VladimirIlyich]

1 minute ago, Section_31 said:

As a mate pointed out to me once, real social change has only come about in this country when there were large numbers of men around who knew how to use guns and had nothing to lose.

Very true. Without the Welfare State and NHS post WW2 there was about to be mass civil unrest. Nobody gives Clement Attlee the credit he deserved as he was deputy PM alongside Churchill and closely observed the calamitous decisions made and the mood of the people during and afterwards.

[Mudface]

Nice article from Zoe Williams, who's not usually so forceful- https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/11/winter-of-discontent-supply-chain-crisis-austerity

 

Austerity is a living hell. How can anyone describe it as character-building?
Zoe Williams
The right has entered a new phase of moral delinquency, in which they acknowledge the suffering of others - then explain why it’s good for them, actually
“Winter of discontent” is the new “blitz spirit” – the phrase on everyone’s lips, but always loudest from the people who couldn’t conceivably remember it. I don’t remember it myself, but at least I was alive in the late 70s, unlike the rightwing commentator who pulled the starting gun on the week with the explosive claim in the Times that, far from minding being poorer and not warm enough, a large part of the population would actively enjoy it. Middle England loves austerity, remember?

This is part of a building narrative to get ahead of the otherwise unavoidable conclusion that, when you put your country in the grip of maniacs and chancers, actual human suffering ensues. It’s a symphony in three movements: first, shortages, what shortages? Second, anything you’re short of, you’re the problem for being so materialistic. Third, decent people actively enjoy going without, because it’s character-building.

There’s a fundamental question here about the elites and their butler class of commentators: they’ve entered a new phase of moral delinquency where they can openly acknowledge the suffering of others and then explain why it’s good, actually. What on earth happened to them? Have they all got lead poisoning? But a couple of housekeeping points, before we resolve that (spoiler: I am probably not going to resolve it).

While, being five at the time, I have no great recall for the winter of discontent, I can happily still use the internet, and can therefore say with a fair amount of certainty that what we are facing this winter is nothing like 1978. The causes are different, the underlying conditions are different, the character of the government is different, the social response will be different. Just about the only way in which the situations resemble one another is that they are both a winter.

And the critical difference is, of course, that while the nation may have been bitterly divided in the late 70s, between left and right, between supporting unions and wanting to smash them, the impact was at least felt by everyone. You couldn’t rich your way out of a refuse collection strike, or insulate yourself against a power cut, though sure, the wealthy probably had more social capital, a better quality of thermal underwear and fancier candles. In 2021, by contrast, 6 million people are going into energy price spikes and food inflation, having just suffered the largest cut to their benefits since the foundation of the welfare state. In the interests of sanity and reason, let’s say it is a certainty that people already on the breadline will not get any thrill out of more hardship.

Let’s also admit, while we’re here, that nobody enjoys hassle, expense, queueing, going without, putting more effort in to end up with less. Nobody thinks: “Great, my gas bill is now so large that I can feel the sinews stiffening in my formerly puny character.” What people are really talking about, when they extol the joys and exhilarations of belt-tightening, is that spot at the intersection between schadenfreude, superiority and sadism – the place where you warm up your heart thinking of others who have it worse, fluff your ego thinking of all the giftedness and hard work that brought you to this happy place of survival, and add zing to your dreary reality by preaching self-denial to people who already have nothing. This is, in other words, human nature at rock bottom. You’ve built a character, all right; it’s just, unfortunately, a really horrible one.

I’m not against nostalgia per se. I feel plangently homesick for a time when certain things were unsayable, when the barrier to entry into polite conversation was to agree that we all had a duty to one another, a duty to make sure there was no one going hungry two streets away, or 500 streets away, and that duty was rooted in certain human fundamentals, such as: “Other people’s lives are valuable and important.” But the nostalgia of the austerity fetish is cruelty dressed up as cuteness.

[Manny]

8 minutes ago, Section_31 said:

As a mate pointed out to me once, real social change has only come about in this country when there were large numbers of men around who knew how to use guns and had nothing to lose.

My grandad was the son of County Durham farmers. Low level tories, basically - decent bit of land and an income to match. Then the war came, and he went into the RAF. Five years later and he said he'd realised how much working lads had sacrificed, how reliant the country was on them and how they had more than earned a stake in steering their future. He joined the Labour Party and became a councillor shortly after.

 

Somehow I don't see his Road to Damascus moment featuring in the Mail's version of the war mind.